Principles of an Access-Centered Art Practice | In Progress

Over the last 2 years, the SDA co-founders have been exploring Disability Justice, disability culture, and accessibility practices through the lens of the Arts. As Disabled artists ourselves, we believe that we have a responsibility to create equitable and inclusive spaces for our creative community and our audience of art-lovers. We also passionately feel that an access-centered art practice enriches our artwork and our relationship to fellow artists, arts workers, and audiences.

This list of "Principles of an Access-Centered Art Practice" is deeply inspired by both the Principles of Universal Design and Sins Invalid's 10 Principles of Disability Justice. These principles aim to go beyond just a "checkbox list" approach to accessibility and instead provide artists with a framework that can accommodate many different circumstances, communities, and environments.

We view this as the first draft of these principles - they are a work in progress. They will always be a work in progress. We look forward to refining these principles, as we continue our engagement with disability culture and Disabled artists,

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Principles of an Access-Centered Art Practice

Access centers the thoughts, first-hand experiences and needs of Disabled people

• Creative approaches to accessibility features should first and foremost serve the needs of those who require them in order to engage with your artwork.

• Let Disabled artist and arts workers lead the conversation around Disability experiences, disability culture and access needs within the arts

Disability Justice must be intersectional

• Prioritize working with arts organizations that are Anti-Capitalist, Anti-Racist and Anti-Colonial

• Create and participate in projects and exhibition that have free admission or low cost opportunities for participation and engagement

• Remember that your value and the value of your fellow artists is not determined by an ability to produce or perform within traditionally expected timeframes or environments

Make space for Disabled people in your creative community

• Access to community and flexible support

• Practice and foster reciprocity within your creative community

• Transparency + Resource sharing

Embrace art-making that is iterative and interdependent

• Incorporate Universal Design for Learning (UDL) frameworks as a foundation

• Embrace multimodal and multisensory artwork, through the creation of creative accessibility “accompaniments”

• Create multiple ways of engagement with your artworks (such as in-person and virtual exhibitions with visual and audio components

• If you need assistance, collaborate with other artists to create interactive artworks that function as accessibility features

• Remember that access is a process

Hold Arts institutions and galleries accountable

• Require that galleries and arts institutions include accessibility features along with your work

• Work with arts organizations to make their art exhibitions and programming available to people of all socioeconomic backgrounds

Provide equitable and flexible engagement opportunities

• Create artwork (exhibition, performance, etc.) that can be experienced by people with diverse abilities and socioeconomic backgrounds

• Ensure that your artwork, exhibition, performance or program accommodates a wide range of individual preferences and abilities.

• Consider multiple ways of engagement as a foundational part of art making, curation, and/or management

• Provide the same means of experience for all: identical whenever possible; equivalent when not.

• Avoid segregating or stigmatizing any visitor / viewer

• Provide adaptability to the viewers / participants’ pace of engagement

Create simple and intuitive art statements, project instructions, and exhibition guides

• Aim for your language to be easy to understand, regardless of the user's experience, knowledge, language skills, or current concentration level.

• Eliminate unnecessary complexity in the language your artistic and/or program statements

• Be consistent with viewer / participant expectations and intuition.

• Accommodate a wide range of literacy and language skills in your exhibition guides