Below is a short list of some publications and reports that you might find useful in understanding the arts and disability in Australia.
In October 2009 the Cultural Ministers Council released the National Arts and Disability Strategy, a vision for improving access and participation in the artistic and cultural activities for Deaf and Disabled people.
The Strategy is the result of extensive consultation with arts and disability peak bodies, and consultation with government agencies at all levels. The Strategy provides a framework to assess and improve existing activities. It also identifies new priority projects that could be progressed as national initiatives or by individual states and territories. The Cultural Ministers Council was established in the mid-1980s and brings together government ministers from Australia and New Zealand to collaborate on developing Australia’s arts and cultural sector.
The National Arts and Disability Strategy is available at the Cultural Ministers Council website.
In March 2008, the Victorian Office for Disability in partnership with Arts Victoria and Disability Services Division commenced a research project to examine ways to increase the participation of people with a disability in the arts as artists and as audience members.
‘Picture This: Increasing the cultural participation of people with a disability in Victoria’ details findings of the research and paint a picture of the arts and disability landscape within Victoria, nationally and internationally.
These reports provide a unique snapshot of a dynamic and burgeoning Victorian arts and disability sector, and also identify some of the barriers that we need to continue to work to remove. They offer ideas, suggestions and possible strategies for increasing the cultural participation of Deaf and Disabled people, relevant to both government and community.
The full report and an Easy English version are available at the Creative Victoria website.
Creative Victoria’s Disability Action Plan ‘Access All Areas: Disability Action Planning in the Arts’ is a key resource for organisations that are seeking to develop their own disability action plans.
Access All Areas also outlines the policy framework for the Creative Victoria Disability Action Plan, lists the core components of the plan and demonstrates how the aims of the policy will be achieved.
‘Access All Areas’ is available at the Creative Victoria website.
‘Making the Journey’ is about arts activities and Deaf and Disabled people. It offers 12 case studies as examples of approaches, issues and achievements in the Australian field of art and disability in recent years.
The case studies in ’Making the Journey’ show initiatives from the arts, health and education sectors and responses by cultural organisations that remove barriers to participation. A theme across all of the examples is the leadership of artists, audience members and disabled advocates.
‘Making the Journey‘ is available from the Arts Access Australia website.
The Disability Fact Pack examines the legal and moral obligations for arts organisations in providing access to the arts and cultural activities for people with disability.
Deaf and Disabled people are entitled to the same rights and the same opportunities as all other Australian citizens. However, our society currently falls well short of realising this ideal. People are still subjected to discrimination purely on the basis of disability – discrimination, which is socially damaging, morally unacceptable and a cost to the whole community.
The Disability Fact Pack is available from the Arts Access Australia website
Print it out and put it on your wall! The poster incorporates important dimensions relevant to accessibility in a way that’s clear to see.
In 1981 a poster titled “Access for disabled persons” was produced to commemorate the International Year of Disabled Persons (IYDP).
A revised edition of the poster, titled Access for All, has been produced by the Australian Institute of Architects National Access Work Group to commemorate the 30th anniversary of IYDP and the commencement of the Premises Standards 2010. The new poster incorporates most of the current dimensions relevant to accessibility and can be downloaded for printing at the optimum A2 size or minimum A3 size.
Download the Access for All poster
