Tools on inclusion in art and arts education

Published 9 months ago

two people dancing against a dark background

What are the obstacles that prevent disabled people from accessing high-quality arts education and sustaining an artistic practice?

How can arts organisations and educators support them and create free spaces for them to become autonomous citizens and artists?

From 2017 to 2019, we were partners of CIAE (Creative Inclusion in Adult Education), a 2-year Erasmus+ project on improving access to arts education for people with disabilities. This project created several tools designed for users with and without disabilities:

- The Inclusive Arts website. Available in English, French, and Italian, and designed for users with and without disabilities (easy-read). The website collects existing tools, stories, and legal information on cultural and access rights for disabled people.

- The CIAE toolkit for arts organisations and art educators on how to support the inclusion of adults with disabilities (the toolkit also exists in an easy-read version for people with intellectual disabilities).

You can also consult the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which explicitly recognises the rights of disabled people to access lifelong learning, use their creative potential, and fully participate in cultural life.

Lastly, on October 14th-15th, 2020, we held an online conference, The Art of Inclusion, co-organised with the Cope Foundation and the European Association of Service Providers for Persons with Disabilities (EASPD). Here you'll find the recording of the panel discussion, the speakers' presentations, and videos, articles and websites shared by the panelists, or you can access the report of this conference.