Sarah Gatford: The importance of open discussions to improve D/deaf arts accessibility

Let’s have an open and honest conversation about access in theatre and performance.

Yes, I know, that old chestnut. But when you went to the theatre over the festive period, what did you really think about the provision of access?

Do you think you had an equivalent event experience to that of the hearing people who were in the audience?

If you did – fab. Where was it? Let’s shout about it and tell them they did a great job!

If not – not so great. But let’s use those experiences to develop venue and theatre companies understanding of what really does constitute brilliance in accessibility.

I was asked to approach this honest open conversation in a webinar on January 18th for the AMA (Arts Marketing Association). I

t surprised me that this was something that is being asked for but there still seems to be a fear about saying or doing the wrong thing which is leading people to either not do anything or do what they think is best without consulting the very people they’re wanting to engage with.

The AMA is the place creative types go to get training and information about working in and developing performance practices.

Well, it’s the place hearing creatives go to get training and information. I’m pretty sure that many D/deaf creatives don’t know about it’s existence.

And it’s knowing this sort of thing and being involved in the conversation that may well just help things improve and people’s expectations be managed in a more satisfactory way.

There is much to be said about managing people’s expectations when it comes to what makes up good access. What a venue or theatre company sees as good may not be perceived as good by potential D/deaf audiences. This could be down to a number of factors:

Who is making the decision about what should be made accessible and how?

Who knows what makes good access?

How do venues know whether what they’re providing is good quality?

What finances do they have?

Do they market to D/deaf audiences?

Let’s take each of these in turn:

Who makes the decision – normally hearing management and they book an interpreter and/or captioner not necessarily knowing the ins and outs of who they should book and why.

Who knows what makes good access – D/deaf people. Surely this is a no brainer?

How do venues know whether what they’re providing is good quality? Quite often they don’t. This is improving in some areas but not in others. People don’t complain if access isn’t good quality because complaining means communicating in English, not the first language of most Deaf people. It’s not made easy. By the same token, people don’t say when it’s good (quite often).The quality needs to be measured and to do this, people need to give feedback.

Finances – access is deemed as expensive. But we pay for things we value don’t we? I’ll leave this one to be pondered by you lovely people.

Marketing to D/deaf audiences – this has to be done through Deaf channels. Hiding somewhere on the website that you’ve got an interpreted performance on the last Wednesday afternoon of the month doesn’t constitute marketing. And venues wonder why Deaf people don’t attend. These are unrealistic expectations that somehow Deaf people will want to search through every website to find the accessible info need to be managed.

Share stuff on social media – ask people who know where the Deaf community hang out (in real life and virtually) and target them and take a bit of time to get to know how they receive information. Interpreters are great links to the Deaf community, they don’t just wave their hands around, they know stuff about how to connect with Deaf people, that’s what they do everyday.

I do wonder about the surge in popularity of making things accessible and what organisations really understand by it. The measure of success seems to be whether Deaf people attended – this links to knowing there’s an accessible performance.

In my humble opinion, there may a lack of awareness on both sides about what’s possible and how decisions are made. This is what needs to be openly discussed.

There are related questions I want to get out there linked to how venues and theatre companies engage with Deaf audiences and these questions apply to the Deaf community too:

When it comes to engaging with Deaf audiences/being a Deaf audience member the following questions are for you:

What are your 3 top worries?

What do you wish you had more of?

What do you wish you had less of?

If you could have a break from one thing what would it be?

If you had limitless money, what would you do with it?

I’m hopeful that by giving permission for an open and honest conversation, this is what will come out of my webinar. More venues will think before they book and will engage with D/deaf audiences in a much more productive way.

Sarah Gatford is a consultant, trainer and BSL/English Interpreter. Connect with her via social media or through her website!

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