Ways to make live theatre more accessible
Did you know that according to WHO (World Health Organization) there are approximately 466 million people with disabled hearing loss, 123 million people with severe distance vision impairment or blindness, and just over 65 million people need a wheelchair worldwide? These statistics listed don’t nearly include all possible physical disabilities and don’t even mention mental, phycological, or emotional disabilities.
Unfortunately, accessibility slips through the cracks and isn’t given the attention that it needs for those who could really use and would appreciate accessible theatre. Here are some things to consider when thinking about making your theatre and performances more accessible:
How many stairs are in your theatre? Do you have equal ramps? Are they in roughly the same area or are the ramps out of the way and inconvenient?
Do you offer captioning/ASL or audio description services?
Do you have a couple of performances set aside where audience members can walk around as needed? Where the lights are up? Where there are extra intermissions?
How many handicapped stalls are in your restroom? Is intermission long enough to accommodate everyone who needs to use the restroom if there are only one handicap stall and multiple audience members in wheelchairs?
What about parking? How many handicap parking spaces do you have?
Are the backstage and green room areas accessible for cast members? What is the route they have to take to get to the other side of the stage? Again, what is the stair situation like?
Do you have a break room area where people can go if they need to leave the theatre momentarily?
Do you have clear signs to the bathroom, water fountain, etc for those who are not able to ask for directions?
Are all of your performances in the evening or do you have matinees too?
Are babies and children allowed? If not, why not?
There are a lot of things to think about when thinking about accessibility in the theatre. Members of my immediate family fall into the following groups: hard of hearing, vision impaired, MDD (Major Depressive Disorder), and GAD (Generalized Anxiety Disorder). Members of my extended family fall into the groups already listed plus the following: deaf, wheelchair-bound, Asperger syndrome, single parent, and so many more.
Accessibility matters and it isn’t hard. It just takes a little bit of effort, and I promise that effort will mean so much to those of us who benefit from it.