How can interabled creatives grow & work together in the arts?

Best practice for celebrating and employing D/deaf/disabled /neurodivergent creatives.

30 March 2026

Our February 2026 Masterclass was a conversation about best practice for celebrating and employing D/deaf/disabled /neurodivergent creatives. As programmers & producers of creative opportunities for children and young people, what do we need to learn about how we can create a mutually beneficial ecosystem in the arts for all children and young people now, as well as future generations? Hosted by Clare Murphy, during this Masterclass we uncovered and discussed best practice as it currently stands.

Reflections from our host, Clare Murphy:

The rain had finally stopped on February 11th when I sat to host the Masterclass: How can interabled creatives grow & work together in the arts? People bumbled in to the Zoom door, mug in hands. As we travelled into the world of interabled arts with Ashling Foat from Haringey Shed, BLINK dance’s Siobhan Wedgeworth & Abdul Sabir, and Esther Miller-Myers & Erin Thorpe from National Youth Theatre (NYT), I realised that we had somehow managed to create a particularly unique cohort of 5 speakers. Each organisation has battled the usual battles on access, but the combination of these three organisations created a powerful road map full of simple everyday practices, methodologies and micro strategies that can actually change the world of the arts to a more inclusive inter-abled place. 

Access can be a daunting term, and many organisations don’t know where to start. There is a fear out there of getting it wrong so why bother? Sabir and Siobhan from BLINK outlined that one of the things that stops people trying to create access in their arts orgs can be to do with expectations, money and time. The expectations and unconscious bias that it will be too hard, the idea that it will cost too much and take too long. Esther and Erin from NYT explained that access is still seen as an idea that is “nice to have” but hard to do and not mandatory. They are fighting on all fronts in terms of changing the law, advocacy and changing their working space to make access something that is easy and available for organisations. NYT benefit from having top-down buy-in within their org but openly claim that they are very much still learning. Ashling from Haringey Shed talked about the importance of connection and time. When you know each other well within an organisation it is easier to support each other, and it is easier to make time to create that support. When considering access to an event, a location or a production, there is always a moment when the fastest route competes with the most accessible route. Each org has a decision to make in that moment, but when the groundwork has been laid in connection, empathy and knowing your team the decision for access becomes much easier.  

We discussed the wins of our organisations, and Haringey Shed, BLINK and NYT all talked about the long individual journeys of many key players. People who began as volunteers, then took on paid artist roles, and then went on to work in organisational roles.  

To support disabled creatives in their roles we must accept that there is no one size fits all strategy. We can normalise asking for support and outlining what support we need as a method for building a stronger interabled workforce in any arts organisation. We can offer trainee positions where new disabled artists can shadow people within the organisation as a way of creating a pipeline for disabled artists to take on bigger roles.

 In the audience was Bee from Mind the Gap, who spoke about how at their organisation they began by gathering everyone together to discuss what kinds of opportunities might be available. This conversation led to a much bigger topic being opened up: intersectionality. Intersectionality was explained as a pie full of lots of different slices regarding what makes up one’s identity such as gender, sexuality, disability, race, ethnicity, class, relationship to money, where one lives. This conversation was the beginning of a map that Mind the Gap created to help disabled creatives figure out the road to a creative life in the arts.

 As ever with these masterclasses, we opened up an idea only to find ten thousand more ideas underneath. Huge thanks to you, our audience and listeners, and all the collective genius you brought to the space. Take a look at the links and resources and see you at the next one.  

Top takeaways
From BLINK Dance:

  • Having the right support in place enables everyone to be their best, creative selves.
  • The ways you make things accessible can be just as creative as the work you are making.
  • Start small - you don’t need to make big changes to have a big impact on accessibility. It also doesn’t need to be perfect first time around!
  • Make time throughout the day to connect with those you are working with, to share what you need and how you are feeling. This could be something like a check-in or check-out, or a shared ritual or game everyone does together.
  • Talk to those you are working with and ask them how they would like to be supported. Everyone’s support needs are as individual as they are - and they may change over time.

