What could health care look like if it was designed by people with energy limiting conditions (ELCs)? How can creative workshops feed into research? How can the creative research process be made as accessible as possible?
This roundtable includes 5 artists involved in a research project using creative workshops to ideas about better futures of care for people with ELCs. The project built on research by Chronic illness Inclusion which demonstrated the harm done by medical professional disregarding or disbelieving people’s accounts of living with ELCs.
Online creative workshops were facilitated for
Muslim women
LGBTQIA+ people
People of marginalised gender (cis and trans women, trans men, non-binary, intersex and gender nonconforming people)
Workshops involved zine making, creative writing, fairytale writing, drawing, collage and mixed-media. Workshops were designed to be accessible for people with ELC and asynchronous workshop options were hosted to maximise opportunities to participate.
Each workshop was led by a l creative practitioners and artists with a participatory approach and together each group co-produced an artefact that spoke to their needs. The results are zines, podcasts, stories, comics, animations and creative non-fiction.
The artists involved were Khizra Ahmed Khairani Barokka (Okka), Julian Gray, Mish Green and Louise Kenward. The project was led by Professor Bethan Evans at The University of Liverpool, working with Morag Rose and Ana Bê Pereira, Chronic Illness Inclusion, Liverpool Hope University, Stephanie Davis, Healing Justice London, and a team of independent researchers: Dr Aaliyah Shaikh Dr Alison Allam and Dr Anna Ruddock. Everyone in the team has their own experiences of disability and / or chronic illness.
About DDFI40:
DaDaFest International returns 8th-31st March 2025 to celebrate DaDa’s 40th Anniversary and this time they are coming with ‘RAGE: A Quiet Riot’.

DDFI40 will showcase work by disabled artists that captures all shapes and sides of rage. From the internal quiet frustrations and righteous rage, to overt injustice and activism, DDFI40 will explore disability rights, disability arts, access, ableism and ‘Rage’ in an explosion of creativity.