Catalogue Number
NMLH.2022.170
Object Name
Banner
Title
'Disabled People Fight Back. Nothing About Us Without Us'
Place
Manchester, North West England, UK
People
Ed Hall, Full Circle Arts (charity)
Events
Anti-Austerity protests 2010s
Creator(s) Description
This square banner is edged in red with tabs for poles to attach to it. The central, purple section of the banner shows a protest scene of people, some of who have visible disabilities, all holding placards with slogans about disability discrimination like 'Society makes people disabled - not the disability'. The banner is captioned in yellow lettering: 'Disabled People Fight Back, Nothing About Us Without Us'.
This banner was created in 2015 as part of a collaborative project between the Peopleâs History Museum and Full Circle Arts called 'Disbanners'. The banner maker Ed Hall worked with disabled people across north-west England to design large scale banners addressing issues of disability and austerity. Full Circle Arts was a charity who worked with and for disabled and Deaf people in the North West of England. The phrase "Nothing About Us Without Us" has commonly been used by the Disabled Activist movement to push against decisions being made that affect the lives of disabled people without consulting them.
The slogans on the placards reference the social model of disability which states that a person's condition or impairment is less of a barrier to accessing the world than the ways a non-disabled society is not set up to accomodate disabled people. Advocates for the social model say that if accessible designs and practices were used by default, disabled people would have similar or equal access to society when compared with non-disabled people.
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