Radically Accessible Shakespeare: Cripping the Digital Shakespeare Canon through Universal Design and Disability Studies

The internet has vastly expanded access to Shakespeare resources, as well as the range of materials included in the Shakespeare canon. Online Shakespeare resources often focus on making Shakespeare more accessible to educators, students, and general audiences. Accessibility for people with disabilities, however, is not often mentioned. This article argues for making Shakespeare resources radically accessible and inclusive by incorporating both Universal Design approaches and Disability Studies perspectives. This dual approach emphasizes the importance of accessible technologies and the necessity of incorporating Disability Studies theories and methods, including contributions of Deaf and disabled artists and scholars and critical analyses of cultural representations of disability. While the overrepresentation of Shakespeare in digital space is problematic, the massive scope of Shakespeare’s online presence provides opportunities for radically transforming, or cripping, the digital canon. Cripping the digital Shakespeare canon involves centering accessibility, incorporating anti-ableist content, and promoting new methods of engaging with Shakespeare and digital spaces. Due to Shakespeare’s outsized presence, cripping the digital Shakespeare canon provides a significant avenue for advancing the accessibility and inclusivity of digital resources generally.