The Victoria & Albert Museum’s new exhibition Design and Disability at South Kensington (open from 7 June 2025 to 15 February 2026) is receiving enthusiastic praise, and rightly so, for spotlighting the contributions of disabled designers across a rich array of fields.
The exhibition spans three sections, Visibility, Tools, and Living, and showcases 170 objects. Its focus extends across disciplines such as design, art, media, architecture, fashion, and photography, and it delves into adaptive technology including the Xbox Adaptive Controller.
Yet hospitality is nowhere to be seen. Hospitality is a major vector of cultural inclusion, and exclusion, for people living with disability. Many restaurants, hotels, pubs, bars and other hospitality providers have developed solutions that enable disabled people to enjoy their services. While many still fall short, the imbalance is no greater than in the other disciplines represented.
Including hospitality in the exhibition could have underscored the fact that inclusive design isn’t abstract, it’s about lived experience, simple things like dining out with dignity or staying in a hotel room comfortably.
Design and Disability brilliantly illustrates how people living with disability shape design across numerous sectors. Yet by omitting hospitality, it overlooks one of the most tangible arenas of access and exclusion.
