Arts and events workers urged to access-rise for post-covid market

Workers in the arts, culture and events sectors are being urged to get ‘access-orised’ for a post-COVID marketplace where the need to be inclusive of artists and audiences with disability has never been more vital.

Accessible Arts – NSW’s peak arts and disability organisation – has announced its training program for the first half of 2021 and the focus is on helping workers understand how to maximise the business benefits of accessibility and inclusion for people with disability.

Accessible Arts Interim CEO Morwenna Collett: “COVID has really shaken up the arts, culture and events sectors and the impact will be long-lasting. The focus on online and digital activities will only continue to grow which is great news for people with disability as the online space can be – with the right approach – much more accessible. However, the pandemic will also leave behind a range of new accessibility challenges that workers in the sector will need to address as we move towards a post-COVID world.

“Accordingly, our training program for 2021 is designed to help arts and events workers navigate all the relevant issues to ensure they can build back better by providing inclusive and accessible content and services for the 20 percent of Australians who live with disability or who are d/Deaf.

“We’ll also be continuing to provide our training workshops online throughout 2021 as the accessibility and convenience of our online workshop format has proven to be extremely popular with workers across the sector.”

Every month throughout 2021, Accessible Arts will offer two different online workshops via Zoom: 

Delivering Accessible Online Events Workshop

Post-COVID, we’ll all continue to live more of our lives online. This 90-minute workshop helps arts, culture and events workers improve the accessibility and inclusiveness of their relevant online activities such as performances, exhibitions, rehearsals, creative developments, webinars, panel discussions, meetings and social media.

Disability Confidence Training

This 90-minute workshop provides a comprehensive introduction to understanding disability in the context of arts and culture including identifying and mitigating access barriers, best practice for customer service, language and etiquette, and inclusive communication skills and policies.

Workshop participants learn from arts experts who live with disability plus they’ll receive a range of useful resources to help them put their new knowledge into practice.

Workshops are $95 per person with a 10 percent discount available for bookings of three or more attendees. Private workshops are also available as either online or live sessions. To find out more or book a session, please visit: https://aarts.net.au/training-workshops/