Culture Counts: Advocating for Access

Audio-describer and access champion Alice Gilmour tells us what Opera North is doing to ensure everyone can experience the thrill of live performance.

What does the term 'access performance' mean?

It means making adjustments so people who might encounter barriers to accessing opera can still enjoy a performance. That could mean having a BSL (British Sign Language) interpreter at the front of the stage or audio-describing performances for people who are blind or partially sighted, with behind-the-scenes touch tours beforehand to introduce the set, props and costumes.

A few years ago, we introduced relaxed and dementia-friendly performances where we provide extra front-of-house staff and adapt the surroundings to meet different needs, for example by keeping the lighting on low in the auditorium for people who might find it stressful when everything goes dark. The audience are also welcome to move around freely, leaving or entering the space as they wish.

Why do you think it's important to offer these performances, particularly when it's now so much easier to access shows online?

I think you would agree that nothing can replace that feeling of being with other people listening to something live and being in the moment, enjoying that experience together.

If I lost my vision tomorrow, I'd still want to go and see things, but I’d probably find some elements of them pretty unintelligible. By making adjustments, we’re trying to be welcoming to everyone and to help people come along and do the things they love even if they have an extra barrier to attending or have gone through something that has affected their ability to enjoy it to the extent they did previously.

How do you decide which performances should have accessible services?

I wish it could be all of them, but that isn't possible yet, so it tends to be the most popular opera of the season that we know lots of people will want to see. However, we'll temper that with the fact that, if we offered Puccini last year, we should choose a different composer's work this time round. We'll also think about the styling of the production. If we’ve recently audio-described a very traditional show, we'll choose something more contemporary with an exciting new director. With audio description, we also look for an opera that's being sung in a language other than English to help people who aren’t able to read the surtitles. So that would be another thing to take into account: what language is it being sung in?

We try to choose matinees for accessible performances as often people who are D/deaf and partially sighted or blind can have additional issues with transport. A matinee makes it much easier for them to come into Leeds and get home afterwards without having to tackle the city at night-time.

How do you spread the word about the performances?

It's obviously important to let people know far enough ahead so they can book and plan accordingly. We always list the accessible performances in the season brochure, clearly highlighted with the appropriate logo, whether that’s audio description, signed or relaxed. We also put them on the website. Positioning is crucial here - we make sure to put the relevant details at the top of the webpage to make it easier for someone browsing the website using a screen reader.

Nearer the start of the season, we follow up with mailings to some of the groups we work with regularly and who provide services for people living with sight loss or hearing loss and those whose members prefer a relaxed performance. We also get listed on things like vocalised newsletters.

The programmes for all our productions always have a page with details of what’s next, and we also put it on the surtitle screens so even if people arrive at a performance not realising it’s audio-described, it lets them know that they’re welcome to collect a headset and give it a go. The feedback’s been great. We've had people use it who don't even have particularly bad sight loss, but who have really appreciated the extra support and are happy to spread the word and recommend it to others.

How do you make people with access needs feel welcome and included?

At Leeds Grand Theatre, audience members can literally just pick up a headset for an audio-described performance in the foyer. The staff are great at showing people how to use it and they don’t need to put down a deposit or anything. Basically, we’ve tried to remove as many barriers as possible so it’s nice and simple for anyone to try. You don’t even need to book ahead if you don’t want to.

We've also been offering audio description on our concert hall dates. It’s like audio surtitles for people who want to enjoy a concert staging but just need that bit of extra help in terms of knowing who’s on stage and what the singers are singing about at any given moment. I had some lovely feedback from a woman who came along to a recent performance at The Lowry. She loved the way we described what the performers were wearing and what their hair was like. It made her feel as included as any other audience member, particularly as all the information came through a discreet earpiece rather than having to rely on a partner, friend or companion to tell her what was happening.

Of course, it all begins with the experience you get at the Box Office. I'm really proud of the fact that we've had two mystery shoppers from Attitude is Everything and both times we've had really amazing feedback on how kind our Box Office team have been, asking the right questions in the right way to find out how best to help someone without being patronising. Doing that makes a huge difference.

We always hold a training session with the Leeds Grand Theatre staff ahead of our dementia friendly performances (we've held three so far), which is great. We learn a lot from them because they have to cope with audiences day in, day out for different shows - but they also benefit from our research in dementia and from our being a Dementia Friends champion. It's important that we prepare well for those shows in terms of how we welcome our audience.

What has offering accessible performances taught you?

We’re using our knowledge of access to start making our content more accessible for everyone. For example, we'd always put together a pre-show introduction for the audio-described show in the season, with a synopsis, details of the set and what the costumes looked like. We would then make this available as a large print word doc and also as an audio file with someone voicing it alongside a few snippets of music. These were very positively received and proved to be useful for everyone, not just people with vision impairment, so we now do them for all our operas.

What's planned for the coming season?

We’re having our new production Falstaff audio-described on Saturday 7 October and a BSL interpreter at the relaxed and dementia friendly matinee of the same production on Wednesday 25 October. The other two productions in the season - Masque of Might and La rondine - will have audio introductions on the website where we also have details on all our venues for people with access requirements.

In addition, I'm planning a seminar where arts organisations can come together and share best practice - watch this space!