Paper short abstract:

This contribution scrutinises how the current urban development process marginalises the aspirations of Deaf youth—and how participatory visual arts are used by Deaf youths to challenge the status quo and reclaim their overlooked rights to more inclusive cities.

Paper long abstract:

This paper offers a deeper insight into how persons with disabilities, particularly Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing (HoH) youths in Indonesia, still face barriers in influencing the decision-making processes of their cities vis-à-vis unequal, hegemonic power structures that shape the city. This marginalisation is manifested in limited awareness of accessibility to ensure their political participation, such as the use of sign languages and acknowledgement of their culture and needs. It illustrates how, in the bigger picture, the current ‘participatory’ practices still marginalise persons with disabilities, resulting in infrastructure and service development that overlooks their specific experience. Furthermore, it argues that using visual arts as tools of participatory process would significantly enhance the quality of participation of youth with hearing impairments and build their collective agency and capacity in advocating for their political rights. Looking at a participatory mural project, “KREASI Repaint the City” in Surakarta, Indonesia, as a case study, it restates the role of civil society organisations in contesting and bridging the current gap of participation in urban development through arts and meaningful community engagement to shift the status quo and further improve towards more democratic city-making process.