Topical Art: Disability Post 1981 by Scott Rains, srains@oco.net

One of the most fascinating parts of my career as a researcher and consultant has been developing new methodologies that build upon the best practices of experts. Most recently I am learning from artists, historians, stamp collectors and Silicon Valley engineers. For several weeks now I have applied various techniques to prove my hunch that the most comprehensive international collection commissioned images of people with disabilities (PwD) ­ resulted from the UN’s 1981 ­ International Year of Disabled Persons (the IYDP.) I find it ironic that the methodology most helpful to me this weekend comes not from a scintillating whiteboard session but from another of our Silicon Valley Geek Culture obsessions ­ low­tech card­based games. A simple deck of flash cards turned out to be the best­practice­of­the­week. First it was necessary to determine which countries participated in the IYDP call to represent disability and persons with disabilities as full and active participants in society (* approximately 115 stamp issuing entities.) Next the project involved comparing UN, philatelic and disability studies sources to establish a trustworthy list of IYDP participants and their artifacts, creating spreadsheets to disseminate and fact­check results, acquiring dozens of the original artifacts, posting images online, and organizing the stamps into various iterations of albums or exhibits. In the end, the most flexible technique for identifying the patterns of disability representation emerging from this global corpus was a home made deck of cards with images of the stamps that could be endlessly grouped and regrouped. Below are some preliminary categories based on this semi­systematic approach. In several cases I include questions that I hope will inspire in­depth study of thematic and iconographic depiction of disability resulting from the IYDP. Broken ­ Flower Stem / Tree of Life

New Caledonia, Czechoslovakia, Brazil, San Marino and Tunisia are examples of the countries that chose to participate by issuing stamps bearing the IYDP logo and the image of broken flower stems, broken tree branches of the like. Would further research find this abstract representation of disability or PwD to have been common before 1981? Will it prove to have influenced future stamp or other government­sponsored art in the following decades? Was it commented upon in these nations’ presses during the years when these stamps were still in common use?

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Realism ­ PwD as Employed

France, Laos, Niger, Singapore represented office­based employment.

Mozambique, Tanzania and other countries show PwD employed in agriculture, traditional crafts, and other non­urban employment.

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Sports

Australia, Antigua­Barbuda, Bophuthatswan, Burma and many other states emphasize the popularity of sports.

Tourism and PwD

;;; The Cayman Island’s SCUBA and beach stamps for IYDP, Barbuda, and Fiji appear to have consciously attempted to appeal to PwD as tourists. Would a survey of island­states with prominent tourism income reveal this Inclusive Tourism strategy as more common than previously thought?

Graphically Emphasizing Visible Disabilities

Brunei and Zimbabwe use similar graphic strategies to draw the eye to parts of the body indicating functional differences between models in the stamp series each state produced.

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Representing Differering Disabilities

Jamaica, Uganda and Great Britain sought to represent the breadth of differing disabilities and activities. The use of a series of stamps with different images and denominations offered multiple opportunities for reaching the postal audience.

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Representing Invisible Disabilities

Ethiopia, Rwanda and Zaire each released IYDP stamp series in which the graphically challenging task of representing invisible disabilities was attempted. Did they introduce any new vocabulary?

Famous PwD

Guyana, Maldives, Samoa and Saint Lucia drew from world history to educate on the many famous individuals with disabilities. Are postal services free to promote more locally famous PwD?

*jList version September 27, 2015