Human Rights Day, 10 December 2021, saw the official opening of a mural on the wall of Easton Community Centre in Bristol.

The artwork brings together messages from Deaf, Disabled and asylum-seeking people living in the Bristol area, and its creation is the latest in a series of projects facilitated by Dr Rebecca Yeo, Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies, and artist Andrew Bolton.

Dr Yeo's research focuses on responses to disability and forced migration in the UK, and this project is part of her work to increase understanding and to reduce the barriers separating the asylum sector and the disabled people’s movement. ‘There's a lot of overlap in the experiences of people in these two sectors,’ she says. ‘Many asylum seekers experience severe mental distress or have other forms of impairments. This mural highlights the particularly disabling impact of the UK asylum system and the urgent need for solidarity.’

Dr Yeo and Andrew Bolton invited members of disabled people’s organisations and asylum sector organisations to contribute images or messages illustrating what they would like others to understand about their situation. ‘Sometimes several people describe similar issues, other times an idea may be unique to one contributor,' says Dr Yeo. ‘Andy then creates and combines images, which are often adapted many times in a highly collaborative process. The aim is to include elements of each person’s ideas in an overall mural design.’

Each contributor was also invited to contribute to a short film, explaining their message in their own words. 

Covid-safe means of engagement involved using social media, email or telephone to contact people, and working outdoors or in small numbers in well ventilated spaces. The disadvantage of these methods is that people do not so readily form a group as they have in previous mural projects organised by the pair. In this context, the film served as a means for contributors to learn from each other as well as to convey peoples messages to a wider population.

‘We had multiple hurdles,’ says Dr Yeo, ‘but our collaborative and creative research approach enables people to claim a space in a public setting, and the results help to raise awareness of the experiences of people who are frequently marginalised in mainstream media.’

The mural is dedicated to Kamil Ahmad, a disabled asylum seeker who was murdered in Bristol in 2016, and whose image is included in the new work.

You can read more on the Disability Murals project website and the Bristol Independent Living website.