The Darkroom:

The darkroom is another element in a truly complete photography classroom. Here, students can enlarge their film and make prints for assignments and themselves. Without the darkroom, their is no sense of completion in a project.

Many of the challenges in mobility and accessibility faced in the darkroom are parallel/similar to those of the developing sink and classroom. Students stand at their enlarger station and expose their photographic paper to the film. After the exposure, students walk to the sink with a chemical array in the center of the darkroom. I have provided a labelled image of our darkroom below:

Is this an accessible darkroom for someone with mobility disabilities? As of now it is not, but it can be adapted to accommodate. The space between the stations and the sink is ample for almost any wheel chair, as is the entrance and passage way to the darkroom itself. Here, the major challenges are, much like the developing sink, the height of the sink, the counters, the enlarger stations, and the storage shelf. The enlargers themselves present another challenge, but will be discussed in detail in a later entry.

Again a few options come to mind, some which I would recommend against:

• Buddy Printing: Unlike the developing sink, where "buddy developing" would theoretically still give the student with a disability responsibility and autonomy, enlarging requires personal attention from the student him/herself. When making enlargements, students make subjective decisions on contrast, size, print-quality and cropping. Although a student could state their desired outcome, it would ultimately take time away from a peer and relieve the other of responsibility. An exemption would be a situation where the student would do the enlarging and receive aid in the processing of the print.
• Customizing the sink/counters: The sink could be accessible to someone in a wheelchair if lowered 12 inches. The counters are actually already at desk height, but the space below is utilized for storage of chemicals and other darkroom necessities. These spaces below could cleared out in a few enlarger stations to accommodate for a wheelchair to roll into, giving access to all students.
• Auxiliary enlarger station and developing station: Again, one can accommodate for a student in a wheelchair or otherwise disabled in mobility by creating an additional station and sink array. The chemicals can be placed almost anywhere, as they are placed within trays. A wheelchair accessible sink array is definitely ideal, such as this one made by Richards of Hull:Installing a sink like this in addition to or in replacement of the existing, taller sink would eliminate the inaccessibility. The same sink could alleviate the issue for the developing area as well!
• Lowering storage: Some tools and supplies are kept beyond the reach of someone in a wheelchair, a few of each tool and supply could be kept in a lower storage area, as these areas are readily available and would require little work.

While it appears our darkroom may not have been designed completely with universal access in mind, it provides ample space and room for customization. Given time (and funding), this darkroom could easily be accessible to almost any student.

Why not skip the darkroom and use a computer? Mark Peterson, co-author of Access to Photography: Making Photography Accessible to Persons with Exceptional Educational Needs, discusses why the darkroom is an essential element of a photography course:

"It is certainly possible to take great pictures without practice in the darkroom, and it surely is convenient to let someone else do the developing, but it may not allow you to be the best photographer that is possible for you" (Peterson, 45-46)

Peterson's chapter discusses how to setup a darkroom almost anywhere and guarantee access to all. His article was published in 1989– a time before the digital revolution, but at the dawn of 1-hour photo labs. The same reasoning applies; students could take a shortcut to the computer, but they would lose the valuable experience of the darkroom that could help them grow to becoming great photographers.