Disability arts has long been a passion for me.

I’m probably best known as a film director and documentary maker, but I’ve always been inspired by social progression - using art and culture to change the world and the view that the ‘outsiders’ have just as valid a story to tell as everyone else.

I think it comes from being born into a very poor, semi-destitute background and then being diagnosed with epilepsy at the age of 14. I suffered seizures for years before coming across the “social model” - the idea that it is society that has to change, not disabled people. I’ve believed in the power of social change all my life.

The social stereotype of disabled people used to be that they were a group who needed our pity, when actually in my experience it is always outsiders in society who are the agents of change.

I’ve known about the story of the Disability Arts Movement for more than two decades, and I made the landmark series Disabled Century for the BBC back in 1999. The thing about art is that it allows you to be random. You can’t necessarily play football with a disability but anyone can be creative. Art allows people in.

The Disability Arts Movement began back in the late 1970s and involved artists and creatives of all types and backgrounds who broke down barriers resulting in real change for disabled people. It led to the passing of 1995 Disability Discrimination Act and now the story behind the protest movement is being brought to life with the launch of the National Disability Arts Collection and Archive (NDACA).

The movement broke down cultural and class barriers and of course barriers affecting disabled people. It tied art to the rights movement as opposed to it just being something that was squirrelled away in an attic. It harnessed the power of art to achieve social change.

But why are we talking about it now?

Pluralism of identity

I think people had heard of Disability Arts back in the 1980s and 1990s - after all the Block Telethon Protests of 1990 and 1992 when protesters voiced concerns over the patronising way disabled people were being portrayed on television made the BBC news.

But the story of the movement got lost for a while because now we live in a massive news vacuum where important stories can get swallowed up in the massive plethora of daily media we are bombarded with.

Thankfully it’s now a topic of public discussion once again because of the buzz surrounding NDACA and because I think many more people are open to inclusion. We’re seeing the pluralism of identity, where you can be anything and where so-called outsiders have the most interesting stories to tell. In the digital age, you don’t have to please “Middle England” anymore.

Looking back, interestingly it wasn’t perceptions of disabled people in the right-wing press that was the problem during the heart of the movement - rather the depiction of “poor” people with additional needs in charity advertising. That’s where the “Piss on Pity” slogan of the Disability Arts Movement came from.

Since then thankfully we’ve seen a major shift within charities and people are much more empowered now, despite facing adversity. I’m just so pleased that the arts has set a shining example to the rest of society.

Schools can grow through young people learning about movements that inspired social change, like Disability Arts. Through the archive, we’ve collected the heritage story of this inspiring social movement in which people were anything but passive. Remember Mat Fraser drumming alongside Coldplay at the Paralympic Closing Ceremony in 2012? It had a huge impact.

My passion remains to make great art and I want to be remembered for hopefully helping to change society through art. I’m lucky enough to have attracted audiences of millions with the films about disability that I have made and I think that’s a sign that people want society to change and to become more inclusive - whether across the education sector or generally.

The National Disability Arts Collection and Archive not only charts the heritage story of change of the Disability Arts Movement but will carry on growing and continuing to evolve. We hope and believe that it can and will be a tool for social change and global debate moving forward concerning people with disabilities and a myriad of additional needs and this can only be a good thing.

David Hevey is the chief executive of Shape Arts charity and project director of the National Disability Arts Collection and Archive which launches later this year at Bucks New University, with the digital launch happening at the end of this month. It is funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, Arts Council England and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. For more information visit: the-ndaca.org