‘Disabled people have always been here’: a new V&A show centres on disability in design

‘Design and Disability’, a major new exhibition at the V&A South Kensington in London, spotlights the contributions of disabled, Deaf and neurodivergent people to the world of design. ‘Disabled people have always been here, they’ve always been designing and making things,’ explains exhibition curator Natalie Kane. ‘People haven’t been invisible, even though it feels like society has made them so.’

As well as centring on disabled creativity – challenging assumptions about who gets to be a designer – the exhibition shows how, through embedding the experiences of disabled people, design can be a tool for social change and justice. Objects created with such lived experiences in mind challenge ableist attitudes, including within the design industry itself, and point to a more inclusive society where a broader range of needs and desires are met and valued.

‘A lot of disabled people can feel like they’re still guests in the room – but I think the temperature is shifting,’ says Kane, who hopes the exhibition will help challenge assumptions around disability.

While the 170 pieces on show span the 1940s to today, ‘Design and Disability’ is not envisaged as a complete historical survey – such an endeavour would be ‘impossible’, says Kane. Instead, she adds, ‘we wanted to grab what the contemporary conversation around disability was – and establish disability as an identity and a culture in itself’.

The exhibition is divided into three sections – ‘Visibility’, ‘Tools’ and ‘Living’ – with objects spanning design, art, architecture, fashion and photography. The exhibition itself is also designed to be inclusive, featuring British Sign Language (BSL) guides, audio description, tactile surfaces and floors, additional seating, and rest areas.

For Kane, the experience of curating the show has been an important one, combining her experience researching the intersection of design, ethics and society with her lived experience as a disabled person. ‘I’ve been thinking: how do I bring all the joy and interest and things that are important to my community into a museum which thinks really hard about design?’

Here, Kane talks through five key objects from the show.

Hands of X, by Graham Pullin, Andrew Cook, Eddie Small and Corinne Hutton, 2016–20

This project invited prosthetics wearers with a limb difference or amputation to design collaboratively with prosthetists, including selecting materials, in a process that built a sense of agency and creativity. It challenged the idea that designs for disability should simply be technical and practical. ‘You go to a glasses shop and get custom glasses, why can’t you get custom prosthetics?’ asks Kane. ‘A lot of what’s in this show is going beyond compliance. It’s the idea of: it’s OK for you to have the beautiful thing.’

‘The best lovers are good with their hands’ by Harry McAuslan, 1987

This poster was part of a campaign by the British Deaf Association and the grassroots organisation AIDS Ahead, which provided counselling and advice to Deaf people on sexual health. Here, the message expressed in BSL fingerspelling is to ‘Use a condom’. ‘It’s a really important poster,’ says Kane. ‘It uses all the mechanics of advertising for the Deaf community. It points to the fact that there was little to no information at that period around HIV and AIDS prevention for the Deaf community. And the fact is, that lack of health information for BSL users still exists today.’

Photographs of the Jaipur Foot project by Simon Way, 2014

The Jaipur Foot project makes free prosthetic legs, feet and arms for people across India, many of whom became disabled because of landmines or illnesses. ‘Disability can happen through colonialism, through capitalism, through war and conflict,’ says Kane, adding that the conditions by which people become wearers of prosthetics can differ all over the world.

Made in labs across India, the Jaipur Foot prosthetic limbs are designed to allow for squatting, sitting cross‑legged and going barefoot, in response to community feedback and local cultural and religious norms. In ‘Design and Disability’, the project is showcased through a series of photographs by Simon Way, documenting the makers and wearers of the prosthetics.

Squeeze Chair (chaise longue) by Wendy Jacob with Temple Grandin, 1997

‘When we think about neurodiversity, it can sometimes be about treatment rather than pleasure,’ says Kane. Not so with this luxurious and intimate chair, developed by artist Wendy Jacob with autistic scientist and inventor Temple Grandin. The design embraces the sitter between two red mohair-covered arms, providing comforting sensory feedback for those who appreciate deep pressure stimulation.

‘It’s an object which I personally love,’ says Kane, describing it as a ‘demedicalised’ version of something with a particular function. ‘It helps you to regulate and to be squeezed and held. And if you're someone like myself who needs that, it enables you to feel it. You get the luxurious thing, but you also get the thing that you need.’

Engineering at home by Cindy Wack Garni, Sara Hendren and Caitrin Lynch, 2016

When Cindy Wack Garni became disabled in her seventies, she couldn’t use certain everyday objects in the same way as before, limiting activities like applying make-up. But her simple, practical and inventive adaptations – to objects including a zip purse and an eyeliner pencil –changed that. ‘I really love this [project] as an example of: everyone is an engineer, in many different ways,’ says Kane.

Garni collaborated with her occupational therapist and prosthetists, showing how designs needed to adapt based on circumstance. ‘It’s such a central thing to our show, the fact that across design and disability history, there are so many examples of where disabled people have been fundamental to our shifting perceptions around design,’ says Kane.

‘Design and Disability’ is on show from 7 June 2025 to 15 February 2026 at the V&A South Kensington, London