Author: <span>Alex Flowers</span>

Wellcome Gallery, with one person sitting wathcing a screen with a person wearing prostehtic gloves. Another man is standing on the left looking into a glass case. Blog

Social Model of Disability

Thinking and practice around access and inclusion in cultural life has evolved significantly over the last 20 years. The push for greater representation of difference and diversity has seen museums, galleries, television, music, theatre and dance all showcase the incredible talent of those that have traditionally been sidelined and marginalised from popular culture. By framing disability as a societal issue, the Social Model empowers people with disabilities to demand their right to participate in cultural life, fostering a sense of belonging and community, highlighting the value of diverse perspectives in enriching cultural experiences for everyone.

In terms of Flow’s work, we place access and inclusion at the centre of what we do. We are driven by the conviction that art and culture is for all and so we thought we’d share a few of the models that guide us when we work with consultation, evaluation and design.

The social model of disability is an approach which was developed in the 60’s, with the specific term emerging in the 80’s. It is a framework that distinguishes between impairment and disability.

It proposes that disability is not inherently caused by an individual’s physical, sensory, or cognitive impairments, but rather by societal barriers that restrict their participation. These barriers can be physical (e.g. inaccessible buildings), attitudinal (e.g. stigma or discrimination), or systemic (e.g. policies that exclude people with disabilities).

 

There are three key areas in understanding how it can frame participating in a cultural life:

Disability is a social construct: The model shifts the focus from “fixing” the individual and their disability (the Medical model) to addressing the societal structures that create exclusion.

Barriers are the problem, not the person: It emphasizes that society, not the individual, needs to change to enable full participation.

Empowerment and inclusion: The model advocates for the rights of people with disabilities to participate equally in all aspects of life, including cultural life.

 

The social model has had a profound impact on how people with disabilities engage in cultural activities, such as art, music, theatre, and heritage.  A maxim we often used when I worked at the V&A was that, “Good design changes lives” – making accessibility integral to the way we approach design shows how it benefits everyone, sometimes in unexpected ways. Here’s how:

Accessible Cultural Spaces 

The model has driven the push for physical accessibility in cultural venues (e.g., ramps, elevators, accessible seating, and sensory-friendly environments) and engrained this into law for new and public buildings. For example, museums and theaters are increasingly adopting universal design principles to ensure everyone can enjoy their offerings making spaces more useable by not only D/disabled people, but also people who are neurodiverse, elderly, carrying an injury, carrying a child and so on…

 

 

Inclusive Programming

Cultural institutions are creating programs specifically designed for people with disabilities, such as sign language-interpreted performances, audio-described tours, and relaxed performances for those with sensory sensitivities. Our work with Divergent Sounds, a newly commissioned piece of music to convey the experience of neurodiversity, applied the Social Model not only in the creative work itself, but also in the visitor experience, co-creation and evaluation. See our case study and article by researcher Virginia Carter Leno at KCL. This ensures that people with disabilities are not just passive observers but are active participants in cultural life.

The cover of "Building Up" - D/deaf, disabled and neurodivergent museum professionals thriving in role.
© Accentuate, Building Up Report

Representation in Culture

The social model has encouraged greater representation of people with disabilities in cultural productions, both as creators and as subjects. This includes films, books, and art that reflect the experiences of people with disabilities, challenging stereotypes and promoting understanding.

The cultural sector’s workforce has long faced accusations of exclusivity with research showing that it is in general much-less diverse than the general population. Along with barriers the global majority and working class, disabled people have been excluded from representation in the sector due to attitudinal and systemic factors. I was lucky enough to be a mentor on Accentuate’s “Curating for Change” which was a project to bring about step change by partnering emerging D/disabled curators within museums to produce exhibitions which explore disability through their collections. They have produced excellent guidance on supporting D/disabled staff, how to present their stories and ambitions for the sector. Their current project, “Curating Visibility“, builds on its success and some of the tools and learnings which emerged from it and will be running until the end of 2026.

