Disability Arts: from the social model to the affirmative model

I begin this article by developing an argument that disability arts can only be understood in the context of the wider disabled people’s movement, as part of the ongoing struggle by disabled people for equality and inclusion. I suggest that disability arts is characterised by the principles of transgression, resistance and affirmation and is properly regarded as a conversation between disabled people involved in critiquing the oppression required by normalcy. In the second part of the article I explain and outline the affirmative model, a recently-developed theoretical tool rooted in perspectives developed within the disability arts movement.