Monika Dubiel

As part of my residency at WOK, I would like to research the intersection of disability, art and accessibility in the Polish context. I plan to use an ethnographic method based on interviews with artists and their collaborators and observations of their working techniques and final works. I am particularly interested in how artists use their disability as a creative resource and the practical, subversive potential of disability. I am interested in how the disability of artists and audiences can challenge the norms of cultural institutions and help to develop new, more welcoming ways of engaging with art. The support I need is primarily technical. As a blind person researching the performing arts, I often need a sighted person to assist me during an event and narrate what is happening visually.

I am a psychologist and Spanish philologist, and I am blind. I received my PhD in Cultural and Religious Studies from the University of Warsaw in 2023. My research interests revolve around disability in culture, especially Latin American culture. In my dissertation I researched the works of visually impaired artists in Mexico. I am also researching the accessibility of culture for people with disabilities in Poland. I have presented the results of my study at numerous national and international conferences. I have also published in recognised academic journals, including Qualitative Sociology Review and Social Inclusion. I work as a consultant for accessibility solutions for visually impaired people and as a trainer providing training in audio description, accessibility and savoir vivre towards people with disabilities. From 2017 to 2019 I worked at the Foundation for Culture without Barriers. Since 2019, I have been working as a freelancer in the accessibility industry. I have worked with, among others, the Warsaw City Hall, the Lublin City Hall, the National Centre of Culture, the National Institute of Museology and Collections Protection, the Silesian Museum in Katowice, Zachęta – National Gallery of Art, the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, the Asia-Pacific Museum, the Labyrinth Gallery in Lublin, the Gustaw Holoubek Drama Theatre in Warsaw, and the Museum of the Arts in Warsaw, Kwadrat Theatre, Syrena Theatre, TR Warsaw, Rampa Theatre, Rozrywki Theatre in Chorzów, Stanisław Wyspiański Theatre in Katowice, Juliusz Osterwa Theatre in Lublin and Nowy Theatre in Warsaw. Since 2020, I have been managing (until 2023 together with Mikołaj Jabłoński) the VIP team social media channels, where I popularise knowledge on the functioning of visually impaired people.