Arts Council England, Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Arts Council of Wales and Creative Scotland are announcing disability-led charity, Attitude is Everything, as the standards supplier for All In, the UK wide access scheme for creativity and culture.
All In aims to remove the barriers faced by D/deaf, disabled and neurodivergent people when booking and attending creative and cultural events. Attitude is Everything will be responsible for developing a set of sector-wide standards for theatres, galleries, museums, libraries and other creative organisations that sign up for the scheme.
These new standards will complement existing best practice, guidelines and frameworks, including the charity’s own UK government endorsed Live Events Access Charter, and help provide consistent high-quality experiences for disabled audiences.
Attitude is Everything will initially focus on four areas of work:
- Improving the built environment in and around venues including removing physical obstacles and providing better access
- Making digital communication with disabled audience more accessible, usable and inclusive
- Working with customer services so that venues and events give a warm welcome to everyone
- Building in access to commissions, events and programming at the ideas, budgeting and development stages
This announcement is the latest stage in the development of All In which builds on the success of Hynt – Wales’ access scheme for theatres and arts centres – and the findings of their impact report which showed that more than three quarters of Hynt card holders felt being part of the scheme improved their access to culture.
All In is set to pilot in autumn 2024, ahead of a national roll-out in 2025.
Darren Henley, Chief Executive, Arts Council England; Roisín McDonough, Chief Executive, Arts Council of Northern Ireland; Dafydd Rhys, Chief Executive, Arts Council of Wales; and Dana MacLeod, Executive Director of Arts, Communities, and Inclusion, Creative Scotland say: “We are so pleased to welcome Attitude is Everything on board as the standards supplier for All In to help us achieve a consistent experience across the sector for D/deaf, disabled and neurodivergent people when visiting venues in the UK. It will be a continuation of their brilliant work in championing industry access standards in music and live events spaces.”
Andrew Miller MBE, UK Arts Access Champion for All In said: “By introducing the UK’s first accessibility standards for creativity and culture, All In will provide the sector with a baseline in excellence for meeting the needs of disabled people, covering everything from content warnings to appropriate language and expectations around physical access. Through our standards, we are aiming for a consistency of quality in access and customer service that I believe will be a game changer for both disabled audiences and the cultural sector. Attitude is Everything have significant credibility in this field, and I welcome their experience at this crucial stage of development for All In.”
Celia Makin-Bell, Managing Director, Attitude is Everything: "Attitude is Everything is delighted to have been asked to develop the standards and accreditation for the UK-wide All In scheme. This is a truly groundbreaking project to support the creative and cultural sector to provide accessible experiences that disabled consumers can trust and enjoy free of disabling barriers. Attitude is Everything has been supporting the UK's music and live events sector since 2000 as a disabled-led charity, so this project enables us to lend our supportive ethos, solutions-based approach and wealth of experience to the wider sector. We look forward to working with the four nation Arts Councils, industry stakeholders and disabled people over the year ahead on this exciting scheme."
Background
About All In
All In is a UK access scheme designed to improve accessibility in creativity and culture for D/deaf, disabled and neurodivergent people.
Developed by disabled people for disabled people, we want to help creative and cultural organisations improve access, remove barriers, and welcome more people with access requirements through their doors.
At All In, we believe everyone should be able to enjoy the diverse range of creative and culture experiences the UK has to offer. We are a partnership between Arts Council England, Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Arts Council of Wales, and Creative Scotland.
We’re All In, and everyone’s welcome. For further information visit: allin.online
About Attitude is Everything
Attitude is Everything is a disability-led charity and Arts Council England Investment Principles Support Organisation that has been working since 2000 to connect disabled people with the music and live event industries to improve access together.
Our vision is to see music and live event industries valuing disabled people as audience members, performers, professionals and volunteers.
Follow us on Instagram and LinkedIn and sign up to our mailing list.
www.attitudeiseverything.org.uk
About Arts Council England
Arts Council England is the national development agency for creativity and culture. We have set out our strategic vision in Let’s Create that by 2030 we want England to be a country in which the creativity of each of us is valued and given the chance to flourish and where everyone of us has access to a remarkable range of high-quality cultural experiences. From 2023 to 2026 we will invest over £467 million of public money from Government and an estimated £250 million from The National Lottery each year to help support the sector and to deliver this vision. (www.artscouncil.org.uk)
About Arts Council of Wales
The Arts Council of Wales is the country’s official public body for funding and developing the arts. Every day, people across Wales are enjoying and taking part in the arts. We help to support and grow this activity. We do this by using the public funds that are made available to us by the Welsh Government and by distributing the money we receive as a good cause from the National Lottery. By managing and investing these funds in creative activity, the Arts Council contributes to people’s quality of life and to the cultural, social and economic well-being of Wales.
About Creative Scotland
Creative Scotland is the public body that supports the arts, screen and creative industries across all parts of Scotland distributing funding provided by the Scottish Government and The National Lottery. Further information at creativescotland.com. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Learn more about the value of art and creativity in Scotland and join in at www.ourcreativevoice.scot
About Arts Council of Northern Ireland
The Arts Council of Northern Ireland is the lead funding and development agency for the Arts providing support to arts projects throughout the region, through its Treasury and National Lottery funds. Our funding enables artists and arts organisations to increase access to the arts across society and deliver great art that is within everyone’s reach.
Every week National Lottery players raise more than £30M for good causes. More than £47 billion has now been raised by National Lottery players to support good causes since 1994. More than 670,000 projects have been supported with National Lottery funding, the equivalent of around 240 lottery grants in every UK postcode district.