This dissertation analyses the representation and negotiation of disability and access within Scotland’s cultural institutions. Whilst inclusivity has become steadily more central to the state mission of public galleries and museums, access measures are nonetheless often treated as supplementary afterthoughts, confining disability to the realm of education and outreach, rather than finding space within an institution’s core curatorial mission. By addressing a significant gap in research of disabled audiences in the arts in Scotland since 2003, this dissertation studies the intersection between institutional policy and the lived experience of gallery visitors, workers, artists, and curators. Employing qualitative methodologies, this research is based on original, semi-structured interviews with five key cultural practitioners in Scotland, including directors, artists, and community engagement leaders. Thematic analysis of their testimonies and engagement with the literature forms the basis of the argument. This dissertation posits that a meaningful shift from a compliance-based model to one of ‘creative access’ requires a radical reimagining of institutional habits. It argues that durable disability access emerges not from top-down mandates, but from relational, dialogical processes that treat disabled perspectives as an essential source of curatorial and aesthetic knowledge. The first chapter traces the structural marginalisation of disability that has coincided with the ‘educational turn’ in curation. Chapter Two analyses successful case studies from Edinburgh’s Fruitmarket Gallery and Dundee Contemporary Arts, illustrating how creative access can be embedded in curatorial practice. The final chapter addresses the challenge of sustainability, exploring how individual expertise can be translated into lasting policy and synthesising participants’ visions for a reimagined, authentically accessible gallery. Ultimately, this dissertation identifies a pathway for moving disability from the margins to the centre of curatorial practice.