Barriers and Facilitators to Cultural Participation by People with Disabilities: A Narrative Literature Review

Abstract

Article 30 of the UN Convention on the rights of Persons with Disabilities obliges States Parties to ensure accessibility of cultural goods, services and heritage and to adopt measures enabling persons with disabilities to utilize their artistic potential. However, people with disabilities experience barriers to engagement in cultural life as audiences and as creators. This article presents a narrative literature review that classifies barriers and facilitators to cultural participation identified in previous studies. It does so under five headings: (1) lack of effective/adequate legislation, policies and legal standards; (2) lack of funding and/or of adequate services; (3) negative attitudes; (4) lack of accessibility; (5) lack of consultation with, and involvement of, persons with disabilities in cultural organisations. This provides a novel contribution to the state of art by synthesising findings from different yet related fields. It forms the basis for future multi-method research addressing barriers to participation in culture.

The Role of the European Union in Ensuring Accessibility of Cultural Goods and Services: All About that … Internal Market?

“…They do seem to implicitly recognise that physical accessibility of cultural buildings, as other public spaces, has not been achieved and is still patchy across the Member States. 68 They (although limitedly) hint to the lack of cultural products and services in accessible formats. The Strategy 2021-2023 also succinctly highlights that stigma and stereotypes still hampers cultural participation of people with disabilities.…”

Attending live music events with a visual impairment: experiences, accessibility and recommendations for the future

“…There also remains a lack of disaggregated data within the cultural sector relating to specific cohorts of persons with disabilities (Leahy and Ferri, 2022). Within the context of live music event attendance, for example, the experiences of individuals with visual impairment (VI) have largely been overlooked.…”