FROM TABITHA ALLUM
Executive, STAGETEXT and JUDY DIXEY
Executive Director, VocalEyes
w : http://www.stagetext.org; http://www.vocaleyes.co.uk
We were interested to read ‘Out and About’ (AP206). We applaud ISAN’s vision of accessibility, and the imminent publication of the Toolkit is going to be of immense value. However, we take issue with the statement that “the best way to increase Deaf and disabled audiences is to programme Deaf and disabled artists”. The vast majority of people who use assistive services such as captioning or audio description want, like all of us, to be able to experience the widest range of live performance, and are not necessarily interested in seeing work by Deaf and disabled artists just because they happen to be Deaf or disabled themselves. Programming Deaf and disabled artists is one way of demonstrating that the event is likely to be accessible and that the organisation has a commitment to diversity, but anyone eager to attract a diverse audience should consider making their full range of work accessible.