Accessibility for Creative Projects | Arts Council of Wales

Making creative work accessible is essential to ensure everyone can engage with and enjoy it. Accessibility removes barriers that might prevent people with disabilities from fully experiencing your work, allowing a wider audience and creative base to connect with your project.

This webpage explains how to make your work more accessible by considering the needs of your audience, creative team, and participants. Thinking about physical access to venues should take place early on, making sure the spaces involved are suitable and accessible, and budgeting for accessibility needs to be considered.

By understanding and addressing the needs of everyone involved, your creative work can be improved. Not every section of this webpage will apply to every project, but the advice provided will help make your work more welcoming and enjoyable.

Building relationships with the groups you want to reach and engaging in additional activities can also help you understand your audience better. Ultimately, considering accessibility is crucial for overcoming barriers and ensuring your work is inclusive for all.

Following the Social Model of Disability, we do not concentrate on the health conditions people may have but focus more on the support that people need to overcome barriers created by ways of working, engaging and experiencing.

Making work more accessible is a continuous learning process, and you may not be able to overcome barriers for everybody every time. Being honest about what you can and cannot do and doing the best that you can with the information and resources you have is important.

A downloadable accessibility checklist can be found at the bottom of this page.

The Arts Council of Wales is also on a continuous learning journey with regards to accessibility, and we welcome feedback on this webpage and our access support services.

If you would like to contact us, you can reach us via:

Email: access.support@arts.wales

Telephone: 03301 242733

If you would like to receive this webpage in another format, please get in touch.

Getting to know your creative team’s requirements

The accessibility requirements of your creative team should be discussed at the beginning of your partnership and continued throughout the project.

Accessibility requirements will vary from one person to the next, and you should never assume what a member of your creative team will or will not need. Access riders can be a helpful way for your creative team to communicate their accessibility requirements if they feel comfortable doing this. A template can be found on our access support webpage.

It is important to:

Create a welcoming, safe, and accepting environment
Have one-to-one conversations
Organise regular check-ins
Encourage feedback

Neuk Collective undertook a report about removing barriers for neurodiverse artists, citing negative attitudes, communication gaps, a lack of peer support and quiet/break spaces, and unfeasible workloads as significant barriers (2021, pp. 2-3). These are all elements that should be considered in planning your approach to work.

Creating a safe environment for your creative team to share their requirements with you is vital. Being flexible, open-minded and willing to trial adjustments will help you to support your team member.

For organisations, having an Accessibility Policy will help to explain the steps you will take to accommodate different requirements.

This guide is not a substitute for training: we encourage you to seek further information to raise awareness, and to work directly with your team to ensure that accessibility works for everyone involved in the project.

Neurodivergence Wales have eLearning modules which have been co-produced with people from the neurodivergent community to raise awareness and improve understanding of how neurodivergence can affect people’s daily lives.

Getting to know your participants’ requirements

Identifying the needs of your participants early in the process is key to ensuring that they can be accommodated as much as possible. Being specific about the activities they will be involved in will help them to tell you what barriers they might face.

Surveys, adding an accessibility question to your booking form, or informal conversations are helpful ways to gather this information ahead of time and give you time to organise what is required.

Getting to know your audience’s requirements

Accessibility requirements for audiences can also be understood through surveys, a booking form accessibility question, or informal conversations. Asking questions in advance, like when they book their tickets, helps you to make accommodations and ensure you have the budget available to pay for adjustments.

Make sure that you are selling your tickets in ways that are accessible: not everyone will be able to use ticket purchasing websites.

Attitude is Everything explains in their DIY Access Guide that free personal assistant tickets should be encouraged (2017, p.10). They also mention that accessible seated viewing locations and bar service are important factors and not using strobe lighting.

Your venue

Your venue should be accessible, and information about the physical space should be clearly communicated to everyone involved. This includes information on ramps, lifts, accessible toilets, orientation and layout.

Attitude is Everything recommends that if a venue is not accessible you should: find out where the nearest accessible toilet is if there is not one there and let people know; ask the venue to sort a ramp if there are unavoidable steps; try to swap rooms at the venue for a more accessible area (2017, pp.17-18). You should always plan for accessible seating.

It is also helpful to communicate how people can travel to the venue, including bus/train times, walking distances from nearby stations and car parks, and where car parking (including disabled car parking) is available.

Unlimited has a venue access checklist that can help you to know what to look for when considering venues, spot access barriers and reflect on your own spaces (2025).

Your project

Greeting people at the entrance and considering comfortable seating arrangements can help to create a welcoming environment where everyone can engage in the work and enjoy it. These actions can also help to overcome the potential nervousness of unfamiliar places and people.

Consider how you can make your content inclusive, including your themes and narratives. Enabling multiple options for participation and sensory sensitivities can help to provide general access support for your audiences, in addition to the specific responses you will have received.

Accentuate UK published a guide to co-designing exhibitions with disabled people, called Accessible Exhibitions for All. They mention that although different audio and interactive elements can be used for engaging visually impaired visitors in your work, those with autism or other impairments might find it overwhelming (2018, p.7). They recommend that having scheduled quiet times that are clearly advertised can help people have a more appropriate experience (2018, p.7).

Unlimited developed Cards for Inclusion, a card game that inspires the arts sector to think creatively about removing barriers. The game empowers teams to make their work more accessible and start conversations about access, and is free to download.

