CORPUS: 'Blindness Gain' Protest Participation Event, organised by BA Visual Culture graduate Sophie Lawler.

Following in the long-standing tradition of protest's place within cultural exhibitions, this is an organised protest in collaboration with the exhibition against the lack of accessibility considerations and measures within NCAD Works 2026, intending to improve cultural experiences for everyone. It will take place on Friday, 5th June, in Grey Square from 10 am - 5pm. Drop in.. All are welcome to join.

We live in a world designed for sighted people by sighted people. This ocular-centric focus is a given in cultural spaces, with accessibility for the vision impaired not a genuine consideration included at the design stage, but rather an afterthought or a legal minimum requirement met. Based on data from the 2022 Census, projected forward to 2026 by advocacy groups, approximately 296,000 to 300,000 people in Ireland are estimated to have blindness or a vision impairment. At nearly 300,000 people in Ireland who are legally blind, representing circa 6% of the population. Of these, circa 93% retain some partial vision.

The key messaging within the protest posters and placards includes:
- Accessibility measures benefit everyone. - This exhibition is not accessible. - There are over 300,00 vision impaired people in Ireland, circa 6% of the population, 93% of those have some vision.  - Vision simulation. images, how people with VI see artists. - Can you see this? Great! because I can't.  - It was hard enough to get here, take a break. - Eye test poster. - My independence is not your profit. - People not profit. - Don't narrow our view even more.

Friday, 5th June, NCAD Gallery, 10.30 am – 6 pm
In addition to the 'Blindness Gain' Protest Event running 10 am-5 pm on Friday 5th June in Grey Square, Visually Impaired (VI) simulation glasses are provided to audience members at NCAD Gallery while viewing graduate work.
The VI simulation glasses give an insight into the effects of vision loss. They can enable the quick identification of graphical features that do not have adequate size or contrast. They help wearers to understand how visually demanding a task is and can be valuable tools in convincing stakeholders of the need to make designs more visually inclusive. However, they should not be solely relied upon to conclude capability loss. 
Ref: www.inclusivedesigntoolkit.com/csg/csg.html
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'Blindness Gain' is one of the CORPUS: Making Visual Culture Public series of interventions, panel discussion, workshops and presentations, presented by BA Visual Culture graduates for NCAD Works 2026.
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Posters by Alisha Maher. Images courtesy of Sophie Lawler & Alisha Maher.