© Delta Formation
With PRISM, the Networking, Innovation and Support Programme for Creative Professions, our mission is to stimulate, support and strengthen the development of the creative and cultural industries in Valais, in order to multiply their economic impact and success. Rather than producing a new comprehensive guide, our goal is to gather, catalogue and consolidate existing resources, documents and best practices to enrich these valuable initiatives on inclusion and give them additional visibility.
After publishing this work (below), we will focus on identifying the interests of cultural venues and stakeholders in moving forward to the next stage. Our objective will be to connect these venues with companies and associations that offer solutions, approaches or resources tailored to their ambitions. Our goal remains to create connections, build networks and develop projects with stakeholders who want to move forward and those who offer solutions… because, of course, technology alone is not enough; people remain at the heart of our approach.
The common goal is to ensure that cultural venues can welcome everyone in the best possible conditions. We have chosen to launch the initiative in the performing arts sector, with the valuable collaboration of the Théâtre Les Halles in Sierre.
How can we improve accessibility
to the theatre?
To make theatres and, by extension, cultural venues such as concert halls, concert venues, conference centres, etc. increasingly inclusive, we believe it is important to start by assessing the services and infrastructure already in place. It is very likely that many small actions and habits are already well established in the theatre. Of course, it is also essential that all members of the team are involved in the process, from administrative staff to management and teams on the ground.
The following four elements can serve as a starting point:
- Training and awareness: Regular staff training is crucial to ensuring that everyone receives an appropriate welcome. Various training courses are available, such as those offered by ProCap la HES-SO, CEP Formation in Lausanne, and the Swiss Museums Association. These sessions cover topics ranging from welcoming people with disabilities to specific support techniques in general.
- Real-life experience: an effective way to ensure accessibility is to invite people with disabilities to enjoy the theatre experience and gather their feedback. It is essential to listen to those affected and not simply imagine what would be good for them. Don’t ‘do for’ but ‘do with’, as expressed in the slogan ‘nothing for us without us’. People with disabilities are the best experts to consult.
- Communication: To break down preconceptions such as ‘going to the theatre is too complicated for me’ and make access easier, it is important to communicate directly to the target audience that the plays and events are tailored to their specific needs. It is also important to communicate clearly about what is accessible and what is not, as people with disabilities all have different needs.
- Disability awareness: To better understand the experiences of people with disabilities, tools such as Eyeview, ViaOpta and psynap6 are available, which simulate visual impairments or dyslexia, for example. However, it is crucial to note that disability simulation can have limitations and ethical concerns, particularly with regard to the playful aspect and the risk of creating a fake experience.
In other words, to make our Valais theatres more inclusive, it is essential to first assess the current situation, train and raise awareness among staff, invite people with disabilities to share their experiences, communicate and use awareness-raising tools, while remaining aware of the limitations of disability simulation.
Moving forward, we quickly realised that a multitude of best practices and initiatives could easily be implemented to ensure everyone feels welcome and to promote inclusive representations.
In order to better understand the challenges and measures to be taken, we suggest examining the six stages of a spectator’s customer journey and detailing relevant solutions that the theatre can implement for spectators with disabilities.
Customer journey and existing solutions
Find general information
Provide as many details as possible about the location to enable the person with a disability to prepare for their visit:
- Publish photos of the establishment, including exterior and interior views, on its website and related social media accounts.
- Provide a video explaining how to get to the performance venue.
- Describe the route from the nearest bus stop/train station to the theatre and parking options.
- Use pictograms on all media (website, social media, paper documents) to provide information on accessibility.
- Group information about reception and accessibility in a dedicated section that is clearly visible on the website.
Provide as much information as possible about the evening/performance:
- On your website, provide detailed information about what happens once visitors arrive (go to the ticket office, choose your seat, wait for the doors to open, etc.).
- Clearly indicate what types of accessibility measures are planned for the show, and that anyone can contact staff to report a need or obtain further information.
- Indicate whether the show contains intense lighting (e.g. strobe lights) or special lighting effects.
- Indicate whether the show contains scenes of physical/psychological violence or addresses topics that may be offensive to some people.
- Communicate via auditory and audio-visual channels as well
- Design brochures and programmes in PDF format that can be read on screen readers.
Optimising your website:
- Adapt your website to the specific needs of users (colour blindness, dyslexia, etc.). For example, with the software Facil’iti
- Indicate the accessibility of your establishment for people with reduced mobility via Google Maps and register on paramap or zugangsmonitor.
- Make your website accessible to people with disabilities by using a language that is easy to read and understand (FALC), and use simple, non-discriminatory language:
- Configuration possible via ChatGPT
- Discover more tips here
- Apply WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) standards
- Check the accessibility of your website for free with:
Ideally, the website should be tested by people with disabilities, particularly to ensure that the site architecture allows voice readers to find information.
Book and pay for your place
Remember to:
- Highlight contact details (telephone and email) and the hours during which to call to facilitate contact in case of need, questions or special requests.
- Add a comment field to the form to enable private dialogue and make it easy to communicate requirements.
- Proposer d’offrir une place à la personne accompagnante ou même des tarifs à choix, en indiquant le tarif recommandé
- Book tickets for institutions or associations with the option to release unsold tickets one week before the performance.
- Accept provisional bookings
- Offer a payment terminal with raised keys, not just a touchscreen terminal.
