My Self Initiated Project looks at the effects and implications of the use of the word ‘disabled’, primarily in the context of the arts. My aim is to create an exploration of the importance of representation of the intersection of race, gender and disability (myself being black, female and disabled) and document my thought process and changing perceptions about the term ‘disabled’. This is something that I had not really considered much prior to starting the PGCert. During the first part of the programme, the Inclusive Teaching & Learning unit looked at disability as one of the topics and it was via those studies, reading materials and references that I began to consider the implications of potentially allowing myself to be labelled disabled.

My aim for this project is to film a short documentary with commentary from myself & interviews with others who know me professionally, creatively, personally and who also share the same disability as me, whilst simultaneously creating a piece of artwork derived from my thoughts and conversations. The final piece is both a reflective piece of film and a sculpture created specifically for the project. 

The project itself will be an autoethnographical endeavour. I felt it was important to go about it this way as it makes me both the researcher and the participant and I will be using both self reflection and personal experience to try and express my views on a protected characteristic within a personal context.

Things to consider:

• Ethics in relation to the project – although my thoughts and comments will be my own, I am very aware of the underrepresentation of people like myself, therefore I need to be aware that should this project be published publicly, it may be used as a research model or representative material for a wider audience.
• The involvement of other participants – as my research for this project is both qualitative & observational, I have a responsibility of care towards those who have agreed to participate and share their thoughts on camera (I will be referring to the BERA Ethical Guidelines for Educational Research)
• Disability models – there are several models of disability and I will be exploring some of them to see how they relate to myself & also get feedback from my participants on their views.

I haven’t thought of a title for this project just yet, as I feel it may change several times before I’m happy with it.