Stories of This Abled City: Experiential Dialogues on Disability in Urban Life
From 10 to 12 June, the interactive exhibition Stories of This Abled City can be visited at the House of Connections on the Grote Markt in Groningen. The exhibition presents the city through the experiences of wheelchair users and brings together research, experiential knowledge, maps, film, games, creative installations and workshops.
The exhibition offers a multi-day public programme, building on around ten years of collaboration between the University of Groningen, students, artists, societal partners and co-researchers with disabilities, including clients of ’s Heeren Loo / Noorderbrug. Through these collaborations, a wide range of projects has developed around accessibility, representation, encounter and lived experience, led by Prof. Dr Bettina van Hoven, Aletta Jacobs Professor at the University of Groningen. The exhibition brings these strands together in a format that invites visitors to look, participate and engage in conversation.
Visitors can explore interactive projects that make visible the experiences of wheelchair users with places and routes in Groningen. In addition, there will be videos, creative installations and several games to see and play.
With Stories of This Abled City, the organisers aim to show how a city can become more inclusive when the experiences of people with disabilities are taken seriously as knowledge. The exhibition is intended for a broad audience: from families, school pupils and students to policymakers, professionals and anyone else who is interested.
Highlights
A special part of the exhibition is a series of games developed by students from Hanze University of Applied Sciences. In these educational projects, people with disabilities are represented as heroes, makers, adventurers and smart problem-solvers. Visitors can play, among others, the futuristic cyberpunk game This Abled Hero, a game for younger players in which slime creatures must be defeated, and experience the adventure of Captain Wheelchair.
Sk8Chair is also part of the exhibition: a dynamic game in which two players compete for the highest score by performing cool WCMX moves. In this way, the game creates a direct link with sport, play and public space. Visitors can not only try out the games, but also talk to the student developers themselves. In developing the games, the makers experimented with accessible forms of play, such as adaptive controllers and eye and hand tracking.
The first day of the exhibition, Wednesday 10 June, will also feature a special outdoor programme as part of Jantje Beton’s National Outdoor Play Day. Between 13:00 and 17:00, the outdoor programme will include the Wheelchair Skills Team, skatepark Colosseum, FC Groningen and KidsUnited with a frame football clinic, and Huis van de Sport with wheelchair sports activities. This will make the Grote Markt not only a place to watch, but above all a place to participate.
On Thursday 11 June, the programme includes the workshop Sterk in Eigen Krant (in Dutch), an awareness-raising workshop in collaboration with ’s Heeren Loo (registration requried). Experts-by-experience Lisa, Jenneke and Arjen will lead the session. The workshop gives participants insight not only into life with a disability or chronic condition, but also the person behind the story. On Thursday there will also be an improvisational theatre performance by De Doornvogels (in Dutch, registration requried). Their earlier performance This Abled Love partly inspired the title of the exhibition. On Friday, there will also be a workshop on public transport.
Programme
Wednesday 10 June
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What |
When |
Information |
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Animation Workshop |
9:00 – 12:00 |
Workshops using visual storytelling inc stop-motion and green screen technology/ Led by Jitske Wadman. Reserved for invited groups |
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Lightning guided tour and workshop on Affective Mapping in the City - Yuankun Yang & Huiyuan Pang |
10:00 – 12:00 |
Email: yuankun.yang rug.nl (English) Workshop on how to research and understand the affective dimensions of accessibility and inclusion using arts-creative mapping techniques. (Higher Education and professionals) |
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Formal opening of Stories of This Abled City |
12:30 – 13:30 |
Open to all, but registration requested |
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Outdoor programme:
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13:00 – 17:00 |
As part of the Jantje Beton Nationale Buitenspeeldag, Wednesday afternoon brings the exhibition outdoors with a special free programme in public space. These activities connect directly to the exhibition themes of sport, play, public space and inclusion. (From 7 years) |
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Talk-and-tour - Jesse Lindenhovius & Julia Munuera Garcia |
14.00 – 14.45 |
Email: j.munuera.garcia rug.nl (English) Jesse and Julia give a tour of the exhibition from their perspective as former student assistants and junior researchers in various parts of the This Abled City research. They focus on bridging between academic research and public engagement methods using GIS mapping and gamification. (Higher Education and professionals) |
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Mapping/ GIS/ Game development workshop - Jesse Lindenhovius & Julia Munuera Garcia |
15:00 – 17:00 |
Email: j.munuera.garcia rug.nl (English) Following from the talk and tour, participants can explore the tools themselves in a guided workshop by Jesse and Julia. (Higher Education and professionals) |
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Academische Werkplaats EMB Hanze workshop ‘Zie je mij?’ |
Afternoon (tbc) |
(tbc) |
Thursday 11 June
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What |
When
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Information
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Animation Workshop |
9:00 – 13:00 |
Workshops using visual storytelling inc stop-motion and green screen technology/ Led by Jitske Wadman. Reserved for invited groups |
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Talk-and-tour - Kate Lehane |
9:00 – 10:00 |
(English) This session is for you if you’re curious about: How to get meaningfully involved in research projects as a student What participatory or creative research looks like in practice What kinds of research is possible within the Research Master or Honours College trajectory Registration requested |
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Sterk in Eigen Kracht - A workshop on representation in collaboration with ’s Heeren Loo |
10:00 – 11:00 |
(Dutch) De workshop bestaat uit een korte introductie, drie korte informatiesessies (in een carrouselformaat) en een afsluiting met ruimte voor vragen. Tijdens de workshop werkt u rechtstreeks samen met ervaringsdeskundigen om meer te leren over hun dagelijks leven en uitdagingen. Aansluitend is er gelegenheid om vragen te stellen, te reflecteren en met elkaar in gesprek te gaan.
