Access Tourism NZ TOURISM FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES, SENIORS, AND AGEING BOOMERS IN NEW ZEALAND AND WORLDWIDE

Auckland Art Gallery facade

Arts organisations and venues will become more accessible this year, thanks to eleven grants provided by Creative New Zealand for projects ranging from sign language interpretations and audio described performances to music workshops and concerts for disabled children and young adults, and improved physical access.   Totalling $30,000, the one-off grants are being administered by Arts Access Aotearoa through its Arts For All Programme, a partnership programme with Creative New Zealand. The aim of this programme is to work with representatives from the disability sector to support arts organisations, venues and producers to improve their access.

Stephen Wainwright, Chief Executive, Creative New Zealand said the one-off grants signal the organisation’s commitment to supporting improved access to arts events for all New Zealanders. They complement the publication Arts for All: opening doors to disabled people and the annual Big ‘A’ Creative New Zealand Arts for All Award.  “It’s great to see the range of projects and the organisations’ enthusiasm to build new audiences by making performances, facilities and information more accessible to disabled people,” he said. “I look forward to seeing the long-term impact of this investment and of Arts Access Aotearoa’s Arts for All Programme.”

Richard Benge, Executive Director, Arts Access Aotearoa said the one-off grants build on the work being done through the Arts For All Programme. They have also prompted valuable discussions with the organisations.  “I am very pleased to see the level of commitment and creative ideas coming from the arts community to improve access for everyone wanting to engage in the arts,” he said.

The eleven grant recipients will also contribute their own funding to their projects.

The grants will go to

• Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki to increase access to its programmes, provide disability awareness training for staff, and provide a series of signed talks about works in its collection in 2012

• Auckland Theatre Company to install ramps in its premises and make its website more accessible to people with a visual impairment

• Capital E National Theatre for Children to provide signed performances of three different works in its 2012 programme

• Chamber Music New Zealand to present a workshop and concert in the Wellington Town Hall for disabled children and young adults so they can experience live music up close, and interact with musicians and their instruments

• Fortune Theatre, Dunedin to establish best practice methodologies for audio-described performances and present six audio-described performances in 2012

• New Zealand Symphony Orchestra to increase the number of its performances to students in special needs schools in Auckland

• Pablos Art Studios, Wellington to provide staff training for its tutors, enhancing their engagement with those studio’s artists who have visual, hearing or communication impairments

• Q Theatre, Auckland to develop an accessibility policy and action plan, promote its access to a wide audience, and provide disability awareness training for staff, board and management

• Silo Theatre, Auckland to provide signed performances of Tribes by Nina Raine, an award-winning work about the politics of communication for hearing, hearing impaired and Deaf people

• Studio2, Dunedin to display artwork by disabled artists to professional standards in its exhibition space

• Theatre Royal Charitable Trust, Christchurch to contribute to the installation of an accessible lift, catering for disabled patrons, to the upper levels of the Isaac Theatre Royal.

Source: Arts Access Aotearoa

M Shed – which is part of Bristol Museums, Galleries & Archives’ – has recently received a Jodi Mattes Trust Award for Digital Access onsite. Their PenFriend Audio Access project was announced as the winner at a recent presentation held at Swansea’s National Waterfront Museum.   The awards relate to the use of existing technology to widen access to information and collections for disabled people more effectively and creatively. They were first given in the UK in 2003, European Year of Disabled People, and celebrate practice that inspires locally, nationally or  internationally.  The  PenFriends are audio devices that allow visitors to M Shed to listen to stories in the galleries. This is a free service provided to visually impaired visitors and to those who have difficulty reading print.

The M Shed also has induction loops, many of the films and video clips have subtitles, and transcripts of oral histories are available.  There are tactile maps of Bristol and other exhibits that can be handled in many of the galleries.

M Shed, as part of Bristol City Council, is committed to providing a website that’s accessible to the widest possible audience, regardless of technology or ability.  They endeavour to conform to level Double-A of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 by building their site using code compliant with the W3C standard. The technical wording for this is “valid HTML 4.01 Strict for structure and CSS for presentation”.  The site displays correctly in current browsers – though there may be visual differences. Using HTML/CSS standards means any future browsers will also display content correctly.   Whenever possible, links are written to make sense out of context.   The text size on the site is specified in a way that makes it resizable in any browser, should it be too small to read comfortably.  M Shed is keen to hear from people if anything needs changing to make their site more  accessible.

M Shed is fully accessible to wheelchair users, and wheelchairs can be borrowed. There is level access throughout and lifts to all floors. These lifts are designated fire evacuation lifts and have tactile buttons and spoken floor announcements.   There are accessible parking spaces and a drop-off/ pick up point for taxis, accessible toilets, changing facilities, and café.  Visitor Services staff have been trained to meet the needs of all visitors. For further information about accessible facilities contact the museum on 0117 35 26600 or emailinformation@mshed.org

Two new text books on accessible tourism are available through the European Network for Accessible Tourism (ENAT) from Channel View Publications. The first is “Concepts and Issues” (eds: Dimitrios Buhalis and Simon Darcy), which sets out to  explore and document the current theoretical approaches, foundations and issues  in the study of accessible tourism.  Professor Nigel Morgan, The Welsh Centre for Tourism Research states that this volume harnesses “the best conceptual  developments on the topic” and that it will “take accessible tourism and universal design debates into the mainstream of academic enquiryand industry practice“

The second volume is “Best Practice in Accessible Tourism” (eds: Buhalis, Darcy, and Ivor Ambrose).  It focuses on policy and best practice in accessible tourism, reflecting the ”state-of -the-art” as expressed in a selection of international chapters. It brings together global expertise in planning, design and management to inform and stimulate providers of travel, transport, accommodation, leisure and tourism services to serve guests with disabilities, seniors and the wider markets that require good accessibility. Chapter 8, written by Sandra Rhodda of Access Tourism New Zealand, describes the state of accessible tourism in this country.  Overall, the book gives ample evidence that accessible tourism organisations and destinations can expand their target markets as well as improve the quality of their service offering, leading to greater customer satisfaction, loyalty and expansion of business.  Accessible tourism is not only about providing access to people with disabilities but also it addresses the creation of universally designed environments that can support people that may have temporary disabilities, families with young children, the ever increasing ageing population as well as creating a safer environment for employees to work. Noel Scott, of the University of Queensland, Australia says that the volume “provides a ‘state-of-the-art” assessment of both theory and practice. This book establishes a new field of study and provides the benchmark against which other contributions will be judged. It integrates the work of all the key players and should be read by academics, managers and government policy makers.”

A museum of impressive proportions, both in physical exhibition area and in holdings, the Lille Metropole Museum of Modern, Contemporary and Outsider Art (LaM) is also practiced in the art of accessibility.  The museum which displays over 4500 artworks including pieces by Picasso, Miro, and Klee as well as contemporary and outsider art, and has an extraordinary sculpture garden. It closed for renovations in 2006. When it reopened with its new name and its expanded buildings in September 2010, the curators were delighted with a new “high-tech” feature called “Tag My LaM” — a new technology for visitors’ use on their smartphones. The museum project, undertaken with IBM and Urbilog, enables visitors to stroll through the museum’s sculpture park and hear information in the language of their choice about the closest nearby sculpture on their smartphones. For visually impaired visitors, an audio version of the information is also available. Further increasing the usefulness of Tag My LaM to both visitors and curators, it can receive visitors’ real-time feedback.

It makes sense that a museum showcasing modern art would embrace an innovative technology such as Tag My LaM. According to an IDG study, smartphones are taking Europe by storm. The analysts looked at almost 14,000 users in 16 countries (over 11,000 in Europe). The study showed:

• More than two-thirds of respondents said that they have a smartphone for either work or personal use.
• 70% browse the Internet regularly
• A similar percentage use mobile applications.

Kudos to LaM.  Now, if only they would make their website accessible…………..

The Taranaki Daily News reports that New Plymouth art gallery The Govett-Brewster received the Arts Access Aotearoa Big ‘A’ Creative New Zealand Arts For All Award in recognition of its continuing work with disabled people to better understand their needs in relation to art appreciation. The gallery provides:

• audio and touch tours
• large-print exhibition guides for the blind and partially-sighted
• sound enhancer to make audio clearer for the hearing impaired
• sign-language tours with an interpreter for the deaf
• easy access for those who are physically disabled
• disabled-friendly website
• Staff trained in disability awareness
• discussion forums with the disabled community

Gallery Director Rhana Devenport was thrilled with the award but said it was only the beginning.  ”It’s good that they recognise we’re making a sincere and genuine effort, but we know we’ve got a long journey ahead and lots of learning to do, it’s a continuing conversation with the disabled community,” she said.

In awarding the Govett-Brewster, the judges said: ” The Govett-Brewster Art Gallery’s commitment to accessibility is underpinned by the New Plymouth District Council’s Disability Strategy – an example of best practice that gave the Govett-Brewster the edge. This nomination was a fine example of an arts organisation developing its audience by increasing access, and we look forward to seeing the next steps on its journey to accessibility.”  Presenting the award at a ceremony in Parliament, Creative New Zealand Chief Executive Stephen Wainwright said, “engaging New Zealanders in the arts and ensuring they have access to great art experiences is a priority for us. This award sits at the heart of what Creative New Zealand wants to achieve”.  Creative New Zealand id the national arts development agency.

DisabledGo reports that a new website – My Access London -  has been created in anticipation of next years Olympics and Paralympics.  If you want to find out about the disabled access at venues or attractions across the capital this site has information to over 17,000 venues, including major tourist attractions like the London Eye, Westminster Abbey, London Zoo and the O2 Arena. All have been visited and assessed in person.   The site which officially launches at the beginning of June has been entirely funded and developed by DisabledGo, in response to feedback from disabled people and partner London boroughs who wanted to see an access guide totally dedicated to London.

The website offers an unprecedented choice of personally surveyed access guides.  Access Tourism New Zealand commends DisabledGo’s commitment to never publish self-assessed, non-verified information, that is, information provided by for example tourism venue owners such as accommodation providers or attractions unless it has been independently assessed.   As a research project in NZ has found (Rhodda, 2007), only about a third of tourism operators correctly self-assess their access for people with disabilities.

The number of venues featured on www.myaccesslondon.com will significantly increase during 2011 in the build up to next year’s Olympic Games. In July alone, 2,000 additional venues will be added thanks to new partnerships with London boroughs. If you would like more information about www.myaccesslondon.com please contact Rachel Felton, External Relations Manager. E: rachel.felton@disabledgo.com T: 01438 842710

The Annals of Leisure Research is seeking papers for a special issue that examines the inclusion and citizenship of people with disability in “cultural life” (recreation, leisure, the arts, sport, or tourism).  The purpose is to:

a)      clarify what the terms inclusion and citizenship mean in different cultures;

b)      to place inclusion and citizenship to ‘cultural life ‘(recreation, leisure, the arts, sport or tourism) across discourses relating to economic, social and environmental contexts that affect people with disabilities participation; and

c)       to discuss the terms inclusion and citizenship from the ideological frameworks of government, researchers, providers of service or disability advocacy groups.

