'Research in the field of disability arts to date has understandably focused on the right to education, employment, self-representation, and the right to access the arts industry afforded under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD Article 30). Achieving universal access requires a move beyond the medical model, which casts disability as a cognitive or corporeal deficit, to be cured, accommodated, assimilated and/or tolerated in mainstream society. Mainstream arts production models need to embrace d/Deaf and disabled artists as a cultural group with shared identities, beliefs, behaviours and discourses, based on a shared experience of social oppression, and a shared desire to tell stories in their own way and on their own terms. Non-disabled policy-makers, managers, administrators, directors, playwrights and colleagues can play a pivotal role in supporting d/Deaf and disabled artists and arts workers to exercise their right to participate in a range of roles the arts industry.' (Publication abstract)
