ACE Arts and Cultural Access Scheme survey

Arts Council England (ACE) has launched an Access Scheme survey, asking for feedback from the creative and cultural sector

Arts Council England are developing a UK-wide scheme to improve access for disabled, D/deaf and neurodivergent audience members. Their ambition includes a digital membership scheme for audience members and venues, training and best-practice standards for establishments, and more. To ensure the initiative is fit for purpose, they are seeking feedback from audiences, venues and ticketing providers.  

If you run ticketed events, have control over how those tickets are sold and how your audience experience is managed, you might wish to respond to the survey and contribute to the scheme's development. 

Proposals being consulted on include: 

• A digital membership scheme for audiences and organisations, which allows members to sign up and provide details of their access needs once, without having to repeat themselves each time they visit a new venue 
• That membership scheme to integrate with ticket booking systems, so that members could potentially automatically apply their access needs at the point of booking 
• A website with listings of accessible events and the access provision at different creative and cultural organisations 
• A knowledge hub of training, resources, and guidance for creative and cultural organisations to help them develop a more inclusive experience for disabled visitors 
• Best-practice standards for the creative and culture sector relating to digital access, events, programming, customer service and more  

They are keen to hear thoughts on the potential benefits, opportunities, problems and concerns you might have regarding such a scheme, and if this model is missing anything.  

Questions include: 

1. What would you see as the main operational benefits of running the Arts and Cultural Access Scheme in your organisation, if any? (e.g. staff find it easier to book appropriate tickets and services on behalf of customers) 
2. What opportunities do you think the scheme would provide? (e.g. help us grow our audience) 
3. What problems do you foresee, if any, in implementing the Arts and Cultural Access Scheme at your organisation? (e.g. moving from our existing system) 
4. What would you need in order to implement the Arts and Cultural Access Scheme successfully in your organisation? (e.g. disability access audit) 

Take the survey

Barbara Eifler, Chief Executive of Making Music
and Alison Reeves, Deputy CEO and Manager, Scotland

Keep up-to-date with the latest development of this scheme via the Arts Council England website, and follow them on Twitter/Facebook and Instagram