Academic Writing

How can a person who is blind experience a painting, or a photograph, or a play? How can a person who is deaf experience a concert, or a play, or a movie?  How does a person who uses a wheelchair get a chance to experience the second floor of a historic house museum?   In what ways can the arts be more inclusive of people with a wide range of disabilities, as creators and as audience?

This course will focus attention on the opportunities for the arts (theater, dance, visual arts, music, museums, galleries, concert venues, school programs, etc.) to increase the participation of persons with disabilities and to include them as part of the discussions for increasing diversity.  The course will explore the changing societal values with regards to including accessibility, and examine arts access as both an ethical/societal/legal obligation as well as an opportunity.  The course will study the various ways in which arts presenters have addressed this issue since the passage of the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990, and, similar to the concept of "universal design," the course will explore concepts and means of providing universal arts access.  

Students will research a specific area of the arts and write a paper that critically explores the main questions of the course.  Throughout the semester, “leaders” in the field of arts accessibility will visit or  “zoom” into the class to have a conversation about their work.  Students will keep a weekly journal, reflecting on class discussions and readings.  Readings will include academic and non-academic  articles, as well as various chapters of course-relevant books.  The service learning component of the course will include work with the DADA project – Durham Audio Described Art – a project designed to provide some arts accessibility for people who are blind and very low vision.   Students will be trained on audio description methods and then write, workshop, revise and finalize audio description texts for works of visual art.