Periodic Reporting for period 4 - DANCING (Protecting the Right to Culture of Persons with Disabilities and Enhancing Cultural Diversity through European Union Law: Exploring New Paths)
Período documentado: 2025-03-01 hasta 2025-08-31
The right of people with disabilities to participate in cultural life – encompassing access to and involvement in cultural activities, as well as recognition of disability identities, such as Deaf culture – has long been denied, engendering their marginalisation. It has also entailed a loss for society due to the lack of diversity resulting from an inaccessible and exclusionary cultural realm. DANCING investigated how the protection of the right of people with disabilities to take part in culture and the promotion of cultural diversity intersect and complement each other in the European Union (EU) legal order. It used a combination of legal, empirical, and arts-based research to pursue three objectives. First, it identified and categorised barriers and facilitators to cultural participation experienced by people with disabilities and their impact on the wider cultural domain. Second, DANCING provided a normative exploration of how the EU has used, and can use, its competence to combat discrimination, its supporting competence on cultural matters, and its internal market powers to ensure accessibility and promote disability identities while achieving cultural diversity. Third, it articulated a new theorisation of the promotion of cultural diversity as encompassing disability within the EU legal order. Each objective corresponded to a dedicated Work Package (WP), complemented by a cross-cutting WP focusing on dissemination and societal impact. The project has deepened understanding of how law interacts with the lived experiences of people with disabilities in cultural contexts, generating knowledge to support the implementation of Article 30 CRPD and showing how EU law can protect, promote, and foster cultural participation and diversity. DANCING has further contributed to establishing EU disability law as a stand-alone academic discipline and to understanding how disability fits within the process of EU integration.
DANCING approached disability as a human rights issue, recognising the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) as the global standard for disability rights. Under WP1, the Principal Investigator (PI) and her team conducted an extensive literature review to map barriers and facilitators to the cultural participation of people with disabilities. This was complemented by a systematic review of States Parties’ reports to the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD Committee), along with the Committee’s Lists of Issues and Concluding Observations. These sources informed a novel categorisation of barriers and facilitators, supported by empirical data from focus groups and interviews with representatives of umbrella organisations of persons with disabilities, national Deaf organisations, and disability and arts organisations across the 27 EU Member States and the UK. This empirical research was enriched by arts-based research centred on the creation of an accessible contemporary dance performance by Stopgap Dance Company. Data were gathered through observation at different stages of the creative process, participation in training, and interviews with dancers, choreographers, producers, and collaborators. This culminated in the performance Lived Fiction, premiered on 11 April 2024 at the Lir Academy Theatre in Dublin. Under WP2, extensive legal doctrinal research mapped and analysed EU soft law (including Commission Communications and European Parliament Recommendations), hard law, and Court of Justice of the EU case law. The research examined the interplay between EU and national disability policies, focusing on national disability strategies across the EU and the UK. The team investigated how strands of EU law protect and promote the right of persons with disabilities to cultural participation and the accessibility of cultural goods and services. Special attention was given to Article 114 TFEU, the 2018 Audiovisual Media Services Directive, and the 2024 Directive on the European Disability Card, assessing their alignment with CRPD obligations. Two doctoral projects deepened this research: Léa Urzel Francil examined how EU law supports participation of persons with disabilities as professionals in the cultural sector, while Iryna Tekuchova explored EU external action and cultural cooperation with third countries. The legal research under WP2 informed the theoretical work of WP3, which interrogated the normative foundations of EU disability law and situated disability within the EU’s constitutional principle of cultural diversity. The findings also revealed evolving processes of constitutionalisation and federalisation of disability rights within the EU. Finally, WP4 translated DANCING’s academic research into accessible outputs to raise awareness of disability rights and foster civic engagement, informing legal and policy reforms and promoting systemic change in cultural organisations.
DANCING explored barriers across all art forms and cultural heritage, encompassing the participation of people with a wide range of disability types, both as audiences and creators of culture—an unprecedented approach. Previous focus tended to be on audiences, while barriers to cultural creation received little attention. The literature review highlighted the knowledge gaps that DANCING is filling. DANCING advances the state of the art by evidencing that interlinked barriers are commonly perceived by people with disabilities across Europe in five areas: lack of effective laws and policies; inadequate services and funding; negative attitudes; lack of accessibility; and limited involvement of persons with disabilities in cultural organisations. The findings provide a comprehensive mapping and analysis of both barriers and facilitators to cultural participation and strengthen cross-disciplinary approaches to the cultural rights of people with disabilities. A policy brief with recommendations for EU institutions and policymakers aims to effect change in policy, society, and the lives of people with disabilities. Through inclusive dance as arts-based research, DANCING contributed to growing scholarship on integrating dance practice into interdisciplinary, mixed-methods research and to literature on dance and disability. The premiere of Lived Fiction embedded accessibility within the choreography through audio description, captioning, and a dancer serving as an Access Guide to explain scenic movements and interact with the audience. The project also played a central role in advancing EU disability law as a stand-alone academic field. It established a novel connection between prescriptive understandings of disability and cultural diversity within the EU legal order. WP3 re-theorised cultural diversity as encompassing the protection of the right of people with disabilities to participate in cultural life, unveiling the intersection of culture and disability in EU law. DANCING embedded the shift called for by the CRPD through participatory and co-creation approaches, particularly via collaboration with Stopgap Dance Company. It embraced accessibility by ensuring research findings were shared with the public in accessible formats, including sign language, Easy to Read, and an interactive online map. Overall, combining doctrinal, empirical, and arts-based methods, DANCING generated pioneering insights into accessibility, inclusivity, and cultural diversity while shaping the emerging field of EU disability law.