Edinburgh Napier University

  This paper reflects upon the critical intent of an inter-lingual and inter-modal heritage research project that brought together Scotland’s heritage professionals and Deaf activists. We describe how the collaborative methods of critical design facilitated counter-narratives, which performatively instituted the Deaf Heritage Collective as a space, where conflicting ideas surrounding disability, inclusion and heritage could be debated. We argue that a critical design approach extends the capacity of critical heritage to represent and interpret dissensus. In so-doing, the paper tests some of the claims of both critical heritage and critical design against Marchant’s (2019) curatorial antagonism, which insists upon the importance of designing a counter-position within museum and heritage spaces. We argue that when combined, critical design and critical heritage enable a counter-position apt for exploring excluded communities and minority cultural heritage.