Dear Colleagues,
We are writing to request you join with us to express our concern, along with our solidarity and support, of disabled artists and cultural practitioners who are potentially facing serious challenges and disadvantage due to the recent announcement of the proposals by the government in their “Pathways to Work” Green Paper.
Many other cultural organisations have come together to create this open letter which we encourage you to sign: https://airtable.com/appSbdVCnzZyRIXJW/pagSDpACTNJP2rtrX/form
You may also have seen statements from organisations like Touretteshero and Graeae raising very serious concerns around Access to Work and other cuts to essential support for disabled artists and workers.
For those of you who don’t know, Access to Work is a funding programme run by The Department for Work and Pensions that subsidises the cost of access measures when employing a disabled person, or when someone is working as self-employed. Many of us recognise improvements can always be made, but it is vital in providing the additional financial assistance that can make the difference between deaf, disabled and neurodivergent people being able to work or not.
Screen South, through our Accentuate programme has successful run two work placement projects, Curating for Change and Curating Visibility, breaking new ground for deaf, disabled and neurodivergent people forging a curatorial career in the museum sector. We have regularly spoken about and given guidance on how organisations can remove barriers in the workplace, and provide more equitable conditions that will nurture talent to enable sustainable careers. https://curatingforchange.org/resources/curating-for-change-action-plans/
We believe it isn’t only the right thing to encourage access and equity within the cultural sector – it’s also critical for the survival of the cultural sector. Deaf, disabled and neurodivergent creatives are vital contributors to our rich cultural ecology, bringing unique perspectives, experiences and knowledge which our cultural organisations need in order to remain relevant and resilient.
We have been able to demonstrate the benefit for museums in working with our Fellows, but our Fellows have also relied on the additional financial support from Access to Work to ensure they have been adequately resourced whilst on placement within our partner museums. We are making strides in this sector, but without the support of Access to Work we are in real danger of organisations not being able to cover these additional access costs, and ultimately we are likely to see a drop in the employment rates of disabled people. This will lead to the whole sector being poorer.
The open letter in the link above suggests a number of positive measures that will encourage the government to think again, so please do consider lending your support.
With kind regards
Jo Nolan and Esther Fox
