Being Able to Attend or Not: A Dilemma in Inequality of Access to Performing Arts Participation

Abstract

Scholars mostly emphasise the social inclusion of people with disabilities; however, in most of these studies, disability is often touched on as ‘something that should be overcome instead of accommodated’ and frequently considered as a ‘passive recipient’ of policies (Knight, 2015, p. 4). There have been very few disability studies in Turkey, and these generally focus on issues such as employment, education, accessibility to health care and, recently, accessible tourism. Consequently, the main focus of this study is the impact of the social inclusion of people with disabilities in performing arts events audiences on cultural value and cultural policy in Turkey. A qualitative study was conducted in order to explore social inclusion of audiences with disabilities regarding inequalities in attending performing arts events from multiple perspectives and their impact on cultural value. The study included sources from: (1) semi-structured interviews (n = 32); (2) site visits and observations across four sites (venues, offices, performance spaces) and (3) reviews of secondary data such as websites, policies, legislation, promotional materials, annual reports and internal documents. The most important impact of this study is that it is the first study conducted on participation of people with disabilities in performing arts events in Turkey. Moreover, the most pressing issues mentioned by almost all participants were the need for people with disabilities to demand inclusion, which is actually a birthright, by participating and making their needs visible.

Citation

Collins, A. (2021), "Being Able to Attend or Not: A Dilemma in Inequality of Access to Performing Arts Participation", Lehman, K., Fillis, I. and Wickham, M. (Ed.) Exploring Cultural Value, Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 183-197. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-78973-515-420211016