Baby steps to making shows more accessible
Latest Arts Council data shows that 10% of National Portfolio Organisation’s audience members identified as disabled in 2018/2023. A recent small scale study by Indigo Share of 85 organisations showcased the barriers that disabled audience members face including:
Only 9% of disabled respondents reporting that booking systems fully allowed them to state their access needs
52% of disabled respondents citing suitable seating not being available as a reason they were unable to attend an event or venue
39% of disabled respondents stating that they did not feel confident that their accessibility needs would be met when first visiting a venue (with 38% reporting being unable to attend an event due to this concern)
Everyone deserves access to arts and culture, and a huge barrier to entry for disabled individuals - before they’ve even bought a ticket - is inaccessible venues. This article aims to offer a starting point for reviewing key access considerations for a venue and other small steps to improve the accessibility of a show. It’s not an exhaustive list - don’t worry we’ll have more articles about other areas to improve inclusion soon! The aim here isn’t to be perfect but to give you small, manageable steps to improve your knowledge in accessibility in the cabaret sector.
Ensuring a show is accessible often starts with picking the venue, but as Andrew Miller, Art Access Champion for All In, points out no venue can ever be fully accessible. People will all have individual access needs which in some cases could be conflicting. For example, while low lighting might be an access need for those with light sensitivity or neurodivergent conditions, bright lighting might be an access need for someone who is visually impaired. This doesn’t mean a producer shouldn’t do everything to ensure that a venue - and a show more widely - is accessible to all audiences, cast and crew. Furthermore, accessibility goes beyond just physical access to a venue but as this is such a wide ranging topic it will take a few articles to cover it all!
As the latest data showcases that access guides and physical access are key barriers we’ll start there.
Access Guides
The first thing I’d recommend checking is whether the venue has an access guide. They shouldn’t just mark a venue as “inaccessible” or “accessible” - specificity matters! For example, not all individuals with mobility needs will be full-time wheelchair users, so if there are 3 steps into the venue this needs to be acknowledged so that individuals can make an informed decision based on their own needs.
Access riders can be created by viewing the space, or, where budget allows and you want to be especially thorough, there are also organisations such as Attitude is Everything who can offer consultancy. (Attitude is Everything also has a Live Events Access Charter you can sign up for, as well as wealth of resources for organisations and disabled artists)
Some items an access guide should definitely include are:
Address (including what.three.words location)
Nearest accessible public transport (maybe even do a short video of the journey from the stop/station to the venue)
Accessible entrance (Is this the same as the main entrance? If not, what do people need to know in order to find and use it?)
Accessible toilet
Lift access/ stairs/ ramps
Any particular areas of note (e.g. uneven floor by the bar area)
Access guides can also include information on lighting, size of doorways and hallways etc. It’s unlikely that an initial access guide will cover everything, and it’s okay to build it up over time as new issues or improvements happen to the venue. Producers for a show should have a named contact that they can get in touch with if audience, cast or crew have any questions which aren’t included in the access guide.
Additionally, information on the content, structure, and etiquette of each show will also be helpful:
Can people arrive late?
What are the planned timings for the show - is this subject to change?
Will there be an interval and for how long?
Is there a quiet room?
Any content advisories, flashing lights or audience interaction?
Any other access provisions that are available?
This information should be shared widely with audience, cast, and crew - it can be pinned on an Instagram page and added to the show’s website (especially if the show uses the same venue consistently).
As a small step forward, shows listed on Cabaret Central are asked to provide minimum information regarding access available at the venue and other provisions available. It is available directly on the listing page so audiences do not need to hunt for the information on the venue website.
What if the venue is really inaccessible?
A key reason for creating access guides is to make any accessibility issues clear, so that those who need to be aware of them can make informed decisions about their attendance or involvement with an event. As such, they may highlight major accessibility issues. Perhaps the venue is in a speakeasy that requires a flight of stairs to get to? Or an intimate venue has an accessible toilet which cannot fit a wheelchair? Maybe there is a lift, but due to how old the building is it breaks down often?
