Single Handed

October 2023

A conversation with parents and 
child about growing up disabled.

Single Handed is a publication that follows a conversation with my parents and me on our experiences with disability, and provides able-bodied parents with an insight into living with a disability. 

The publication offers advice, reassurance, and information on what it’s really like to live with disability, 
in order to help support parents on their journey to understanding disability by covering all aspects of upper limb difference, from prosthetics to representation. Single Handed aims to challenge perceptions on disability, by sharing disabled perspectives in a positive way. Although there are times when disability can 
create negative interactions, disability itself is not 
a negative thing. 

With a playful, illustrative, collage approach and the 
use of bright risograph printing, the publication fosters an inclusive, positive feeling. It aims to challenge the perspective around disability, and reassure parents that disability is not a negative thing for their child, whilst helping boost the self-worth of disabled people. 



Project Abstract
Single Handed is a practice-led project which investigates how scrapbook-publications can be used 
to communicate disabled perspectives. Situated in the context of disability culture and disability arts, where disability is used to describe barriers in society for 
people with impairments, Single Handed explores 
how scrapbooking techniques can be used to create imagery that shares disabled experiences. I utilise 
my knowledge and experiences as a disabled person 
through an autoethnographic approach to address 
and communicate my story through image-making techniques. This scrapbook-publication aims provide non-disabled people with a better understanding 
of what it means to be disabled. 


Best Design Awards Winner 2024
AUT Head of School Award 2023 
Single Handed Exegesis
















Mia Freeman Design