WIREDGOV

Arts Council England, Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Arts Council of Wales and Creative Scotland yesterday announced disability-led charity, Attitude is Everything, as the standards supplier for All In, the UK wide access scheme for creativity and culture. 

All In aims to remove the barriers faced by D/deaf, disabled and neurodivergent people when booking and attending creative and cultural events. Attitude is Everything will be responsible for developing a set of sector-wide standards for theatres, galleries, museums, libraries and other creative organisations that sign up for the scheme. 

These new standards will complement existing best practice, guidelines and frameworks, including the charity’s own UK government endorsed Live Events Access Charter, and help provide consistent high-quality experiences for disabled audiences. 

Attitude is Everything will initially focus on four areas of work:  

• ​​​Improving the built environment in and around venues including removing physical obstacles and providing better access
• Making digital communication with disabled audience more accessible, usable and inclusive
• Working with customer services so that venues and events give a warm welcome to everyone
• Building in access to commissions, events and programming at the ideas, budgeting and development stages

This announcement is the latest stage in the development of All In which builds on the success of Hynt – Wales’ access scheme for theatres and arts centres – and the findings of their impact report which showed that more than three quarters of Hynt card holders felt being part of the scheme improved their access to culture. 

All In is set to pilot in autumn 2024, ahead of a national roll-out in 2025. 

Darren Henley, Chief Executive, Arts Council England; Roisín McDonough, Chief Executive, Arts Council of Northern Ireland; Dafydd Rhys, Chief Executive, Arts Council of Wales; and Dana MacLeod, Executive Director of Arts, Communities, and Inclusion, Creative Scotland say:

“We are so pleased to welcome Attitude is Everything on board as the standards supplier for All In to help us achieve a consistent experience across the sector for D/deaf, disabled and neurodivergent people when visiting venues in the UK. It will be a continuation of their brilliant work in championing industry access standards in music and live events spaces.”  

Andrew Miller MBE, UK Arts Access Champion for All In yesterday said:

“By introducing the UK’s first accessibility standards for creativity and culture, All In will provide the sector with a baseline in excellence for meeting the needs of disabled people, covering everything from content warnings to appropriate language and expectations around physical access. Through our standards, we are aiming for a consistency of quality in access and customer service that I believe will be a game changer for both disabled audiences and the cultural sector. Attitude is Everything have significant credibility in this field, and I welcome their experience at this crucial stage of development for All In.” 

Celia Makin-Bell, Managing Director, Attitude is Everything:

“Attitude is Everything is delighted to have been asked to develop the standards and accreditation for the UK-wide All In scheme. This is a truly groundbreaking project to support the creative and cultural sector to provide accessible experiences that disabled consumers can trust and enjoy free of disabling barriers. Attitude is Everything has been supporting the UK’s music and live events sector since 2000 as a disabled-led charity, so this project enables us to lend our supportive ethos, solutions-based approach and wealth of experience to the wider sector. We look forward to working with the four nation Arts Councils, industry stakeholders and disabled people over the year ahead on this exciting scheme.”