Redefining disability through design
When people think of disability, many images, thoughts and stereotypes may come to mind, however a Melbourne-based international t-shirt competition is striving to change that.
YoorallaTEE is a competition that challenges designers, artists and illustrators to redefine disability through t-shirt design. YoorallaTEE is an initiative led by Yooralla, one of Australia’s largest and most proactive organisations working to support people with disability, in partnership with leading Australian streetwear retailer Dangerfield and well-known community organisation, The Father Bob Foundation. Winners of the competition have their design printed on t-shirts and sold through Dangerfield stores, with the proceeds shared by Yooralla and the Father Bob Maguire Foundation.
Since its inception in 2010, YoorallaTEE has witnessed a shift in the complexity of the design concepts, from commonly associated motifs like wheelchairs or other mobility aids through to the exploration of ‘invisible’ and lesser known forms of disability.
The winning designs over the years have challenged the community to see beyond the disability and to celebrate diversity. The five winners from the 2015 competition were displayed at Fracture Gallery at Fed Square in July, including three local Melbourne designers.
Amelia Lazarus created a polaroid-style design inspired by the universal emotion of happiness. Her design shares a series of polaroid images of what happiness looks like from different perspectives, including for people with vision impairment.
“Happiness may physically appear different to those with visual impairment, but the memory of this positive feeling and its impact is just as strong. Disabilities don’t make a person less human; we are all human beings who feel, love, dream, and reflect.” Han Bates created an illustration of a mermaid with a prosthetic leg, accompanied by the text “beauty in equality” to share an important message. “Mermaids are a symbol of beauty, mystery and power. If they lived on land like the rest of us, they wouldn’t be able to walk, but that doesn’t deter from their beauty, their mystery or power. A disability doesn’t take a person’s ability to be beautiful, we are all equal in beauty, whether we have fins or legs or neither.” A focus on ability inspired the winning design by Kate Heggie, which shows three young women – one with vision impairment, one in a wheelchair, and one with no visible disability – each wearing t-shirts that say “I can do things they can’t do”.
“I feel like there’s just too much focus on the things that people can’t do, when there’s so much that people can do. So for this design I wanted to create an image of three girls who are equal in their attitudes toward life, since attitudes are the hardest thing to change.”
The YoorallaTEE competition will continue to challenge designers and the broader community to think differently about disability.