BIOGRAPHY

Emily Sara (she/her) is a queer, disabled, neurodivergent, artist, designer and an Assistant Professor of Graphic Design at Virginia Commonwealth University. She specializes in Accessible Design, having built the class Experiments in Accessible Design—the only class of it’s kind in the United States. Her art and design practice appropriate the language of advertising and animation to discuss the Medical Industrial Complex (MIC) and the extent of social control over the disabled body. Emily is the founder of cripple, a publishing initiative which exclusively supports the endeavors of disabled artists and designers. She is also the founder of the design firm sick and tired which has a focus on accessible design, consulting, and hiring other disabled practitioners. Emily received her undergraduate degree from Boston University in Advertising and Art History and her MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art. She is the author of the article Fighting the Art World’s Ableism published by Hyperallergic. Aside from teaching full-time, she is fervently working with other disabled artists and designers, fabricating a new series of sculptures when her body allows, applying for a service dog,
and staying alive.