2. Key actions for organisations to increase disability access

Disabled people are still excluded from museums and galleries and the exhibitions they programme and tour, because of inaccessibility, persistent ableism, and lack of knowledge, confidence and experience in making things accessible. Change is needed. But how do organisations know what change to make?

Here are a few key actions, followed by the practical implementation of two areas.

The key actions are:

• Embrace diversity at the gatekeeping and leadership level: the board and senior mangers
• Commit to examining how your work may be perpetuating exclusion through unwitting structural ableism – accept that this is not your fault
• Embrace a cultural shift to proactively address accessibility by removing barriers
• Find ways to collaborate with disabled people in decision-making, planning, management and evaluation and not just as audience or participants
• Develop an Action Plan and have dedicated staff or staff remits and budgets attached
• Identify the in-house information, training and capacity-building you need to continue the work
• Integrate work by disabled artists and curators by programming and making it more visible
• Integrate accessibility in the design and presentation of exhibitions and events
• Where you do not know, find people to ask such as specialist organisations

One of the most important demands of the Disability Rights Movement is “nothing about us without us”. There cannot be impactful change without meaningful, funded, valued, and ongoing disabled leadership. Furthermore, human rights legislation such as the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities states that state-funded organisations must closely consult with and actively involve disabled people and their representative organisations in the decision-making processes concerning issues relating to disabled people^[1].

From our list of top tips above the following four points link into this key theme of making impactful change. Read on for more information, top tips and resources.

Employ disabled people and embrace diversity at the gatekeeping level

All aspects and areas of your work need to incorporate disabled leadership. Arts Council England’s most recent Equality, Diversity and Inclusion review found that only 12% of the workforce identified as disabled in 2022/23. ^[2] This compares with 22% of the working age population according to the ONS. Disabled people are underrepresented in cultural sector jobs; there are few accessible career paths or training routes. One step you can take is being explicit about the importance of recruiting disabled people to your organisation by, for example, explicitly stating this in job adverts and policy documents.

As well as recruiting more disabled people it is also important to identify and support the disabled people you already work with. Identification could be through equalities monitoring but be aware that not all disabled people will openly identify as disabled. This can be for lots of reasons, including experiences of discrimination. This is why it is important to make it clear that anyone who needs to can request reasonable adjustments without having to openly identify as disabled.

Supporting disabled staff includes making reasonable adjustments and regularly reviewing these to make sure that they are enabling people to do their best work. The cost of this could be met through the government’s Access to Work scheme.

It should never be the default expectation that disabled staff members must do the work of educating others: that is the responsibility of all staff. But, evidence shows that having disabled staff members can raise awareness of specific issues and open up internal conversations, leading to more inclusive practices.

‘Gatekeepers’, including curators, producers, and programmers, have a key role in enabling accessibility and avoiding exclusion. More attention should be paid to their practices, as well as to ensuring that gatekeepers become more diverse internally, ultimately more resembling the population. It matters that disabled people are not just represented in your staff, but also that they are represented at senior levels so that power structures change.

^[1] https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/convention-rights-persons-disabilities

^[2] https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/research-and-data/diversity-data/equality-diversity-and-inclusion-review-2018-23

Disabled people are not consistently in positions of leadership or decision making – they do not have a place at the table.

In line with the ‘nothing about us without us’ principle, it is essential to engage and consult with disabled people in the design and implementation of programmes and projects that aim to address them or foster their attendance. Ideally disabled people should collaborate with you in all of your work from governance through to delivery. They should be paid or offered something of value in exchange for this work to ensure disabled people are not being exploited.  See Section 6 ‘How to collaborate with disabled people’.

Although in the long term all venues and events should be inclusive and provide accessibility to disabled audiences, artists, and staff, organisations specialising in accessibility and in working with disabled people are important facilitators as partners of mainstream venues. Therefore, establishing partnerships between mainstream venues and cultural organisations is a central area of work for organisations advancing work on arts and disability. It is important to value these organisations’ expertise and build long term collaborations with them where possible, instead of stop-start interventions.

In the case of exhibition venues and organisations, mutual knowledge and networking between companies involving disabled artists and curators and those comprising non-disabled artists and curators can be a positive step towards understanding disabled workers needs, more visibility of disabled workers, and potential collaboration opportunities.

There is a persistent lack of cultural presence for disabled people. Integrating work by disabled artists and curators into UK exhibition programming is essential to addressing this ongoing lack. Although the sector has made strides toward inclusivity, disabled practitioners remain underrepresented in both creative and decision-making roles. Actively commissioning disabled artists, collaborating with disabled curators, and embedding accessibility into the curatorial process – not as an add-on but as a core value – helps shift this imbalance. By making disabled-led work more visible across galleries, museums, and public programmes, the exhibitions sector can challenge entrenched barriers, broaden its audiences, and better reflect the full spectrum of cultural experience in the UK.