Arts and Disability

Led by disability studies scholars and disability activists, a movement is underway to hold arts institutions accountable for the lack of accessible programming and accommodations for people with disabilities. Twenty-eight years after the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Bay Area, a major hub for both arts and culture as well as the disability rights movement, still has many museums that have done the bare minimum (or less) to welcome in patrons with disabilities, and funding to support access is rare.

From American Academy of Poets:

36 pages, February 2013. National Endowment for the Arts, 1100 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, D.C., 20506. (202) 682-5400. http://arts.gov/

Download:

116 pages, May 2012. Partners for Livable Communities, 1429 21st Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20036, (202) 887-5990 www.livable.org.

Download:

   Stories for Change (2.5Mb)

2007, 246 pages. The New Press, 38 Greene St., NY, NY, 10013, (212) 629-8802, www.thenewpress.com

May 29, 1998, 116 pages, Theater By The Blind (TBTB), 306 West 18th Street, New York, New York 10011, 212-243-4337, ashiotis[at]panix.com

Walking to my office in the financial district of San Francisco, I was stopped by a man who asked me if I remembered him. The man, Rick Hood, reminded me we were both students at Harkness Ballet in New York. We had not seen each other in more than thirty years.

At lunch a few weeks later we reminisced about the early days. Those were heady times for my twenty-year old self. I had arrived from Chicago and was in David Howard's class alongside Gelsey Kirkland. Once doing jumps, she landed badly and had to be carried out. Of course the class continued...

Through the ages artists with disabilities have been important to our history and culture. Beethoven was deaf, Van Gogh was mentally ill, El Greco was visually impaired. For the most part we do not associate them with their disability. We celebrate their lives for the gifts of music and art that they left in our midst.

The Americans with Disabilities Act has been an important piece of legislation, opening doors to opportunities and enabling people with disabilities to gain access to employment, homes and quality of life. Since the passing of the ADA in 1990, the National Endowment for the Arts has been holding conferences with regional arts organizations to encourage access to the arts.

I have been an artist and arts administrator for over thirty years. Now that I'm on the other side of what painter Chuck Close calls "temporarily abled," I find my own profession not very accommodating. Unexpectedly,five years ago I was partially paralyzed from complications of surgery.

Museums seem to be the most problematic. My gallery visits are based on stamina, not driven by content. Are comfortable benches so contrary to the enjoyment of art? Group tours leave me behind: I often catch up just as the docent is leading the group on to the next room.