Over the past few months, Lincoln Arts Centre has joined arts organisations across the country in exploring what anti-ableist practice could look like in real terms, not as a policy document or one-off training session, but as an ongoing cultural shift and commitment to continuous improvement and learning.

The programme brought together organisations including the National Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company, Headlong and Derby Theatre to share practical ideas, challenges, and reflections around disability, access, and inclusion led by People Make It Work and Ramps on the Moon.

One quote stayed with us throughout:

“It’s like they were expecting me, even though they didn’t know I was coming.”

That feeling, of arriving somewhere and instinctively knowing you belong, became a powerful way of thinking about what genuinely inclusive spaces should feel like.

The programme challenged us to think beyond compliance and towards culture. Accessibility cannot be something added at the end of a process or treated as a special adjustment. It must become embedded into how organisations think, communicate, design spaces, programme work, recruit staff, and welcome audiences.

We heard repeatedly that anti-ableist practice is not in opposition to artistic ambition or quality. In fact, many artists described how embedding access into their creative process made their work stronger, more inventive, and more playful. Captioning, audio description, British Sign Language, relaxed environments, and flexible working were not described as compromises, but as creative opportunities.

Perhaps the biggest takeaway was that meaningful change is rarely about one grand gesture. It is about hundreds of smaller decisions made consistently over time: changing the language we use, questioning invisible barriers, redesigning processes that exclude people unintentionally, and creating environments where people feel safe to ask for what they need.

For us, this work is ongoing. There is still much to learn, improve, and embed. But the ambition is clear: to help create a cultural sector where access is not an afterthought, but simply part of how things are done, where inclusion becomes inevitable rather than exceptional.

We’re very proud to be a member of the second ever Ramps on the Moon Change Programme, and we’d like to thank Ramps on the Moon and People Make It Work for the opportunity to embed anti-ableist practice in our organisation.