On 13 December 2006, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Spain signed it on 30 March 2007, issued its instrument of ratification on 23 November of that year and became bound by its entry into force on 3 May 2008.
As the twentieth anniversary of the Convention approaches, the cultural assessment cannot be reduced to a list of ramps, subtitles or adapted leaflets. The Convention recognises the right of persons with disabilities to participate in cultural life on an equal basis. This encompasses access to works, spaces and services, but also the possibility to develop and utilise one's own creative, artistic and intellectual potential.
The second dimension receives less attention and proves more difficult to evaluate. Spain possesses statistics on cultural employment and the employment of persons with disabilities, yet the public series consulted do not offer the necessary cross-referencing to determine how many persons with disabilities work in culture, in which occupations, or under what conditions. A portion of the audience is measured, and employment is measured separately, but those who create, perform, research, produce, teach or manage culture remain obscured.
Accessing, creating and being recognised
Article 30 brings together related, though not equivalent, obligations. States must adopt measures to ensure that persons with disabilities have access to cultural materials in accessible formats; to television programmes, films, theatre and other activities; and to theatres, museums, cinemas, libraries, tourism services and, as far as possible, monuments and sites of national cultural importance.
The same article requires that they be able to develop and utilise their creative, artistic and intellectual potential, not only for their own benefit, but also to enrich society. It adds that intellectual property legislation must not become an excessive or discriminatory barrier to accessing cultural materials and mandates the recognition and support of specific cultural and linguistic identities, including sign languages and Deaf culture. It also regulates leisure and sport, although this text focuses on culture.
The Convention does not reduce persons with disabilities to the status of visitors, audiences or recipients of services. It also recognises them as creators and participants in cultural life. This reading must be connected with Article 27, on work and employment: the ability to create does not, in itself, guarantee access to training, recruitment, resources, exhibition circuits or technical and managerial positions.
In Spain, regulatory progress has been made regarding access as an audience member, although its implementation is not uniform. Law 6/2022 expressly incorporated cognitive accessibility into general legislation on the rights of persons with disabilities. Royal Decree 707/2026, which develops its basic conditions and enters into force on 2 January 2027, imposes measures such as easy-to-read information, alternatives to written information and accessible signage for certain state- or autonomously-managed cultural centres. It also distinguishes between easy-to-read, clear language and simple language: they aim to improve comprehension, but they are not interchangeable formulas. I analysed this in greater detail in "Cognitive accessibility: what changes in Spain from 2 January 2027".
The change in criteria is significant. It is not sufficient to enter a museum or reach a hall: a person must be able to orient themselves, comprehend essential information and utilise services with autonomy. An additional difficulty arises with digital and interactive works. The accessibility of the building does not resolve that of the interface, the instructions, the interaction or the content. The guide on the accessibility of a digital or interactive work addresses this layer from the perspective of design, assembly and documentation.
Directive (EU) 2024/2841 adds a tool for mobility. It creates the European Disability Card and the European Parking Card to facilitate, during a short stay in another Member State, a person's ability to prove their status and access the special conditions or preferential treatment offered there, including in cultural services and activities. States must transpose it before 5 June 2027 and apply its provisions from 5 June 2028. The card does not replace accessibility policies nor does it guarantee that a service is understandable or usable; it reduces a barrier of recognition between countries.
The gap is in cultural work
CULTURABase obtains its cultural employment figures through a specific exploitation of the Labour Force Survey for certain economic activities and occupations. The National Statistics Institute, meanwhile, publishes the Statistics on the Employment of Persons with Disabilities. In 2024, it recorded 1,941,500 persons aged between 16 and 64 with a recognised disability: 687,500 active, 560,400 employed and 127,100 unemployed. Their employment rate was 28.9%, compared to 69.7% for persons without disabilities; the unemployment rate was 18.5%, compared to 11.2%.
These data show a general labour gap, but the public tables consulted do not allow for the isolation of the cultural sector. We do not know with sufficient precision:
- In which cultural occupations persons with disabilities work.
