Network Connector is an online roster of artists, service providers, and consultants working in or interested in working in Deaf, Mad and disability culture, accessibility, and the arts, representing a vast community of talent, knowledge and experience.

The purpose of the network is to highlight and profile people in Canada and abroad who are providing services or creative talent in the arts so that people can more easily find each other when projects require specific skills.

The network can be used by researchers, artists, curators, programmers and will be made available on our website for the general public to use.

A presentation of the Network Connector prototype

From January to April 2021, we worked with a team of students from the University of Toronto’s Representing UX program and members of Network Connector to explore ways an online network can help meet the needs of Deaf and disabled artists and we built a swanky prototype!

What is a prototype, you might ask? A prototype is a quick way to validate an idea with your community before doing all the work and spending all the money to build the actual thing and then finding out nobody uses it!

Watch this presentation led by U of T’s UX team to see how we worked with members of Network Connector to understand common needs and challenges in our sector and how that led to an idea for what Network Connector could do to meet those needs.

What do you think? Would you use this tool to connect with your community? Send us your comments or email us at info@creativeusers.net.

We’d like to express our gratitude to Camilla (Wenhui) Peng, Marviel Mercado, Sonal Pala, Stacey Morton & Giselle Wenban for their hard work on this project and to members of Network Connector who contributed their stories and valuable feedback to building this prototype.