The rich and diverse collections museums hold, display and interpret, give us a sense of what society values and what it chooses not to value. For too long material related to the lives of disabled people has been buried in the buried in the footnotes. Cabinet of Curiosities: using museums to challenge disablism will explore how the material evidence, the history and experiences of disabled people which are part of museum’s collections can be used to engage the public in a reassessment of widely held assumptions surrounding disability and to challenge deeply entrenched negative and discriminatory contemporary attitudes towards disabled people. The session will explore how museum can re- present their collections to give more informed rights-based understandings of disability.
The session will raise questions of how museum & heritage collections can be used to inform contemporary social issues.

This session is based on research undertaken by The Research Centre for Museums and Galleries (RCMG).

Jocelyn Dodd is Director of RCMG (Research Centre for Museums and Galleries), School of Museum Studies, University of Leicester.