Aaron Williamson presented an online conference paper for the Creative Industries Festival, Oxford Brookes University, 21st March 2022. ‘What is the problem with terms like ‘non-disabled’, ‘tragic’, ‘brave’, ‘heartwarming’, ‘normal’, ‘people with disabilities’ and others often used when addressing artificially constructed oppositions? This session serves as an introduction to disability theory and draws, among other things, on the artist’s own experiences of working conditions at Brookes.’
Born in Derby, England, Aaron Williamson’s work is informed by his experience of becoming deaf and by a politicised, yet humorous sensibility towards disability. At a University of California San Diego lecture in 1998, Williamson coined the term ‘Deaf Gain’ as a counter-emphasis to ‘hearing loss’.