When Carleton University professors Adrian Chan and Roy Hanes sat down to discuss the launch of an accessibility initiative nearly 15 years ago, they hoped their varying expertise would highlight and support the disability community.
Their ideas gave rise to the 2013 founding of Carleton University’s Disability Research Group, and today, the group of professors and graduate students across fields is showcasing disability history through virtual exhibits.
Chan said the CUDRG is designed to share knowledge about accessibility throughout history.
“The group’s mission is to reveal contributions made towards a more accessible and inclusive society. Through these exhibits we wish to disseminate that knowledge and educate whether it is through people visiting the site or more formal educational settings.”
The CUDRG’s website has three main areas of focus.
They include ‘users,’ which delves into lived experience surrounding disability; ‘access,’ which looks at the availability of services and programs; and ‘innovation,’ which studies the development of accessible and sustainable technologies.
After Chan, a computer engineering professor, and Hanes, a now retired social work professor, created the CUDRG, they recruited Carleton history professor Dominique Marshall to gain expertise on researching disability from a historical lens.
Marshall said joining CUDRG felt like a perfect fit.
“Students brought cases of disability for me to supervise and it was a natural process because social policies look at accessibility,” Marshall said.
The CUDRG has now published six exhibits on their website, which act as publicly available virtual museums.
One exhibit shows the history of the talking ATM, which makes banking more accessible for blind people.
It highlights Ottawa’s Royal Bank of Canada as the first bank in Canada to implement these ATMs, following a human rights complaint from local blind activists.
Chan said their research often emphasizes the importance of involving the disability community when designing systems like the talking ATM, which was tested by people who are blind.
“It was through that testing that they realized the screen should be blanked out, because you don’t want people looking at your banking,” he said.
“That wouldn’t be necessarily apparent if you weren’t doing it with actual users.”
Chan added that involving researchers from different fields separates Carleton’s research groups from others.
“I am positive there are others looking at technology and disability in history, but we often do that in our solid disciplines,” he said.
“That limits the impact when there is shared wisdom in just one crowd.”
Marshall said CUDRG’s research is important for continuing representation within the field.
Research became more diverse when university education opened up to lower-income people, Marshall said, adding the same should happen as universities become more accessible to people with disabilities.
“People with disabilities who are willing to say they are a part of the community and advocate for their rights are linked to history.”
Hollis Peirce, a CUDRG research associate who has congenital muscular dystrophy, said he was most impacted by the most recent exhibit, Oral Histories of Disability Rights Activists, for which he interviewed several activists.
“I love the idea of ‘nothing about us without us,’ because I hate being told something about me but not involving me in conversations,” he said. “Being able to speak with disability advocates and learning about their struggles was relatable, and I am so appreciative of their efforts.”
The CUDRG has also created physical exhibits, which include Braille printed cards. They have been displayed at the MacOdrum Library, and a few have been sent to Toronto Metropolitan University.
Marshall said she often reflects on the impact their work has had on the disability community.
“(CUDRG) is a place where questions about disability, ability, debility and accessibility have been able to develop.
“It has been an incubator for ideas, meetings, research in the best spirit of disability studies through collaboration with the community in an ethical way for the promotion of the rights of people with disability.”
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Featured image by Jaidyn Gonsalves/the Charlatan.
