DARCI Conference

We are delighted to announce that in September 2025 we will be hosting the Conference on Disability, Accessibility and Representation in the Creative Industries (DARCI) at the University of York (UK).

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction
Keynote Speakers
- Raymond Antrobus
- Prof. Hannah Thompson
Pre-conference Workshops
Deadlines
Types of Registration and Fees
Conference Roles
- Conference Committee
- Reviewing Committee
Contact
Links

Introduction

Wednesday 10th September – Friday 12th September 2025

School of Arts and Creative Technologies, University of York, York, UK

The arts are central to human experiences. However, lack of access to creative and cultural experiences, and to creative practice marginalises disabled people, and limits their representation. Moreover, most work on accessibility still occurs outside of the creative and technical workflows involved in creative productions, limiting opportunities for transformative collaborations among creators, accessibility experts and disabled audiences.

The Conference on Disability, Accessibility and Representation in the Creative Industries (DARCI) welcomed contributions that approach research and practice in the fields of disability, accessibility and representation from diverse perspectives. We received submissions from all areas of the creative industries, including theatre, film, television, music, gaming and interactive media more generally, as well as those linked to heritage and other cultural sites. We are currently reviewing the submissions and will notify authors by end of February.

The conference will take place from Wednesday 10th September to Friday 12th September. Wednesday will be dedicated to pre-conference workshops and other events, whereas Thursday and Friday will be full conference days with a variety of activities.

Large building with lake in front of it.

Keynote Speakers

Raymond Antrobus

Title: An Investigation of Missing Sound

Antrobus has described himself as an ‘Investigator of Missing Sound’, what does that mean to him and how might it apply to his, and potentially, our, writing lives?

Raymond Antrobus is the author of three poetry titles: The Perseverance (Penned in the Margins), All The Names Given (Picador) and Signs, Music (Picador). Antrobus’s poems have been added to GCSE syllabi, and his poetry has won the Ted Hughes Award, the Somerset Maugham Award and the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award. In 2019 he became the first ever poet to be awarded the Rathbone Folio Prize for best work of literature in any genre. He is also the author of two children’s picturebooks, including Can Bears Ski? (Walkers Books), which became the first story to be broadcast on the BBC entirely in British Sign Language. Antrobus is an advocate for several D/deaf charities, including Deaf Kidz International and the National Deaf Children’s Society. Antrobus was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2020 and appointed an MBE in 2021.

Prof. Hannah Thompson

Title: The Sensational Museum: Disability Gain and the Journey from Access to Inclusion

The Sensational Museum is a 27-month AHRC-funded research project which runs between April 2023 and July 2025. Underpinned by specialisms in design, digital heritage, disability studies, psychology, public history, and professional experience in the heritage sector, TSM rejects the ‘look and learn’ approach that has influenced both how museums construct and store collections information and how this information is communicated to audiences.

In this plenary, project PI Professor Hannah Thompson will present the project’s key findings and argue that the project’s focus on ‘Disability Gain’ and the resulting progression from ‘access’ to ‘inclusion’ can offer a blueprint for the cultural sector more widely. The project is grounded in action research and co-creation with industry professionals. We worked with a range of museums across the UK, to create environments where no one sense is necessary or sufficient for a fulfilling museum experience. Rather than providing additional accommodations for workers’ and visitors’ specific needs, we explore how institutions might embed inclusive designs and content into everything they do, meaning that every museum visitor and professional can trust that the museum will be accessible to them.

This sector-transforming multisensory challenge raises a critical question – how do we unpick millennia of ocularcentric bias whilst still maintaining visitor and practitioner trust? Our solution builds on the theory of ‘Disability Gain’, recognizing that disabled living, and adaptations developed for and by disabled people, can enhance the experiences of everyone. TSM aims to put disability at the centre of all aspects of practice – from collections management and curation to exhibition design and education – and use what we know about disability to change how everyone engages in a museum. Thompson will present the theoretical underpinnings behind the Sensational Museum project, before exploring some of the project’s outputs and discussing the impact on TSM lessons learnt for the cultural sector more broadly.

Professor Hannah Thompson (Royal Holloway, University of London) is a partially blind academic and activist. Her research focuses on the intersections between Critical Disability Studies and French Studies and she has published 3 monographs and numerous papers on nineteenth-century French literature. Hannah is currently working on creative audio description in museums, art galleries and theatres and her notion of ‘blindness gain’. She was Production Consultant for the Donmar Warehouse’s installation BLINDNESS in 2020 and worked with a range of theatres and audio describers during her AHRC 2021-2 EDI Fellowship ‘Inclusive Description for Equality and Access’. In April 2023 she became PI on a £1M AHRC-funded grant The Sensational Museum which aims to ‘use what we know about disability to change how museums work for everyone.’ Hannah writes about her place as a partially blind academic in a resolutely sighted world in her blog Blind Spot.

Pre-conference Workshops

Joel Snyder: Audio Description: If Your Eyes Could Speak
Elizabeth Kuti: Making Inclusive Audio Drama
Michelle Duxbury: Creative Audio Description Through an Exploration of the Landscape Beyond the Visual
Petra Kuppers: Planting Disabled Futures: a Community Performance/Virtual Reality Experience
Benny Shakes: Blue Badge Bunch
Andrew Lansley: Reshaping Representation: Music, Accessibility, and the Power of Collaboration
Ouassima Bakkali Hassani: Exploring Audiovisual Translation: The Art and Techniques of Subtitling

Deadlines

~~Abstract submission deadline: 4th November 2024 5pm UK time~~.

Notification of outcome: By end of February.

Final submission deadline: 11th July 2025 5pm UK time.

Registration opens: 10th March 2025

Early Bird Registration closes: 30th June 2025 5pm UK time

All registrations close: 8th August 2025 5pm UK time

Types of Registration and Fees

In person
Standard Early Bird (before 1st July 2025)	£170
Standard (after 1st July 2025)	£200
*Concessionary Early Bird	£85
*Concessionary (after 1st July 2025)	£100
Virtual
Standard Early Bird (before 1st July 2025)	£120
Standard (after 1st July 2025)	£150
*Concessionary Early Bird (before 1st July 2025)	£60
*Concessionary (after 1st July 2025)	£75