Design and Disability

Disabled, deaf and neurodivergent people have shaped and inspired modern design and culture in ways we frequently take for granted or fail to notice. There’s a good chance, for instance, that the vegetable peeler in your kitchen is akin to the OXO Good Grips peeler, which the businessman Sam Farber commissioned in the 1980s after seeing his wife Betsey struggle to peel vegetables because of her arthritis. This exhibition brings together 170 objects – from art, design, architecture, fashion and photography – to make its point (7 June–15 February). Exhibits include corporate creations, such as adaptive footwear by Nike and Crocs and the first commercially-made adaptive Xbox controller, and triumphant expressions of individual artistry. A carnival costume inspired by Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus – hand-sewn by the fashion designer Maya Scarlette, who has ectrodactyly – is especially remarkable.

Find out more from the V&A’s website.
Preview below | View Apollo’s Art Diary

Jewellery Becomes Law (2023), Ntiense Eno Amooquaye. Intoart Collection. Photo: Adama Jalloh; © Ntiense Eno Amooquaye

The best lovers are good with their hands (n.d.) by Harry McAuslan, issued by AIDS Ahead, part of the British Deaf Association

Maya Scarlette’s carnival costume, ‘The Birth of Venus’ (2024). Photo: © Tanasha Chege