Audience member perspectives on We Deserve to Work , a disability theatre project

Despite strong business case indicators, people with intellectual disabilities experience persistent inequity in the workplace. With a desire to enact social change by sharing lived experience and addressing ableist structures within disability employment, a self-advocate led disability theatre project in British Columbia, Canada was created and performed. This article explores audience member evaluations, asking: “What was the impact of the theatre production, We Deserve to Work - a theatre for social change project - on the participating audience members?” Informed by critical disability studies and disability justice theory, qualitative descriptive methods were utilised to identify themes across audience member evaluations. The thematic findings highlighted impact across a number of areas, including (i) transformed perspectives on disability, (ii) identification of ableist systems and structures in the workplace, (iii) the potential of inclusive employment, and (iv) theatre as a vehicle for activism. The audience experience and subsequent evaluations affirm the potential of disability justice-oriented theatre to shift perspectives and create social change.