Accessible Arts

Arts Council of Northern Ireland, 06 October 2010,Northern Ireland

The Charter aims to identify and reward arts venues that have gone the extra mile to make access improvements for people with disabilities. Organisations can apply to be formally assessed by the Charter, or can carry out self-assessment.

ADEC is a partnership initiative between the Arts & Disability Forum, Open Arts and Adapt NI, developed with National Lottery funding from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.

It was developed to enhance the quality and effectiveness of services for disabled people. The Charter goes beyond looking at compliance, such as wheelchair access, to look at an organisation's policies; employment practices; participation; and programming to examine to what extent arts organisations are accessible to deaf and disabled people.

Lending her support to the initiative, Fionnuala Walsh from the Arts Council said: "Northern Ireland has a higher percentage of disabled people than anywhere else in the UK and Ireland; yet disabled people remain amongst the most marginalised in our society.

"Therefore the Charter provides an excellent way for arts organisations and venues to begin to tackle this by thinking about how they can best provide for disabled audiences, participants, employees and artists."

ADEC is calling for arts venues to apply for assessment before the deadline of 11/11/2010. To date, a number of organizations have already applied to assess how they measure up to the Charter, including the Waterfront Hall and Ulster Hall; Struel Arts Centre in Omagh; the Grand Opera House; and the Island Arts Centre in Lisburn.

One of the partners, Caroline Shiels from Adapt NI, commented: "The organisations going for the inaugural assessment have been working with the Charter for a while and are helping us shape it as a measuring tool that will not only help to recognise and reward good practice, but will also help us research what is going on in terms of disability equality in the arts and provide learning to share with others."

Kate Ingram, Open Arts, said: "The great thing is that this is in recognition of much more than whether you can get your wheel chair into the building - it looks at how the organisation enables people to participate in arts and in decision making in the arts organisation too. It really is helping us all work towards a truly inclusive society."

Chris Ledger, Arts and Disability Forum, added: "It'd be a good idea for all venues to get hold of the Charter information and see how they measure up, even if they don't send it in for formal assessment until further down the line. The Charter Framework is a tool for checking where you are at. It sets out clear actions that can be put into the arts venue's Disability Action Plan."

Organisations may use the ADEC framework for self assessment (free of charge) or formal assessment (£100). Any organisation that wishes to apply to the framework should contact Brenda Kent, Arts and Disability Forum on 07764 182 966; email charter@adf.ie.

Alternatively, if you would like to volunteer to assess the applications, you can apply to take part in the assessment panel. Volunteers need to have direct experience of disability or access issues. Full training is provided.

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