OKFestival

For those diagnosed with disabilities later in life and for those who acquire them, it can be difficult to find relevant information. Wikipedia is a great help. So is Open Access to journal articles, so is encouraging the writing and opening up of lay summaries, so is encouraging people with a high level of understanding to share evidence-based information that goes beyond the purely medical.

Understanding and accepting disability as part of identity is vital. Open Science is well established, but doesn’t address how people understand themselves. Humanities and social sciences can do that. Open Education can do that. The Open community also needs to better reflect the world's diversity - it currently skews very white, very middle class, very non-disabled and fairly male.

Accepting disability as an identity means challenging your own and others' perceptions of you as an unreliable narrator and participating in your own narrative, using open knowledge from many disciplines as both a tool to understand and a weapon in the face of ignorance. It also means having to deal with the fact that people who aren't disabled generally have very little interest in disability or real participatory accessibility.

This session will be about bringing disciplines together to innovate and tackle this problem.

Session hashtag: #OKFestDis