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Berkeley: Ground Zero for the Independent Living Movement

 

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As part of Block Party: From Independent Living to Disability Communalism, a large mural displays the blocks where the team has proposed interventions and explains the project’s key architectural and urban concepts.

Illustration of two figures speaking to each other, one standing and one seated in a wheelchair. Top text contains illustration title and a speech bubble connected to the figure in the wheelchair contains additional text.

Visual Description

Black-and-white, comic book-style illustration of two figures speaking to each other, one standing and one seated in a wheelchair. Top text reads “Berkeley: Ground Zero for the Independent Living Movement” and a speech bubble extending from the figure in the wheelchair contains the text, “Did you know that Berkeley was the birthplace of the independent living movement?” A microdot pattern defines the background of the illustration.

Illustration of two figures speaking to each other, one standing and one seated in a wheelchair. A speech bubble connected to the figure in the wheelchair contains text.

Visual Description

Black-and-white, comic book-style illustration with two figures speaking to each other, one standing and one seated in a wheelchair. A speech bubble connected to the figure in the wheelchair contains the text, “In the 1960s and 1970s, disabled people in Berkeley fought for deinstitutionalization, housing autonomy, and improved access to infrastructure and public space.” A microdot pattern defines the background of the illustration.

Illustration of a person seated in a wheelchair at the corner edge of a sidewalk, and using a sledgehammer to chip away at the sidewalk’s edge. A top caption includes text.

Visual Description

Black-and-white, comic book-style illustration of a figure seated in a wheelchair at the corner edge of a sidewalk, and using a sledgehammer to chip away at the sidewalk’s edge. Top text reads “People took sledgehammers and created their own curb cuts!” The sidewalk is defined by a black microdot pattern, and the background is blank white.

Illustration of a residential streetscape with a few houses and outbuildings, and scattered silhouettes of human figures standing, dancing, and using wheelchairs seen in the yards, a window, and on the sidewalk. A speech bubble attached to a figure contains text, with additional text in a bottom caption. In the foreground, an illustration of a yard sign reads “Disability Justice today!”

Visual Description

Black-and-white, comic book-style illustration of a residential streetscape with a few houses and outbuildings, and scattered silhouettes of figures standing, dancing, and using wheelchairs seen in the yards, a window, and on the sidewalk. A speech bubble attached to a figure standing beside a house reads, “Today, the leaders of the Bay Area’s ‘disability justice’ movement bring a more intersectional perspective to disability rights—addressing inequities based on gender, race, and class. The majority of disabled people in the Bay Area, after all, are people of color.” In the foreground, a sign reads “Disability Justice today!“ Bottom text reads, “Our project asks: Can we envision a multiracial disability community that addresses not only individual needs but also shared pleasures and ‘communal luxury’?”

Illustration of two forearms and hands holding an abstracted map. Above, a text bubble contains text.

Visual Description

A mostly black-and-white, comic book-style illustration of two forearms and hands rendered as black silhouettes holding an abstracted map, with areas defined by bright pink. Above, a text bubble reads, “In order to build a multiracial disability community in Berkeley, we’ll have to tackle the city’s troubling history of racist urban policies. Berkeley was one of the first cities in the U.S. to institute single-family zoning as a way to keep people of color and poor people out of wealthy white neighborhoods.” The background of the illustration is a pattern of black microdots.

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