The Stories of Disabled Artists

The arts give people with disabilities the chance to shape their world, share their stories and find a voice.

Last week, I watched a young man light up the stage. He was the star of a play called Up Down Boy, a play about a man with Down Syndrome about to head off to college. He and another actor had adapted the script to fit his life in Waterford, with the help of a local stage school director. The play was hugely popular with audiences.

The script reflected this young man’s own story, and he delivered it with warmth, clarity and comic timing. His tender relationship with his mother caused the room to fill with loud sniffs from the audience, even yours truly. The performance gave this actor an opportunity to shape his own world, and to share it with us.

Photo Description: The two actors in Up Down Boy, Sean Upton and Brenda Giles, share a hug after their brilliant performance.

The play reminded me of rooms I have spent time in, bright, cheerful rooms filled with people like this young actor. I gave creative writing workshops in these rooms and watched as these budding writers created stories, powerful stories about their extraordinary everyday lives, told in simple, earthy language.

I hope that after the memory of the applause has faded, the actor will still feel the sense of power that comes from telling your story. Forgive me if I sound a bit crusade-y for a minute, but I believe the arts offers a route to power for people with disabilities.

Being part of the arts gives people the opportunity to be seen for more than their disability, to give voice to their experience, to make sense of their world and help other people make sense of it too. When people with disabilities make art, they’re challenging people to notice them, and to move beyond pity.

I’ve experienced that power myself, in those rooms and in my own work, challenging people to laugh at my wonky eyes and to shine a light on the everyday lives of people with disabilities, beyond marathons and medals.

I spent a long time writing directly about my life as a visually impaired person, and this culminated in my novel, The Pink Cage.

The Paralympics athletes are rightly celebrated, but I’m hoping that in the near future, we’ll be talking about the disabled Booker Prize winners, chart topping sensations, Oscar winners and international gallery exhibitors.