Creating an Accessibility Plan for Your Arts Organization

Conducting an accessibility audit means engaging in a thoughtful structured review of your organization’s strategies to address access barriers. This review process will often include a physical audit, which is the process of tracing the path participants navigate through the built environment to identify potential barriers. Many organizations, especially small arts organizations, do not have their own buildings, but there is often a physical place or places where they make and share their work. A rented venue, an office, a rehearsal room––these are all spaces that could be the focus of a physical audit.

However, just as the physical aspects are only part of your work, a physical audit is only one component of a thorough review. A comprehensive audit will consider how people learn about, engage with, and benefit from your goods and services. An audit should consider ways that people with various kinds of disabilities may encounter barriers to engagement. It is important to note that not all people who experience disability identify as disabled, many consider what others might call a disability to be simply belonging on a spectrum of difference and not automatically an impairment. An accessible environment makes space for all differences; however someone identifies, rather than privileging those considered most “normal” or “typical.” Broadly, disabilities may manifest in one or more of these categories:

• Sensory: Impairments or differences in how someone senses the world. Blindness, for example, is a sensory disability.
• Mobility, Flexibility, & Body Structure: Impairments or differences in how a body interacts with the environment. Individuals who use mobility devices and those with dwarfism could be included in this category.
• Cognitive: Impairments or differences related to developmental, intellectual, and social skills. Cognitive disabilities are the most common, and may include people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. People with Down Syndrome, Attention Deficit Disorder, and dementia could be included in this category.
• Communication: Impairments or differences in how someone communicates to others. People with fluency disorders (like stuttering), and those who do not speak aloud (such as those with muteness), could be included in this category.
• Psychological / Psychiatric: A wide range of impairments or differences related to emotional and behavioral states. Individuals with anxiety, depression, and schizophrenia are included in this category.

Once you have identified the barriers, the process continues with developing a plan to address them. First, you will generate solutions. Solutions could include making simple changes, like moving furniture to ensure pathways are wide enough for a wheelchair. They may also involve taking the first steps to address more complex needs, such as offering sign language interpretation for upcoming events. Determining the right solution may require you to conduct your own research to determine if others have found ways to address the same issue, craft your own strategy, or seek additional expertise. Generating solutions to address barriers can be a deeply creative act that plays to the strengths of artists and arts organizers.

Not all great ideas can be implemented right away, so once solutions are generated, you will then need to prioritize them. Which ideas will become your immediate priorities to implement? Which opportunities will need some additional time, effort, or resources to bring to life? Once prioritized, the solutions will need to be framed as accomplishable goals, with specific people assigned to tasks on a clear timeline.

The final element of access planning is coordinating the execution of the plan. In addition to implementing the solutions identified as priorities, this also means revisiting the plan to make sure goals are being reached and adapting that plan as necessary. Access planning is an ongoing and evolving process because people and their needs are always changing. Building in time to check progress and make necessary adjustments will lead to better outcomes.

Pro tip: A key part of coordinating your plan is leaving space to respond to new needs for access solutions.
I often tell groups that you know your work is successful when you start getting more complaints. As more people begin engaging in your work because you eliminate barriers, the more that additional needs will come to your attention. It’s not that these needs didn’t exist before, but now that you have built a foundation, people will begin to trust you enough to let you know how they want to participate.

1. Read the prompting questions.

2. Reflect on whether your organization does these things now. If you do, document that as a Current Effort. If not, reflect on how that might present a barrier to participation, and document it in Known Barriers.

It’s important to document only what is already happening in the Current Efforts section –– what you plan to do will come later. The first step grounds you in what access strategies you are sustaining with your current resources. Although it can be uncomfortable, capturing a snapshot of barriers that exist is how you start the process, even if you cannot address them right away. Along with the Workbook is a supplemental resource (“Identifying Barriers & Setting Goals,” download available at the end of the article) that helps you think through barriers people with disabilities might encounter.

Supplement in Brief: An audit will investigate barriers to participation. How might participants face barriers related to…?

• Sensory Experience: …seeing, hearing, or engaging emotionally with activities?

• Mobility: …getting to, entering, navigating, and gaining access to key amenities in a space?

• Communication: …learning about your offerings, accessing and understanding content, and requesting assistance to participate?

• Knowledge: …a lack of awareness or training by leaders about how to make experiences accessible?

For example, one question asks, “Does the organization have a named accessibility coordinator?” If your organization has not named an accessibility coordinator, that could present a barrier of Knowledge, as someone is not tasked with ensuring access needs are part of a group’s ongoing work.

The next part of the process has you Plan by developing goals and prioritizing those goals.

1. Develop Goals to address any Known Barriers.

2. Prioritize those Goals.

The prompting questions themselves may provide a possible solution. In the previous example, an organization without a named accessibility coordinator might find that the solution may be to name one. In other cases, you may need to find solutions beyond your own knowledge. There is a wealth of online resources you can consult, some of which are listed at the end of this article. You may also consider pulling in additional assistance from people, such as members of an access advisory committee or individuals with disabilities who are interested in participating. In those cases, it is best practice to compensate them for their time and expertise.

In the same supplementary resource that assists with identifying barriers is a section about how to set effective goals related to your solutions. There are also considerations about how to approach prioritizing your goals. While the ADA has some specific guidance, my experience with smaller arts and cultural organizations has taught me that it’s most important to prioritize what your community is already asking you to address.

With your prioritized goals in place, the final stage is to Coordinate.

1. Assign and implement next steps.

Effective goals have a specific person assigned to ensure the goal is implemented. While there is often a single person or small community of people in an organization championing accessibility work, the best plans are created and then executed by a broader community of individuals. While you should name an access coordinator, I often advise that their primary role is to facilitate the creation and oversight of the plan. They should not be responsible for making it all happen. One person can get tasks completed, but it takes all of us to make real change happen.

2. Revisit! Celebrate! Revise!

On a regular basis, your team should return to this plan to check in on its progress. Making the check-in process part of your typical cycles of planning ensures that your plan will be a living document. Consider putting the ADA Access Plan onto your regular staff and board meeting agendas, carving out time at the beginning of production meetings, and in your event post-mortems. If something has been accomplished, take a moment to celebrate! If progress has stalled, consider if the goal itself, or the approach to accomplishing the goal, could be revised. Every one to three years, consider refreshing the plan entirely to reflect changes to your organization.