A Braille guide can be collected at the exhibition ticketing desk.
Plan your visit
V&A South Kensington visual story
This visual story provides images and information to help you plan and prepare for your visit to the museum.
About this guide
This guide is written using short, easy to read sentences.
It can be used by anyone, including visitors with additional learning needs, families and speakers of other languages.
The guide takes you on a tour of the exhibition. It looks at 10 different objects. There is a picture of each object to help you find it.
The exhibition has 3 sections. There is an introduction to each section.
Object list
Each object has a number. The map below shows you where each object is in the exhibition. Look for these symbols on the label of each object.
1. Blue bench
2. Black t-shirt with pink letters
3. Custom-made wedding dress and shoes
4. Photograph
5. Videogame controller
6. Home-made household objects
7. Electronic device to measure oxygen levels
8. Protest objects
9. Voting device for Blind and low vision people
10. Design for a school for Blind and low vision children
Exhibition map
Introduction to Design and Disability
If you are a non-disabled person, you may never have thought about how the world can feel different for different people.
For Disabled people, getting around places, using everyday objects, and feeling confident can be hard.
This can be because people without disabilities have not thought about their needs. This is called ableism.
If more things were designed by and with Disabled people, this would change.
The world would feel more open, fair and enjoyable for everyone.
Introduction to Section 1: Visibility
Sometimes Disabled people can be made to feel like they do not matter.
They protest to change this.
Designing things is one way they can feel more seen.
Here are some projects that Disabled makers made to feel visible.
1. Blue Bench
Having time and a place to rest can be very important for Disabled people.
But some buildings, like museums, do not have enough seats for people to sit on.
Written on this bench are the words: ‘I need more time. Rest here if you agree’.
They make us think about whether Disabled people can rest well in public spaces.
2. Black t-shirt with pink letters
Non-disabled people often feel sorry for Disabled people.
The words on this t-shirt, ‘Piss on pity’, fight against that feeling.
Disabled people do not want others to feel sorry for them.
They want to be treated the same as non-disabled people.
Please do touch the tactile print.
3. Custom made wedding dress and shoes
This is a wedding dress.
It was made for a woman called Janet Jones. One of Janet’s legs is shorter than the other.
Janet worked with a dressmaker to make sure her dress fitted her perfectly for her wedding.
Her shoes were also made for her. She painted them white to match.
4. Photograph
This is a photograph that an artist called Mari Katayama made of herself.
Her artworks are always very personal to her own experiences.
In the photograph, you can see her prosthetic legs.
She decorates these parts of her body.
Mari worked with a designer to make these high heeled shoes. They are stylish and fun.
Introduction to Section 2: Tools
A lot of the time, objects are made by non-disabled people.
These people can have little or no experience of what it is like to be disabled.
Sometimes they design things that cannot be used by Disabled people.
Disabled people come up with new ways to change objects so they can use them.
5. Videogame controller
Some Disabled people are not able to play videogames. This is because the controllers and buttons are not designed for them.
This controller has been designed to make gaming easier.
It has large buttons and connects easily to other objects, like switches and joysticks.
Disabled people helped think of ways to make the design better.
6. Home-made household objects
After an illness, a woman called Cindy had her legs and some of her fingers removed.
She got better, but it was harder for her to do everyday things, like eating and putting on make-up.
Some of the help she was given was not right. So, Cindy started to design the things she needed.
These are some of the tools she made, working with her family and doctors.
7. Electronic device to measure oxygen levels
This object is called a pulse oximeter.
You put it on your fingertip to test how fast your heart is beating. You can also test how much oxygen is in your blood.
Lots of people use oximeters for health checks.
But oximeters do not work as well if your skin is a darker colour.
This can mean Black or Asian people do not get the health care they need if they use them.
Introduction to Section 3: Living
The way cities, buildings and houses are organised can make it hard for Disabled people to live.
There can be physical barriers, like a building not having accessible toilets. Or there can be barriers in the way people think about what Disabled people can or can’t do.
Disabled people want to make the way we all live more accessible.
It is important that a place can work for everyone who lives there, not just non-disabled people.
8. Protest objects
A building in New York City was made with over 2000 steps.
But wheelchair users or people with limited mobility could not use the building in the same way as non-disabled people.
Disabled people thought this building, which cost a lot of money to make, was unfair.
How would this building make you feel?
9. Voting device for Blind people
Elections are important. They give people over 18 the chance to say how they think the country and local areas should be run.
Voting in elections should be done privately and on your own terms. But if you are Blind or have low vision this can be difficult.
This is because people vote by making a mark on a piece of paper. If you are Blind, you might not be able to vote without someone helping you.
This object helps people vote independently by guiding them to make marks, and sounding out the words on the paper.
10. Design for a school for Blind and low vision children
This is a model of a school for Blind and low vision children in India. Please do touch it.
Different senses other than sight help the students make their way around the school.
Each wall surface feels different when touched. This helps the students know where they are.
The students can use sounds like echoes to know how far away something is.
Smells from a garden draw people outside.
