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Art Hacks for Physical Disabilities!!

I know art can be inaccessible to physically disabled people for a lot of reasons, and I think art should be accessible to everyone, so here’s a couple of the things I found to help for a few different issues you may face that stop you participating!

I have a link to all these items (UK) in my link tree!!

IMAGE DESCRIPTION

Slide one: illustration of a white woman with pink hair, wearing a pink outfit, sitting in a power wheelchair, looking at the viewer with thumbs up. Text Reese “hacks to make art more accessible”

Slide two: illustration of three different kinds, using three different types of pencil grips. One hand uses a circular grip. 100 is a large, rectangular grip. Another uses a grip that is ergonomic and fit into the hand. Main text reads “Paul, grip, strength and dexterity”. Subtext reads “there are loads of different types of pencil, grips or design for different disabilities and conditions. Increasing the width of the pencil can give more texture for a better grip using a pencil with a thicker with also reduces the amounts of pressure needed to hold a pencil you can make your own using items like pool noodles. KT tape an air dry clay. You can also put these groups on things like paint brushes.“

Slide three: illustration of a hand using a tool that looks like a wrist support with a paintbrush connected to it text next to it reads “this talk next a paintbrush to your hand in a way that means you don’t need to hold the paintbrush with your fingers and you will need to move your arm around“ on the bottom right hand corner is in photograph of a guided hand device. Text read “regarded hand as a tool designed to reduce the need for moving your hands and fingers and relies on the movement of your shoulder and upper arms and can be used with different materials like paintbrushes, pencils, pens and styluses.

Slide four: main header reads “when in bed“. Illustration of an iPad pillow with a iPad in it is next to text that reads “iPad pillows, put your tablet at an easier to access level when sitting or lying down“. In the bottom left hand corner is an illustration of a girl sitting in bed in her pyjamas with a pillow behind her and a bed table as she is drawing. On the left hand side is a photograph of a bed table with the text reading “bed tables are used to give you a flat tire up surface while in bed, and are often height adjustable”. In the bottom right hand side is a bedsit, a pillow with the text underneath, reading “ bedsitters of specially shaped pillows that you put behind you in bed to help you set up and give you a soft surface to lean back on”.

Slide five: maisie had a read out “at a desk left”. On the left hand side is a photograph of the document holder with the text “document holders put your paper at an angle to help prevent crane in your neck down”. On the right hand, middle side is an illustration of someone using a armrest and on the bottom left hand side is a photograph of the armrest. Text next to them reads “economic arm rests clip onto your table or desk and give you a surface you lean you’re forearms or elbows on. This can be used to steady your arm and reduce pain and fatigue while sitting at a desk”.

Slide six: maisie reads “foot and mouth painters” . on the right hand side is an photograph of swapping Augustine, an Indian woman with no arms, wearing a sari painting with her left foot. In the bottom left hand corner is an illustration of a woman with green hair painting using her mouth. Text reads “foot and mouth painting is a technique used by artists who do not have, or cannot use their arms so hold the paintbrush in their mouth or using their foot. Swapna Augustine is a foot painter who has painted with her feet and participated in multiple exhibitions of foot and mouth painters. Her art is stunning and I would definitely recommend checking some of help work out.“

Slide seven: main text reeds “art without brushes and pens”. On the left-hand side is a photograph of a spin art device. Text next to read it reads “spin out involves using bottles of ink and squirting them onto a spinning piece of paper to create spiral art. On the middle right hand side is a illustration of a laptop with coding art written on the screen. Text me next to it reads “coding art involves making programs that design and create art pieces digitally. This could be used in conjunction with an eye tracking software.“ On the bottom left hand side is a photograph of a child in a power wheelchair with paint on their wheels painting onto a large piece of paper. Next to this is text reading “wheelchair painting involves putting paint on your wheelchair wheels and moving around and large piece of paper. Sometimes you can connect a roller to create more marks.“

Slide eight: text reads “what do you do to make art accessible for you?”

Colorblindness affects about 8% of men and 0.5% of women around the world, with red-green colorblindness being the most common. Around ~13 million people in USAmerica are colorblind.

Thank you for your continued patience. We have released a newspost going over the concerns raised by our recent rule wording update. We recommend reading it in full below.

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The feedback form will be open until May 30th, 2026 at 8:00 United States Mountain Time.

As an artist that struggles with proportions, I find it extremely disrespectful that I can't even use photos of myself to structure poses, or use bases / art I made myself. An example of a "base" I made specifically for myself would be a pose on paper ( which is easier for positioning and proportions ) that's been digitalized. It's still me. It's still my art.

It just seems absurd that I can't use my own paper art to make a base for digital art, let alone a picture of myself, when both mediums are fine regardless. Professional artists are widely known to use both photos ( and in the case of animators, videos ) of themselves and physical drawings to produce digital creations all the time, so why can't we? It's a double standard that needs to be removed.

I was really excited to participate for the first time this year before the announcement, and now I'm wondering if I should even participate at all. The things I do to be able to make most of my drawings aren't allowed by these rules, and I've been drawing for 12 of the 20 years I've lived so far.

Now tell me, would this be allowed? If not, then that's exactly what I'm talking about.

I'm horrible at proportions and posing, and tend to use the free bases provided on ibispaintX, especially on bad days where my disabilities flare up. I also just generally don't have a good sense of proportions due to my eyesight!

Regardless, even if I were to make my own base on paper, and digitalize and use that in the same way, would it still not be allowed? If so, that's again, exactly what the problem is.

this is a problem i'm noticing not just with mwy terms but most terms, some blogs never link the terms they're using, or credit, or even make any form of reference to it. if im scrolling and see someone post a gender system term for example, then there's no link to a coining post, no mention of a coiner. i often assume they're who made it. but half the time that isn't the case

this makes it really hard to find resources when nothing has links or information. there's a lot of terms i'd love to make but can't when im unable to find the original. sometimes posts are lost, sometimes people deactivate or get deleted before they're archived. there's not as much we can do about those issues, but all the blogs that are easily there? why do so many posts not mention them? it's a little frustrating

As an artist that struggles with proportions, I find it extremely disrespectful that I can't even use photos of myself to structure poses, or use bases / art I made myself. An example of a "base" I made specifically for myself would be a pose on paper ( which is easier for positioning and proportions ) that's been digitalized. It's still me. It's still my art.

It just seems absurd that I can't use my own paper art to make a base for digital art, let alone a picture of myself, when both mediums are fine regardless. Professional artists are widely known to use both photos ( and in the case of animators, videos ) of themselves and physical drawings to produce digital creations all the time, so why can't we? It's a double standard that needs to be removed.

I was really excited to participate for the first time this year before the announcement, and now I'm wondering if I should even participate at all. The things I do to be able to make most of my drawings aren't allowed by these rules, and I've been drawing for 12 of the 20 years I've lived so far.