From Haringey Shed:

  • Time- To work amongst an inter-able team we must be able to offer each other more connection, get to know each other well and how we all work best together. This is only possible by giving time to each other and when in spaces where we are time pressured it is hard to prioritise this.
  • Universal Design- thinking about all the small changes we make every day in our spaces, who we are offering work to, which jobs we accept for our organisation. Can everyone on your team take part in this job, does access prevent this? Then if so, should we be doing this job or how are we going to redesign the job/ project / brief so that it is accessible to all?

From National Youth Theatre:

  • Access for all – don’t make assumptions about who needs access or what they need. The Curb-Cut effect talks about how the introduction of access for one group (ramps on pavements for wheelchair users) will benefit many other groups (parents using buggies, older people etc). You may not have a case study for who a change will specifically benefit yet, but if you introduce it then the people who need it will begin to access it, which enables you to build new audiences and connections. “Build it and they will come!”
  • Confidence, cost, capacity – these are the three main reasons that stop people creating access for all. People don’t know where to start, don’t have the budget to implement it, and don’t have the time to dedicate to it. By addressing each of these you can build organisational capacity for change; by learning from experts, building access lines into budgets from the beginning, and by ensuring access is a part of everyone’s role and allowing them to create the time and space to implement support from the beginning across all parts of the organisation.
  • Buy in from the top – having authentic buy-in from Executive level allows you to build access in from beginning and make change quickly. Knowing you won’t have to fight your higher ups, that you will have the budget to create changes, and a culture of saying yes to access means you can create change quickly and efficiently. This approach has allowed NYT to create open dialogue with the young people we serve and introduce support and organisational changes quickly and efficiently.
  • Nurture freelancers – in our industry we often work with freelancers or casual staff which can make it hard for change to happen. For the freelancer, they must decide if they want to raise access concerns for a short engagement, which comes with the fears of “causing issues” and jeopardising repeat work. For the organisation, often by the time momentum has been built or requests have passed through layers of sign-off, the freelancer has moved on. By maintaining and continuing relationships outside of these short contracts, you can build in long-term change that will allow you to re-engage and retain disabled talent, as well as prevent lack of access for future employees. It also allows you to learn and develop new practices together, which in turn the freelancer will take onto other employers, and you can introduce to future staff. Together this can create ripples of change throughout the industry.
  • All small wins are big wins – A small adjustment for one person might be very easy, simple, or quick to implement, but the effect on that person can be enormous, as well as anyone who comes after them. The compounding impact of these changes can have years of impact. For example, we may offer a young person an accessible drama club in their school, which leads to them attending an Accessible Audition. From that they take part in projects and shows, before enrolling on a long-term course. In that course they access Inclusive Facilitator Training, and you can now hire them to run workshops and auditions in the future. That one change, offering an accessible version of something you already provide, has enabled that young person to be engaged with you for years, build networks, skills and experience, and eventually access meaningful paid employment; through which they will benefit future generations of young people.

Resources:

Moving forward: suggested actions to take after this Masterclass:

  • At your next meeting or rehearsal, use BLINK Dance’s traffic lights system to reflect on how you are feeling and share what support you may need. Green means you feel good and can take on more work, yellow means you’re okay but you can’t take on anything else, and red means you need support and to hand over some work.
  • Ask likeminded organisations when you need help or have a challenge, share resources and don’t feel like you have to start everything from scratch. Together we can make more accessible working space for all types of facilitators and artists.
  • Become a positive role model – no matter your role, you can start to model accessible practice. This might be adding access information to your email signature (i.e. let me know if you would prefer this information by phone call, I may take up to 3 days to reply, I email outside of work-hours but don’t expect you to reply until your work hours), to introducing access needs during team check in’s or simply asking ‘what do you need to do your best work today’. At NYT, our speakers Erin and Esther work together as an inter-abled team where support flows back and forth, with the understanding and patience that we all have different needs on different days. By creating this open environment and set touch points, everyone can feel more confident sharing what they need. Once you have this open sharing environment, then you can work together to implement changes and strategies needed to ensure you can work together to create your best work.

PREVIOUS POST