Registration Required
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Improvisation theatre performance - De Doornvogels |
14:00 – 15:00 |
(Dutch) Unieke improvatietheater voorstelling! Deze voorstelling is speciaal ontwikkeld door 'De Doornvogels', een theatergroep van cliënten vanuit 's Heeren Loo-Noorderbrug, voor onze expositie Stories of This Abled City.
Registration Required
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The making of Sk8Chair – Explore how videogames can challenge assumptions about wheelchair users in urban space and open up new ways of thinking about movement, play, and participation. |
15:30
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(English) During this presentation three CMGT students from Hanze will dive into the creative and technical process of developing a game that focuses on wheelchair users and their presence in urban settings. They will trace their steps taken over one academic year to design an experience that can be enjoyed by many while challenging their perspectives. |
Friday 12 June
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What |
When
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Information
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Animation Workshop |
9:00 – 14.30 |
Workshops using visual storytelling inc stop-motion and green screen technology/ Led by Jitske Wadman. Reserved for invited groups |
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This Abled City-Steampunk Story (boardgame) Play with the maker Julia Munuera Garcia |
9:00 – 10:00 & 12:00 – 13:00 |
(Dutch and English) The board game invites players to reimagine Groningen as an accessible, inclusive steampunk city. It challenges the players to see challenges of inaccessibility and exclusion in everyday spaces, routines and practices. Through everyday stories and participatory design, the game challenges assumptions about mobility, space, and disability. (from 12 years) Walk-in |
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Public transport workshop - Kate Lehane & Suzan Christianse |
15:00 – 17:30 |
Email: c.m.lehane@student.rug.nl (Dutch) De workshop brengt beleidsmakers, (vertegenwoordigers van organisaties voor) mensen met een beperking, en vertegenwoordigers van het openbaar vervoer samen om zich te verdiepen in de alledaagse ervaringen van mensen met een beperking en mobiliteit in Groningen. Deelnemers maken kennis met een interventie die als onderdeel van onderzoek is ontwikkeld en gaan aan de slag met een concreet beleidsvraagstuk. Deze sessie bouwt voort op geleefde ervaring, onderzoeksresultaten en participatieve methoden om de dialoog tussen relevante belanghebbenden op gang te brengen. |
Ongoing Exhibitions
Throughout the three days, visitors can explore a range of permanent exhibition rooms and installations, including:
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Work in Progress: The Inclusive City
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This Abled Heroes (Hanze students will be on location most of the time to explain and play their games)
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Overwhelm
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Urban Soundscapes
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Miscommunication
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Break Out/ Show yourself
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Break Out flags (Atrium)
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Zie je mij (Atrium) (guest feature by Academische Werkplaats EMB Hanze and Stichting PIM)
These exhibitions remain on view throughout the programme unless otherwise noted.
Guided tours are also available on request by approaching members of the team on site. Alternatively, tours can be arranged in advance by contacting Kate Lehane at c.m.lehane student.rug.nl
More Information
Dates & Opening Hours
When: 10–12 June 2026
Opening hours exhibition:
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Wednesday, June 10th: 09.00–17.00. Outdoor programme 13.00-17.00
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Thursday, June 11th: 09.00–17.00
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Friday, June 12th: 09.00-14.30
Location & Accessibility
Location
The exhibition takes place at the House of Connections, Grote Markt 21, Groningen.
More information about the venue:
House of Connections location information
Accessibility
Information about the accessibility of the building can be found here:
Accessibility information – House of Connections
Nearest first aid room (EHBO)
Röling Building
Oude Boteringestraat 18
9712 ER Groningen
Room 0031
Research Creation at the Exhibition
In Stories of This Abled City, we share research through articles, reports or presentations. But not primarily. Instead, our stories take shape through images, books, games, installations and other creative forms that invite people to see, feel and discuss disability differently.
This way of working is sometimes called research-creation: the creative process becomes part of how knowledge is made and shared. Our collaboration with graphic designer Anna Lebedieva has been especially important here. Her work is not an add-on that makes the research look more attractive but actually a part of the research itself. In the collaboration between designer and researchers, ideas, concepts and ways of knowing are translated, questioned and reshaped. Anna helps turn experiences of thresholds, interruption, discomfort and access into visual and spatial stories through typography, layout, materials and visual disruption.
This process also became important in the exhibition space itself. The House of Connections is not a gallery, but a place designed primarily for meetings, workshops and academic exchange. Its materials, furniture and room arrangements reflect those uses and often seem to imagine a non-disabled academic user. This created a productive challenge for the exhibition: how can stories of disability, access and exclusion be narrated through the furniture, walls, screens and meeting-room arrangements already available? Working with rather than against these conditions became part of the exhibition-making process. Accessibility is not just only a theme we present in the exhibition, we also had to negotiate in the space, materials and relationships through which the exhibition comes into being.
RUG & Co. Podcast
The RUG & Co. podcast episode on the (in)accessibility of the city and science provides additional background and deeper insight into the themes of this event. The episode explores topics such as inclusion, accessibility of public space, and participatory research, and discusses practical examples from the This Abled City project.
An invitation to experience the city differently
Stories of This Abled City is not only about identifying barriers. It is also about sharing knowledge, opening up conversation and imagining alternatives. Thorugh our focus on wheelchair users’ stories and combining research with creative and interactive methods, the event offers visitors a chance to engage with accessibility in a way that is concrete, reflective and collaborative.
We warmly invite schools, students, colleagues, professionals, policymakers and other interested visitors to join us in June at the House of Connections in Groningen.
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Stories of This Abled City is organised by the This Abled City team and the Aletta Jacobs Chair, prof. Dr. Bettina van Hoven, in collaboration with the Rudolf Agricola School for Sustainable Development at the University of Groningen, and made possible by the Impact Explorer programme of NWO. |
