After discussing the origins of the Alice in Wonderland tale and its connections to disability and heritage, we started the project by looking at Tim Burton’s film adaptation of the book. We considered how the story presented disability and its implications on disabled people.
Then, we discussed more widely how disability is perceived by society and has been through time and thought about how this made us feel.
We felt that characters like the ‘Mad Hatter’ may have helped to create barriers for those with disabilities and mental illnesses, and on the whole we did not feel that ‘Alice in Wonderland’ encouraged positive thinking about or feeling towards those with disabilities or mental health issues. We decided that disability should be presented more positively, and thought on the ways in which we could create positive disabled characters in this project
Inspired by the fantastical element of Lewis Carroll’s story, each young person in the group created a character story, profile, or artwork based on their personal experiences with disability and/or mental illness. The aim was that these characters and stories would celebrate disability.
