State of Theatre Access Report

In 2016, VocalEyes published the State of Museum Access 2016 report presenting the results of an audit of UK museum websites: based on the premise that a lack of access information contributed significantly to lower attendance among disabled people. It cited evidence that disabled people rely on pre-visit information far more than non-disabled people; using a venue’s website is a vital step in the decision-making / planning process.

The absence of useful access information lowers people’s confidence that barriers to access will be addressed at the venue itself, and they may change their mind about visiting, feeling excluded from the venue’s target audience.

Today, in collaboration with Stagetext and Include Arts, we are publishing State of Theatre Access Report 2017 V1.2, which applies the same principle and audit methodology to theatres across the UK. Our researchers visited the websites of 659 professional theatres, all of which programme performing arts, auditing their access information, and any mention of access services or resources. We omitted from the survey amateur, school and college theatres, and those whose programming was predominantly music, film or comedy.

The report gives a breakdown of how these figures vary across the UK nations and regions, and provides an introduction to each type of access service, information about resources and alternative formats, a checklist for developing your theatre’s access information together with useful links.

‘Making sure that useful information about access is clearly available is a great indication that a venue takes this seriously, and that you’ll be welcome. It’s great to see that so many theatres are doing this. Let’s make sure that the figure is even higher in two years’ time, and that even more people are able to enjoy what theatre has to offer.’

Cassie Chadderton, Head of UK Theatre

Download the PDF sample policy