These considerations don’t just apply to an audience. I implore producers to make sure the venue is accessible for an audience and cast/crew. It’s all well and good for the seating area to be accessible for the audience, but if there are steps up to the tech box or dressing room this means the show is going to be unable to allow for full representation in its production.
The easy option is, of course, to ask the venue to fix the accessibility issues or you won’t work with them/ attend an event there but decisions are rarely this easy. And this article isn’t intended to point fingers at those who work with inaccessible venues. Consider whether the venue might have reasons why they are currently inaccessible. Grade I and Grade II listed buildings often have to jump through more hoops to make changes, the venue might be struggling financially or, the venue might be ‘legally’ compliant but have not so obvious flaws which they’ve not considered before. Certain rural areas might also not have a range of venues available but a keen local audience ready to come to shows.
For producers, when making a decision about working with an inaccessible venue, I’d invite them to think about the following: Can you support the venue to make changes or find compromises? In the immediate term, this could involve asking for small changes to improve the accessibility of the venue. Over many years of working on access requirements, I’ve often found that what’s needed to make somewhere more accessible can be really simple and cheap. Could you, for instance, ask that the lift which often breaks is checked the day before the event to ensure it works, and ask for clear signage that it should only be used by those who need it. For longer term issues, ask what support the venue needs to make the changes. This might involve inviting donations from audiences to help fundraise for building renovations to make the venue more accessible in the future, or even signing a petition to the council to allow the venue to make the changes.
Reasonable Adjustments
Under the Equality Act it is a legal requirement to make reasonable adjustments to support disabled individuals who are coming to an event. The contract that performers and crew are on will determine whether there is a legal duty to accommodate them, but, for the purposes of this article I’m going to assume that producers will make reasonable adjustments for cast and crew regardless of their contractual position - sometimes best practice goes beyond legal compliance.
Performers and crews should have their access requirements noted by the producer. If you are a performer, you may be interested in creating an access rider to help simplify this process. Producers can ask about access requirements as part of a casting call form - though this cannot be used as a reason to not cast someone. Or if a producer is directly booking someone, this information can be requested at the same time as checking the performer's fee and tech requirements. Audiences should also have an easy way to disclose access needs when booking - either by making this an option when booking a ticket or having a clear contact that people can get in touch with.
A key thing to note with reasonable adjustments is that they need to remove or reduce the barriers (if you’re not sure, ask the disabled person what they need!), be practical and affordable to implement, and not harm the health and safety of others. This means that what a performer, crew member or audience member asks for initially might not be possible for the producer or the venue, due to budget, practicality, or for health and safety reasons. However, the producer and the venue should always try to find a compromise. For example, the performer may request a quiet room when there may not be space in the venue for this. The producer and venue could instead set a quieter end of the dressing room, and/or ask all performers to be mindful of noise levels. It is vital to include the disabled person in reasonable adjustment discussions - to ensure that the adjustments will actually be supportive.
Key Takeaways
While accessibility can sometimes seem daunting, there are all sorts of really small and simple ways of ensuring a venue is as accessible as possible to disabled individuals:
Create an access guide
Include specific access information about any accessibility flaws e.g. stairs
Consider other reasonable adjustments or universal design you can implement for the show
Make the access guide easy to view on social media and websites
Provide a contact email for audiences to request access support / answer questions
Work with the venue to provide pragmatic and effective reasonable adjustments
If necessary, work with the venue to improve their overall accessibility in the longer term.
The key takeaway is considering accessibility for everyone involved in the production as early as possible, and to continue learning over time and being adaptable to what the community needs.
Cici Noir
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Cici Noir (aka the DEI Goth) is a burlesque performer, model and diversity & inclusion practitioner from London. Her diversity and inclusion practice specifically focuses on the performing arts - from working with artists to understand their rights to sensitivity readings for writers.
@cici_noir