Availability of public theaters for persons with disabilities

Abstract

Accessibility is a prerequisite for participation in social life. The possibilities of a person with disability and environmental barriers determine the level of accessibility in various areas of cultural life. The degree of infrastructure adaptations and less visible symbolic interactions have a significant impact on the possibility of social participation and access to cultural artifacts by people from groups at risk of social exclusion. Theater is an area of art, an inseparable element of which is a meeting, and thus openness to what is different, conditions for establishing dialogue and performative interaction. In the Polish theater of recent years, the context of disability is more and more often perceived as a subject of artistic creation. The article discusses institutional theaters constituting significant culture-forming centers in individual regions and taking part in international festivals. The formal infrastructural availability of theatrical spaces to the needs of people with disabilities and the adaptation of the cultural offer to perceptive capabilities of people with different disabilities were analyzed. Other activities related to the social phenomenon of disability were also indicated, if it was possible.