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It Must Be Simple: The Supreme Fiction at the Core of the Backlash to Access Debate Dr David Feeney Date: Wednesday 14th January 2015 Time: 2.15pm–3.45pm Place: Eden 109, Liverpool Hope University, UK This seminar considers the ‘voice of disability’ in relation to the ‘backlash to access’, as the contemporary debate regarding the alleged practice of ‘dumbing down’ in the name of widening participation has become known. On one side of this debate are defenders of museum and gallery access and social inclusion policies and practices; on the other are those who interpret the ‘inevitable’ simplification of complex ideas and artworks within access programmes as a regrettable compromising of traditional art values. A notable feature of this debate, however, is the absence of consultation with the museum and gallery visitors on whose behalf these access measures have been undertaken. The findings of a study of the aesthetic preferences of individuals with and without visual impairment are placed in the context of this wider debate in an attempt to illustrate how lack of consultation with ‘the voice of disability’ has resulted in a debate that has arguably been as misdirected as it has been heated. David Feeney is Lecturer in Disability Studies and Special Educational Needs at Liverpool Hope University, where he is a core member of the Centre for Culture and Disability Studies. He is guest editor of Visual Impairment, Aesthetics and Access to the Arts, a special issue of British Journal of Visual Impairment and Blindness, and author of Toward an Aesthetics of Blindness: An Interdisciplinary Response to Synge, Yeats and Friel (2007). This seminar is part of the CCDS series, The Voice of Disability. Other dates include: 11 Feb 2015, Authorship and the voice of disability in dance, Mathilde Pavis and Kate Marsh. 11 Mar 2015, Which Theory of Democracy for an Inclusive Society? A Pragmaticist Approach, David Doat. 13 May 2015, The Stories We Tell: The Americans with Disabilities Act After 25 Years, Lennard J. Davis. 17 Jun 2015, ‘Working together for positive outcomes’: The Appropriation of Voice and Participation in SEN policy, Claire Penketh. Also, Disability and Disciplines: The International Conference on Educational, Cultural, and Disability Studies will be held 1-2 July, 2015. For further information please contact: Dr David Bolt