Multi-Platform Experiences

Technology can be a huge enabler for inclusion, however it can also place barriers in the way for people with disabilities to be able to use them. Building in multi-sensory elements, assistive tools and parallel ways to engage offer not only the opportunity to open the experience to more people, but also challenge artists and creators to push the boundaries of technology and think about it from multiple perspectives.

Two participants are seated in a blue neon lit space with crosses, triangles and circles on the wall. They are wearing white VR headsets and holding VR controllers in their hands.
© Fact, In Pursuit of Repetitive Beats

 

“In Pursuit of Repetitive Beats” is a VR experience that transports participants back to the heady days of Acid House and raves. As a highly visual, physical and sonic experience if presented challenges as to how it would be accessible to all. However, this opened new doors to exploring the subject and form of the piece. The experience includes a seated version for wheelchair users, subtitles, haptics (vibration), access packs, VR explainer, scene descriptions, and a touch tour for d/Deaf audiences. Visitors can also use haptic vests to enhance the multi-sensory journey, making it inclusive for the deaf and hard-of-hearing community.

When we carry out consultation we ensure that everyone has the chance to participate. This can include things like us preparing different types of materials, ensuring that there are screen readable resources, providing remote access or one to one sessions, and pre-session information on what to expect.

Policy and Advocacy

The model has influenced policies like the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), which emphasizes the right to participate in cultural life (Article 30). Governments and organisations are held accountable for ensuring cultural inclusion in UK law through the Equality Act 2010 and the Disability Discrimination Act 1995.

By better understanding and being open to, reflective on and critical of the barriers that people face, we can support the cultural sector to be more responsive to what D/disabled and neurodiverse people are telling us. It all begins with listening, creating a space to be heard and respect. There is fantastic work happening across the UK which is shifting the needle on systemic change and it’s such a privilege to be part of that conversation and action.

 

Further Resources

https://www.scope.org.uk/social-model-of-disability

https://www.disabilityrightsuk.org/social-model-disability-language

https://www.ombudsman.org.uk/sites/default/files/FDN-218144_Introduction_to_the_Social_and_Medical_Models_of_Disability.pdf

 

Research

Charging Schools: Why and How? A 2024 snapshot of…

This research is a snapshot of the charging models at Museums and Galleries across the UK in 2024. As schools and the cultural sector face a challenging economic climate, the National Portrait Gallery asked Flow Associates to undertake research into current charging models for school visits across the museum and gallery sector to inform their own work.  They have kindly agreed for us to share a summary of the research to support the sector as a whole in understanding the approaches taken by organisations to ensure both equitable access to cultural education, and the drivers for financial sustainability.

This will be a helpful document to enable my powers that be to understand why we need to be careful with price rises for educational bookings.” Museum educator in response to our Facebook post in ‘Learning in Museums and Galleries’

We wanted to understand the following:

  • What charging models exist in Museums and Galleries for Primary school, Secondary school, College and Special school visits?
  • How much do they charge? Are concessions made/bursaries given to e.g. for schools with high pupil premium?
  • How much do other, comparable Museums and Galleries charge and what are they charging for?
  • By charging schools can you cover ‘real’ costs?
  • Is charging likely to be a barrier for schools in general and/or for particular types of school?
  • How might charging for schools impact negatively on Museums and Galleries?

Download PDF “Charging Schools: Why and How?”

As this paper emerged from research for its commissioner, the National Portrait Gallery, our comparitive review looked at the learning programs offered by 22 Museums and Galleries and selected organisations that were either National Museums as designated by parliament, or based in London and therefore catering to a similar demographic. Our focus here was on museums and galleries which are free to the public, and the majority have charges for special events and exhibitions. We included two relevant london galleries who charge general public for entry, the Photographers gallery and the Dulwich Picture Gallery. Both offer free entry for schools. In addition we ran a quick review of a further 19 organisations to establish whether or not they charge schools for their programmes.

