With Us: Artists with Disabilities on Adapting Technology for Us

Date: May 7, 2024
Time: 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm CST
Location: Zoom Meeting
Price: Free
Category: Workshop

With Us: Artists with Disabilities on Adapting Technology for Us

In With Us: Artists with Disabilities Panel Series, disabled artists hold space for each other, share tips and practices, and embody the informal motto of the disability rights movement, “Nothing about us, without us.”

With Us: Artists with Disabilities on Adapting Technology for Us is an online discussion that will focus on how disabled artists use technology. This includes technology that isn’t necessarily created with people with disabilities, and that is used, adapted or modified by artists with disabilities to meet our needs. This will include adaptive technologies created for users with disabilities, assistive technologies created with universal design in mind, and consumer-grade technology that our panelists have utilized successfully (or not), and requesting accommodations from software and technology providers. Artists with any level of comfort with technology are welcome.

Closed captioning and ASL interpretation will be provided. This event will not be recorded.

Date: Tuesday, May 7, 2024 from 6:30 - 8:00 pm Central Time
Registration: Receive the Zoom meeting details by clicking on the Register button above.

Panelists: Belo Cipriani, Bryan Thao Worra and Nicole Thomas. Moderated by Alison Bergblom Johnson.

Belo Miguel Cipriani, Ed.D. is a digital inclusion strategist who became passionate about making online spaces accessible after being blinded by a group of men in 2007. His books and articles on disability issues have received numerous awards and international recognition. He has guest lectured at Yale, and, in 2020, he was appointed by Governor Tim Walz to the Minnesota Council on Disability. Through his digital access consulting firm, Oleb Media, he has helped countless organizations build inclusive websites and apps. HuffPost referred to him as an "Agent of Change" and SF Weekly named him one of the best disability advocates. Tony Coelho, the primary author and sponsor of the Americans with Disabilities Act, called him an "important voice" in disability writing. Learn more at belocipriani.com and watch Blind: A Memoir: Audiobook - Chapter 1 (youtube.com)

Headshot Image Description: Belo Cipriani is a Latino man with brown swept-back hair and brown eyes, standing at a three-quarter angle against a light gray brick wall. He is wearing a dark gray jacket and black turtleneck, and smiling warmly.

Nicole Thomas is an interdisciplinary artist and community organizer focusing on communal care, comfort, and solidarity in healing. Artwork coming from her studio balances the act of play and memory processing. Working collaboratively with the community is an integral part of their practice. They facilitate programs that are trauma-informed and encourage connection through creative storytelling. More recently, she was an artist-in-resident at the Chautauqua School of Art in Chautauqua, New York. Their work has been exhibited at various galleries including Fowler-Kellogg Art Center, Textile Center, Fresh Eye Gallery, Rosalux Gallery, and Regis Center for Art at the University of Minnesota. https://www.nicolethomas.studio/

Headshot Image Description: Nicole is a tan skinned Vietnamese American with shoulder length wavy hair with arms full of yarn skeins. They are wearing a striped sweater with pink square glasses and looking directly at the camera with a soft smile.

Bryan Thao Worra is a Lao Minnesotan poet whose artistic journey was impacted with a lifelong hearing impairment. He was appointed by the governor to the Council on Asian Pacific Minnesotans, and served 6 years as president of the international Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association. A former board member of the Loft, he represented the nation of Laos during the London 2012 Olympics Poetry Parnassus. With 20+ awards and fellowships, he is the author of 9+ books of poetry on the Lao American diaspora. He has presented at the Library of Congress, the National Endowment for the Arts, Poets House, the Singapore Writers Festival, and the Smithsonian, and 100+ journals and anthologies. https://thaoworra.wordpress.com/

Headshot Image Description: Asian man with notebook in a grey shirt with traditional Lao needlework looks ahead with a pen in hand about to create.

Facilitated by Minneapolis-based artist-organizer Alison Bergblom Johnson (she/her) who collaborates with community care and art organizations from small, grassroots endeavors to very large, established institutions. Her genres and media include storytelling, creative nonfiction, installation, and collage, and her work explores gender, disability, and sexuality.
Headshot Image Description: A photograph of Alison Bergblom Johnson, a fat, white woman wearing a maroon dress, colorful accessories and migraine glasses.

This panel series is space for artists with disabilities:

+ at any career level
+ who practice with supports, such as…
-- within an organization that supports artists with disabilities
-- with services such as a PCA or ARMHS worker
-- within a Community Support Program
-- or any other needed supports
+ who practice independently without formal supports
+ who partner with mainstream arts organizations
+ who are public about their disability
+ who are quiet about it

…to talk about what matters to us.

Anyone is welcome to attend, whether an artist with a disability, a person with a disability, a support person, or interested in the topic without a direct experience of disability, though the conversation will center the perspectives of disabled artists and presume familiarity with concepts of disability including social vs. medical models, basic etiquette relevant to disability, and other topics.

Previous programs included Artists with Disabilities on Empowerment, Artists with Disabilities on Joy, and Artists with Disabilities on Caring for Ourselves and Our Community.