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Funding Access Provision
“The main reason organisers cite for not providing access is money, but there always seems to be cash for a venue, catering, technicians, publicists, travel, advertising, and of course booze.”
Event organisers have stated that the primary challenge to providing good access is money. Big or small, hundreds of employees or just a handful – everyone says money is a problem.
However, this shouldn’t be an excuse for poor accessibility; event organisers must work to integrate good access. One way of providing better access is by offering fewer events of a higher quality. And as we’ve stated throughout the guide, there are various things that can help with budgeting for access, from partnering with a venue and sharing costs; partnering with other organisations to share tips, tech, and other in-kind support; looking at how you sell tickets, being transparent about where the money goes, giving people the option to donate a ticket or put money in an access fund and ring-fencing access funds when applying for funding or approaching sponsors. If you’re a big publisher, it’s your corporate responsibility to put your money where your mouth is and create an ongoing access funding pot for event organisers throughout the industry.
Most of all, building in an access plan and budget from the very beginning will save money, and if your events are accessible and welcoming to disabled people, you’ll be attracting the Purple Pound (the spending power of disabled households estimated at £274bn annually as of 2021). You need to have a long-term strategy and not expect results overnight. Keep the dialogue on access constant and fluid.
Ideas Checklist
This checklist offers creative ideas on how to generate funds to provide access, but the main message is: collectivise. Now is the time to be flexible and to adapt to the changes brought by the pandemic and ask, what can I do next? Embrace the change, adapt, and creatively innovate to find solutions and new avenues of generating revenue, and use those funds to become a beacon of excellent access for all.
Venue
If you’re partnering with a venue, you might be able to split the access costs and utilise the venue’s tech and tech support.
Sponsor A Ticket/Pay It Forward
As mentioned in the ‘tickets’ section, you can set up a button on your ticket purchasing page, where people can sponsor a ticket for someone facing socio-economic barriers.
Access Provision Pot or Bursary Pot
You can also fund free tickets and other access provision by having an Access Provision Pot on your website, where people can donate money which you put towards access provision such as PWYC, BSL interpreters, live captioning, etc. Provide details of what the money goes towards and why it’s important, so sponsors understand why this is needed.
Book Sales and Transparency
If you offer book sales via your event/festival, ensure it’s clear to event attendees that buying through your site helps the author and helps you continue to run events. As mentioned above, you can offer online signings where readers can purchase the book and online signing as a bundle and have a few minutes online chat with their favourite author.
Large Publishers Sponsoring Access
Ask large publishers to contribute funds towards making events accessible – not just for their own authors but for your organisation. Better access for all is more impactful than better access for one. Remind potential partner publishers/sponsors that they are welcoming an increase in their audience outreach and engagement by supporting better access.
Partnerships
Use international outreach to your advantage: consider partnering with other organisations in different territories. If you host a festival in the UK, why not ask a festival in a different country to advertise your online programme and return the favour? Partner with other organisations throughout the UK to share tips, tech, recommend accessible venues to work with, and other in-kind support. Learn from each other, establish networks and collectives, trouble-shoot, and sponsor smaller organisations with limited funding. Collectivise to enrich and bolster the industry for the benefit of everyone.
Applying to Funding Bodies
When applying for funding, outline the best practice access provision that you want to provide and ringfence the money needed for this in your budget. Discuss with your funding body what they’d like to see in your application in terms of access plans and budget.
“Corporate Social Responsibility is more than a tick-box exercise or a tokenistic mentoring programme – it’s a moral duty to enrich the industry as a whole, and to uplift those voices which are marginalised and suppressed. We must look at our internal practices, who we hire, what stories we look for and the processes by which we seek writing and ask what more we can do to be inclusive. Good events access is just one small step in a chain of steps towards true equality for disabled people and disabled writers.”