DEFIANT - Graeae Theatre and IGC Disabled led symposium notes @ Departure Lounge 25
- ingoodcompanymids
- Sep 26
- 10 min read
In July 2025 at Departure Lounge, we and Graeae Theatre came together for a symposium exploring the loss of PiP and access on disabled theatre makers and freelancers. We held the symposium in person and online, and it was a morning of feeling, empowerment, and holding space to address the issues faced and the systems we can put in place to over come them. Below are the notes taken from the symposium. If you’d like to get in touch with us to reflect or to add to the conversation, please email at IGC@derby.ac.uk.
PANELLIST INTRODUTIONS:
Laura Guthrie:
This is a difficult conversation, we are going through a really tough time.
There is difficulty in staying employed as disabled creatives.
We’ve had a very difficult few weeks, fighting tooth and nail for rights and justice.
There is an amazing groundswell of support, but we’re still not quite where we want to be.
However there is a raised awareness from where we were a month ago.
We need to focus on a pro-active approach.
How we can creatively empower ourselves and each other
Arts sector thrives when we centre justice in the middle of our work.
This is both in the kind of work we make and how we interact and support each other.
ACCESS TO WORK (ATW) is a critical part of this, and is under threat.
How can we unite to defend our rights in the process?
Jenny Sealey:
Was recently asked “What gives you hope”
This is a difficult but important question nowadays
We need to say “right you fuckers, we’re not going to take this lying down”
We need to remember we are not on our own.
In 1997, when Jenny started at Graeae, they didn’t really use ATW.
it didn’t really apply to the arts, so access must have been factored for within the budget.
However, this was 28 years ago when there was more money for the arts.
With ATW it meant that there was more currency for production values
Graeae could focus on doing the art, rather than making sure there was all the budget for access within funding.
It elevated the organisation and what they could do.
Allowed the organisation to ask, “what is it you need to do your best job?”
ATW still doesn’t really understand freelancing or the arts.
When they did the Paralympic Opening Ceremony, Graeae invited ATW to the rehearsals, to try and connect them to the work
Realised ATW are real people but they are just paper-pushers
ATW could then see what they were actually paying for.
It was mutually beneficial. Fert very positive.
Then in 2013, the government got rid of independent living fund, and put a cap on ATW.
We’ve been here before, both then and before Jenny worked at Graeae.
However, this time it does feel different.
this time with ACE funding at a standstill, and project funding being impossible, only 1 in 9 DYCP applications are successful, and now more inhumane cuts. It’s horrendous.
We MUST not stop fighting.
We can continue to make work.
For example, with the show The Limbless Knight.
Once again deaf and disabled people are the sacrificial lamb, the art was a brilliant way of connecting the issues with the audiences.
We need to be able to make art to get that message out there.
For example, with The Threepenny Opera, & Reasons to be Cheerful
Graeae always responds by making work.
BUT when there isn’t the funding or the access support, how do we make it work?
There is always a way, there is always a PLAN B.
Today we will find our PLAN B, our call to action; we have to have some hope.
Ray Young:
Ray receives ATW support:
They regularly have to renew the grant.
As they didn’t want there to be a stop in the grant, made sure they did it early.
Found themselves in a loop of everything being really scrutinised.
Waiting for someone to get back to you. When you did, very probing questions.
They didn’t have any change in circumstances but still needed to go through the process of discussing access again.
Also faced judgements on why they hadn’t spent a much money as they should have done.
By March still hadn’t had any decisions made by ATW, but had offered work that they wanted to do.
When they finally found out, ATW had cut the support down to 6 hours a week
Ray to let go an opportunity they were awarded.
They didn’t know how they would support themselves in the work going forward.
There were months of uncertainty, and they had to start looking at alternative jobs.
They were working with Cathy Waller and Decode to support with ATW process.
When they finally managed to speak to their case worker, he said because he was “feeling in a good mood” he will give back ATW hours, but this had already come at the loss of lots of income.
Ray had to consider how long they would have until ATW cut hours again and how long after that they’d take away support completely.
They can’t work unless the support is there.
