This article focuses on the access that human beings have to the performing arts in contemporary Sweden by taking a point of departure in project DoT (Delaktighet och Teater; English: Participation and Theatre) in which we – the authors and the institutions we are situated within – collaborated between 2012 – 2015. A key issue we raise concerns the direction we see theatre and dance develop, and who (or what) guides such development. DoT ran underthe auspices of (i) Örebro county theatre, (ii) The Swedish National TouringTheatre and the (iii) research group CCD, Communication, Culture and Diversity (previously at Örebro University, Sweden and since 2016 at Jönköping University, Sweden). Project DoT was supported by the national Kulturrådet (English: The Swedish Arts Council). Based upon Sweden’s national cultural policy goal that every citizen should have access to professional performing arts, one of DoTs primary goals, was to focus upon and involve a highly marginalized group in the context of theater i.e. users of Swedish Sign Language, STS (Svenskt TeckenSpråk) in the multiple roles of audience, co-creators and initiators of cultural projects. A broad support in Sweden for such a goal is based on the idea that a society-for-all includes culture-for-all. Örebro county theatre operates as part of such a cultural political system. Issues regarding diversity and culture, including linguistic heterogeneity and identity-positionings (gender, functionality, ethnicity etc.) from a critical social, humanistic perspective is focused within the CCD research group (see www.ju.se/ccd). Furthermore, CCD has unique competencies in the domain of DS, Deaf Studies. Its DS focus was a pioneering effort in Scandinavia in the 1990s and constitutes one of its strong area of research expertise internationally. Within the framework of the regional development project DoT, our common interests allowed us to go beyond the binary divisions that the deaf professional as well as academic fields are marked by in Sweden (and internationally). 

In this article we discuss the salient challenges we encountered during our work in project DoT and particularly highlight how changing the parameters of the meeting places and conditions for participation allowed for fostering the development of new forms of cultural expression and performativity. Here issues related to identity and language became relevant for many people – deaf, hard-of-hearing and hearing in ways that were unexpected and complex. We illustrate the challenges that we faced during this highly stimulating joint journey and, in so doing, contribute to a conversation with regards to the strengths and weaknesses of the politics of culture and the politics of equity in the nation-state of Sweden. Issues regarding (i) gender, transgender identity or expression, (ii) ethnic affiliation, (iii) religion or other systems of belief, (iv) human beings’ differences and similarities on a continuum of functionality, (v) sexual orientation or (vi) age – became salient for the work we developed across the three-year period within DoT. These issues constitute fundamental dimensions framed within Swedish law and policies that it has given rise to regarding equity and discrimination. The article introduces how we continue this focus within the Think-Tank DoIT, Delaktighet och Inkluderings Tankesmedja (English: Participation and Inclusion Think Tank) that was initiated in early 2016.