Martin Pingel, Education Manager, Danish Design School
Dorte Rønsler works at the Danish Arthritis Association and has had rheumatoid arthritis since childhood.
For Dorte the most important and challenging issue is: 'Sensitivity when it comes to how society looks at me as a disabled person and how people respond to me and my handicap. I become the sickness itself and not me'. Disability in many cultures is a taboo and can provoke strange reactions while invisible disabilities are often met it with skepticism. For society to include disabled people as equal partners requires a broader knowledge of one another.
Drawing inspiration from the success of the Dunkel Restaurant, in Berlin where diners eat in darkness served by blind waiters, the team proposed a theme park where disability is the theme of the rides. The able-bodied are the most challenged and everyone becomes equal because their skills depend on the situation. “We want to learn and laugh together.” The entertainments would be developed in co-operation with user organisations and disabled people and visitors can surf between different rides or concentrate on one disability or one faculty. Some of the teams suggestions were: a blindfolded joyride, a muted disco, an everchanging, inescapable maze, a soundproofed environment, a wheelchair challenge and one for everyday impossibilities. The theme park would be for people of all ages.
