20 August 2004 - Festival gets its disability act together
With just six weeks to go before businesses have to open up to disabled people, last night festival goer and Scottish actor Robert Softley found out for himself how the Edinburgh International Festival has geared up to provide access for disabled visitors.
Robert, who uses a wheelchair, visited the ticket office at The Hub and went on the King's Theatre where a British Sign Language Performance of Celestina was performed.
Robert said:
"The various Edinburgh festivals in August are central to the worldwide arts scene. People from every corner of the globe come to Edinburgh to take part in and watch every imaginable art form. It's indefensible, soon to be illegal, if any visitors, for whatever reason, can't enjoy the full experience of the city during this time.
"The time for excuses is over - we all know that thousands of venues can't be made 100% accessible overnight. Attitudes can go a long way - venues that have planned ahead and carefully thought about how to address the needs of all of their visitors can, in some ways, be more accessible than others who have lifts but keep them, for example, behind locked doors."
Work and Pensions Minister Malcolm Wicks commented:
"It's encouraging to see the Edinburgh Festival is starting to get its disability act together. Anyone that wants to visit a show or performance should be able to do so. Come October, entertainment venues, like all service providers, will have to take action and open up their performances to disabled audiences".
Joanna Baker of Marketing and Public Affairs Director for the Edinburgh International Festival said;
"We try to do everything we can to ensure that Festival performances are accessible to as wide a public as possible. Our own headquarters building, The Hub, is fully accessible, and we mainly use established venues for our events which have made great strides in accessibility. We publish an Access Guide which describes facilities in venues but also has details of audio description, British Sign Language interpreted and subtitled performances. This and our main brochure are also available on tape and in Braille. Barriers are often more diverse than people imagine but very often there can be simple solutions.’’
Bob Benson, Scottish Director of the Disability Rights Commission said:
"It's great to see that buying a ticket for and getting into a festival show doesn't have to be a major performance for disabled people – and that accessibility generally has become a standard feature of the festival programme.
"With the law on disability access due to change on October 1st, we hope that Scottish arts will continue to make changes to enable disabled people to enjoy shows and performances all year round. Anyone wanting more information can go to our website www.open4all.org".
Notes for editors
- From 1 October, anyone providing a service to the public needs to tackle physical barriers to disabled people accessing their services. This means businesses like entertainment venues, shops, pubs, gyms, libraries, doctors and solicitors up and down the high street need to consider what they can reasonably do to become more accessible. In addition, small employers will for the first time have the same duties towards disabled staff as larger firms. This means not discriminating against employees or potential employees on grounds of disability and making reasonable adjustments to the workplace.
- The Department for Work and Pensions is calling for small businesses who have demonstrated innovation and creativity in opening up their services to disabled customers to put themselves forward for recognition. The Access All Areas awards are this year being run in partnership with Vodafone and firms with less than 100 staff are being asked to apply by 30 September. Application details are available from 0845 124 9841 or www.disability.gov.uk/dda/awards
- There are around 10 million disabled people in Britain with a combined spending power of £50 billion per year.
- More information and advice for businesses about the Disability Discrimination Act is available from the Disability Rights Commission at www.drc-gb.org and www.open4all.org
For more information contact:
DWP Press Office: Fiona Ludlow
National Press Office: 020 7238 0866
Out of hours: 07659 108 883
Public enquiries: 020 7712 2171
Website: www.dwp.gov.uk
Edinburgh International Festival Press Office, Jackie Westbrook on 0131 473 2020