Access into Action webinar series
Posted: 1 July, 2020
Arts & Disability Ireland presented Access into Action, a webinar series developed to support Irish arts and culture professionals to create accessible content and experiences for audiences with disabilities.
Access into Action provides practical knowledge that can be put into immediate action. Each webinar provided a brief context, explored why an aspect of access is important, discussed the benefit for audiences, shared practical know-how and closed with a facilitated Q&A to ensure participants get the most out of each session.
2021
This series forms part of ADI’s Dublin Access Partnership, which has been running since August 2018 and is embedding a more holistic approach to accessible arts programming for audiences with disabilities.
To kick-start the series, we had Oli Webster, Programme Systems Manager at Stagetext, who presented Subtitling Online Content on Tuesday 14th July 2021.
In this 60-minute webinar, Oli gave a quick overview of online access for audiences who are deaf or hard of hearing, along with a taster of Stagetext’s longer series of free training videos, available to view here.
Oli also briefly covered some of the reasons we use subtitles, the wider benefits of their usage, some quick tips for improving the online access you offer, and finished with a 20-minute Q&A session.
A recording of this webinar can be found here.
Next up, we had Roz Chalmers, a member of the resident team of describers in London’s National Theatre, The Old Vic Theatre, Chickenshed and the Park Theatre, who presented Writing Accessible Introductions on Tuesday 28th July 2021.
In this 60-minute webinar, Roz gave an overview of accessible introductory notes for online performances for audiences who are blind or visually impaired.
Roz also shared why it’s important to create introductory notes, the benefits and their impact, some quick tips for writing the introductory notes, and finished with a 20-minute Q&A session.
A recording of this webinar can be found here.
Each webinar has open captions provided by Stagetext.
2023
Arts & Disability Ireland built on this series in 2023 with further webinars aiming to support Irish arts and culture professionals interested in creating accessible content and experiences for audiences with disabilities.
The ‘Why’ and ‘How’ of Accessibility in Cultural Contexts – 18th April 2023.
This introductory webinar on the ‘Why’ and ‘How’ of Accessibility in Cultural Contexts gave an overview of the legal and regulatory obligations that apply to arts centres, galleries, museums, festivals and night-time economy venues when implementing accessibility for people with disabilities.
Our panel of four presenters shared their expertise on practical approaches to minimising barriers to access. This included presentations on the built environment surrounding cultural spaces, designing accessible websites and organisational access auditing in terms of facilities, programme and services, all set in the context of Irish disability, equality and human rights legislation.
Speakers included:
- Léa Urzel Francil, PhD researcher, ERC Project DANCING, Dept of Law & Criminology, NUI Maynooth.
- Dr. Gerald Craddock, Chief Officer, Centre for Excellence in Universal Design, National Disability Authority.
- Eoin O’Herlihy, Managing Director, O’Herlihy Access Consultancy.
- Dr. Donal Fitzpatrick, Senior ICT Design Advisor, Centre for Excellence in Universal Design, National Disability Authority.
A recording of this webinar can be found here.
Access Technology for Audio Description & Captioning: Supporting an Accessible Arts Programme – 27th June 2023.
Access technology can provide numerous ways for audiences with disabilities to engage with a performance or exhibition. There are a variety of ways to do this which can impact on programming decisions and budgets. In this webinar, we looked at three key types of access technology used to provide audio description and captioning for audiences with disabilities. Each panellist spoke about their area of expertise, current processes in that area and advancements in technology.
Speakers included:
- Tim Brown of Apple Sound Ltd. spoke bout audio description for theatre, galleries and museums.
- Oran McAllister of NaviLens who spoke about NaviLens code and how it can impact on engagement of exhibitions and buildings.
- Roger Beaumont of Digital 4 who spoke about captioning for theatre.
A recording of this webinar can be found here.
Each webinar has open captions provided by Stagetext.
