David Hevey is the CEO of Shape Arts and the Project Director of NDMAC

As a filmmaker and photographer, David has worked in the media for several decades, across film, television, the arts, heritage and digital media. David became epileptic at the age of 14, which, he says, led to him being excluded from school and taking up work in a factory. Growing up on a council estate as part of a large working-class family, his interest in class and identity politics was ignited early.

He has been using art and the media as a vehicle for social change ever since, producing work which challenges the perceptions of those living on the margins of society

In the 1990s, David worked with Sian Vasey at Criptic productions and made the Poor Dear series that heavily criticised charities working for the “benefit” of disabled people. Later, David worked for the BBC’s Disability Programs Unit, during which he reported on many disability rights campaigns and produced the landmark history series The Disabled Century (1997). He also directed three films for the acclaimed BBC series, Modern Times, and has written, produced and presented on a number of other programs. He is the author of The Creatures Time Forgot: Photography and Disability Image, which explores the representation of disabled people in the media, and has sold thousands of copies since its publication in 1997.

He was integral to the success of NDACA and NDMAC and has made a lifetime commitment to Disability heritage, arts and culture