Image description: white text on green background says “Critical Access Primer. Critical Design Lab.” Yellow lines appear underneath the text. The words “critical access” and “critical design” appear in a wide, sans-serif font, while the words “prime

Image description: white text on green background says “Critical Access Primer. Critical Design Lab.” Yellow lines appear underneath the text. The words “critical access” and “critical design” appear in a wide, sans-serif font, while the words “primer” and “lab” are green with a striped white and green background.

Critical Access Primer

Since fall 2021, members of the Critical Design Lab have been working on exploring, defining, and responding to the emerging vocabularies of critical access and the field of critical access studies. We are interested in how terms such as “collective access” (Mingus), “disability dongle” (Jackson), “access fatigue” (Konrad) and others are not only pushing disability theory further than the social model, but also providing new directions for design practice. Beginning in early 2023, content related to this project will be released via our blog, social media, and podcast, and will later be compiled into a textbook or toolkit.

Project team

  • Hannah Wong (project manager)

  • Julia Rose Karpicz

  • KC Hall

  • Krys Ingman

  • Paul DiFazio

  • Courtney Wade

  • Margot Bell