Sick in Quarters (SIQ) is a network of disabled and chronically ill artists and activists, connected to each other and working in collaboration through the internet. Because of our own struggles with self-advocacy, we recognize a need for information that has not been easily shared within our own histories of navigating illness inside bureaucratic systems. Through curating a library of knowledge based on lived experience, in addition to community-building workshops, we seek to empower our comrades and peers with a greater sense of agency while navigating the path of their own care and treatment.

Historically, disability has been the exclusive domain of the biological, social, and cognitive arenas that shape practice in education, rehabilitative medicine, and social work. But people with disabilities never seem to be included in the normative order of things.

There remains much to be learned about understanding disability as part of the larger human experience. Policies and practices that have a direct impact on the material reality of living with disability are rarely examined by society. People with disabilities know that the fundamental issue is not one of an individual’s inabilities or limitations, but rather a hostile unadaptive society.

Sick in Quarters prioritizes the perspectives and voices of intersectionally-marginalized disabled, chronically ill, mentally ill, and neurodivergent people to make navigating disability less solitary, less daunting, and a more informed endeavor — where individuals can feel empowered and supported by community.