“If we are not in the spaces, people don’t realize that there are people with disabilities. We need to be here”, says the employee of Unicamp's Center for Integration, Documentation and Cultural Diffusion (CIDDIC), Nicole Somera, who on the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, December 3, held a conversation about her book, entitled “The artist with disabilities in Brazil”, in the lobby of the Cesar Lattes Central Library.
“A quota employee”, she makes a point of adding, pointing out that inclusion mechanisms are fundamental to overcoming barriers placed on people with disabilities in social life. Enabling access to training and work spaces, says Nicole, is what makes the demands of people with disabilities clear. From there, there is the possibility of supplying them, because they are recognized. “The demand bubbles, but the demand exists from the moment we are in the space, when there are ways to enter the space”, she assesses.
Bill 6.159/2019, sent to the National Congress by President Jair Bolsonaro precisely during the period of the year in which the issue of disability is being discussed, is criticized by the employee. One of the points set out in the text, which was formulated as another regulation of the 1991 Quota Law, provides for the release of companies from hiring people with disabilities, which would be possible upon payment of a fine. “I can say for a large number of people with disabilities that, for these people, it is more important to be there, to be able to move around, and not just receive money for an absence”, says Nicole.
In university spaces, she analyzes that both quotas for public competitions and the voluntary adoption of quotas in postgraduate programs are policies that are allowing the gradual inclusion of these people. This does not mean, however, that these measures are sufficient. Public competition legislation, for example, indicates that up to 20% of vacancies must be allocated to candidates with some type of disability. However, competitions in which there are only one or two vacancies are common, especially in the case of teachers. In this case, there is no way to reserve places.
Art and disability
The book written by Nicole is the result of her dissertation, defended at the Unicamp Arts Institute in 2008. Why make the results of research carried out more than 10 years ago a book? Because few things have changed, she explains. In relation to artistic consumption, for example, Nicole observed that there are very strong barriers to access and that many of these obstacles persist.
“The street is still a very hostile environment, which makes it difficult for people to reach art places. When enjoying shows and exhibitions, people sometimes do not have a tactile experience, which is essential for those with visual impairments. And also in access to information, getting information that there is a show or an exhibition with accessibility resources that she can go to, is a problem. Not knowing is a difficulty that continues to this day”, he analyzes.
Regarding the circulation of art produced by people with disabilities, Nicole observes that there is a dissemination in a specific field, which is a subfield called by the author the “field of inclusion”. “When this artistic production goes into the established artistic field or goes to the media, it is framed as social work, as a hobby or as therapy, it does not have the status of art”.
Regarding her experiences, she realizes that they are very different. Artists from eight artistic groups were interviewed, with different types of disabilities, from different regions of the country and with different types of trajectories. There were people whose families encouraged entry into the artistic field, while others who suffered from a disincentive. “Deaf people, for example, reported their family saying 'how can a deaf person make music?'”.
Different experiences between having or not having access to education were also reported by Nicole, who interviewed everyone from the sisters who called themselves “As ceguinhas da Paraíba” and used art as an instrument of begging, to artists who managed to follow academic training and use their bodies diverse as an art instrument, although this last case is placed as an exception.
Accessibility in CIDDIC
Working to alleviate some of the problems faced in accessing art, Nicole created and coordinates the Accessibility Resources Project for CIDDIC's cultural productions. Accessible entrances, receptionists to take you to seats and indicate services are some of the points focused on. In operas, in addition to subtitles and audio description, lectures were held before the show in which they explained what the sets, costumes and details of the play were like, so that during the opera the audio description could focus on enjoying the show.
