Rishika Kartik: Advancing accessibility through a blend of science, art and advocacy

Kartik's interest in advocating for people with disabilities began in high school, shaped by her time volunteering at the Colorado Center for the Blind, where she first encountered tactile art and community-based creative practices. She was struck not only by the creativity and independence of the people she met, but also by how often disability was overlooked in broader conversations about diversity and inclusion.

"As I spent more time with people with disabilities, I realized that the assumptions that people make when designing systems for people are not neutral," Kartik said. "There was a group of people that I cared about that I felt needed to be more represented in the design space."

At Brown, classes like Pathology to Power: Disability, Health and Community, taught by Sarah Skeels, an instructor in behavioral and social sciences, introduced Kartik to disability studies frameworks. Courses in art, biology and engineering connected her creative practice with scientific understanding.

In a formative course led by Daniel Stupar, a lecturer and assistant director of studio and safety for Brown's Department of Visual Art, Kartik began experimenting with tactile and interactive work, including an installation in the List Art Building stairwell at Brown.

"I wrote in Braille, 'Please touch the art,'" she said. "The idea was that people are forced to learn more about blindness and interact with students at Brown who are blind in order to understand more about the exhibit."

Working with faculty mentors, Kartik has also co-created and co-taught two Group Independent Study Project courses: Gerodesign, in which she worked with older adults in Rhode Island to investigate how aging and disability intersect; and Blindness, Arts and Media, in which she collaborated with blind peers to center their experiences in conversations about design and representation.

Outside of the classroom, Kartik co-leads the student organization Blind@Brown and has spearheaded and contributed to a wide range of public art initiatives, including the Blind Urban Subject, an interactive piece installed on the corner of Angell and Thayer streets in Providence.

For that project and others, Kartik shadowed Associate Professor of Surgery and Clinician Educator Wendy Chen, who also directs pediatric ophthalmology at nearby Hasbro Children's hospital. There, informed by input from patients, families and providers, Kartik led the creation of a mural to make the clinic more welcoming to children. The finished artwork featured a scene of various animals with unique visual traits, such as shrimp and cuttlefish wearing glasses.

"We got to start these conversations with kids in a way that was very joyful, very fun," Kartik said. "We explained to them that just like all these animals, each person who comes into the clinic has a different vision, and that's not bad - it's just a different way of seeing the world."

A new vision for connection

True to that ethos, Kartik founded Touch and Create Studio, a program developed in partnership with the National Federation of the Blind that offers accessible art workshops and consults with organizations on inclusive design. The goal is to create community spaces where blind and sighted participants can learn from each other and challenge common misconceptions.

"Blindness is not a bad word," Kartik said. "Most people prefer to talk about their experience directly and to be just treated like any other teenager or college student. Ableism mostly stems from lack of awareness."

In one workshop, Kartik worked with a child who communicated primarily through art, and the child's mother, who had recently lost her vision. The mother felt a painful disconnect, as she could no longer see her child's artwork. So Kartik presented the child with a tool that can create raised lines from any drawing. When the mother felt her child's tactile drawings for the first time, she was moved to tears.

"It reminded me that we relate to each other so often through art, and the fact that she felt more included and connected to someone she cared about was very meaningful to me," Kartik said.