Guided by the principles of Disability Justice, The Open Access Foundation for Arts and Culture (OAFAC) is a pandemic-era cultural organization that centres care and interdependence within the arts. Our activities set a new cultural standard for accessibility by nurturing creative and justice-oriented accessibility practices that respond to the desires of the most impacted among us. OAFAC addresses the severe underrepresentation of those with lived experience of disability in leadership roles within the visual and performing arts.

Our activities aim to advance representation of disability culture and artistry through disability-led trainings, curation, public engagements, supporting artistic development, exhibitions, performances, educational campaigns, site-specific project development, and cultural competency consultation. By providing educational, training, and mentorship opportunities, OAFAC builds capacity for those in the broader Disability Arts movement to participate in the field on their terms and gain influence within a wider cultural context.

OAFAC’s work takes place online and on the unceded, stolen, and occupied territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), səl̓ílwətaʔɬ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) and Stó:lō Nations, colonially known as Vancouver, BC.

“We cannot comprehend ableism without grasping its interrelations with heteropatriarchy, white supremacy, colonialism and capitalism, each system co-creating an ideal bodymind built upon the exclusion and elimination of a subjugated ‘other’ from whom profits and status are extracted.”

Patty Berne