Portuguese language, like all languages that derive from Latin, is highly genderized. This is a cultural aspect that needs to be identified and, for the sake of a more equal and balanced society, reformulated. If, in English, doctors, teachers, and ministers are, quite rightly, human beings regardless of the gender they identify with, in Portuguese, médicos, professores, ministros are masculine plural names, with the norm dictating that the masculine plural includes all genders. This problem extends to all areas of society and certainly has negative, limiting and determining implications for the future of people and communities.

Fortunately, more and more people and organizations are showing the lucidity and audacity to undertake change and, therefore, an evolution by combating discrimination in language and in collective life.

Acesso Cultura, or Access Culture, is a Portuguese cultural association whose mission is to promote physical, social, and intellectual access to cultural participation. The promotion of an inclusive language is one of the many commendable fronts of action of this association.

Acting through capacity-building actions for professionals in the cultural sector and the general public (https://accessculture-portugal.org/capacity-building/), debates on accessibility with the responsible authorities, and practical analysis and advice on spaces housing art and culture, this association of visionary and committed people is succeeding in getting the cultural sector to finally and gradually open up to everyone.

There are still situations in which visiting Portuguese monuments or museums can lead to feelings of exclusion due to the inaccessible, and even elitist, language; the precarious visual communication, which is unclear and lacking an obvious concern for the function it should fulfil; the lack of appealing resources promoting interaction as much as inclusion; and the general distancing of culture from the people who, in reality, cannot always fully experience it. I have felt this myself in the past, for instance, on field trips for subjects such as Art History or Design Theory. If the aim is to communicate art, the communication strategy must consider all audiences, especially audiences who move in areas of knowledge far removed from the subject in question, or in no area other than that of everyday life—arduous and despotic in terms of time.

Access Culture provides a valuable list of theatres with accessible programming in Portugal, which can be found here: https://accessculture-portugal.org/network-of-theatres-with-accessible-programming/ . The association is one of the founding members of a network comprising national, municipal and private museums with programmes conceived especially for people with dementia and their caregivers, the Mid—Museums for Inclusion in Dementia Network: https://accessculture-portugal.org/museums-for-inclusion-in-dementia/.

Today, concerns about accessibility are much more present. There is a greater awareness that all people have an equal right to participate in culture and in public life. People with specific accessibility needs have, in various cultural spaces, resources at their disposal for a more complete participation. A more satisfying participation. Still, universal access as a priority is far from satisfactory.

Much of this evolutionary path is being forged thanks to civil society, which is vital for a more harmonious and more just community life. It is often civil society that keeps us moving forward, leaping over, and overcoming obstacles to human flourishing. Associations and guilds and collectivities hold power, as much power as the people they are made of. There is affection implicit in these ideas and in this dedication. There is affection in mobilising elements of the civil society for the benefit of some, which is to say for the benefit of all. Access Culture is, indeed, a compass towards equality.

For more information about Access Culture: https://accessculture-portugal.org/. 

Cláudia Gomes Oliveira

1 January 2024