By watching the three videos, we see Ade, Christine, and Chay sharing their experiences and revealing the intricate ways in which the intersections of their identities shape their daily lives. Thus, we grasp the far-reaching effects of the ecosystem surrounding them, which imposes limitations and constraints across multiple layers of their lives, significantly shaping their choices and available possibilities.  

Bringing my recent and I feel still shallow understanding of intersectionality theories, I spent my time watching the videos trying to observe the spoken and non-spoken intersectionality that are part of Ade, Christiane and Chay identifies. I recognize that those might be infinite, and most times hard to identify and observe. There were aspects that they decided to share and highlight perhaps more than others.  As an example of my experience observing, I noticed that while Ade talks through experiences from the lens of the intersectionality between race and disability, Chay through the lens of disability and gender, I felt that Christiane was the one who less openly and directly talked about the intersectionality of her identities. Throughout the video, she mentions motherhood and how it influenced her creative practice, but gender and also her ethnic background growing up in the US were both points not covered. 

Across the videos, there were points in common that I believe could be resumed by the terms used in Ade’s video systemic discrimination and oppression and discrimination by design. The terms were not used in all videos, but the examples and experiences shared by Christine and Chay could be easily connected to those terms. Systemic discrimination and discrimination by design are interrelated concepts that underscore the complexity and depth of inequality within society. By their experiences’ reports, the three highlighted examples of patterns of bias and inequality ingrained within our current societal structures and how perpetuation of unequal treatment happen through policies and practices. It was clear to see by their experiences the urgent ask for effective strategies to address and dismantle discriminatory systems and practices at both systemic and intentional levels.  

Bridging the topic to my context and experience and looking at the UAL data on disabled student profiles by fee status, we can see the difference between the declaration of disabilities by Home, European, and International students. Having been a student at UAL and today working with students and staff development at the university, I do feel that the levels of understanding, acknowledgment, and recognition of, for example, neurodiversity across students vary significantly. Before studying at UAL, I was not familiar with learning adjustment options, for example. Even though today I am glad to have the experience of having many students recognizing their disabilities and creating adjustments for them, I do agree there is still quite a lot that I could implement to create equal experiences for students and staff across the university.