Music venues and festivals that have signed an accessibility ‘Charter of Best Practice’ have seen an increase in ticket sales to Deaf and disabled fans.
There has been significant growth in the number of tickets sold to Deaf and disabled people with specific access needs at music venues and festivals that signed an accessibility ‘Charter of Best Practice’. 114,000 tickets were sold across 93 venues and festivals in 2014, making up 0.71% of the total, up from 0.45% in 2013.
The charter, established by music charity Attitude is Everything, encourages signatories to make an ongoing commitment to improving accessibility and to go beyond the legal obligations of the Equality Act. The charity’s founder, Suzanne Bull MBE, said the news “sends out a strong message to the wider music and entertainment industry: there are potentially millions of disabled customers wanting to attend your events and, if you improve access, then they will come.”
Measures taken by signatories include improving physical access, training staff, running buddy schemes, and providing captioned and audio described events. A spokesperson for The Roundhouse, which signed the charter in 2008, said: “Partnering with Attitude is Everything has inspired us to continually review and revise our offer… We welcome artists and audiences to talk to us about their visit and strive to provide additional services where requested.”
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