Hat wave

 Disability Pride Month and the anniversary of the ADA reminded me of a project I did way back in the late Eighties for the Haymarket People's Fund in Boston. The assignment was a poster for a hat-themed event, and although the design document didn't say anything about including people with disabilities, I put in a guy in a wheelchair smiling and waving his hat in the air. This in turn sparked the idea of a variation on the familiar International Access Symbol with an exuberant hat waving figure, which I added at the bottom. At that time, the association of disability with positivity, joy, or fun was not a big part of the mainstream discourse, but it must have been bubbling up in the activist community in the runup to the passing of the ADA in 1990. After the poster came out, other advocacy groups latched onto my symbol design and used it for their communications.

Pen and ink, typography

(Drawing of people dancing and waving hats in the air.)

Hats Off!

to Haymarket People's Fund

A hat please wear - or make one there!

Come Party -

and bring friends

May 14

Villa Victoria

85 West Newton

Boston's South End

8:00 - 1:00 am

8:00-9:00 snacks, hat making, photos with you and your hat

9:00 A TRIBUTE TO RENAE and her eight years at Haymarket

9:30-1:00 MUCH DANCING: SOUL, MOTOWN,LATIN,ROCK

Sliding scale $5-$25

For more info: (617) 426-1909