Ms Clare McLaughlin:

I am a self-employed, socially engaged artist. I thank the committee for the invitation to this discussion on accessibility for individuals with disabilities in arts and culture. I would like to introduce one of the collaborators in my Seen-Unseen art project, Carmen Millar, who is visually impaired.

The area of expertise I bring to this discussion is what I have learned through my art project, Seen-Unseen, which explores access to art for the visually impaired person in the gallery space and elsewhere. Through the project, which began in 2014 and is ongoing, I have collaborated with many visually-impaired people, both nationally and internationally, to make the experience of the gallery space, which is predominantly a visual space, and individual artworks and exhibitions more accessible and engaging for this community.

I would like the committee members to consider for a moment any artwork from the national collection and imagine they are in the gallery where it is displayed. I now invite them to close their eyes and imagine what their experience of this artwork would be like if they could not see it. The average person spends roughly 30 seconds in front of an artwork but during a Seen-Unseen exploration, it can take anything from 30 minutes to an hour to engage with one artwork. We all need to slow down and take time to appreciate in full all that our rich arts and culture have to offer.

I thank the committee members for their time and attention. I will hand over to Ms Millar who will give the committee her experience of art from a visually-impaired person's perspective.