Social Structures
Author: Philip Finn, Assisting Living and Learning (ALL) Institute and Post-Doctoral Researcher; recipient of the Irish Research Council Enterprise Partnership Fellowship.
Life as an artist is precarious, even more so for disabled artists. First, disabled people face higher risks of poverty, social exclusion, and discrimination in their working lives and in public services. Secondly, for many in the arts sector income is sporadic, producing an insecurity necessitating on interim reliance on welfare payments to get by. This is felt acutely by disabled artists, often accessing crucial welfare payments and supports, who receive lower incomes from artistic employment, funding and grants. My research focuses on the role of welfare state payments and wider supports in facilitating or impeding disabled artists’ working lives.
The right to participate in the cultural life of the community is enshrined in a number of international documents, for example the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 27) and the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights (Article 15(1)(a)). In relation to the specific needs of people with disabilities Article 30 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities requires States to ‘enable persons with disabilities to have the opportunity to develop and utilize their creative, artistic and intellectual potential’. The Convention is central to elaborating a human rights model of disability underlining the recognition and participation of persons with disabilities in communal life. It necessitates accessibility as both consumers of culture as well as creators.
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