How Can Heritage Organisations Set Up Disabled People’s Consultation Groups?

What is this advice for?

This advice is for heritage organisations who are looking to develop their understanding of accessibility and inclusion for disabled, d/Deaf and neurodivergent people. This could be in support of their employees, volunteers, visitors, or participants.

In 2024, Historic England commissioned Direct Access to conduct research on the experiences of disabled people in the heritage sector. Their report, published in 2025, highlighted that heritage organisations did not have existing ways to consult with or hear the voices of disabled people.

Building in disabled voices is key to making the right decisions when developing accessibility measures, interpretation, or projects, so that they meet the needs of disabled, d/Deaf and neurodivergent people.

Beyond this, disabled voices are important so that all work in heritage is informed by lived experience and does not accidentally exclude or put in place barriers to participation.

This page looks at how organisations can establish a disabled people’s consultation group and work with them to build disabled voices into their ways of working.

What are the key points?

What is a disabled people’s consultation group?

A disabled people’s consultation group is a collective of people who have expertise through lived experience. They meet to share insights and feedback on an organisation’s current or planned work.

The group should establish terms of reference that outline expectations of members' time commitments and the nature of contributions, as well as a commitment by the organisation to act on their advice.

Groups act as critical friends to heritage organisations. In addition to providing valuable insights into accessibility measures, the interpretation of disability history and heritage, and audience development with disabled people, they should also be involved in wider discussions and decision making. Disabled voices are important across an organisation, not just siloed into speaking specifically and solely about disability.

The group should include a mix of people with different impairments and life experiences, allowing for a wide range of perspectives to be considered. This does not mean that organisations need to ask people to share their medical history or to disclose the details of difficult past experiences.

Heritage organisations should approach different disabled led groups and communities when recruiting members for their disabled people’s consultation group. Disabled people’s organisations, also known as DPOs, would be ideal to approach when putting a group together. They are led by and work with disabled, d/Deaf and neurodivergent people and can advise on how best to reach out and build trust with them. See a map of disabled people's organisations (as of late 2024).

Ideally, the consultation group should meet on site at the location of an organisation, at least some of the time. This lets them give informed feedback on the physical and environmental accessibility of a specific place and point out any issues or barriers.

What are the first steps to setting up a group?

An organisation needs to be authentically ready to work with and hear the voices of disabled people before recruiting a consultation group.

There should be a robust programme of training and consultation in progress across all levels of an organisation, so that everyone knows why the disabled people's consultation group is being convened and what they will help achieve. This doesn’t mean the organisation has to reach a 'perfect' level of understanding before starting a disabled people’s consultation group, but it should have started the work of being an inclusive organisation.

The foundation of this is making sure that organisations understand and embed the social model of disability in all they do. You can start this by reading our introduction page, What Is the Social Model of Disability and How Should It Inform Our Work as a Heritage Organisation?

You can find some recommendations for initial training and resources on our page, Where Can I Find Training and Resources on Disability Inclusion and Accessibility?

Once ready to start recruitment, there are some key steps to take:

• Identify some DPOs or other disabled, d/Deaf or neurodivergent led groups in your area or in areas you deliver work. Let them know you are setting up a consultation group, and ask how best to communicate this to their members
• Set a budget. It is important that people are paid for their time, in recognition of their expertise. Consider paying travel and food expenses as well as an hourly rate, in recognition of the additional cost of living for disabled people
• Develop a template for access riders to establish access needs and how you will meet them, and decide who is responsible for storing and taking action on them. You can find out more about access riders in our resource, What Is an 'Access Rider'? How Do We Produce One for Community Participants?
• Set a timetable for recruitment and initial meetings and then build extra time into it. There will always be barriers in place, even in processes that strive for accessibility and inclusion. Building in extra time allows organisations to discover and tackle these barriers
• Put support structures in place for staff or volunteers who will be working directly with the group. Sometimes there will be challenging conversations around the stigma and discrimination disabled people experience, or disclosures of upsetting experiences. It is important to equip people to both respond appropriately and process afterwards
• Draft a code of conduct for meetings, including listing different ways people can take part and emphasise that disabled voices are the priority. This sets expectations and makes sure there are no unwritten rules

What should be agreed at the first meeting?

The first meeting should set the tone for how the group works going forwards. Have an agenda in advance, and let people know the different ways they can make contributions. You will know from individual access riders what kinds of accessibility measures you need to put in place.

It is a good idea to explore your code of conduct and see if it needs tweaks or additions to work fully for the group. This may take the entire first session, so allocate plenty of time.

Another early conversation should be around setting the terms of reference.

• As an organisation, you need to decide what your aims are.
• Are you going to ask the group to feed into specific documents or plans?
• Do you need to meet at specific times, for example before trustee meetings so the feedback can go directly to the board?
• Does the group want to carry out visits as well as meetings to see things happen on site?

Build a programme around this conversation, but remember the earlier advice and always allot more time than you assume you will need.

Further reading

Disabled people's organisations. Find out more about Disabled People’s Organisations from this comprehensive page from Disability Rights UK