BSL (British Sign Language)

British Sign Language is used for making work accessible for D/deaf and hard of hearing audiences. If you are offering BSL as part of your work, marketing videos should also include BSL, with closed captions and audio for improved accessibility.

If possible, include who the BSL interpreter will be as part of your marketing.

You should book your BSL interpreter as early as possible as they can book up quickly and will need to be aware of the contents.

Solar Bear have created a useful guide on Making your Theatre Performance Accessible for D/deaf and Hard of Hearing Audiences. They explain that inviting the interpreter to rehearsals will help them to understand the piece, ask questions, and consider the best style of BSL interpretation for the work (2019, p.6).

Quiet/relaxed performances

Including quiet times for exhibitions or quieter performances can help audiences with sensory sensitivities engage with your work in a more comfortable way.

Relaxed performances are specific shows where it doesn’t matter if sound or movement comes from the audience. For some, such as people with Tourette Syndrome, this can make engaging with creative work much easier.

Sometimes, relaxed performances include the theatre lights staying on throughout the performance. Quiet/relaxed performances, like any other adapted showing, should be advertised clearly.

Closed Captions

Closed Captions can be used for displaying text of spoken dialogue, as well as communicating sound effects, lyrics, etc. Make sure that the text is clear. Specialised captioning software can be used, but you can also hire a trained captioner, or pre-type the text before the showing.

Attitude is Everything’s guide (2017) shows how closed captions can be used effectively for gigs and musical events, and Solar Bear’s guide (2019) discusses theatre closed captioning.

Touch tours

Touch tours are an effective way to engage blind and partially sighted audiences, but can be of interest to sighted visitors too, offering an alternative sensory experience to engaging with locations, props, costumes, set and artworks.

Touch tours usually happen an hour or so before the performance and can also include meeting the audio describer for the event.

Audio description

Audio description is the process of describing what is happening on the screen, on the stage, or any type of visual art. It is used by people who are blind or partially sighted to engage with creative work.

Effective audio description focuses on the most important visual details to help the audience understand the messages, with clear and simple words used in a natural tone. Maintaining the feeling and style of the artwork allows the artist’s vision to be communicated.

Lynn Cox, in Shape Arts’ Ways of Seeing Art booklet, explains that shorter and more energised descriptions are better, and using a variety of audio describers can be effective in communicating different artist styles (2017, pp.15-16).

Trained audio describers for the arts can be booked and should be acknowledged in your creative project’s marketing materials.

Hearing loops

Not all venues will have hearing loops, but increasingly they are being adopted to make spaces more accessible. It is a system that sends sound directly to hearing aids or cochlear implants, helping users to hear clearer in spaces that may have background noise. Check with the venue in advance to find out if this service is offered.

Shape Arts explains that hearing loops or infra-red systems should be checked in advance, and if you are hiring a hearing loop and using microphones, someone should be responsible for ensuring they do not interfere with each other (2025, p.2).

Trigger warnings

Trigger warnings are used in signage and marketing materials to let people know if the content of the work is sensitive, provocative, related to trauma, contains flashing lights or loud sounds - anything that may impact someone negatively. This helps to safeguard the wellbeing and health of those engaging with the work.

Where sensitive topics are discussed, especially sessions with your creative team or participants, having a designated safeguarding lead should help to address potential triggers too. Partnering with relevant charities or adopting your venue’s safeguarding policies can help to address triggers and responsibly handle them.

Accessible marketing

All communications should use clear language without jargon, with alternative formats available. High contrast and clear fonts that are easy to process are best to use.

If the layout of the venue is not very clear, providing large-print signage will help people find the room you will be in. Maps of the venue are a great way of allowing people to visualise the space before they arrive.

Make sure that the schedule for the day is shared where relevant and include regular breaks. Ensure that the information gathered at the initial stages in relation to accessibility requirements are actioned. Where adjustments have not been possible, communicate these clearly and in advance.

Birds of Paradise Theatre Company published an Event Planning Tool Kit which recommends a minimum of 14 point text, and that images and text do not overlap (2018, p.2). They also recommend that alt text is used for all images so that screen readers will be able to read the description (2018, p.2). Videos should include captions, and it is great to have BSL in your marketing videos if BSL will be available at the event. In all communication considerations, they recommend that you keep in mind who you are trying to target and what the best method is for reaching these groups (2018, p.2).

Dyslexia friendly fonts include Arial, Calibri, Verdana or Tahoma, as they are easier to read. Headings should be larger than the body text, and bold formatting is preferred to underlining or italics for emphasis.

Disability Arts Cymru recommends using alt text on social media images too, so that Blind and partially sighted people’s screen readers can read what the image contains.

Testing and feedback

It is important to include the groups concerned in the testing and feedback mechanisms. Shape Arts explains that developing accessible and inclusive methods of feedback are imperative, and that you should be responsive to the choices of participants and their preferences (2025).

Testing and feedback are two important factors in ensuring that what is put in place works for the people who need them. Developing feedback loops are essential for responding to and meeting the needs of your creative team, participants and audience.

Unlimited explains that everyone benefits when we share what went well and what could have been better (2019), creating learning opportunities for the sector.

For more information about our access support service and personal access costs, please see our access support webpage.

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