We Shall Not Be Removed worked in partnership with Ramps on the Moon, Attitude is Everything,Paraorchestra, and What Next? to create a new guide for the arts and entertainment sectors to support disability inclusion. Their Seven Inclusive Principles for Arts & Cultural Organisations working safely through COVID-19 was designed to complement the suite of guidance documents already issued by UK Governments and sector support organisations.
The focus of this unique initiative, which builds from the #InclusiveRecovery campaign, was to ensure D/deaf, neurodiverse and disabled people were not discriminated against as creative work begun again and as venues re-opened following closure during the Covid pandemic. The Seven Principles offer practical guidance to arts and cultural organisations to support disabled artists, audiences, visitors, participants and employees.
The Seven Principles are applicable across all art forms and across all 4 UK nations and come with endorsement from a wide range of leading sector bodies including: Arts Council England, Creative Scotland, The Arts Council of Wales, The Arts Council of Northern Ireland, British Film Institute, The Museum Association, Theatres Trust, Royal Philharmonic Society and the British Council.
The Seven Inclusive Principles are:
- All organisational activities must comply with the requirements of The Equality Act (2010) and make reasonable adjustments to operating practice that ensure disabled people are not unlawfully discriminated against
- All actions relating to disabled people should be undertaken in accordance with the Social Model of Disability and aim to combat and eliminate ableism
- Co-production with disabled people: disabled people should be consulted when organisations develop bespoke operating or re-opening plans, and undertake Equality Impact Assessments before making decisions
- Organisations need to provide clear, accurate and comprehensive information about Covid-19 measures to enable disabled artists, practitioners, employees, visitors, audiences and participants to assess their own levels of risk, and be prepared to adapt to specific enquiries or requests
- The customer journey for disabled audiences and visitors should be thoroughly mapped, ensuring it is equality impact assessed, clearly communicated in multiple formats to the public, and prioritises free companion tickets to maintain essential access
- Disabled artists are an important cultural asset in the UK and their engagement in all new creative projects should be prioritised
- Organisations should ensure they celebrate diversity, embed anti-ableist principles to support and protect disabled people, and should demonstrate due care for the disabled workforce when making decisions about redundancy, restructuring and new ways of working
Read the full document for details and examples here at WeShallNotBeRemoved.com
You can also find out more through this video.
