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Introduction to Accessibility

Dave Carr
Dave Carr
  • Updated

This article is an Introduction to Accessibility and Spektrix. In this article, you’ll find information on the tools in Spektrix that can support your approach to accessibility.

 

What is Accessibility?

Accessibility is integral to ensuring that the widest possible range of individuals have access to the arts. 

Accessibility is crucial to create an inclusive environment for your customers. Customers with access requirements could potentially make up a large portion of your audience.

  • UK: 1 in 4 of the population (approximately 16 million) have access needs
  • Republic of Ireland: 1 in 7 of the population (approximately 1.1 million) have access needs
  • US: 1 in 4 of the population (approximately 61 million) have access needs
  • Canada: 1 in 5 of the population (approximately 6 million) have access needs

We can support your approach to accessibility in two ways:

  • Audience accessibility: Enabling Spektrix users to facilitate the booking, communication and management of access-specific tickets and services, online and in-person
  • Web accessibility: We provide iframes which provide accessible online user journeys in line with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)

We also work with multiple partners including web developers and integrated partner solutions that can help you provide and support accessibility.

You can view more information on the Access Partners page. Alternatively, search the Partner Directory and filter on “Access” to view the partners we work with.

 

Audience Accessibility

The following Spektrix features can be used to support your approach to accessibility:

 

Tags

You can use Tags to identify customers with access needs. 

Customers can self-identify by choosing the Tags which apply to them when creating their accounts online. Customers can create their accounts during checkout or when using a sign up form. 

When using access Tags, your Tag Group must be set to On web. Any Tags On web can only be set up as Normal Tags:

You can then use these Tags to:

  • Power Locks: Make accessible seats only available to customers with certain Tags.


    For example, selling wheelchair accessible seats online to those with a Wheelchair user Tag. You can also lock seats for different access types. Find out more in our article on Selling Accessible Seats online.

     

  • Power Offers: For example, you can build an X for Y Offer to offer free personal assistant/carer Tickets. You can also build other Offers to provide discounted tickets to your access audiences.

     

  • Create targeted communications: For example, using Dynamic Content, you can send different versions of a Pre Show Email based on a customer’s access Tag.


    You can also send a Post Show email to seek feedback from access customers about their visit or experience by including a link to a feedback survey or form.

     

  • Create Customer Groups: Customer Groups can highlight groups of Customers with accessibility requirements in the Sales Interface or Scanning Interface.

    For more information on creating Tags, read Normal and Auto Tags.

 

Info Overlays

You can use Info Overlays to display additional information for any seat. For example, which seats have the best view of a BSL/ASL interpreter, or which seats have step free access. 

In the Sales Interface and online, any seat with information added to it by an Info Overlay will appear as a circle with a lowercase and italicized i symbol:

For more information on how to build your Info Overlay, read How to Create and Edit Info Overlays.

 

Lock Overlays

Lock Overlays can be used to apply Locks to your Seating Plans. You can create multiple Lock Overlays for each Seating Plan, which means you can change which seats are available to general sale on an Instance by Instance basis.

In the Sales Interface, any seat with a Lock Overlay will display the icon for that Lock type. In this example we’re using B for BSL users. When combined with an Info Overlay, you can view the Lock Icon and additional information:

To learn more about Lock Overlays, take a look at How to create and edit Lock Overlays.

 

Instance Attributes

Instance Attributes can be used to indicate accessible performances online. For example, Captioned, Audio Described or Relaxed performances.

  • You’ll need to ask your web developer to use the API to retrieve and display Instances and any Instance Attributes

  • Spektrix Subsites contains pre-built functionality to filter Instances by Instance Attributes and display access icons



    For full details on implementing these tools, take a look at our Recipe card Highlight Access Performances.

 

Web Accessibility

Writing and maintaining required Web Accessibility Statements is the responsibility of your organisation and your web developer. Spektrix is unable to provide any guidance. We can however, advise on the web accessibility of our web integration tools:

 

iframes

All Spektrix iframes meet WGAC 2.1 AA Level Standards for Web Content Accessibility with the exception of the Seating Plan component of the ChooseSeats.aspx iframe. Using the Best Available feature can make the ChooseSeats.aspx iframe comply with WGAC 2.1 AA Level Standards.

 

API

Using the API, web developers have more control over the accessibility of their website, including the Seating Plan. While building a seating plan using the API is technically possible, there are various considerations including resources, added value, and API limitations that are worth discussing first.

Additionally, a seating plan that technically meets WGAC 2.1 AA Level Standards is not by default usable by assistive technology users.

 

Spektrix Subsites

Subsites use iframes, all pages in subsites meet WGAC 2.1 AA Level Standards for Web Content Accessibility with the exception of the Seating Plan component of the ChooseSeats.aspx iframe. Using the Best Available feature can make the ChooseSeats.aspx iframe comply with WGAC 2.1 AA Level Standards.

When creating custom colour schemes on Spektrix Link, it is the your organisation’s responsibility to make sure that these also meet accessibility standards. Use a colour contrast checker to make sure your colour schemes meet accessibility standards.

 

Further Reading

If you’re looking for inspiration on how to set up an online booking journey that empowers access for everyone, take a look at these recipe cards:

To continue learning about Spektrix features which can support your approach to accessibility, take a look at the following articles: