TWELVE PERCENT OF US
Around twelve percent of Ugandans live with some form of disability, including my elder sister Nagawa Grace, who is physically impaired and deaf. Life in a city like Kampala is tough for even the most able-bodied citizens, and in this project I decided to explore some of the lesser-known aspects of the lives of differently-abled people living in the city.
Through a mixed-media approach to the topic, I sought to develop a multi-sensory experience to encourage audiences to reflect on what it means to make the world accessible. In a video made over several months and at sites across the city we see community members teaching, travelling, writing and playing football. Some sequences were made with a 360º camera, to provide the maximum possible immersion for viewers to get a feeling of what it means to be obliged to travel by wheelchair along Kampala’s congested highways.
Also on display is a series of images whose captions are embossed on their surfaces in braille. By setting aside the ordinary boundaries of art exhibitions I hope to encourage visitors, and particularly blind visitors, to engage and interact with these images on a new sensory level. Not every caption will be accessible to every reader, but that’s because we are all differently abled. Even this exhibition is taking place at the top of several flights of stairs, within a university campus which itself does not properly provide for the needs of disabled students or faculty.
In making this project I am very grateful for the help of Mugabe Brian, who kindly invited me to join him as he taught classes and played basketball, Paralympian Nsubuga Nelson, who allowed me to attach a GoPro to his wheelchair and film his commute, and Abraham Mukundane, who took time out from his literature studies at Makerere University to show me how to make braille text and to explain how Ugandan banknotes are hard to read when you’re blind. Thank you all!
Nelson Kizito on his wheelchair on kampala road going for his basketball training.
Players from the blind football league touching and feeling the goal posts before the games start.
Blind footballers in a training session of blind football at Lugogo grounds.
Nelson Kizito in his wheelchair on Jinja road highway
A portrait of Nelson Kizito in his wheelchair at Lugogo sports ground
Brian Mugabe attending a birthday party for his friend's little girl.
Brian Mugabe in his class teaching pupils in Mulago.
Brian Mugabe in his class teaching pupils in Mulago.
Abraham Mukundane brailing a message of how he feels and experiences Ugandan money notes.
A portrait of Abraham Mukundane with his braille machine.
