ABSTRACT
There is greater recognition of the needs of persons with disabilities in the context of events – whether as audience members, participants or organisers – and as a result the relationship between disability studies and the field of events has become a more important academic field of study. The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has subtly reformulated and extended existing human rights to take into account the specific rights of persons with disabilities (Mégret, 2008). In this chapter we discuss the contested concept of disability and consider the implications of different models of disability for our understanding of events. We suggest that adopting a disability studies perspective provides event organisers with the opportunity to re-think the physical, social and cultural context within which their events take place. We emphasise the importance of design in addressing the structural inequalities that persons with disabilities often encounter as they experience events, whether sporting, cultural or business oriented.
