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Inklusion Guide

Over the last decade, we found ourselves increasingly frustrated and burnt-out by the poor and inconsistent accessibility of literature events – so we decided to do something about it. In late 2019 we decided to put aside our creative practices from January 2021 in order to develop a free resource which demystified access, and which could be used by organisations and individuals alike.

When the pandemic hit, the world shifted completely online as we collectively went into lockdown. This period saw many organisations becoming aware they were reaching audiences they’d never considered before, and seeing some surprising gains.

Guide Contents

“Over 5,000 new writers joined Arvon at Home (our first ever online Arvon course), an increase of over 400% from pre-pandemic levels. We have also seen an increase in writers who identified as disabled from 13.1% in 2019 to 22.1% in 2021.”
— Arvon

Many people were finally included where they’d been historically excluded.

For too long, the literature sector has been notoriously inaccessible to disabled and chronically ill people. Access is an afterthought with next to no budget and the onus is placed on disabled people to directly seek provisions themselves – an exhausting chain of constant chasing and self-advocacy.

“Lockdown has been the first time I’ve actually felt included in society in a good while. Knowing that it’s possible to access the arts from home but now facing the notion that it will be taken away from us is a kick in the teeth.”
— Mer Williams

Access isn’t the responsibility of disabled people, it’s up to the industry to provide it.

When access is integrated, consistent, reliable and navigable across the industry, disabled people are made equally welcome to events as non-disabled people.

The spending power of the disabled population is considerable, and making your events accessible allows you to tap into that. There are more than 14 million disabled people in the UK – who have a combined spending power of £274 billion – and who are fiercely loyal to disabled-friendly organisations (Purple Pound, 2021).

If your organisation wants to be the vanguard of accessibility, access should be an integrated, organic framework – the skeleton around which event provision is built, rather than a peripheral facet or last-minute add-on.

Good access should be the norm, not the exception. The Inklusion Guide is here to help with that.

In this guide you’ll find:

  • An access checklist for both authors and audience, covering in-person, online, and hybrid events

  • Provision spotlight boxes, giving more detail on access

  • Personal experience and advice from disabled authors

  • Facts and statistics that support our recommendations

  • A list of resources

It’s important to us that individual disabled people (whether authors, people who work in publishing, or audience members) can use the guide for self-advocacy, taking the burden off them as they point event organisers our way.

Whilst we recognise that each organisation and event planner will have different needs and face different challenges, our aim is to show the best-practice provisions you can make which will ensure disabled people are included.

These changes will not come overnight and we ask that providers make consistent and persistent efforts to integrate access from the start of your planning.

We need to work together to create an environment where disabled people are not only welcome and supported, but an integral part of the publishing industry.

A significant part of a writer’s income can come from doing events, but if they aren’t accessible, organisations are hampering disabled people’s ability to earn a living and have a valuable impact on the cultural landscape. Because non-disabled people have often talked for and over disabled people, and non-disabled authors have written about us (and been praised for it, no matter how clichéd and stigmatising the disability tropes), it’s even more important to champion and platform disabled authors at your events.

By making your events accessible and available online and hybrid, you’re not just upholding your legal responsibility, you’re increasing book sales, and increasing attendance and ticket sales by reaching a wider, often international, audience.

We are all allies in access. It’s only in collectivising and doing the work, that our industry will be enriched by disabled voices and their stories.

– Julie & Ever