Kinetic Light Inc

Kinetic Light (KL) is a disability arts organization that affirms and advances the disability arts movement. Founded by Alice Sheppard in 2016, KL works in the disciplines of art, technology, design, and dance. KL creates, performs, and teaches at the nexus of access, queerness, disability, dance, and race.

KL’s work speaks to and emerges from disability aesthetics and disability culture, and it is connected to the rich traditions and exciting contemporary conversations of disabled artists in all artistic fields. In Kinetic Light’s work disability is not a deficit, it is a powerful, intersectional creative force that is essential to artistry. Access is integral to the art and creative process.

KL’s equitably accessible, multi-sensory artmaking results in production-intensive, technologically sophisticated work.

We are grateful to be celebrated both for our performances and our access innovation and advocacy, but we believe that these are not separate — the way we create art is activism. Our creative and administrative practices take us beyond the usual, minimal approaches of inclusion and compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act and considers disability and access as aesthetics, cultures, and essential elements of our artistry.

Since 2020, we have also offered an array of in-person and online field-building and education programs. A leader in technology and software development in the performing arts field, our team develops and releases new access technologies, VR and haptic experiences.

Kinetic Light is led by disabled artists; disabled artists create, design, and perform the work.