- What proportion works on a self-employed or employed basis.
- What differences exist by sex, age or type of disability.
- What barriers appear in training, recruitment, mobility, rehearsals, production and exhibition.
- How many persons leave the sector or fail to enter it.
It is advisable to formulate this limitation with precision. The absence of such cross-referencing in the published tables does not demonstrate that administrations lack all information, nor that the operation is statistically simple. The sample may prove insufficient for certain breakdowns, and confidentiality mandates the avoidance of identification. It does demonstrate, however, that with the public information available, the presence of persons with disabilities in cultural work cannot be evaluated on a stable basis.
Article 31 of the Convention mandates the collection of appropriate information, including statistical and research data, to formulate policies, evaluate compliance and identify barriers. It also requires it to be broken down and disseminated where appropriate, with guarantees of confidentiality, privacy and data protection. Linking cultural employment and disability does not add an extraneous issue to the anniversary: it connects the right to create and participate with the obligation to verify whether that right can be exercised.
There are programmes, projects and recruitment initiatives that support the creation or employment of persons with disabilities. These may open pathways, test adjustments and reveal that many barriers attributed to the individual stem from work organisation or the environment. They are not sufficient, in themselves, to substantiate a comprehensive policy. Measurable objectives, budgetary continuity, access mechanisms, the participation of those affected, monitoring and evaluation would be required.
Counting hires is not enough either. What matters is freedom of creation, training, access to resources, presence in technical and managerial positions, the ability to circulate and exhibit, working conditions and professional recognition. An institution may improve accessibility for its visitors while remaining inaccessible as a workplace.
Measure to be able to demand
A meaningful commemoration of the twenty years would be to publish a stable cross-reference between cultural employment and disability. A total figure would not suffice. The information should be broken down as far as statistical quality and data protection allow, its methodological limits explained and repeated with a frequency that enables the observation of changes. When a sample does not permit sufficient detail, other avenues compatible with privacy should be studied, such as the controlled integration of administrative records, specific modules or periodic research.
The Ministry of Culture and the National Statistics Institute already produce the two general foundations of the issue: cultural employment and the employment of persons with disabilities. The outstanding task is to make their intersection visible. This data would not resolve inequality, but it would allow for the identification of barriers, the orientation of resources and the evaluation of whether the measures adopted produce any effect.
The Convention shifted the framework from which culture must be judged. Accessibility is not a concession and cultural participation is not limited to consumption. Persons with disabilities have the right to access, create, work, decide and be recognised within cultural life.
Spain has reinforced its obligations regarding physical, digital and cognitive accessibility. In terms of access as creators and workers, the assessment is more difficult because public data that would allow for the measurement of their presence, their conditions and the barriers is lacking. As the twentieth anniversary of the Convention’s adoption approaches, that absence can no longer be treated as a technical detail. If we do not know who can enter the cultural sector, remain in it and develop a career, we also do not know to what extent the rights recognised by the Convention are being fulfilled.
About the open conversation
This text distinguishes between the content of the regulations, the available data and my interpretation. It does not constitute legal advice. If you work in accessibility, in a cultural institution or are a person with a disability who engages in cultural activity and you wish to clarify a piece of data or discuss this reading, this notebook remains open: write to me.
The author's relationship to the cases
There is no financial, professional or collection relationship with the individuals, companies and institutions mentioned.
Sources
- United Nations, Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
- United Nations, background and adoption of the Convention on 13 December 2006.
- Instrument of Ratification of the Convention by Spain, BOE No. 96, of 21 April 2008.
- Act 6/2022, of 31 March, on cognitive accessibility.
- Royal Decree 707/2026, Regulation on basic conditions for cognitive accessibility.
- Directive (EU) 2024/2841 on the European Disability Card.
- Ministry of Culture, CULTURABase: cultural employment.
- National Statistics Institute, Statistics on Disability in the Labour Market, 2024.