On a white Christmas day, a family in East London gathered around a bundle of presents, each one piled on top of the other. The sweet smell of the pine tree ghosted through the room and the coloured tinsel glittered brilliantly. It wasn’t often that the kids looked forward to waking up in the morning but, on this particular day, the usual harshness of the sun was replaced by a soft, welcoming warmth. Being slightly older than the other children, Isaac Harvey waited patiently to retrieve his present and wondered what was enclosed in the green packaged parcel that quietly sat on his lap. It was a pair of glasses that would allow him to play video games using just the movement of his eyes and, being a die-hard gamer, it was at this instant Harvey saw how technology could transform his life.
From birth, Harvey was diagnosed with limb pelvic hypoplasia, a rare condition of skeletal malformations which, in Harvey’s case, means that he has no arms and shorter legs than the average person. Although his day-to-day life is witnessed from the comfort of his wheelchair, Harvey never saw his disability as a barrier to success. From skiing and skydiving to being an Olympic torch bearer, Harvey has achieved many things. He says: “Growing up people did tell me that my disability would prevent me from doing things. They’d say it in such a matter-of-fact way but I knew that the second I accepted their words, they’d become my reality. If I internalised their words I wouldn’t be able to paint or edit videos.”
“Throughout the years, I have learnt how to paint using foot and mouth art and the ability to create something of my own is always a liberating feeling. It’s an escape,” says Harvey. “When I remembered that sensation of being able to game with just using my eyes, I knew that there had to be something similar for painting and I had to hunt for it.” But finding such adaptive strategies was not so straightforward.
Designers typically embed assumptions about people’s abilities into the technologies they create. Consider the touchscreen features found on our computers, tablets, and smartphones, for example. Such inventions assume that all buyers have fingers that are able to extend, point, and land cleanly on a surface to fulfil their wired purpose.
“A lot of technology companies fail to produce products that are catered towards disabled people,” says inventor Mia Donelly-Reid. “And when they do pay thought to a disability, it’s mostly in an ignorant way where their products and software are used as a corrective tool rather than a creative one. The line is a very fine and dangerous one to cross.” She suggests that when done appropriately, eye-tracking technology such as Tobii Assistive Technology is the best medium for disabled artists to practice their craft because it “gives them the freedom to control their strokes without completely disarming or ridiculing them”. So while technology has not always been the most accessible to disabled communities, there has been significant progress made to facilitate the inclusion of disabled consumers who can reinvent themselves through various art practices.
Such technology falls under the umbrella term, ‘assistive technology’, which is used to describe products or systems that support the independence of individuals with disabilities. According to WHO, it is estimated more than 2 billion people will require at least one assistive product by the end of 2030. Although the UK’s assistive technology sector received £157 billion in government support to stay afloat in 2020, the industries remain severely undercapitalised due to weak skill and employment policies.
Art Critic, Urooj Ali Khan, on the other hand, says that while the use of eye-tracking devices is “a step in the right direction”, it is also “incredibly restrictive” in that only a select few can actually afford these materials and that the “hefty prices are not worth it”. “There is power in the authenticity of foot and mouth art. There is only so much intimacy that a computer generated graphic can mimic,” says Khan cynically. “Of course, this is not to say that the option should not be available for disabilities that do not have any other outlet, like those who are paralysed.”
Despite what the critic says, Harvey believes that technology has a fundamental role in dismantling barriers to access for all disabled artists. “I’m not surprised that an art critic would think this way. Ultimately, art is also about having your work interpreted and that goes from the medium you create with, all the way down to the output result,” he reasoned. “Even though I can paint without the help of technology, advancements have made it much more convenient and so I’ve naturally fallen in love with art again. Wouldn’t you want to be able to paint without your jaw cramping?”
Words by Anna Jafri