The process makes you feel like you’re being too much or that you’re lying:
You end up gaslighting yourself, that maybe you don’t need the support that you do.
The government, whilst saying they want people to get into work they are cutting the funding that allows people to work.
It is an unnecessary vicious attack. They could take the money from elsewhere.
We need to advocate and listen.
We need to galvanise collective energies to support each other.
Freelancer working can feel like you’re in a bubble, it’s great to come together.
We need to acknowledge collective grief; it makes you feel stronger to know you’re not the only person to experience this.
Laura – There are organisations standing up for us as artists:
But these cuts have a broad impact: Tourette’s Hero ATW was cut by 61%, meaning that they’ve had to step down as AD.
We need to acknowledge the isolation, but know there are other organisations and people that can support.
Tilly Branson:
We are exhausted.
Chronically Ill Artist Network (CIAN).
This is not the first time; disabled people have been reminded they are an acceptable loss.
This sits on top of five years ago this acceptable loss narrative.
This accompanies the pain and trauma.
Narratives that circulate about disabled people start to get into your head:
Afterthought, burden, too expensive, have to ask for less than you really need through fear of being seen to ask for too much
This is dehumanising and isolating.
Tilly talks about receiving PIP.
It took two years and lots of emotional support to apply for PIP.
It is a blatant lie that PIP is just being thrown around.
It was an unpleasant process.
PIP allows Tilly to work, she wants to work.
This story that these cuts are to help people get into work is infuriating and exhausting to keep justifying.
Even to well-meaning allies who don’t understand the difference between PIP and ATW.
We need to work together to find where that hope is because alone it’s an almost impossible task.
Jenny – the story of what PIP and ATW are was not told properly, the politicians told the story that they want to hear.
We need to remind people.
The narratives around benefit frauds are also rubbish.
HOW CAN FUNDED ORGS HELP AND WHAT PART CAN THEY PLAY IN SUPPORTING DEAF AND DISABLED CREATIVES?
Organisations should advocate, it’s free.
They can build more robust budgets so that money is there to support access needs.
But where is the money coming from?
What training exists within access support?
Helpful personality types for this kind of work focusses on listening and advocating, not trying to impose what the needs are.
Some people are going into access support but not possessing the correct qualities.
Lots of organisations don’t understand ATW.
By understanding the process, that might help them know how to support people who use ATW, as further disability awareness.
Look at processes for callouts.
The process is laboursome for all artists.
Organisations can think about what they expect of deaf and disabled and Neurodivergent artists.
For example: paperwork, language, tight timescales can be really difficult and even more so when you don’t have the access support in place.
This is a wishlist because where is the money coming from?
But how can we relieve some of the burden for access support away from applicants.
The withdrawing of ATW means the support has to come from somewhere.
In the next round for NPOs (National Portfolio Organisations), a call for action that they have to present a budget where there are more than 3 Deaf and disabled people in productions and more than 3 backstage.
Include a budget for BSL interpreters, cost it up and put it in the NPO budgets.
Not everyone is successful in ATW, so make sure that budgets already include access.
Have NPO funds for both accessible employment and access performances
The onus must be on NPOs that are not disabled led. If ATW didn’t exist then Graeae would fold, it is a necessary fund.
There is a huge misunderstanding with big well-known theatres about integrated access budgets.
One example given of a coproduction where a well-known and established theatre questioned the access in the budget, initially refusing to include that bit of the budget.
Right now, organisations can start by helping disabled people to exist in the art.
Lose the focus on end products.
Find spaces to recover a bit, feel safe, rest and feel solidarity so we can contemplate getting back into mindsets to make art.
It is so hard to be creative when you’re exhausted and in pain and constantly dealing with traumatic headlines in the news.
Online and hybrid art is still an access need.
We need to be aware of other marginalised identities that add to the difficulty faced at the moment.
Collaboration and coproduction are buzz words currently in politics
We understand these words in the arts, and the practice of equal distribution of power, so we can hold them to account.
It can often feel like creative collaboration is a golden thread that runs through everything in the arts.
But in access, the onus is back on the disabled artist.
Maybe there is a mindset shift to finding ways forward of making art accessible in collaborative ways.