- Accept reservations online, but also by other means such as email, telephone, text message or at the counter.
- Provide a seating plan with recommendations for the best seats, so that you can, for example:
- read the actors’ lips
- be in front of the person signing the document
- have good reception of the magnetic loop
- easily accessible by wheelchair
- be close to the exits
Being welcomed at the theatre
Remind employees of some best practices:
- Talk directly to people with disabilities, not to their carers.
- Ask if they would like help before doing it for them.
- Talk to people with hearing impairments by looking them in the face, with good lighting, so that they can read your lips.
- Don’t hesitate to write (on a piece of paper or your smartphone), mime or draw during a conversation with a deaf person.
- Intervene if persons with disabilities are treated inappropriately
- Accept the presence of assistance dogs in all areas of the theatre.
- Inform that someone from the theatre is available to answer any questions.
Adapt the layout of the venue as much as possible:
- Provide adequate lighting to facilitate lip reading.
- Provide a quiet space that is accessible at all times.
- Organise mentoring schemes to support those who want it
- Avoid heavy doors or leave them open.
- Be able to explain and describe precisely where the different spaces are located
- Put up appropriate signage:
- wheelchair access
- guidance lines – tactile and visual markings on the floor (advice available here)
- height suitable for a person in a wheelchair
- use pictograms
Suggest some documents:
- At the entrance, provide an introduction or summary of the play to facilitate understanding.
- Suggest documents:
- written in large print, FALC or Braille
- with a strong visual contrast
- Provide an easy-to-understand map of the premises
- Consider that all documentation should be easily accessible for people in wheelchairs.
- Propose a communication keyring to facilitate communication (pictograms used as communication aids)
Waiting, breaks, catering
Consider:
- Offer the opportunity to enter the room first
- Make the audience aware that all reactions are legitimate (loud laughter, moving around, leaving the room, etc.). Once the public not affected by disability is informed, reactions of misunderstanding disappear. Furthermore, the absence of pressure leads to a much quicker return to calm.
- Check traffic areas and ensure that the venue is wheelchair accessible.
- Also provide low tables, not just high tables, with and without chairs to leave space for wheelchairs.
- Plan sufficiently long breaks depending on the length of the performance.
Experience the performance
Remember to:
- Provide noise-reducing headphones.
- Offer the opportunity to experience the play in ways other than sight, for example through listening via audio description or whispering, or through touch via a sensory tour before the play.
- Leave doors open to allow spectators to exit easily if they need a break or to leave.
- Take inspiration from RELAX/RSA-labelled representations.
Going home
This last step is also part of the experience. Here are a few suggestions for action:
- Offer daytime performances to make it easier for people to attend and return to work or school.
- Inform guests that someone from the theatre is available to answer any questions (opening times, calling a taxi, etc.).
- Organise mentoring schemes
- Organising travelling plays: theatre moves into institutions, outdoors, etc.
Swiss organizations
It is, of course, essential to provide a non-exhaustive list of Swiss associations active in this field that offer services, training, advice or a community:
- Ecoute voir whose mission is to promote access to the performing arts for audiences with sensory disabilities (audio descriptions, sign language interpretation and surtitles)
- Be My Eyes who brings together a community of volunteers who respond to calls from visually impaired people to describe their situation when needed. An option based on artificial intelligence is also being developed.
- Forom Ecoute, The Fondation romande des malentendants (Romandy Foundation for the Hearing Impaired) provides a list of places equipped with magnetic loops and can come and test them.
- Swiss Federation of the Blind and Partially Sighted (SBV/FSA), which offers training and awareness-raising and develops tools.
- Swiss Federation of the Deaf (SGB-FSS) and the lexicon (dictionary) for sign language in French-speaking Switzerland
- Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired (ABA) and its Centre for Competence and Accessibility (CCA) for awareness raising, training, advice, etc.
- Swiss Paraplegic Association, whose actions are focused on a single goal: the complete inclusion of people with spinal cord injuries.
- Zugangasmonitor, the portal providing information on the accessibility of establishments and event venues for people with disabilities
- A-cube, the association for people with autism collects best practices, interesting events, etc.
- 1001 Feuilles offers advice on improving accessibility for people with mental disabilities or intellectual differences.
- Procap, a mutual aid organisation that aims to safeguard, promote and uphold the interests of people with disabilities in social, economic, professional, legal and societal matters.
- The canton of Vaud provides a directory of cultural inclusion service providers.
- Architecture sans obstacles list numerous services available for barrier-free construction, visual and tactile guidance, determining contrasts, adaptations, etc.
- Vision positive is here to train, advise and support you in making all your content accessible to everyone.
- The art of inclusion aims to make culture accessible to people with visual impairments, deafblindness and anyone else who is interested.
- Regards Neufs aims to provide access to film culture for people with visual or hearing impairments.
As you may have noticed, the first solutions highlighted above are not necessarily technological or technical. We believe that for the first two stages of the customer journey, such solutions are not essential. From the third stage onwards, more advanced solutions may prove useful as a complement. We have identified a number of these, specifically for cultural service providers and venue managers. You can find them via the ‘Further information’ link below. This document also lists the various guides and initiatives that exist on the subject.
Of course, this guide does not list all existing solutions or best practices. We would therefore be delighted to receive your ideas and suggestions, as sharing is greatly encouraged in this collaborative endeavour.
