“Reunião”: A performance based on Legislative Theatre for disability rights

In December 2025 the Lisbon pilot of INSPIRE hosted “Reunião” ("Meeting"), a co-creation project directed by Inês Cóias and Mia Meneses, curated by Diana Niepce. This event brought together artists, activists, and partner organisations in a space for dialogue and reflection on the community of people with disabilities. Inspired by legislative theatre, “Reunião” proposed a collective practice that questions policies, representations, and social barriers, creating new paths for inclusion and the transformation of cultural practices.

In this blog, the INSPIRE team reflect on Reunião, its significance, impact, and legacy.

1) What is Reunião about and why was it important?

“Nothing about us without us” is a slogan stemming from the disability rights movement that has been a recurring theme since the inception of our pilot in Lisbon. It speaks to the need for self-representation when aiming to break through the ceiling of mainstream discourse and practice in our societies. As such, it is particularly significant for people who experience multiple forms of inequality and marginalisation.

The Lisbon pilot “Reunião” - literally, “Meeting” in Portuguese - shed light on the too-often-unheard voices of people with disabilities. We engaged three young female performers with disabilities - Diana Niepce as curator, and Inês Cóias and Mia Meneses as artistic directors - who designed an event based on the Legislative Theatre method. The aim was to focus on disability rights and to call on individual and collective advocates, alongside local and national institutions, to build alliances around key struggles and commit to action.

The event took place on December 5^th in Lisbon. On stage, two performers with disabilities, joined by four participants with disabilities, shared and reenacted stories of daily oppression. In the audience, around 170 people attended and took an active role in the Theatre. Between stage and audience, a range of violated rights took shape as common ground for formulating proposals for legal and policy change.

2) How was the event experienced by both performers and attendees and why did it matter to them?

The event developed around the identification of key issues affecting the daily lives of people with disabilities in Lisbon and Portugal more broadly, ranging from working conditions and housing accessibility to mobility, transportation, and independent living. These issues were identified through a co-creation process that involved social and political actors over previous months, as well as through the sharing of personal stories by performers and participants. Ultimately, a set of proposals was agreed upon and further elaborated with the support of three national experts on disability.

Overall, the proposals addressed the main issues raised during the event. Among others, they included:

1.      Strengthening accessibility in mobility and transport through mandatory multi-format communication, as well as stricter licensing and enforcement mechanisms;

2.      promoting inclusion in work and education through reinforced mechanisms and compulsory disability-focused curricula;

3.      addressing housing issues by proposing mandatory accessibility standards in public and private developments;

4.      ensuring professional training on accessibility in universities and public administration;

5.      and expanding adequate funding of the Independent Living Support Model in training and personal assistants, along with the decoupling of personal assistance from means-testing, and a clear shift away from any form of institutionalisation.

The energy in the room was likely fuelled by a mix of surprise at the format, growing awareness of the issues at stake, hope in political commitment, and genuine empathy among all present. Emotions ran high throughout the three-hour performance, culminating in a powerful closing moment when pathos peaked and many attendees expressed gratitude for having been there altogether.

3) What were the key calls to action and takeaways from Reunião?

We learned a great deal from this event and from the co-creative work undertaken so far. The research team and performers made a significant effort to build a solid partnership with relevant actors throughout the process, who generously shared their time, concerns, and calls to action. Likewise, we worked to secure political commitment through the engagement of local and national institutions.

Beyond the final proposals, several key takeaways stand out:

1.      The combination of art and policy change through Legislative Theatre proved extremely powerful, reaffirming the potential of arts-based methods for participatory and deliberative practices.

2.      Intersectional inclusion requires varying degrees of commitment from a wide range of actors, and it is the only way to achieve meaningful results.

3.      This is only the beginning: while remaining committed to self-representation, we, at the Institute of Social Sciences in Lisbon, will continue to support our comrades in advancing these proposals and scaling them up whenever possible.

4) What does Reunião mean for INSPIRE?

Our work involved deep immersion in understanding the many blockages, barriers, and, ultimately, axes of oppression experienced by people with disabilities. As researchers without disabilities, we did our best to step into this complex set of issues in a safe space with the performers and the other participants. In this context, our engagement would have been difficult to sustain without the support of the INSPIRE team and the continuous exchange of knowledge with the other pilots.

We believe that what we experienced in Lisbon goes beyond action research and beyond any boundary between work and daily life. Above all, INSPIRE gave us the opportunity to humanise our understanding of inclusive and intersectional participation, and our comrades gave us the chance to transform humanised research into new friendships and potential alliances.

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