AustLit

'Research in the field of disability arts to date has understandably focused on the right to education, employment, self-representation, and the right to access the arts industry afforded under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD Article 30). Achieving universal access requires a move beyond the medical model, which casts disability as a cognitive or corporeal deficit, to be cured, accommodated, assimilated and/or tolerated in mainstream society. Mainstream arts production models need to embrace d/Deaf and disabled artists as a cultural group with shared identities, beliefs, behaviours and discourses, based on a shared experience of social oppression, and a shared desire to tell stories in their own way and on their own terms. Non-disabled policy-makers, managers, administrators, directors, playwrights and colleagues can play a pivotal role in supporting d/Deaf and disabled artists and arts workers to exercise their right to participate in a range of roles the arts industry.' (Publication abstract)

'In Australia, disabled people's participation in the arts has historically been afforded by means of direct-to-organisation grants that arts, community services or disability services arms of government award to arts organisations, charities or disability service organisations, who then deliver programmes. The introduction of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) is creating wide-reaching changes for disability arts practice in Australia. We undertake a first step in addressing the need for research into how the NDIS will alter the landscape of disability arts practice in Australia. We highlight a set of questions that all performing and creative arts industry stakeholders will need to respond to, in order to ensure that the excellent work done in disability arts in Australia to date can continue in the new climate that the NDIS brings.'  (Publication abstract)

'In this paper, I use an ecologies approach to present reflections on the history of disability and deaf theatre in Australia, in light of the distinctive local policy, industry, and production frameworks that have supported or failed to support its development in particular directions. After tracing and categorising developments in the field to date, I signal specific policy changes in the local landscape and specific impacts these policy changes could have on the way we conceive, categorise, and fund different types of disability theatre in Australia in the years to come.'

Source: Abstract.

'In this article, we consider the work of Blue Roo Theatre Company, a Brisbane-based theatre company which 'creates contemporary performances led by the artistry, experiences and imaginations of an ensemble of artists with diverse ability and impairment' (Blue Roo Theatre Company). Writing from a dual insider-outsider perspective - as a scholar of disability theatre and a creator of disability theatre in conversation - we discuss the work done in the training and rehearsal room in the lead up to the company's performances, and the way it creates a distinctive performance style, poetics, stage presence, pleasure for the spectators who come along to witness the results of the work, and sense of community. We document moments in which facilitators, collaborators, co-creating artists, audiences and the media alike feel the physical, psychological, and aesthetic focus and force of voice. Movement and character are made to work by people with disabilities. In doing so, we provide insights into the Blue Roo Theatre Company's processes, and the aesthetic results it produces, and the way it contributes to a growing body of commentary around disability theatre and performance.' (Publication abstract)