BIOGRAPHY
Emily Sara (she/her) is a queer, disabled, neurodivergent, artist, designer, writer, and alt educator. She is a part of the inaugural 2025 Eames Institute Curious 100 cohort—“a celebration of one hundred courageous leaders and creative minds across the United States who are harnessing the transformative power of curiosity to solve today’s most pressing problems.” In 2024, she was a Disability Futures Fellow provided by the Ford Foundation, Mellon Foundation, and United States Artists.
Emily specializes in Accessible Design, which intersects with her active studio practice. Her work spans multiple media and mediums, critiquing the Medical Industrial Complex (MIC) while also providing support and mutual aid to other disabled creatives. In the coming year, her work will be exhibited and/or published by MoMA, Victoria & Albert Museum, Carnegie Museum of Art, and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.
She is the founder of cripple, a publishing initiative that exclusively supports disabled artists and designers. Cripple functions as a multi-modal archive that will soon feature mini-documentaries (“cripple shorts”) and webinars, to accompany the existing archive of resources and live, recorded events hosted by disabled creatives. Cripple follows a non-linear publishing model—a flexible, supportive approach to creating and distributing critical work that is often experimental and misunderstood by traditional publishing spheres.
Emily holds a BFA from Boston University and an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art. Her article "Fighting the Art World’s Ableism" was published by Hyperallergic. She has lectured and led workshops at institutions including Yale School of Art, Otis College of Art and Design, Virginia Commonwealth University, the University of Richmond and more. She is currently conducting research for the Center for Book Arts and NYU Steinhardt on the intersections of access and book design.
In addition to the above, Emily is also applying for a service dog, going to too many but necessary doctors appointments, searching for an affordable accessible van for her wheelchair, attempting to keep her chronic pain at 7 out of 10 or lower, and staying alive.
For an up-to-date CV, please contact studio@cripple.info.
