Project Overview and Work Packages

WP1 – Experiential

Identifies features of cultural participation experienced as exclusionary by people with disabilities.

WP1 combines qualitative and arts-based research to advance greater understanding of the facilitators and barriers faced by people with disabilities and understand the extent to which lack of accessibility and lack of recognition of disability identities affects the cultural domain as a whole in the EU. Research activities undertaken as part of this WP encompass qualitative and arts-based research. This includes semi-structured interviews with stakeholders from the 27 Member States of the EU and the UK. The arts-based research culminates in a dance performance developed collaboratively with a dance company that includes performers with and without disabilities. The result of these arts-based activities generates and showcases practices that are inclusive of audiences and performers with diverse accessibility needs.

WP2 – Normative

Explores the intersection between cultural rights of people with disabilities and cultural diversity in EU law.

WP2 advances the understanding of the extent to which the right to cultural participation of persons with disabilities is protected and promoted by EU cultural policies and EU disability policies, both in the internal EU sphere and in the external one. Research activities undertaken as part of this WP bring together empirical and normative approaches to legal research to gauge whether EU measures aimed at protecting cultural diversity have dealt with any element of discrimination, inequality and poverty of people with disabilities. In doing so, it also investigates the extent to which implementing measures of different international instruments (such as the CRPD, the UNESCO Convention on Diversity of Cultural Expressions and the Marrakesh Treaty) intersect and complement each other within the EU legal order. 

WP3 – Theoretical

Retheorises cultural diversity as encompassing the protection of the right of people with disabilities to participate in cultural life within the EU legal order.

WP3 builds on the research conducted within WP1 and WP2 to provide a novel theoretical framework that can support future research and policy work aimed at promoting cultural diversity and inclusivity through EU law.

WP4 – Tools for Change

Develops “law awareness” through specific outputs for the general public and tools to foster civic participation, legal change and effective policy responses at the EU level.

Throughout the DANCING project, the PI and research team are committed to engaging in broader dialogue with the academic community, organisations of persons with disabilities and society at large. DANCING provides platforms for collaboration and discussion of emerging findings, through conferences, workshops and public conversations with artists, legal scholars and key stakeholders. DANCING is also collaborating with an accessibility designer and artists with disabilities to raise awareness of the project through outputs accessible to a diverse range of needs, including cartoons, infographics and performances.

Infographic – Project Progress