A photo from the Walk and Talk Tour for the Un[contained] Festival in Kogarah.

Arts & Disability Consulting Services

Our consultants and advisors have lived experience of disability. It makes a world of difference.

As experts in arts, culture and disability with over 38 years’ experience, Accessible Arts can help you get the best possible results with the resources you have available. Our friendly consultants and advisors can help you to reduce or remove barriers, working with you and your team to develop and implement practical and achievable solutions.

We work with cultural organisations right across NSW from major arts companies and venues through to small independent operators and community festivals. Our clients include Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney Opera House, Biennale of Sydney, National Gallery of Australia, National Archives of Australia, Harbour Trust, Bundanon Trust Estate, icare, Parramatta Artist Studios, Tuggeranong Arts Centre , Belvoir St Theatre, Brand X, Sydney Theatre Company, City of Ryde, Creative Australia, Australian Film Television and Radio School, Australian National Maritime Museum, Chau Chak Wing Museum, Blacktown Arts, Edward River Council, Inner West Council, National Film and Sound Archives, Queer Screen and many more.

Our Services

Disability Inclusion Action Plans (DIAPs)
A Disability Inclusion Action Plan (DIAP) outlines the actions and intentions of an organisation to remove barriers for people with disability and promote inclusion. It’s like a strategic plan for accessibility. DIAPs are one of the most effective ways of improving access for, and inclusion of, people with disability. A DIAP framework helps guide an organisation so it can meet relevant legislative requirements and best practice benchmarks.

The experienced Accessible Arts team can help you to develop, implement, monitor and evaluate a DIAP for your organisation. Please email our CEO, Liz Martin, at lmartin@aarts.net.au or call (02) 9251 6499 to arrange a comprehensive DIAP for your organisation.

Consulting Retainers
So you’re committed to improving accessibility but don’t have the resources for a dedicated Disability Inclusion Officer? We provide a range of affordable consulting retainers so you can reap the benefits of imbedded experts who understand your people, priorities and processes.

Website Audits & Digital Accessibility
We can review your website, apps and social media to let you know how to make them more accessible and then upgrade your content and functionality. Our digital partner, Sitback, is one of Australia’s leading digital agencies with extensive experience in delivering WCAG compliant digital solutions.

Walk and Talk Access Audits
Want to make your places and spaces more accessible? A team of our friendly advisors with diverse lived experience of disability can tour your premises in person and provide practical recommendations on improving accessibility for visitors and employees. We can also advise on building refurbishments and provide accessibility assessments of architectural plans.

Content Creation
How you frame your content is key to engaging clients and customers with disability. To help you get the right tone, we provide a range of content creation services including copywriting and accessible graphic design.

Visual Stories
A visual story is a visual guide that potential visitors or participants can engage with before their visit to help them prepare. Visual stories help to provide clarity for everyone planning their visit, including people with Autism, anxiety or other access requirements. We can custom design best practice Visual Stories for festivals, events and venues.

Accessible Content Management
It’s important to ensure that your print and digital content is accessible for people with disability. Our experts can manage the whole process for you including adding captioning, Auslan and/or audio description on video content as well as advising on accessible online events.

Accessible Event Planning
Ensuring an event is accessible requires a range of different technologies and approaches. As experts in delivering accessible in person and online events, we and have the knowledge and networks to help you plan accessible events as well as save you time and money.

Visitor and Staff Engagement
Data drives innovation, so understanding the needs of your visitors and staff is essential for delivering the best possible outcomes. Accessible Arts can conduct surveys, interviews and focus groups so you have the evidence you need to develop effective solutions.

Policy Assessments
Policy settings are crucial to making change happen. Accessible Arts can review your relevant workplace policies and processes to help you make them more inclusive of people with disability.

Document Reviews
We can help create documents that are easy to navigate and understand, fostering equal access and inclusion for everyone. This includes optimising content to ensure clear text, alt text, screen reader compatibility, logical structure, colour contrast and form accessibility.

Find Out More

For more information or to organise arts and disability consultancy services for your organisation, please email our CEO Liz Martin at lmartin@aarts.net.au or call (02) 9251 6499.

Testimonials

“Collaborating with Accessible Arts to create a new disability inclusion action plan for the NFSA was a truly enriching experience. Throughout the entire process staff demonstrated utmost professionalism, maintaining an open and responsive approach to addressing questions, supporting collaboration with multiple stakeholders and providing authentic feedback.”
National Film and Sound Archive of Australia

“(Accessible Arts) so beautifully led us through the (DIAP) process of extensive consultation with internal and external stakeholders and staff via training, surveys and focus groups. Accessible Arts were a delight to work with and they also opened a whole world to us of artist led innovation and expertise through their services and networking opportunities.”
Australian National Maritime Museum

“Our DIAP has been incredibly useful in terms of building our capacity to provide accessible and inclusive programs, services and infrastructure for people with disability. Accessible Arts was a great partner right throughout the DIAP development process. We highly recommend their services.”
Sydney Festival

“Our DIAP has brought our organisation together to consider where we are and where we are going in terms of building accessible and inclusive programs, services and infrastructure for people with disability. Accessible Arts has been a brilliant and flexible partner throughout the DIAP development process, always genuinely collaborative and solutions-oriented.”
Museum of Australian Democracy

“… Craft ACT was able to engage Accessible Arts to help us navigate the process of creating a DIAP for our organisation, and to conduct disability access and inclusion training for our staff, board and colleagues in the Canberra arts sector. It’s been a positive experience: we have learned a great deal and feel more confident about steps we can take – short-term and longer-term – to increase participation in our programs, events and workplace. We are grateful for the opportunity to work with Accessible Arts and look forward to more collaboration in the future.”
Craft ACT

Training Courses

As the leading disability, access and inclusion training provider in NSW, we also deliver a suite of expert workshops.

Boost your team’s disability confidence with our public or bespoke training workshops. We have a range of online training throughout the year or you can book customised training for your organisation in person or online.

To discuss your training needs, please contact our Training Coordinator Michelle Teear at training@aarts.net.au or call (02) 9251 6499.

ENDS

Image description: A photo from the Walk and Talk Tour for the Un[contained] Festival in Kogarah run by Georges River Council. Six people standing and smiling inside an art installation made of LED lights in the middle of a street surrounded by buildings.

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