"Opening Up!..." Access for deaf people to arts, cultural and tourism venues.
Here's your chance to buy what Janet Anderson the Minister for Tourism, Film and Broadcasting describes in the Foreword as:
"essential reading. I warmly welcome its publication." So what was it all about then?
It was a conference on access for deaf and hard of hearing people to arts, cultural and tourism venues. Held on January 14th 1999, it brought together some very notable speakers: deaf professionals with expertise on access, and officers from some of London's most prestigious venues to discuss how they were working on their access for deaf people.
Now you can read what the speakers said and also find out a little about who they were. It's all in the report of the conference: all the presentations in full plus the discussion arising from them. Just like the conference, the report is entitled "Opening Up!...", and it also includes some extra information that people asked for:
- a list of all the participants and their organisations
to enable you to network with those who attended
- a short list of organisations working with deaf people
not everyone has easy access to other organisations so we've added these to the report so that if you want advice or help towards improving access - then you can
- a brief audit of access for Deaf and hard of hearing people.
some people asked us for ideas of how to develop a checklist of access requirements, so this has been included
- disability arts organisations and journals
one of the comments in the feedback was that participants wanted to know about arts organisations that work with disabled people, so again we've put these in. Should you buy it?
Access to the arts for Deaf and hard of hearing people is complex and still developing. The Report brings together current thinking and strategies on how this can be achieved.
Access is becoming not only a moral issue, but also a legal requirement through the Disability Discrimination Act 1997.
The conference itself was extremely successful with very good feed-back:
"Congratulations on your splendid conference. It's a long time since I've been to anything so well organised - with so much useful information & advice."
"It provided an excellent forum for exchanging experience across the arts sector, networking and raising relevant issues."
"I enjoyed it and am determined to start making those changes even if they are small at first!."
So in a nutshell, all the important issues of access for deaf people are within one report - in a very readable form so you can start making changes in your own organisation, or suggest changes for your local venues. Your work will be backed up with ideas from other venues that have been working on the same issues for a number of years.
Ask us for a copy (£5 inc p&p) or we can email for free.
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Organisations