The 2012 Summer Paralympics opening ceremony was held on 29 August 2012, starting at 20:30 BST and marking the official opening of the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London, England. The show, named Enlightenment, had Jenny Sealey and Bradley Hemmings as its artistic directors, leading a team that included Jon Bausor as set designer and Moritz Junge as costume designer. Queen Elizabeth II officially opened the Games. The ceremony was performed in the Olympic Stadium in London in front of a capacity audience of 80,000 people.

Students from local schools who are part of the get set network were part of the under-16 cast. These include Millfields Community School in Hackney, Eastlea Community School in Newham and Trinity School in Barking and Dagenham. A total of 110 days of rehearsals took place in Dagenham. The ceremony had an adult volunteer cast of over 3,000 people, along with over 100 children and over 100 professional performers. Among the professional performers were 73 deaf and disabled performers and among the volunteers were 68 people with disabilities. In the build-up to the opening ceremony, an eight-week circus skills training programme took place at The Circus Space in Hoxton, London, and was run by 50 specialist performers. Participants included professional artists and many people who were new to the arts scene, such as soldiers undergoing rehabilitation and non-competing disabled athletes. The programme was funded by Arts Council England, and was part of the Enlightenment section, performing on a 35-metre high platform above the stadium floor.

Stephen Daldry commenting on the ceremonies of London 2012 noted that "if Danny Boyle's [Olympics opening ceremony] was very much about two revolutions and popular culture and Kim Gavin's [Olympics closing ceremony] was very much about a symphony of British music, then what you will get from Jenny and Bradley is something very different." Daldry also stated that "there will be an extraordinary number of disabled performers in the cast." Sealey introduced Stephen Hawking, the "most famous disabled person alive", as a narrator focusing on science and culture of the 18th century. As with the 2012 Olympics opening ceremony, The Tempest featured heavily and the character Miranda from the story starred in the ceremony, being the eyes for the audience. Sealey said that the character "sees everybody but she doesn't judge. That is fundamental to our personal and political ethos," adding that it is "fundamental, [that] you look without judging. It's about removing those attitudinal barriers." Sealey said that it was pure coincidence that she and Hemmings had chosen a line from the same play that was used by Boyle in the opening ceremony of the Olympics. "When we found out Danny Boyle was going to reference Shakespeare's The Tempest we burst out laughing." Hemming, when comparing the Games to the Large Hadron Collider, said that the LHC "transforms our perception of our place in the universe in the same way that the Paralympics transforms our perception of what's possible," while Sebastian Coe said that the ceremony would be a "great showcase of the skills and excellence of disabled artists."

Sealey and Hemming were determined to "pay tribute to the contributions that science has made to the able bodied and impaired alike." The pair approached Hawking in late 2011, who was adamant that he would write his own part. Hawking commented on his role that "to use this stage to show the world that regardless of differences between individuals, there is something that everyone is good at, is very important." Sealey and Hemming worked closely with Hawking to develop a series of messages for the ceremony and spent time with him in Cambridge; Hemming said Hawking had been "incredibly gratified with him giving his time." Sealey said that although the ceremony has Hawking and Ian McKellen narrating, "what we all need to remember: don't just look down at your feet, look at the stars, be curious."

The programme was attended by the Queen's grandson Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge, David Cameron, the Prime Minister, with his wife Samantha Cameron and by the Mayor of London Boris Johnson.

Foreign dignitaries included :

Before the ceremony at 20:12 local time a flypast by Aerobility took place. Aerobility are a British charity that trains disabled people to become pilots.

"We live in a universe governed by rational laws that we can discover and understand. Look up at the stars, and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see, and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious."