Although the rise of virtual events has prompted a larger conversation in the events industry around accessibility, it is still not as prominent a topic as it should be — but Accessible Festivals is working to change that. Founded in 2014 by Austin Whitney, who was paralyzed following a car accident, Accessible Festivals is a nonprofit that aims to make events, and specifically music festivals, as accessible as possible to people with disabilities.
The organization also puts together one of the only fully accessible festivals in the country, Inclusion Festival, as a result of a partnership between Whitney and Amy Pinder — who is now Executive Director at Accessible Festivals and is also a speech language therapist. Pinder co-founded Inclusion Festival with Leah Barron, who also joined Accessible Festivals as Programs Director.
“I've always known that it wasn't enough to just help my clients adapt to life in our society with a disability — there's so much that also needs to be done to make the world more accessible,” says Pinder. “People from all backgrounds are able to come together in recreational spaces, and society can be enriched by people taking the time to learn about or have positive experiences with people who are different.”
Pinder took her idea to create her own accessible festival to Whitney, and they have been hosting Inclusion Festival every year since. The festival was forced to go virtual last year and is cancelled this year due to Covid, but it will be back in-person in 2022.
In addition to Inclusion Festival, the nonprofit also provides individualized consultation services for other events and festivals that are looking to increase their accessibility and offers ongoing training programs on creating accessible events, an initiative that began during the pandemic and has already done a lot of good.
“Our trainings are presented on Zoom on a monthly basis, and they’re a really good option for anyone who wants to learn more about how to make their event more inclusive and more accessible,” shares Pinder. “It’s been really inspiring to see people from all different types of event planning spaces trying to make the world more inclusive.”
The trainings are all held live, and participants are encouraged to fill out a survey beforehand so that the session can be tailored to the audience and most effectively address their particular goals, needs, and questions. In addition to covering what is legally required by ADA laws to create an accessible event, the program also shares tips on what planners can consider to take their event one step further.
“We help participants understand what to consider that might not be obvious to someone without a disability,” says Pinder. “Things that are not mandated, but can create a really positive and much more inclusive environment, even with very little budget.”
Covid has made inclusion initiatives even more complicated, as many safety protocols can be discriminatory to people with disabilities. Pinder notes that “one challenge is figuring out how to keep everybody safe while also being able to include people that have disabilities that might prevent them from getting a vaccine or from masking. Implementing exclusionary policies that are designed to keep people safe is a bit of a double-edged sword, and that's an ongoing issue.”
That said, the silver lining of the pandemic has been the increase in digital experiences, which have made events inherently more inclusive. “I definitely think that live streams should be included in the future of live music because they do make events more accessible to a wider variety of people,” says Pinder, “Someone might have a long-term disability, or even a temporary disability, like an injury or an illness, that is keeping them from a show that they want to be at.
“With virtual options, they still can get a taste of it, and they can still participate in some way without needing to physically be there, if that's not what's best for them. It's been inspiring to see how people are making the most of those experiences at home. And it's definitely something that we recommend continuing to integrate, and that we plan to continue to integrate in the events that we produce.”