Submissions are sought from the consumer (demand), providers (supply) and coordination/regulation (government) sector perspectives. The guest editors invite interested researchers to contribute theoretical, methodological or empirical papers related to the theme of this Special Issue. The topics of potential papers include but are not limited to:

• The role of inclusion and citizenship in the construction of ‘cultural life’(recreation, leisure, the arts, sport or tourism) environments and experiences;
• What is the impact of inclusion/exclusion on the person and their experiences?;
• The social and/or cultural construction of inclusion in ‘cultural life’(recreation, leisure, the arts, sport or tourism) activities and experiences;
• The role of inclusion in the construction of cultural, sub cultural and personal identities of different societies;
• The role of inclusion in the construction and/or deconstruction of the intersection with gendered, ethnic and sexual identities within the experience of ‘cultural life’(recreation, leisure, the arts, sport or tourism);
• How experiences of inclusion compare and contrast between different dimensions of disability (e.g. mobility, vision, hearing, cognitive, sensitivities etc.);
• The impact of inclusion and citizenship within space and place making

Important Dates:

• Abstract deadline: 30 June 2011 to Jerome(at)dal.ca
• Notification of acceptance of abstracts deadline: 1 August 2011
• Submission for double-blind reviewing process: 30 November2011
• Review Process Notification: 30 January  2012
• Special issue publication: June or December 2012

For submission guidelines and more, continue reading……………..

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Scoop reports that for the first time ever, the New Zealand deaf community will be fully included in Waitangi Day celebrations at Waitangi.   Waitangi Day marks the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840 between representatives of the British Crown and over 500 Maori chiefs.  This year New Zealand Sign Language Interpreters of both Maori and English will sign during formal speeches at the Treaty Grounds.   The Office for Disability Issues will provide this service as a direct result of lobbying by Whangarei-based Tiaho Trust, a Northland disability-led organisation.  The 2006 New Zealand Census showed that 24,090 people use New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL).  New Zealand Sign Language was formally recognised as the third official language of New Zealand along with English and Maori in 2006 under the New Zealand Sign Language Act.

Sandra Rhodda of Access Tourism New Zealand gave an invited presentation at the Third International Congress of Accessible Tourism for All in Valladolid Spain in November.  She spoke about people with disabilities, access tourism, and arts and culture in New Zealand.   The congress – held over three days – was attended by more than 300 people from Europe, the U.K., Asia, and the Americas, and comprised a number of presentations and concurrent workshops on progress and business initiatives in developing Access Tourism, professional training, employment, and research in Access Tourism, presentations on access, culture, and the environment, disabled students as access tourists, Access Tourism and technology, and Access Tourism rating, standardization, and labeling systems.  The Congress was backed by Fundacion ONCE, the largest disabilities NGO in Spain, and the European Network for Accessible Tourism.

 The main theme of the congress was cultural tourism and was therefore aimed at professionals in the cultural sector wishing to enhance their participation in the tourism sector.  It had as a main goal that of establishing Universal Accessibility and Design for All, with which to promote inclusion of people with disabilities.  One of the main goals of Fundación ONCE is to ensure the full inclusion of disabled people in all areas of society. Making access to cultural tourism easier for disabled people helps them get to know the culture of the place they are visiting. On the other hand, incorporating Design for All into the new cultural tourism offerings makes more people aware of the importance of Design for All and Universal Accessibility.

A timely presentation was that given by Juan Aljama from the Accessibility Commission of Spain, who spoke about the work of the Group of World Heritage Cities of Spain (Accessible Heritage and Tourism section).  The Group was created to preserve and promote thirteen historic cities in Spain, and the access section is involved with assessing and improving access for locals and visitors with disabilities.  One of the thirteen cities – Avila – this week won the first-ever European Commission award for improving access for the disabled (The Access City Award 2011)

In a first for New Zealand, The New Zealand Tourism Research Institute at Auckland University of Technology has created a Research Programme Area in Access Tourism headed by Sandra Rhodda. 

 NZTRI’s Access Tourism programme aims to research and develop Access Tourism in NZ.  Access Tourism is tourism, travel, and hospitality for people with permanent or temporary disabilities, seniors, parents with strollers, and any person with a need for improved access.  This is an interdisciplinary research area that addresses the challenges and opportunities presented by Access Tourism.

