New accessibility resources launched to support Medway venues and events makers

Blog

Over the last year Creative Medway have supported a working group of creative practitioners and organisations from across Medway to work with Attitude Is Everything, a national organisation who connect disabled people with music and live event industries to improve access together. 

The group was formed to develop new resources to support venues and events makers increase their accessibility in Medway.  The work was one of Creative Medway’s four sector-led priorities for 2023/2024 set by Medway’s creative community.

Over the year the group worked with the Inclusivity Network Kent & Medway (INK&M) to run an event to hear from disabled artists, created a new easy read version of the Creative Medway Cultural Strategy and launched a new checklist and toolkits for events makers and venues.

The checklist helps you review your current access provision and plan how to increase your future access provision.  It also acts as a reminder for the information that you need to make available to the public ahead of your events.  For those looking for further support, the new Events Accessibility Toolkit and Venues Accessibility Toolkit are full of information, practical advice and links to where you can find further resources.

At this year’s Big Creative Community Get Together, we invited venues and events makers to join us in pledging to make accessibility a focus of your work in the local community here in Medway. 

By signing up, you are pledging to be transparent and honest about your accessibility and are showing that you are aware of and committed to addressing the barriers faced by disabled audiences, artists, performers, volunteers and professionals.  You are also committing to use the new Venues and Events Accessibility Pledge checklist as a tool to review and improve your accessibility provisions and make this information available to your audiences and those you work with.  In return we’ll send you a digital badge to use on your publicity, social media assets and a window sticker.

The checklist is not an exhaustive list of access provisions, and there is always more to be done to improve the accessibility of the live events sector. However, the aim of the pledge is to encourage venues and event makers to be transparent about their accessibility so that disabled people can make informed decisions before they attend live events.

“We would like to encourage and challenge everyone in Medway’s creative community to join us in making Medway’s creative spaces and events more accessible for people who are Deaf, disabled, neurodivergent or have a long-term physical or mental health conditions. We invite you all to prioritise access by pledging to use the checklist in your work.”

Beth James
Working Group Chair and Creative Medway Diverse Communities Champion

To sign the pledge, access the checklist and explore the new sector supporting resources, follow the link to our webpage here.