Crip News v.218
New works, "disability justice," calls, and events.
NEWS
New Works
Disabled artist Dev Ramsawakhb recently profiled the Deaf “ASL interpreter of the stars” Matt Maxey as part of the Disabled Journalists Association and the Global Alliance for Disability in Media’s collaborative coverage of Toronto’s AccessFest.
This month, the all-remote 2026 RestFest Film Festival presents 27 film and video works “by/for the Disabled, Deaf, chronically ill, Neurodivergent, and/or Mad community” as well as workshops, talks, and other gatherings.
Choreographer Jerron Herman’s LAX, exploring the discipline of rest and performed with Christopher “Unpezverde” Núñez, was recently presented as part of the REAL DANCE Festival at Kunstverein Hannover (Hanover, Germany).
This week, the Blackwood Gallery at the University of Toronto Mississauga presents Oughtism, “a multimodal seminar series on neurodivergent ways of living in the world” from Thursday, Feb. 5 through Sunday, Feb. 7. Featuring Georgia Bradburn, Sam Chown Ahern, Steven Eastwood, Chris Gehman, Janet Harbord, Leon J. Hilton, Chris Martin, Aby Watson, and M. Remi Yergeau.
In Hyperallergic, writer Bryan Martin recently published an op-ed called “Accessibility Should Be at the Center of Museum Education.”
Cover art by Rowan O’Bryan. The 4th issue of the Look Deeper zine, “Frail Youth,” explores “the experience of being young and disabled, something that society can’t seem to hold as one” with 156 pages of editorials, articles, poems, artwork and interviews.
Disabled organizer Larissa Martin recently wrote about why she loves the “Student with an IEP that grew up to be…” trend on TikTok.
The Center for Economic and Policy Research’s Brandon Novick recently published “Encouraging Crime: Settlement Rewards Medicare Advantage Fraud” detailing how insurance companies steal tens of billions of taxpayer dollars each year by upcoding patients’ diagnostic information to make them appear sicker.
“Disability Justice”
Every so often, I report on some of the corners of the internet where I notice this term is appearing. Here’s some of what’s new:
Legal scholars Vijay K. Tiwari, Sanjay Jain, and Shrutika Pandey explain the threats to disability justice from a directive issued by the government of Maharashtra, India that requires disabled employees to reverify their disabilities using certificates and Unique Disability Identity Documents.
New Disabled South’s Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer Kehsi Iman spoke with Nonprofit Quarterly’s Rebekah Barber about “Race, Disability Justice, and the South.”
The Disability Justice and Rights Caucus of the Workers World Party has been working on a “Disability Justice, Full Employment, Health Care and Education Second Bill of Rights” amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
In the last of a 3-part series on “Down syndrome, CRISPR, and the future of human diversity” published on the Stanford Law Blog, legal scholar Gabriela Ríos Ríos wrote about how “disability justice concerns” demand a “practical commitment” to disabled communities that must attend biomedical work about them.
Scholar and organizer Zara Richter looked at how anarchist and council communist calls for liberation can do more than exhortations to justice that are “already coopted by a criminal justice and state system of professionals.”
Clare Lonergan, Tuhin Chakraborty, and David Hernandez of the Harvard Law School Project on Disability published “Lessons in Disability Justice Efforts” for movement and systemic justice lawyering.
CALLS
#MEAction and Long COVID Justice are calling for emails to Congress and other forms of support in their Take Action Guide (organized by “battery level") to demand "Congress stop bankrolling ICE violence while slashing our healthcare and home care.”
The Disability Studies Initiative at the University of Arizona is seeking submissions to its 3rd annual Disability Studies Conference highlighting disability scholarship, art, and activism.
Applications are open for the Open Style Lab Design Impact Fellowship Program in New York and London from June - September 2026. Apply by Feb. 28.
The £1 million Hospital Rooms Futures Fund Art Project has an Open Call for applications from NHS Trusts to transform hospital wards and services. Apply by March 20 or May 22.
EVENTS
Dreaming Accessible Futures: Mental Health & Creative Practice
Wednesday, Feb. 4, 6 - 8pm ET, on Zoom
A virtual, interactive event organized by the Institute for the Development of Human Arts exploring how art can hold stories, build belonging, and envision care-centered possibilities. Interdisciplinary artist Chanika Svetvilas will share insights from her solo exhibition, Resounding Remnants, offering an opportunity to trace how her personal pathways through the American mental health system have shaped her work. Following the presentation, IDHA Program Manager Noah Gokul will join Chanika in conversation to reflect on these themes, exploring how art can shift power dynamics within psychiatry and mental health while opening space to imagine forms of care that exist beyond systems. Through group reflection and dialogue, participants will consider how mental health experiences, material choices, accessibility, and identity shape creative practices grounded in mutual support and connection, drawing from an explicitly intersectional lens.
MASK-UP: Virtual Teach-in On Covid, Bird Flu, and Airborne Diseases
Saturday, Feb. 7, 2 - 4:30pm ET, on Zoom
Accessible community education on airborne diseases and mitigation during the ongoing (twelfth) wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Sick & Disabled Showcase Virtual Poetry Reading
Thursday, Feb. 5, 6:30 - 8pm ET, on Zoom
Gather with Split This Rock and Kay Ulanday Barrett for the Sick & Disabled Showcase, a poetry reading featuring Arianna Monet, Ina Cariño, MT Vallarta, Amir McClam, Tala Khanmalek, and Joselia Hughes.Online Disability Solidarity Workshops
Fridays Feb. 6, 13, and 20, 6:30 - 8pm ET, on Zoom
These online disability solidarity workshops, facilitated by Maymana Arefin and coordinated by the Queer Youth Art Collective, are ‘come as you are’ spaces for chronically ill and disabled participants to rest, share and make art together. Sessions include gentle grounding, a supportive sharing circle and low-pressure art-making with simple at-home materials. Across three sessions, participants explore care as survival, voice lived experiences of disability and imagine disability-led futures of collective care.
2026 African-American Conference on Disabilities
Starting Thursday, Feb. 5, 10 - 11:30am MT, on Zoom
Session #1: Protecting Disability Rights in an Ever-Changing Landscape. The presentation by Trisha Kirtley Wells examines recent shifts in laws, policies of public and private organizations in the addition to public attitudes that undermine or eliminate protections for individuals with disabilities. We will also examine strategies attorneys have employed to protect disability rights in the current environment of disability laws and protections.Disabled Dancer + Artist Career Growth Workshop
Saturday, Feb. 7, 12 - 2:30pm ET, on Zoom
A group mentorship workshop for disabled dancers, performing artists, and creators led by Marisa Hamamoto, Founder of Infinite Flow Dance.