Accessible Theater: How Disability-Led Arts Can Guide Us Towards a Brighter Future
Mentor 1
Ralph Janes
Start Date
28-4-2023 12:00 AM
Description
For millennia, theater has been a manifestation of humanity’s ability to create, learn, and empathize. Unfortunately, in many places, access to theater has become a luxury that not all could afford. Privilege was (and still is) a prerequisite to theater, specifically in financial status, education levels, and physical abilities. As a discriminatory consequence, inaccessibility has become a predictable guest in artistic spaces. Change has been ignited largely in part by those who need it, but the work towards accessibility needs to be a collective effort. This research project intends to lend perspective to the myriad of ways people need and deserve to experience theater. Passionate organizations, individuals, and communities who experience exclusion are the source of this research. Marie Helser and Ralph Janes are both able-bodied, hearing, white individuals who want to work towards inclusion. Our research provides an embryonic insight to how we can improve accessibility and we encourage you to seek out more on your own. We recognize our privilege in this process and emphasize the work done by intersectional resources that have helped carry this project.
Accessible Theater: How Disability-Led Arts Can Guide Us Towards a Brighter Future
For millennia, theater has been a manifestation of humanity’s ability to create, learn, and empathize. Unfortunately, in many places, access to theater has become a luxury that not all could afford. Privilege was (and still is) a prerequisite to theater, specifically in financial status, education levels, and physical abilities. As a discriminatory consequence, inaccessibility has become a predictable guest in artistic spaces. Change has been ignited largely in part by those who need it, but the work towards accessibility needs to be a collective effort. This research project intends to lend perspective to the myriad of ways people need and deserve to experience theater. Passionate organizations, individuals, and communities who experience exclusion are the source of this research. Marie Helser and Ralph Janes are both able-bodied, hearing, white individuals who want to work towards inclusion. Our research provides an embryonic insight to how we can improve accessibility and we encourage you to seek out more on your own. We recognize our privilege in this process and emphasize the work done by intersectional resources that have helped carry this project.
