Disabled Arts

By Max Zadow

Socially and economically, one of the most deprived groups in British society are what is collectively termed the ‘disabled’. In terms of standards of living, unemployment rates, annual incomes and all the other measurements of full participation in the goods of our culture, Disabled people on average come off badly on all these criteria. In terms of their participation in the arts and media, these grim realities listed above are merely exacerbated. Disabled T.V presenter/comic/filmmaker Matt Fraser once said that in terms of disabled representation in the mass media, nothing much had changed since he was a kid in the sense that the only disabled character to feature regularly on our screens was that of Ironside.

Being a disabled media worker myself, I saw first hand how badly off disabled people were in terms of opportunities for training, work experience and job prospects within the mass media and arts. This is by the way, as true as for the B.B.C where I worked in London for two years, as it was for many ‘community initiatives’ in colleges and arts institutions. Disabled people represent a very real, but very undervalued community, and it was with this in mind that myself and other disabled individuals set up Digital Production for Disabled People or DP2. Completely disabled led, which is of much importance in terms of having the necessary appreciation of the diverse needs of disabled people, DP2 have so far been involved in the past two DaDafests in Merseyside (a festival organised by the excellent and disabled led North West Disability Arts Forum to celebrate disabled people in the arts) and contributed a short film towards the Biennial.
2003 is the European year of the Disabled and it is paramount that disabled artists and arts groups take advantage of the publicity surrounding this to try to increase their profile to show to the arts world that we are more than capable of producing great projects and can contribute massively to the culture of the nation. All we need is for people to put aside their prejudices and give us the same chance that others receive automatically. We don’t want sympathy. We just want what others take for granted.

DP2 are organising film workshops for June and a day in Liverpool devoted to the problems and barriers that disabled artists/media workers face getting noticed. It’s provisional title is Disabled People Can Be Luvvies Too.

If you want to get involved, email us on digidis@graffti.net