Checking in, see what disabled artists need, ask how they are doing. Approach questions about access in a collaborative way.
It is important to not rely on the disabled person in the room to be the one advocating.
WHERE ARE THE ALLIES AT THE MOMENT? HOW CAN ALLIES SUPPORT?
Not sure, this is really difficult one.
We need a shift, include disabled people in positions of leadership (both in organisations but also creatively in rehearsal rooms)
Work to bring down the barriers, not just offer crumbs.
Bring non-disabled allies into disabled-led rooms and see where the gaps are the need for support and allyship.
For example this was mutually beneficial when inviting ATW into the Paralympics Opening Ceremony rehearsals.
A book recommendation of What White People Can Do Next, by Emma Debiri about allyship and race.
Allyship can often be left as an inactive role, but allies can go beyond that towards coalition and be more active.
Engaged allies should make information and resources more available so people can learn more about what ATW and PIP are.
The action is to get curious, make an effort, talk to disabled people, the organisations can pool resources
As an ally you might need to put yourself ‘at risk’, or be pushy, or say things other people don’t want to hear. Be the one to be ‘arsey’.
People say the right thing, but then they don’t do anything.
To be inclusive you must be strategic, inclusivity doesn’t just happen. Consider how one decision might affect the next.
People will think you’re being a pain, but if you’re not doing that as an ally, you’re not really being an ally.
Allies should take the time to notice who’s not in the room, speak their names into the room, let the artists who aren’t in the room know what was going on in those spaces they weren’t able to be in.
ORGANSIATIONS SHOULD PROVIDE BRITISH SIGN LANGUAGE TRAINING FOR BACKSTAGE STAFF
Organisations should provide more access to technicians and people working backstage to learn BSL so that interpreters are able to work directly with deaf creatives rather than being pulled to the side.
However sign language courses are so expensive,
They are the only language courses that aren’t subsidised, and only recently began being subsidised for hearing parents of deaf children.
Part of the wish list is to make learning BSL affordable, so that social interpreting and small conversations becomes more accessible.
It is important that BSL interpretations shouldn’t all start being online for safeguarding and proper clear communication.
We need interpreters in person.
OTHER POINTS AND QUESTIONS
There is a movement in Leicester to support the deaf community to self-organise events. This includes mentoring.
Derby theatre makes 1-2 disabled led work a year.
Rehearsal room is free to come into, and the theatre can sometimes support and pay for your time to be there.
One participant had recently seen a show by Ego Arts at the Birmingham REP and mentioned that there is a snobbery around using people who aren’t professionally trained, but there was so much joy in that too.
Decode and Cathy Waller exclusively work with artists for ATW
Funding for this should be put into budgets because it is effective and proven.
In both the Open Letter about the recent welfare cuts and the letter to The Globe, only one AD signed it, Derby Theatre’s Sarah Brigham.
The lack of AD’s is incredibly disappointing because this change needs to come with support from those in power.
It was noted that the AD’s did see it and yet no-one responded.
A MANIFESTO; OUR CALL TO ACTION
To finish off the symposium, participants gave three words or phrases to form part of a manifesto.
The words were to retell the story about the devastation that the welfare cuts will cause.
We need to be the stuck record.
The words were:
Learn, allyship, shout
Don’t stay quiet, get the message out, Show your deaf identity through sign language, be visible, don’t accept the labels
Unapologetic, fierce, boundaried
Ready, willing, able
Create, revolt, rest
Diversity matters
Listen and believe
Solidarity
Coalition between deaf and disabled artists and allies
One size does not all
FINISHING THOUGHTS
We then referenced Graeae’s Reasons to be Cheerful
“if it can’t be right, it must be wrong”.
Keep it in the frame, keep the pressure up.
Look after each other.
Choose kindness and be hugely kind to yourself.
We need more people in the room.
This is the start of a long and deeply entrenched battle, we’ve done it before and we will no doubt have to do it again.
There are wonderful allies and organisations to work with.
There are resources on Graeae’s website, alongside links to other organisations.
Get in touch with Graeae if there’s anything you want to chat about your work as a disabled artist: laura@greae.org or info@greae.org
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