1. Why do you need to engage with underrepresented groups? ‘Hard-to-reach’ audiences and vulnerable groups describe sections of the community that are often considered difficult to involve in the heritage sector. They have historically been underrepresented in cultural participation and find it difficult to access traditional services. Interpretations of culture and heritage have tended to … Read more
1. Definitions Digital exclusion is when people have continuing unequal access, skills, motivation and confidence to use digital technologies (such as smart phones, the internet and computers) that is essential to fully participate in society. Digital poverty is the lack of access to the internet and/or digital technologies to connect to it. Data poverty is … Read more
1. Introduction Accessibility means the degree to which a product, device, service, or environment is available to as many people as possible. When we talk about accessibility we are talking about removing the barriers preventing someone from accessing something. In marketing this translates to our websites, our print or marketing materials and our social media … Read more
1. Introduction Over 11 million people in the UK have a physical, visual, audio, speech, or cognitive disability. By the age of 51, many of us gradually lose the ability to focus on nearby objects. Cognitive disabilities are often undiagnosed. AGE UK estimates that 7% of people over 65 will have late onset dementia and … Read more
A useful guide by VocalEyes on making your presentations more accessible to blind or partially-sighted people. Many of the tips will help make your presentations more inclusive generally, including for people who are not fluent in the language you speak, and people with different learning styles.
While many people will visit an arts venue with a friend or family, it is important to give people access to the information they need so that they can travel to and navigate around the venue independently. This guide by audio-description specialists VocalEyes outlines the key steps to create effective descriptive directions.
The UK Disability Arts Alliance 2021 Survey Report is the first to focus specifically on the impact of the pandemic on disabled people and organisations in arts & culture. The survey reveals an alarmingly fragile cultural environment for disabled people, full of intersectional inequalities. The Survey Report has been compiled by Alistair Gentry and edited by Andrew … Read more
This checklist by Time to Shine, Leeds helps organisations become more age and dementia friendly by removing barriers and making your service more accessible for all older people.
Here Mairi Taylor, Executive Producer of Birds of Paradise Theatre Company, reflects on how they as a company learnt from their mistake of making assumptions about people’s access needs and how they developed a company-wide, universal mechanism to ensure that it would never happen again. You can read the full case study below or download … Read more
Kids in Museums shares their top tips on supporting your staff and volunteers to give a friendly welcome to family visitors.