The report drawn up by Laetitia Bernard at the request of former Minister of Culture Rachida Dati attacks the problem of accessibility of disabled workers to culture on all fronts. Announced during the National “Culture and Disability” Commission (CNCH) on July 22, 2025, and awarded in February 2026, the mission aims to correct the obstacles they face.
The measures listed by the rapporteur, six times French disabled show jumping champion – blind – and journalist at Radio France, underline the need to act on several levels: representative, by allowing people with disabilities to project themselves into the cultural professions, sectoral, by adapting the environment, and political, by defining orientations and measures, incentives or coercives, aimed at encouraging the hiring of disabled workers.
At the origin of the ministerial report, a proven imbalance: the rate of workers with disabilities in the cultural field is estimated at around 3% in companies with at least 20 employees, and between 1% and 1.5% for intermittent workers in the entertainment industry, all professions combined. In the cultural civil service, the figure is supposed to be close to the legal threshold of 6% set by the Obligation to employ disabled workers (OETH) applying to employers with at least 20 employees, but their proportion decreases through the hierarchical levels: 46% of disabled agents belong to category C, compared to 0.7% in category A+.
To correct this inequality, the report proposes reducing state aid to private companies in the cultural sector in the event of non-compliance with the OETH, and that this same criterion be considered in the calculation of the variable part of the remuneration of public cultural managers (directors of museums, theaters, etc.). In the private sector, the measure would be associated with the obligation to attach to any request for financial assistance from the State a 5-year plan, presenting the means envisaged to achieve the objective of 6% of OETH beneficiaries (BOETH). The operators of the Ministry of Culture should, for their part, appoint a disability representative in their ranks and develop a plan to improve the employment of BOETH. The results obtained would be used in the calculation of the variable part of their remuneration, with a reduction mechanism in the event of non-achievement of objectives.
The report also proposes provisions relating to working conditions, aimed at combating reluctance on the part of both the employer and the job seeker with a disability. He suggests in particular the establishment of a partnership between the Ministry of Culture and specialized intermediation platforms in order to be able to provide training to employers, encouraging them to systematically detail in their job descriptions the possible equipment and arrangements that can be deployed in their structure. The text also proposes that a position be dedicated to coordinating the specific needs and arrangements of disabled workers, in any team whose workforce is greater than 20 or at least one identified referent.
It is also a question of making art history teaching more inclusive, by mandating the National Institute of Art History, the École du Louvre and the National Heritage Institute, so that they lay the foundations of a multisensory history of the arts, mobilizing all of the senses of students or visitors.
