Arts Council of Wales is today encouraging venues and arts organisations to respond to a consultative survey on plans to create a UK wide access scheme to support D/deaf, disabled and neurodivergent audience members. The closing date for responses is 10 December 2022.
The proposed scheme is being developed in partnership with the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Arts Council England, the British Film Institute and Creative Scotland. It intends to support and compliment the work already carried out by existing Sector Support Organisations, ticketing providers and creative and cultural organisations, while seeking to address an inconsistent and fragmented approach to access.
The survey, which is hosted by Arts Council England (so available in English only), asks for opinions on proposals for how the scheme could work including provision for:
- A digital membership scheme for audiences and organisations, which allows members to sign up and provide details of their access needs once, without having to repeat themselves each time they visit a new venue
- A membership database that ticket booking systems can integrate with, allowing members to automatically apply their access needs at the point of booking, facilitating the distribution of companion tickets and other accessible seating
- A website with interactive listings of accessible spaces, events, and performances
- A knowledge hub of training, resources, and guidance for creative and cultural organisations to support them in developing a more inclusive experience for disabled visitors
- A newly developed set of best-practice standards for the creativity and culture sector relating to digital access, events and programming, customer service and more - areas where visitors often encounter barriers to engagement
The survey is open to all creative and cultural organisations in the UK, with a particular focus on ticketed organisations. It is designed to capture the opinions of a broad cross-section of the sector and will run until 10 December 2022. It will be followed-up by holding sessions with selected organisations to allow greater exploration of some of the responses.
The access scheme project is being guided by an Advisory Group comprising of 15 D/deaf, disabled and neurodivergent members from across the UK, and is independently chaired by Sam Tatlow MBE, Creative Diversity Partner at ITV.
The research and development stage has included valuable input from focus groups, and consultations will continue throughout the process to ensure the voices, experiences, and needs of D/deaf, disabled and neurodivergent audience members are integral to the development of the scheme.
Arts Council England will work in collaboration with ticketing providers and creative and cultural organisations to make sure any scheme that is created can be adopted by as many venues as possible. Further sector-focused consultations on the scheme will be conducted as the project develops
Additionally, there will be further collaboration with Sector Support Organisations to develop training and learning resources to make sure creative and cultural organisations have the very best advice around access.
Any proposed scheme will be piloted with the creative and cultural sector before any wider launch to audiences.
You can contribute to the survey by clicking here.
END 29 November 2022