Theatre critic Beth O'Brien used a wheelchair during a long illness in her teens. She argues that theatres could do more to open themselves up to a currently disenfranchised disabled audience.
Have you ever tried going to the theatre in London in a wheelchair, or with a friend who is deaf? No? There has been a lot of discussion about making theatre more 'accessible'; to young people, to people from all different cultures and different economic backgrounds, but what about making theatres physically accessible?
Comedian Adam Hills, who often uses BSL interpreters
It’s a bigger problem than you might think. There are fifteen major West End theatres without proper access. When you realise one in ten of the adult population of the UK has some form of disability, the scale of this disenfranchised audience is staggering. Though many theatres have made genuine efforts to accommodate this audience, some of the attempts are just baffling. One West End theatre has assigned two spaces for wheelchair users – but requests they bring two able bodied (and presumably heroically strong) carers to carry them down the 21 steps to these specially-assigned seats in their wheelchair. I spent quite a long time trying to picture that.
According to the Disability Discrimination Act (1995), theatres (along with all providers of entertainment) are obliged to 'take such steps as it is reasonable' to provide access. Unfortunately, this fuzzy wording has yet to be clarified by a specific precedent in court, leaving it up to the theatres to interpret it as best they can – or choose to.
One theatre which has excellent access is the Soho Theatre, at which Edinburgh Fringe favourite 'Orphans' opened this week. Charlie Swinbourne, their Access Officer explains, they are 'committed to reaching a diverse audience, which includes the disabled community'. City Bridge Trust has funded their access program for 3 years. This means the theatre can provide wheelchair access and adapted toilets, alongside captioning, palantyping, BSL interpreters and Audio Description. It’s an imaginative approach: the theatre tries to accommodate every request, viewing access from the perspective of the person with a disability.
'Orphans' at Soho Theatre, which features excellent access
Comedian and actor Adam Hills, whose currently touring show ‘Inflatable’ is on at The Circus, Stratford East on October 9th often talks about his prosthetic foot onstage (even crowdsurfing his foot 'in instalments' at one gig). He points out that 'people always want to do what everyone else does. Nobody wants to be treated as special, just to have the same options as everybody else.' Hills often uses BSL interpreters for his show, though, he laughs, 'it’s not entirely altruistic; I’ve got some great material from signing.'
Anthony Ford-Shubrook, a theatre fan who uses a wheelchair as he has Cerebral Palsy, told me one thing that frustrates him is that, when he does find a theatre he can get into, he is often forced to sit separately from his friends. Not a major problem, you might think, but it nevertheless reinforces the feeling of being different. That’s something the Soho avoids and the venue also programmes performers who are disabled. Deafinitely recently staged a production there which used signing, spoken language and captioning, and they have a regular comedy show, 'Abnormally Funny People'. As more people disabilities become integrated as audience members, more opportunities and demand for disabled performers is created: As Swinbourne puts it, there’s 'a trickle down effect' as groups of people previously excluded discover a love of theatre, and society gets used to disability.
Hills suggests that it is a lack of awareness on the part of the theatres that is the problem. 'Maybe it’s like a bachelor who has a baby, and suddenly realises his sharp glass coffee table has to go. It’s just not something they have considered before.
It’s often argued that adapting our beautiful old buildings is impossible: not so, if Beijing is any example. Hills, who commentated on the Beijing Paralympics recalls 'walking through the Forbidden City' and seeing 'an 80 year old man there in a wheelchair, beaming. He wouldn’t have been able to do that a month before. The great thing about the Paralympics is it makes the world accessible, one city at a time.' In a profession staffed by creative people, surely the 2012 Paralympics is an opportunity to make London’s theatres as accessible as its sport. As Swinbourne says, 'if somebody at the top of an organisation really wants something done about access, if the determination exists – the funding is out there.'
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The idea of people having a ‘right’ to consume culture, implied through the idea of universal accessibility, does limit itself rather to realm of physical access. A disabled person may struggle navigating those “21 steps”, but I suggest It would be no less of struggle for me to find the resources to finance a weekend of Opera at Glyndebourne. Theatres will perhaps never comply fully with the Discrimination act sighted, until financial accessibility, far and away the greatest inequality is removed. In reality how is talk of one’s “right” to visit the theatre any more reasoned than suggesting a “right” to own a Bentley. PS. In this article it is written: "When you realise one in ten of the adult population of the UK has some form of disability, the scale of this disenfranchised audience is staggering. This is I suggest a largely useless and misplaced statistic. The figure sighted should instead relay the proportion of the population who have specific difficulties with mobility, or suffer from sensory problems, thereby giving a better sense of the scale of the problem. It is not just that the statistic is overly inclusive in this context; it also leaves certain parties in the cold. Let us use my own families’ circumstances to illustrate this point. Firstly (as you may have deduced) I am Dyslexic and perhaps technically considered disabled, yet I am no need of extra support when at the theatre. Conversely my elderly grandmother would greatly appreciate such investment, as she finds stairs troublesome, yet neither she, the law, nor anybody else would include her as a member of "disenfranchised" fifteen percent. The use of statistical data is what transforms the presentation of ones view from the polemical into the irrefutable. Statistics are clearly powerful entities and their responsible and considered use is paramount. Henry Laurence
Brilliant article. The point of it 'just not ocurring' to people has to be the most prescient point. I always hated having to sit people far away from their friends/family when I worked in a cinema too. When I complained to my managers, they always said there was nothing they could do about it. Pathetic. Anyway, really good article as well as a good point.
Great article Beth. You and all your contributors are right - we can't just ignore 10% of the population for ever and say art and sport just aren't accesible to them. This is the 21st century last time I checked, and in a modern, socially liberal society everybody should have access to theatre, opera houses, arenas, stadiums and clubs.
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