ABSTRACT
Advances in disability arts seemed to offer pathways forward, beyond protest and lament at the prejudice disabled people suffer in the public sphere, towards innovative new aesthetics. Dave Lupton – who writes and draws cartoons under the name Crippen – has represented disabled artists' reaction to cuts to disability funding, and disability arts funding, in the work he creates for his blog on Disability Arts Online. However, there has been no attempt in the scholarly literature to ascertain if the current 'age of austerity' is changing protest aesthetics in disability arts, or, more broadly. Disabled artists have often deployed stylised aesthetics, physical action, live art, performance art, comedy, and direct connection with spectators in their efforts to subvert the stereotypes that conventional narratives create and draw attention to the social construction of disabled identities. Blogs like Crippen's show that disabled artists are committed to protesting the double impact of austerity cuts on them.
