In their mission to create cross-disability community gatherings, the artists create new forms for accessibility as part of that process. “Traditionally, the way access is framed is as something that has to do with getting access to something,” says Lazard. “It accepts the world and its constructedness as a given, and then that there is a requirement for disabled folks to participate.” Expanding this framing, the collective creates gatherings that embrace access as a social reality. Their 2023 and 2024 Summer Solstice events at Performance Space in New York City took place in both virtual and physical space, prioritizing interactive hybrid events that share stages and audiences across physical and digital spaces. The 2024 Summer Solstice included performances from the Crip Movement Lab and People Who Stutter Create, and offered a wide range of access modes: American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation for both staged performances and community conversation, Deaf priority haptic seating that sent sound as tactile vibration, Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) captioning on Zoom and on-screen at the event, Audio Description (AD), Image Description (ID), creative sound description, and a low-stimulation sensory room designed for and by autistic artist community members. IWBWYE’s solstice events represent multi-directional hybrid access practices that allow for meaningful connection in disabled communities both socially and emotionally.

At the Whitney Museum of American Art, IWBWYE  organized a “Touch Tour” of the 2024 Whitney Biennial, inviting participants to experience a selection of the works on view through touch. “Touch is at least one way of being together and being with the art, and it decenters the ways that institutions think about art being experienced,” says Sheppard. “They think about art as being consumed by sight, what if it’s experienced by touch?” Through their work, IWBWYE pushes back against systems that individuate and isolate us and construct a new world with expansive possibilities for togetherness. Understanding that debility and access are connected to multiple aspects of identity and experience, the collective works to collaborate across lived barriers and gather diverse artists, writers, and activists in cross-disability spaces. Their focus on collectivity and conviviality carries the legacy of their previous festivals, workshops, gatherings, and livestreamed documentation into the future with accountability to their communities’ current and future dreams.