In common with most major arts organisations, the Scottish Arts Council has adopted the Social Model of Disability which distinguishes between someone’s impairment, which is their medical condition, and the disabling barriers they face - physical, social, economic and attitudinal - in trying to participate in the world at large and in the arts.

In seeking to implement this model meaningfully and effectively, SAC has set out a range of strategic priorities:

Several of the practical initiatives developed in pursuit of these goals have shared an enabling emphasis, geared towards encouraging and supporting arts organisations and venues in developing best practice around issues of accessibility and integration. They include the provision of Disability Equality Training for arts organisations; Getting There, a practical manual for arts venues in an easy-to-use interactive format, which offers advice, information and demonstrations on how best to reach out and involve disabled people in arts activities; and the Good Gallery Guide, an online resource which lists details of accessibility and other inclusive strategies for disabled people provided by visual arts venues around Scotland. The statutory framework governing provision in this area was considerably strengthened by the implementation of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995, the final phase of which was completed n 2004.

The Scottish Arts Council also acts more broadly to support disabled artists and arts participants, in partnership with many of Scotland’s leading voluntary-sector arts and disability organisations. These include the theatre companies Birds of Paradise and Lung Ha's, as well as Theatre Workshop in Edinburgh, whose pioneering work includes founding Europe’s first fully-integrated professional theatre troupe. Among those working in the music field are Sounds of Progress and the Drake Music Project Scotland, while SAC plans currently under investigation include a potential network of disability arts festivals, like the Degenerate: International Festival of Disability Arts and the Deaf Focus Film Festival.

Specific recent success stories include the charity Sense Scotland’s three-year SAM programme (Sensing Art and Music) for people with multiple disabilities. Visual art and music activities are now part of its regular work, and Sense is developing fully accessible arts facilities – studio spaces, workshops, performance area etc – in its community headquarters in Glasgow. An arts development officer was also employed for a two-year pilot project by the National Deaf Children’s Society, to work in drama, creative writing and visual arts with deaf children in Glasgow, Stirling and Falkirk.

The Art Trek Ltd co-operative of five disabled artists received SAC Lottery funding to to develop their professional practice and business planning, appoint an artist/mentor, and to exhibit in Europe, Japan, Russia and North America. In partnership with the Scottish Executive and Arts & Business (A&B) Scotland, the SAC also launched the Arts and Disability Pairing Scheme to encourage business sponsorship of arts and disability activity within Scotland.

Some of these projects formed part of Scotland’s programme for the European Year of Disabled People in 2003, with the SAC also conducting a series of seminars throughout the country to explore issues of accessibility, media, representation, training needs and good practice. The year’s events culminated in a major one-day conference, ‘Future Perfect?’, featuring Scottish and international performers, discussions, workshops, demonstrations and a video room, all emphasising the achievements of disabled artists.

Although much remains to be achieved, Scotland contains a diverse, complementary and expanding range of disability arts organisations and services. Thanks in large part to their efforts, as well as recent changes in legislation, the ‘mainstream’ arts sector is also now addressing itself much more seriously and systematically to the needs of disabled audiences and artists, hopefully sounding the death-knell for tokenism and exclusion.

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