Workshops encourage accessible arts organisations
4 June 2010 Communication is a key factor when it comes to accessibility. That’s the message from Philip Patston, the facilitator of Arts For All workshops in Wellington, Christchurch, Dunedin and Auckland. Sara Bunny, who attended the workshop in Christchurch, reports.
How would you assist a visually impaired person to experience a painting, or a Deaf person to enjoy an orchestra?
Arts Access Aotearoa, in partnership with Creative New Zealand and local councils in Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin, recently held workshops with creative organisations to encourage discussion on ways to be more accessible to disabled people.
An Auckland workshop, to be hosted by Auckland City council, is scheduled for Monday 14 June.
Held as an informal platform for brainstorming and sharing perspectives, the workshops followed on from the 2009 publication Arts for All: opening doors to disabled people, an in-depth study carried out in conjunction with Creative New Zealand.
Importance of attending arts events
About 17 percent of the population reported that they experienced disability in the 2006 Statistics New Zealand Survey. According to a survey by Arts Access Aotearoa, 74 percent of respondents said that attending arts activities and events is “very important” or “important” to them, with only 4 percent indicating that attending arts events is “not important”.
The workshops were facilitated by comedian Philip Patston, a well-known figure in the disabled community and self-proclaimed “gay, ex-vegetarian social entrepreneur”. Patston is also director of Diversity New Zealand and Diversityworks Trust.
Philip, who prefers the term “uniquely functioning” rather than disabled, artfully drew ideas out of an initially reserved crowd with his easy manner and thought-provoking statements.
In Christchurch, a variety of creative industries attended the workshop, including The Court Theatre, Isaac Theatre Royal, Christchurch Art Gallery and Canterbury Museum.
Suggestions from the crowd included space-age chairs that absorb sounds and vibrations to assist the hearing impaired; arts organisations increasing the font size of signage; and asking disabled people for their opinions on facilities.
Others spoke of developing an audio system that describes an artwork in detail; software with visual elements triggered by sound; and sculptures and models that all visitors would be encouraged to touch.
Making it more genuine
Any one of us could leave the house today, get hit by a bus and experience a difference in function, Patston said. “Think of things you would like yourself, rather than just in terms of disabled people. This makes it more genuine.”
Court Theatre front of house manager, Laura Reeve, analysed her organisation’s accessibility to present a case study at the Christchurch workshop. As a starting point, she walked around the theatre and took note of the width of doorways and rises in the floor.
“The Court really is an accessible theatre. Everything is on the one level. There are hearing loops in both spaces and wheelchair-allocated seating. Of course, there are difficulties to accessibility even with systems in place,” she said. “We would love to have access for more disabled patrons but we simply don’t have the room.”
Reeve said The Court had recently collaborated with Deaf Aotearoa New Zealand for Sign Language Week. “The Court held a special signed performance of Glorious. The feedback was fantastic. These were patrons that would never normally come.”
The book Arts for All highlights the benefits to arts organisations of attracting a new and “relatively untapped” audience. From an economic perspective, “more diverse, and therefore larger, audiences are good for your box office and bank balance”.
Communication the key
Philip Patston believes communication is a key factor when it comes to accessibility. It is much better to tell people about your organisation’s access rather than wait for them to ask, he said. Or even worse, to get there and find out they can’t get inside.
“Until you communicate, you’re not showing that you recognise this is important,” he said.
“You don’t have to label people as disabled or whatever. You really just need to talk about what they need. If people need a hearing loop, they don’t have to be labelled as ‘the Deaf people’. They just need a hearing loop.”
The benefits of being accessible
Jooles Clements, Senior Advisor, Audience Development at Creative New Zealand, said the workshops were not about ordering people to make changes. “The difficulty is when you insist that people must be accessible they fight against it. The purpose of this is to show people that there’s a huge amount of benefits to doing it.”
Patston talked with participants about making small sustainable changes as a starting point to build from. “This area can be pretty large and overwhelming. It’s important to remember that you don’t have to do everything at once but you’ve got to start somewhere. Do small things and the bigger stuff becomes less difficult.”
Arts for All includes a list of “ten things you can do now” and “ten things you can do over the next five years”. Checklists, information sheets and templates are available here.