The Access Tourist already represents a sizeable proportion of our tourism markets.  Between 17 and 20% of the population in our main markets already report a disability, and this percentage is bound to grow because the large Baby Boomer cohort is ageing and disability increases with age.  Those aged 45 or older already comprise almost half of our domestic and international visitors (and over 70% of our cruise ship visitors).

Areas of interest include:

• Research and policy development
• Understanding the Access Tourism market
• Awareness promotion and education of government and industry to the potential of Access Tourism
• Access Tourism product development and marketing in NZ
• Promotion of cooperation in a developing Access Tourism sector, including in the public and private sector
• Access Tourist satisfaction and motivation
• Economic and social benefits of Access Tourism
• Access Tourism as an important factor in tourism sustainability
• Relationship of Access tourism to Health, Wellness, and Medical Tourism
• Opportunities for Access Tourism legacy development around major events such as RWC2011

NZTRI staff at the conference

Podcasts of the presentations made at the inaugural Access Tourism New Zealand conference held in Auckland yesterday are now availabe on the NZ Tourism Research Institute website.  Presentations include those made by Sandra Rhodda, Director of Access Toruism NZ (talking about Access Tourism and New Zealand), Minnie Baragwanath(Access Tourism in Auckland), Diana Palmer (World Access Tourism), Bill Forrester (Inbound Tourism and Access Tourism), Mary Schnackenberg (The tourist with vision disabilites), Chris Peters (Tourism and the deaf or hard of hearing), Alexia Pickering (A wheelchair users experiences), Kathy Olsen (Accessible websites and information), Chris Ross (Transport and the disabled), and Auckland Disability Law (Legal aspects of Access Tourism).

Burnet Thorne Cultural Group, a tourism planning and development company in Ontario Canada, has been advising Canadian regions such as Whistler about the development of cultural tourism.  Cultural tourism is “tourism that is motivated by an interest in other peoples, other places, other cultures and in Canada, the total domestic spending by Canadian cultural tourists now exceeds Can$3 billion p.a.  What is driving the market demand for cultural tourism experiences? According to Steven Thorne, the aging Baby Boomers top the list.  Although cultural tourists are distributed across all age and income cohorts, well-heeled Boomers drive the cultural tourism market. Culture-consuming Boomers earn more, spend more, travel more frequently, and stay longer than other tourists in the destinations they visit. They are the tourism industry’s best friends.   The  best salaried and educated generation in North American history, they ”seek learning and enrichment when they travel – the precise travel rewards that cultural tourism provides”.  This is a growing demographic. By the year 2020, the combined Canadian/U.S. population between the ages of 55 and 74 will swell to 83.5 million – a 39 percent increase from 2008.  Women are another factor in the growing popularity of cultural tourism. Key players in travel decision making, women typically have a greater interest in arts and culture than do men.

Guest article by Veroniek Maat, Intern, NZ Tourism Research Institute, Auckland University of Technology, and Masters Student, Leisure, Tourism, and Environment, Wageningen University, The Netherlands

Regional festivals, art and culture exhibitions, food tasting events, and markets are planned in anticipation of the Rugby World Cup 2011 to be held in New Zealand.  During the six week event, locals and visitors will be keen to explore more of New Zealand, enabling the regions to showcase their industries, people, arts and culture.  As the regions get ready to host overseas tourists and Kiwis, events have been listed on the Festival Programme 2011, an official RWC2011 site. Welcoming visitors means welcoming all ranges of potential visitors, including children, youngsters, adults, seniors, men, women, foreigners, locals – and people with disabilities. 

The events presently listed on the Festival Program give very little or no information about access, whether access for visitors with a visual, hearing or mobility impairment. Parts of this  website are still under construction but few of the events listed at the time of writing have taken into account  visits from the disabled. Outdoor events such as festivals and markets state nothing about disabled parking lots, paved paths, ramps, Braille trails, or audio tours. Regrettably, out of the 49 events listed, only one of the theater performance group shows engagement with less mobile visitors by describing on their website ease of access to their shows.  

