The strategic areas of the Culture Strategy 2025, approved in 2016, include “Goal: Culture is accessible to all members of the society and the freedom of cultural expression is safeguarded.
2.2. Objective: All members of the society, including vulnerable groups, youth and minorities are actively engaged in cultural life and have access to cultural infrastructure and resources.
Tasks:
- Support and encourage cultural institutions, organizations and the businesses, including on the legislative level, in order to provide people with disabilities, socially vulnerable groups, refugees, IDPs, residents of occupied territories with the availability of special services (e.g. lower price tickets, free entrance, informational meetings, etc.) and employment opportunities;
- Ensure that cultural infrastructure, new and existing facilities, comply with accessibility requirements for people with disabilities, adopting them where necessary;
- Train the employees of cultural establishments and organizations to develop their skills necessary for communication with vulnerable groups;
- Support cultural establishments and organizations in providing special programmes and materials (e.g. audio-books, books with Braille font, sign-interpretation, subtitles, on-line and digital applications, etc.) for people with disabilities;
- Support the implementation of legal and regulatory mechanisms, creation of a favorable environment and special programmes in order to support the inclusion of people with disabilities in cultural/arts educational processes at all levels of education;
The next step was the preparation of a “Roadmap for Ensuring Equal Participation of People with Disabilities in Georgia’s Cultural and Creative Life for 2017-2018” by the Ministry of Culture and Monument Protection of Georgia in 2017.
This document aims to create the conceptual framework and mechanisms that will facilitate the participation of persons with disabilities in the cultural life of society. The Roadmap is focused on the challenges of accessibility to culture and creativity, cultural education and services by persons with disabilities and contains the list of activities to be carried out by the Ministry in cooperation with relevant authorities (Ministry of Health, Labour and Social Affairs of Georgia; Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia and others) in 2017-2018. The activities provided by the abovementioned Action Plan were planned by the Ministry of Culture and Monument Protection of Georgia, involving various agencies, local or international NGOs working on issues of persons with disabilities, the association of persons of children with disabilities and directly persons with disabilities.
The document reflects the legislative framework regulating the sphere, challenges in terms of the access to culture for disabled persons, the problems of infrastructure adaptation, as well as cultural and arts events, inclusive cultural tourism, inclusive education and employment issues for people with disabilities.
The Roadmap activities have been planned based on the problems identified by the monitoring of the situational analysis/research, quantitative and qualitative data.”
Consequently, the “Action Plan for Equal Participation of Persons with Disabilities in Cultural and Creative Life, 2017-2018” was created.
In 2020, the Law of Georgia on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (6823-rs) entered into force, according to which “the state shall promote the realization of the human rights and fundamental freedoms of persons with disabilities”, including the realization of cultural and intellectual opportunities.
According to the Government Programme 2021-2024 approved in 2020: “Access to culture will increase for the general public, especially the population of the regions, ethnic minorities and people with disabilities, and will promote the development of creative skills of people with disabilities“.
The Ministry of Culture, Sport and Youth funds various projects with the participation of people with disabilities.
In 2023, the Cultural Committee of Parliament prioritized the establishment of a case study group on inclusion of students with disabilities in public and private arts education institutions.
The following objectives were identified:
- To analyse the current situation based on available data and develop an overall picture of the inclusion of students with disabilities in public and private art schools across the country;
- To analyse the process of enrolling a student with a disability in an art school and to analyse in this process, on the one hand, the motivation of the student/parents and, on the other hand, the factors influencing the school’s decision;
- To analyse how the needs of students with disabilities are taken into account in the learning process;
- To identify what physical and social barriers arise in the learning/teaching process;
- To assess the level of competence of teachers taking into account the specifics of working with students with disabilities;
- To develop appropriate recommendations for executive authorities to promote the inclusion of students with disabilities in art schools and their access to better education.
By December 2023, the case study identified a number of important issues. As part of the report, the research team developed important findings and recommendations, with legislative and executive branch agencies identified as the primary recipients.
The aforementioned conclusion of the study group, in accordance with Article 155.8 of the Parliamentary Regulations of Georgia, was submitted to the Culture Committee at the spring session of 2024 and will be forwarded to the addressees of the recommendations.
The case study was conducted with the support of the USAID Public Administration Program.
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