The Art Of Care Webs: Reimagining Inclusion In Healthcare

Date: 23 October, Friday | Time: 16:00 - 17:30 | Venue: Academia Room, L1-S1

Speaker: Asst Prof Rachel Chen

Programme Details: 

“What does it mean to shift our ideas of access and care from an individual chore, an unfortunate cost of having an unfortunate body, to a collective responsibility that’s maybe even more deeply joyful?” – Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha (2018)

Disability is often understood through medicalized narratives of deficit, dependence, and individual burden. The concept of care webs offers another possibility: one grounded in interdependence, collective responsibility, and creative forms of access.

This panel brings together artists, designers, researchers, and educators whose work explores disability beyond the medical model. Through perspectives spanning socially engaged art, ageing and care work, inclusive design, and higher education, the discussion examines how care and access are produced through relationships, communities, and institutions. By considering disability as a site of connection rather than isolation, panelists explore how care webs can foster more inclusive, participatory, and joyful approaches to healthcare and public life.

Learning Outcomes:

1. Critically evaluate disability and access through frameworks that extend beyond the medical model.
2. Examine how care, inclusion, and accessibility can be understood as collective responsibilities across healthcare, education, and community settings.
3. Identify practices from art, design, healthcare, and higher education that foster more inclusive, accessible, and human-centered forms of participation and belonging.