Welcome to Disability Dialogues, a series of conversations with leaders and activists from around the world who are advancing the rights of persons with disabilities. In this series, we will hear from people who are playing a significant role in advancing the disability rights agenda in the global system, in their regions, and at home in their own countries. We will explore success stories as well as challenges. I am your host, Gerard Quinn, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

Gerard Quinn: In previous shows, we heard from experts at the World Bank and the United Nations who shared with us institutional experiences in the international system to include persons with disabilities in social development and to ensure their active participation in economic development, justice and protection in times of conflict and crises.

Today, we shift our focus towards popular culture, the movies and entertainment industries. These are arguably the most powerful vehicles for popularising new ideas and bringing communities with a history of stigma and marginalization into the mainstream and on their terms.

Culture can reflect inequality or be a powerful engine for change. As I have said many times, culture is a vibrant space that helps us frame our realities and imagine the future. It is a space for collective imagination – a vital ingredient for change. It is not for nothing that we have a whole Article in the UN CRPD focused on culture – Article 30. By way of coincidence, my very first appearance as UN SR was to a seminar in Brussels organised by the European Association of service providers on the right to culture. So today I am coming full circle.

Read the full article about disability representation by Gerard Quinn and Keely Cat-Wells at Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.