Inclusion and integration of the rights of people with disabilities is in general one of the main priorities in the development of our European society. The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is one of UNESCO's central concerns. Inclusion and protection from discrimination is a legal right for disabled people as enshrined in the UN convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (13 December 2006) and adopted by the European Union on 22 January 2011. Although the international youth field and in general the cultural sector are addressed to all people indiscriminately and the creative participation is a human need that doesn’t divide people according to particularities or/and physical characteristics, today’s situation refers to some unsurpassed limitations as concerns people with disabilities. This limitation may refer to the ability of different bodies to receive equally the message of an creative product through their senses or, also, to the potential to express themselves creatively and artistically and to be part of the today’s cultural activities. However the social and cultural resistances created by the above logic seem to be weakened gradually. Examples of creative creation of high quality by various groups composed of people with and without disabilities are increasing day by day, proving that disability is not a barrier for artistic creation but still a feature that contributes to the expression of diversity, a feature that simply forms different bodies so naturally, as the different bodies of people without disabilities. As a group of specialist partners we recognize and welcome recent developments across Europe in projects such as Un-Label, Moving Beyond Inclusion, Crossing the line, Unlimited Access ( funded through the European Creative Europe programme) or EDUCATHE+ (funded through Erasmus plus). Projects such as these have led to an increase in visibility of disabled people in creative and cultural activities across Europe and are creating a fertile ground for rethinking training, presenting and access for participants and organisations. This has been especially important in providing role models for disabled trainers, artists and participants that were previously nowhere reflected in the profession. Through networking and exchange with other EU projects, we can share knowledge and experience and learn from each other to professionalize the inclusive cultural sector. The partners are therefore well placed to design a project that complements and adds-value to existing initiatives. Creability provides the opportunity for all partners to develop new transnational solutions for social integration through the arts. Thus the project’s strategy directly reflects the need and gaps identified through the partners’ knowledge, experience and partnerships. The project is designed with a European dimension in mind, greater in scope and ambition than individual plans. We will share expertise, skills, artists, opportunities and challenges and we will deliver joined-up activities and new outcomes that have not been addressed through existing initiatives Furthermore there is still a big lack of possibilities to exchange and to share knowledge between experts and makers working inclusively but also with organisations and institutions who wants to open up for inclusion with accessible formats and activities and to learn from each other. Creability wants to close this gap and wants to enable trainers, artists with and without disabilities to gain new skills in creating new methodologies and tools that have not yet existed. Creability aims at providing new inclusive solutions in the form of an methodology manual (I0) which is sustainable and beneficial for the youth work, cultural sector, institutions of higher education and society. The project creates new attention to the issue of participants with disabilities, but it also calls for self-reflection - in daily contact with disability and of debate and confrontation with their own and society's demands and expectations. In addition to the dissemination of the IO result through the evaluation and the manual, all partners have extensive international networks where the results will be spread. The project will create a platform on the basis of which a sustainable exchange of European players can take place to promote over the project period beyond inclusion and accessibility in the cultural and creative sector and to strengthen collective self-esteem of young people with and without disability. Creability serves as an impetus successful approach to develop and to transfer ideas and subsequent activities in the partner countries at national and international level. The IO will continue to be provided by the partners after the project's life span.
Inclusion is a task that touches upon all aspects of life – including all state and social institutions. Most EU countries signed the UN Disability Rights Convention on 30 March 2007. The convention specifies that disabled people have the natural right to fully participate. This must also be true for culture and education! We are called to increase our focus on active equal participation in cultural education – as a place to develop one’s own creative potential and to bring together individuals of all kinds of personal circumstances. Because cultural education opens up new dimensions of perception and communication for disabled and non-disabled people and creates an experimental space that allows to change perspectives and habits. This is where we can find new ways of exploring what »disability« truly means and how we define our perception of »normal«. Over the course of two years, in the international project Creability we looked into the following key question: How can we reshape tasks, exercises and methods from the performing arts to make them practically accessible and applicable to all human beings? For example, how can deaf people take part in a voice-led rhythm exercise or how can a dance warm-up be done in a wheelchair? The result of this project is a Practical Guide (IO) a toolkit published in English and German to help interested artists, multipliers in youth work, social work and services for disabled people, teachers and other educators plan and conduct creative and artistic activities for different target groups. At the same time, it is meant to allow everybody interested in cultural work, whether disabled or non-disabled, to participate equally and fully in cultural education. Numerous different workshops (National Pilots M1 and M2) and training activities (C1 and C2) that took place in Germany and Greece between June 2018 and December 2019 allowed over 130 disabled and non-disabled artists and other cultural professionals to examine more than 70 tested methods and smaller teaching units (tools) from dance, acting, and music. They aimed at modifying and further developing the tools in such a way that they can be used largely without restrictions in future inclusive practice. The TU Dortmund University monitored the project to ensure that the inclusive tools produced met the latest scientific standards. In a final workshop series (National Pilots M3), the best approaches were further tested by different target groups with and without disability (85 participants 48% with a disability). We were particularly interested to learn whether the tools were more accessible now and whether they could help promote social participation. The result (IO) of this process the Practical Guide - Creative and Artistic Tools for Inclusive Cultural Work features a collection of the best 31 tried-and-tested creative tools. This toolkit is meant to encourage people to create their own inclusive offers. In addition, it comes with important general guidelines and practical checklists for even more specific guidance and advice. Through the two multiplier events in Germany and Greece, and through extensive PR and public relations work, the results were disseminated throughout Europe. We will be happy if this handbook will be used to explore new paths to create varied opportunities for disabled and non-disabled people to come together. We wish that it helps grow the international network of inclusive cultural and creative offerings. Because fostering culture through inclusion helps positively impact, enrich, and diversify our European society.