Tell Your Untold Disability Arts Story

Disability Arts Online (DAO) is calling on people across the country to share their memories and experiences of the Disability Arts movement as part of a major new heritage project.

‘Cripping Culture: A Journey into Disability Arts Heritage’ is a new project, supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, that will save the stories of the Disability Arts movement from being lost and share them through an accessible digital archive, interactive timeline and podcast series.

By gathering the stories and sharing them for anyone to access and engage with online, Cripping Culture aims to support the development of a culture that embraces disabled people’s stories and fills in gaps in existing knowledge. 

DAO would like to hear from anyone with a link to the Disability Arts movement and is asking them to contribute their own stories to the collection. These could be memories of an event, show or exhibition they attended, something they read, an artist they met, an organisation they were involved with or anything else related to disability arts.

Contributions are welcome from people of all backgrounds including artists, writers, producers, performers, curators, musicians, activists or audience members.

By getting as many people as possible from all regions of the UK involved, DAO hopes to capture previously untold stories and shed new light on key moments in the Disability Arts movement’s history.

DAO is especially keen to hear from people who are part of the global majority, have intersectional experiences of disability, and/or can tell stories from regions that are currently underrepresented in collections or narratives. 

To share your story, visit disabilityarts.online/cripping-culture and submit the online form. Contributions can be text, video, audio or photos that help illustrate your memory.

“It doesn’t matter who you are, if you have a story to tell that involves disability arts in the UK, then we want to hear from you,” said Colin Hambrook, Heritage Project Director.

“Everyone who shares a memory will play an important part in the Cripping Culture project, saving our heritage for future generations. 

“It is important for the legacy of the Disability Arts movement that we capture stories of events from all regions of the UK that may have not been previously recorded. We want to celebrate the vast breadth of disability arts activity that has occurred across time. Please help us share this call out far and wide."

The Cripping Culture contributions call out is open until August 14, 2026.

To find out more about the project and share your story, visit https://disabilityarts.online/cripping-culture

Image: Graeae's production of A Chorus Line, courtesy of www.the-ndac.org