If you’re looking to improve your accessibility, offer more access performances, promote your existing access offering, or just want to have a chat about best practice, there are loads of great organisations and resources for you to call upon. Here’s a list of a few we recommend:
Attitude is Everything
www.attitudeiseverything.org.uk
020 7383 7979
A disability-led charity who support both nonprofit and commercial organisations in making what they do more accessible and inclusive for D/deaf and disabled people. Crucially, they publish a State of Access Report every two years, examining the barriers faced by D/deaf and disabled people when trying to book tickets. In 2018, they started the Ticketing Without Barriers Coalition (of which Spektrix is a proud member), working towards a unified vision for what best practice means when it comes to facilitating access booking.
Stagetext
www.stagetext.org
020 7377 0540
A D/deaf-led charity who provide captioning and live subtitling services to theatres and other arts organisations to make their activities accessible to people who are D/deaf, deafened or hard of hearing. They also offer training in best practice around captioning, advertise captioned shows, and offer D/deaf awareness training.
VocalEyes
www.vocaleyes.co.uk
020 7375 1043
VocalEyes work to increase opportunities for blind and partially sighted people to experience and enjoy art and heritage. They provide audio description services, as well as advertising audio-described events and offering training and consultancy for theatres, museums, galleries, and other cultural venues.
Signed Culture
www.signedculture.org.uk
01925 710 561
Signed Culture supports and promotes British Sign Language (BSL) access to the arts in the UK, offers consultancy to organisations establishing and evaluating the services they’re offering to Deaf patrons and participants, and lists upcoming BSL interpreted events and activities.
A Guide to Theatre Access
www.accessibletheatre.org.uk
This website aims to give you a step-by-step guide to working on captioned, audio described, and British Sign Language (BSL) interpreted performances at your venue. Knowing how much there is to learn about working on captioned, audio described and BSL interpreted shows, Stagetext, VocalEyes and Signed Culture worked together to develop this online toolkit to guide you through the process.
Euan’s Guide
www.euansguide.com
0131 510 5106
Euan’s Guide is a digital charity that aims to make it easier for disabled people to find accessible places to visit and events to attend. As well as offering online reviews by disabled people, for disabled people, the site allows you to promote your access performances under your organisation’s listing.
Nimbus Disability
www.nimbusdisability.com
0330 808 5108
Nimbus is a disability-led Social Enterprise which provides disability-related advice and support to professional organisations. They offer a wide range of training and consultancy services and are also the creators of two national schemes: CredAbility Quality Assurance, which allows organisations to promote themselves as a better provider and/or employer for disabled people, and the Access Card.
Access Card
www.accesscard.org.uk
0330 808 5108
Nimbus Disability's Access Card is a nationally recognised scheme, providing cards which quickly and discreetly offer information about the support a person may need, which can be used to show eligibility for things like concessionary ticket prices, free Personal Assistant tickets, accessible seating, and complex reasonable adjustments.
Hynt
www.hynt.co.uk
01446 401 744 (Hynt team) or 0344 225 2305 (applications hotline)
Hynt is a national access scheme that works with theatres and arts centres in Wales to make sure there is a consistent offer available for visitors with an impairment or specific access requirement, and their Personal Assistants. Alongside their card scheme, they also maintain listings of all accessible performances, as well as providing up-to-date access information to help with customers to plan their visit to a venue.
Inclusive Cinema
www.inclusivecinema.org
Inclusive Cinema is the Film Audience Network (FAN)’s UK-wide project to support film exhibitors in welcoming everyone to participate in cinema, by countering cultural, systemic or physical barriers. They celebrate meaningful representations of diversity behind the camera, on screen and in audiences, working towards the BFI (British Film Institute) Diversity Standards.
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If you have any further questions regarding where you should direct your queries, or if you have a contact or resource you think we ought to know about, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with the Spektrix Support team.