An open online survey to members of the Group for Education in Museums network, saw contributions from a further 61 organisations and we have included their anonymised responses in this paper.

 

Blog

Flow’s Engagement Thresholds Model

There are many models that illustrate different levels or modes of engagement, but at Flow we find it more useful to think about engagement as a series of thresholds that are passed through en route to a deeper impact. A lot of our work involves supporting our clients to enable and sustain transformative change for people, communities and organisations, through learning, participation and deeper involvement in arts, heritage, science or local citizenship. We have developed our Engagement Thresholds model to facilitate how this work is planned, delivered and evaluated. In its simplest form this can be visualised as a wedge-shaped graph, with number of participants on the y axis and depth of engagement on x.

© Flow Associates

This model ensures we view engagement as more than boosting numbers or reaching certain groups of people. What matters most is the impact that this engagement has on the people involved, their lives and communities and the organisation itself. As people pass through each threshold they develop their skills, capacities and abilities to improve or cope with their context. While fewer people pass through each subsequent threshold those few are able to do so in a deeper way, until those at the narrowest end become the champions who will support and influence those behind them.

We are often asked to share the thinking behind our Engagement Thresholds model with clients who have found it helps them to design better experiences, assess the depth and reach of engagement, and identify barriers along the way. So here we have brought together a potted history of engagement and participation models, along with more detail on our own thinking.

What follows isn’t a definitive history, and we would love to hear from you if you can fill in any gaps.

The First Rung of the Ladder

Sherry Arnstein’s 1969 article A Ladder Of Citizen Participation has been referred to by many as a starting point for thinking about participation in terms of a series of levels. She wrote the article while she was director of community development studies for The Commons, a non-profit research institute. She had previously worked for the US department of health, education and welfare, and had been chief advisor on citizen participation for the US department of housing and urban development. She was frustrated by what she saw in these roles and wrote her article as a provocation, describing the various ways that people referred to a process of ‘citizen participation’.

Arnstein’s Ladder (1969) Degrees of Citizen Participation

While the top 3 rungs of her ladder could be described as participatory, the others are more of a one-way process where people she describes as the ‘haves’ are in control of those described as ‘have-nots’. The middle three rungs are tokenistic at best, and the bottom three represent non participation.
In the article she referred to a French student protest poster from 1968, a year which had seen worldwide unrest, to illustrate how damaging this pseudo-participation could be:

“The poster highlights the fundamental point that participation without redistribution of power is an empty and frustrating process for the powerless.” Sherry Arnstein (1969)

Reaching New Levels

Arnstein’s ladder of participation has become the basis of multiple models since, although many have taken her ideas literally as a hierarchy of goals rather than a question around the validity of these methods.

Roger Hart’s Ladder of Youth Participation
Scott Davidson’s Wheel

By the late 90s there were several useful iterations including Roger Hart’s 1997 ladder of youth participation which focused on a specific audience, and Scott Davidson’s 1998 wheel which highlights the ‘shades’ within each level, for example breaking ‘consultation’ down into three states: limited, customer care, and genuine consultation.

(These images were taken from nonformality’s timeline of participation models that starts with Sherry Arnstein and ends in 2011. If you are like me and enjoy looking at different diagrams and charts you should check it out )
One of the best known and often referred to is the 1999 International Association for Public Participation’s ‘spectrum’ model, designed to identify levels of participation that define the public’s role in the process. Levels depend on the goals, time frames, resources, and depth of impact for the public.

 

While this is widely seen as a useful model, criticisms include the lack of reality in some of the categories. People have asked questions such as: Is ‘informing’ collaborative? Is ‘Empower’ possible? Where does ‘Listen’ fit in?