The museums and galleries of New Zealand will also open their doors for RWC tourists. The Museum of New Zealand, Te Papa Tongarewa in Wellington has included visitors with a disability in their strategy. Disabled parking, adapted guided tours, education programs, wheelchairs, a scooter, audio guides, captions on videos and hearing loops are provided in this venue and people with disabilities will feel welcomed. Govett Brewster Art Gallery is also pro-active in welcoming disabled guests.  It was actively involved with New Plymouths District Council’s Disability Strategy, offered its first Sign Language-interpreted exhibition tour during the Sign Language Awareness Week in 2009, and altered the size of text on wall labels. Besides providing access for the visually impaired, mobility- impaired visitors are encouraged to visit, knowing the galleries’ space lends itself for wheelchair access and wheelchairs are for hire (website). Extensive search for disabled access at other significant museums and galleries throughout New Zealand shows that their websites lack access information about their premises. If New Zealand event producers, museum, and galleries want to offer an “unforgettable RWC experience”to all visitors, they will need to catch up with the access strategies of Te Papa Tongarewa and Govett Brewster Art Gallery.  They should invest in accessible experiences and information provision for people with disabilities because lack of attention for the fastest-growing, largest-spending segment of Baby Boomers (who will have more disability with age), seniors and people with a disability will result in loss of revenues and decline of New Zealand’s destination image.

“Work in Progress” is the annual report from the Ministry for Disability Issues to the House of Representatives on the implementation of the New Zealand Disability Strategy.  In it, the New Zealand Minister For Disabilities Issues Tariana Turia has acknowledged that many in the (NZ) disabilities sector “have expressed impatience at the pace of the (NZ) Disability Strategy’s implementation”.    She goes on to say that “The Ministerial Committee on Disability Issues believes we can make better progress through focusing our actions on the three major influences on what disabled people can do: their personal circumstances, and those of their whānau (family) and friends who support them; the accessibility of the world we live in; and the degree to which specialised disability supports work for them.”

In the same report, Gary Williams, CE of the New Zealand Disabled Persons Assembly states that “We are keen that our position is not made worse by an under-enthusiastic approach to the New Zealand Disability Strategy’s implementation.” Williams goes on to report that The World Bank estimates it costs the global economy between $US1.3 and $US1.9 trillion a year to exclude disabled people. For New Zealand, the Disabled Persons Assembly estimates this cost to be about $10 billion a year. This is a huge lost opportunity for New Zealand, and it is a good illustration of what can be gained – both by disabled people and the country as a whole – by implementing the New Zealand Disability Strategy.

Williams sees a further opportunity to see progress in an international context when New Zealand presents its first report to the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities next year (2010). The report on the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is likely to be substantially informed by progress reports such as the “Work in Progress”. “We are”, says Williams, “like the Ministerial Committee on Disability Issues, keen to see further actions. We are also keen to see more participatory or partnership initiatives. We want the New Zealand Disability Strategy’s implementation to be the best it can be.  However, for the last eight years it has been evident the implementation of the New Zealand Disability Strategy has lacked direction. It seems that, while the very essence of the Strategy was to have a whole-of-government approach, most agencies act in a mutually exclusive way with no discernable end goal.”

Williams called on government agencies to have budgets and timelines for the successful implementation of the Disability Strategy.

Mary and Max

Out of Australia comes a brilliant movie about diversity, difference, and friendship.  “Mary and Max”, a multiple award winning  film directed by Victoria’s  Adam Elliot and produced by Melanie Coombs has just been released on DVD. The story, told through claymation, shows the progression of a friendship as it develops through writing letters over a number of years.  This film will make you laugh and cry, all at the same time.  You will leave the theatre or your lounge seat fully challenged, and totally satisfied. 

