For years, the arts in the UK have made diversity a priority and, gradually, this is paying off. On stage, audiences are used to black actors taking on roles in Shakespeare plays; gender-blind casting is gaining ground; black and minority ethnic leaders are slowly being appointed to major roles – such as, recently, Kwame Kwei-Armah at the Young Vic and Madani Younis at the Southbank Centre, both in London. But there is one area in which change has been all but imperceptible: disability. Britain’s Got Talent – and its last winner, the comedian Lost Voice Guy – has done more for the popular standing of artists with disabilities in Britain than any of its publicly funded cultural organisations.
Despite the revolution in visibility for people with disabilities brought about by the 2012 Paralympics – a moment of celebration that may in fact have contributed to the false impression that attitudes to disability had somehow been “fixed” – the picture in the arts is depressing. While 20% of the working-age population as a whole identify as disabled, the figure for those working in the arts in England is a mere 4%, in Wales 3% and in Scotland and Northern Ireland, 2%. There are almost certainly more disabled people working in the arts who have chosen not to declare themselves, which in itself rings alarm bells.
Directors and trustees of arts organisations – those who can make change at the top by appointing leaders – are overwhelmingly able-bodied. This makes it depressing, but not necessarily a surprise, that not a single publicly funded arts body is run by a disabled person, except for those organisations with a specific disability arts focus. And that is just the staff: access for disabled audience members to culture, from museums and galleries to theatres and concert halls, can be terrible, leading to miserable experiences (or simply no possibility of access at all), especially for those who use wheelchairs. The Edinburgh fringe is a particular culprit – understandable to an extent from young companies working on a shoestring, but not from huge commercial promoters who have the resources to do better.
There is also a lack of understanding of the needs of those with disabilities among those who work in the arts, which can lead to some embarrassing, hurtful and cruel episodes – such as when a young woman with Asperger’s was ejected from a BFI screening this spring (for which the organisation has since apologised).
This has to change, and the government is to be commended for appointing a disability champion for arts and culture to address these problems. There are a number of simple measures that could help. For instance, the UK-wide adoption of the kind of disability charter that Northern Ireland has used for the past 20 years, which enshrines the rights of audience members and lays out best practice for employers. Bodies such as the Heritage Lottery Fund should consider targeted grants to make venues – and, importantly, their offices – accessible to disabled people. There is much that could, and should, be done to make training, apprenticeships and arts-focused higher education more available to people with disabilities. An “arts access card” would ease the problems that disabled people often encounter when attempting to book tickets – something Wales is already doing with its Hynt card. The UK’s arts organisations pride themselves on their openness, fairness and visionary thinking. Now is the time to act on those principles.
