Podcast Episode 18 – Disability and Design

<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><em>Bess Williamson (School of the Art Institute of Chicago) discusses her new book on disability and design in US history.</em></p>

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<figure class="aligncenter size-full"><img alt="" class="wp-image-1760" height="499" src="https://dishist.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Accessible-America.jpg" width="348" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Episode Image: Cover of <em>Accessible America</em> by Bess Williamson. It features design drawings of ramps, tinted in bold colours like green, blue, and orange.</figcaption></figure>

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<figure class="wp-block-audio"><audio controls="controls" src="https://dishist.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Edited-Audio-with-Bess.mp3"></audio></figure>

<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a href="https://dishist.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Edited-Audio-with-Bess.mp3">Download mp3 file here.</a><br /><a href="https://dishist.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Edited-Transcript-Bess-Williamson.pdf">Download pdf transcript here.</a></p>

<h3 class="wp-block-heading">About Our Guest</h3>

<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><a href="https://besswilliamson.com/">Dr. Bess Williamson</a> is a historian of design and material culture, focusing primarily on works and influences of the last half-century. She is particularly interested in social and political concerns in design, including environmental, labor, justice, and rights issues as they shape and are shaped by spaces and things. Her book <a href="https://nyupress.org/9781479894093/accessible-america/"><em>Accessible America: A History of Design and Disability</em></a> (NYU Press, 2019) traces the history of design responses to disability rights from 1945 to recent times. You can find her on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/besswww">@besswww</a> and on Instagram <a href="https://www.instagram.com/accessible.design/">@accessible.design</a>.</p>