Mary Dinkle, a chubby lonely eight-year-old girl living in the suburbs of Melbourne, and Max Horovitz, a 44-year-old, severely obese, Jewish man with Asperger’s Syndrome living in the chaos of New York, strike up an extraordinary bond.  Spanning twenty years and two continents, Mary and Max’s friendship survives much more than the average diet of life’s ups and downs.  All the characters in this movie are drawn with depth and display a range of real human experience, strengths, and weaknesses.   The film stars Philip Seymour Hoffman (Doubt, The Boat That Rocked), Toni Collette (The Black Balloon, TV’s United States of Tara), Barry Humphries (Dame Edna) and Eric Bana (Star Trek. The Other Boleyn Girl).

Writer/Director Adam Elliot’s previous short films, Harvie Krumpet, Uncle, Cousin, and Brother are amongst the most successful short films made in Australia.  They have won 5 Australian Film Institute awards, as well as many international awards including the Oscar.  The shorts continue to screen at festivals around the world, on the internet at http://www.atomfilms.com and on various DVD compilations, where they continue to entertain and move audiences.

Divine reports that 37-year-old Elliot says he is fascinated by human nature. “I’m also fascinated by the crazy idea that we are all striving for perfection… Everyone has a flaw that they may not want, that some people embrace, some people ignore, some people try and cure it, some people label it as a disability, some people label it as an advantage.”

Elliot says he “gets annoyed when people say I make films about disability”. “I just make films about people around me. Basically what I’m saying is that everybody is unusual and that everybody is unique and everybody has imperfection. It’s all about perception and how you can forgive yourself and others.”

Mum

 Read more about Elliot here

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The recently released “Step Up Auckland” report (see 6 November, below) outlines some of the key aspirations and issues of PwDs in Auckland city.  A joint research project by the Auckland City Council, Auckland District Health Board, Waitakere City Council, and Auckland University of Technology Institute of Public Policy, the report was launched in September 2009.

A video of Aucklanders with a variety of disabilities is available on You Tube.  They discuss transport and other aspects of getting around the city, social participation, work, support, and their aspirations of how Auckland city could be.

Arts Access Aotearoa

Those New Zealand artists and arts organisations around the country who are already welcoming people with disability audiences and gallery visitors are profiled in a practical guide on the arts and disability launched today by Creative New Zealand in partnership with Arts Access Aotearoa . Arts For All | Ngā toi mo te katoa (pdf or Word doc. available on the website) provides low-cost and long-term ways to increase access to the arts, market events to the disabled community and build new audiences. Among the organisations profiled are Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, Touch Compass Dance Trust, Fortune Theatre, Te Papa, City Gallery Wellington, Jolt Dance Company, The Court Theatre, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery and WOMAD.

Such a publication can only speed the development of access tourism in New Zealand by providing accessible tourism products that are inclusive for all.  People with disabilities are a large group that have so far been poorly catered for in all walks of life.

Stephen Wainwright, Chief Executive, Creative New Zealand, commended arts organisations already adopting accessible practices and said Arts For All has been published to encourage more artists, organisations and venues to improve their access and build new audiences and visitor numbers.
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The need to provide disability access and the pastoral desire to welcome all visitors has presented a challenge to St Albans Cathedral.  The shrine of St Alban was, until recently, only accessible via a flight of steps. So a wheelchair lift was added to create access into the Saint’s Chapel, and has been praised for its elegance and dignity, and for providing both spiritual and physical access.

Greg Luton, English Heritage Regional Director in the East of England, said that “Cathedrals are inspirational places, but they need to be forward thinking and constantly review how they use these wonderful spaces. At Norwich Cathedral, development manages to be emphatically modern while keeping its roots deep in the past. At Ely and St Alban’s, two projects have improved access and helped to open up the cathedrals to a wider public.”

A news release on 3 September 2009  reports challenges to a number of leading Auckland organisations to tackle barriers that get in the way for 77,000 disabled Aucklanders.  The report shows that disabled people could play a bigger part in the city if barriers were removed in public spaces, services and buildings, transport and communications, work and study.
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