© International Association for Public Participation www.iap2.org

Public Engagement with Research

Many of the more recent participation models, such as the Wellcome Trust’s ‘Onion’, focus on public engagement with research (PER). This model shows how different activities can enable publics to influence research and policy to different extents, and is used by organisations such as Oxford University to inform their PER activity. The outer layer of the onion is made up of one-way interactions designed to share information, but as you peel away the layers the opportunities for dialogue grow until at the centre of the onion the power is transferred to the public.

Wellcome Trust’s Public Engagement Onion

Wellcome’s Onion inspired Edinburgh University’s Beltain Public Engagement network to develop their own model which goes one step further to consider the number of people involved at each level. Shaped like a wedge, this model helps to show the value at both ends of the scale. Lighter touch activities only designed to inform can have wider reach, while more intense projects with smaller groups can have a deeper impact.

Beltain’s Public Engagement Spectrum

Designing Better Experiences

Flow’s Engagement Thresholds model builds on all of these examples, but instead of defining different levels of engagement as goals to aspire to, we have drawn on our expertise in Experience Design to focus on the qualities of an experience, and how these enable people to pass through the thresholds necessary to reach new levels.
As an emerging field, the starting point of Experience Design is the changes you want to enable for people in terms of how they think, feel and act, so that your designs are based on impact rather than resource. The more detailed version of our model below sets out some of the indicators that people are passing through these thresholds.

© Flow Associates

People may enter or exit the experience at different thresholds depending their personal context, and their experience of the event, activity or service you are offering. For example, thinking of participants in a workshop, people who arrive looking for information or help may leave feeling confident and motivated if they are given the tools to apply their new knowledge which in turn enables them to make changes for themselves. For others less confident about attending the same workshop then the welcome experience will be most important, and if it feels relevant to them they may leave feeling they have learned something useful.

‘Empowerment’ is also not the end goal, it is simply another threshold through which someone must pass in order to feel the deepest impact. This impact might come from a person being empowered to create changes in their life, through accessing your resources. Designing an experience that helps people to pass through these thresholds makes impact more likely because you are creating the conditions for change.

If you would like a high resolution PDF version of this model or arrange a call to talk through its uses please get in touch. We would love to hear your thoughts, and if you would like to use it please credit Flow Associates and link to our website.

By Susanne Buck

News

Feeding Tomorrow research: public attitudes to food sustainability

A big global challenge is to feed 8 billion people equally well, as the population rises and as ecosystem damage and climate change threaten our food supplies. Our food systems are unhealthy for the planet and our diets are unhealthy for people.

We are Flow Associates working with Flow India and People’s Palace Projects do Brasil. We are carrying out research for Lloyd’s Register Foundation and the Science Museum Group, who want to know what people in London, Rio de Janeiro and Delhi think about food sustainability, so that interested organisations can engage them more effectively on these issues. Surveys, interviews and focus groups will be conducted with families, independent adults, school groups and teachers, as well as professionals in public engagement.

Don't forget, Green Vegetables Keep You Fit. 1999-719 Science Museum Group Collection © The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum
Don’t forget, Green Vegetables Keep You Fit. 1999-719 Science Museum Group Collection © The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum

These will find out:

  • What interests people about food and the state of the planet? 
  • What do people understand about food sustainability and its various issues?
  • What do people think are the solutions? 
  • And how do they like to explore and learn about these issues, whether in museums or through other media?

The research is designed to explore differences and commonalities between cultural audiences in India, Brazil and the UK, in the food sustainability issues they face, how they understand them, and how they want to engage with them. The National Council of Science Museums in India and the Museum of Tomorrow in Rio de Janeiro are partners in this research, supporting access to their audiences and communities. Due to COVID-19 restrictions in all three countries, the conversations will take place online in a variety of formats rather than within the partner museums. 

We want to hear your thoughts about food sustainability and would be grateful if you can share 10 minutes of your time with us to complete a survey:

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/feedingtomorrowsciencemuseum

If you would like to find out more or contribute to the research, please contact us on [email protected] 

Lead image: Buffet. 1997-5002/140 Science Museum Group Collection Online © National Science and Media Museum