General Guides

• Accessibility in the Arts: A Promise and a Practice - Carolyn Lazard
  
  

Compiled in 2019, this guide not only includes a background of accessibility and disability justice, but also details specific ways in which disabled people are excluded from cultural spaces and offers possible solutions to those barriers. Moving away from historical and juridical definitions of accessibility, this guide considers the unique capacity of small scale arts organizations to meet the needs of disabled communities. It engages principles of disability justice to think through what can urgently be done to create more equitable and accessible arts spaces. 

• Cultural Access Network Project Resource Library - CANP via New Jersey Theater Alliance

The Resource Library is your one-stop shop for all things Access. We encourage you to utilize this tool when developing your ADA Plan or whenever you have an access related question. You can search by keyword or by category. New resources are added regularly.

• Design for Accessibility: A Cultural Administrator’s Handbook - National Assembly of State Arts Agencies (NASAA), the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts
  
  

Produced in 2003, this resource is designed to help you not only comply with Section 504 and the Americans with Disabilities Act but to assist you in making access an integral part of your organization’s planning, mission, programs, outreach, meetings, budget, and staffing. 

• Events Accessibility Guide - Dance/NYC
  
  

The purpose of this guide is to address and offer guidelines to create spaces that allow the full and equitable participation of disabled persons at Dance/NYC events. Content includes venue accessibility, design and communications, event logistics, guidelines for interactions, and a glossary of terms

• Demystifying Access: A guide for producers and performance makers: how to create better access for audiences to the performing arts - We Are Unlimited Arts Admin UK
  
  

A practical guide focused on UK audiences that covers the basics of accessible presenting

• Ableist language - Lydia X. Z. Brown / Autistic Hoya
  
  This is a list of ableist words, terms for reference purposes, and then a list of alternatives to ableist slurs, descriptions, and metaphors. Some of the entries are slurs, some are descriptions of disabled people or other people with pathologized identities/bodies/experiences, some are slang that derive from ableist origins, and some are common metaphors that rely on disability and ableism. There are also many terms or phrases that are ableist when used together, but are not on this list (like "afflicted with symptoms of [disability]" or "living with physical challenges" or "incapable of managing their behavioral health needs") because the words taken apart do not have a disability-specific history or current meaning.

• Arts for all | Ngā toi mō te katoa -  Arts Access Aotearoa | Putanga Toi ki Aotearoa
  
  

The arts are for everyone. Arts Access Aotearoa updated and published the second edition of Arts for All in April 2014. This guide provides practical and long-term ways for artists, arts organisations, venues, touring companies, festivals and venues to enhance their access, market their events to the disabled community and build new audiences.

• Creative Interventions Toolkit: A practical guide to stopping interpersonal violence - Creative Interventions
  
  

This toolkit brings theory of transformative justice into explicit practices and skills for community accountability. It is used by community organizers and facilitators to stop violence without violence.

• Disability Resource Landscaping: Arts, Film, and Journalism - Cara Reedy and Lena Sze
  
  

A living, non-comprehensive spreadsheet of consultants/contacts, trainings/workshops, and access services across the cultural sector. It includes contact info, disciplines served, and descriptions of offerings.

• Disability Futures in the Arts - Assorted authors in Wordgathering: A Journal of Disability Poetry and Literature
  
  

This is a project on disability arts and culture sponsored by the Canada Council for the Arts. As a component of this three-year, multi-project grant, Prof. Kenny Fries will curate and edit a series of 15 invited essays by disabled artists to be published in Wordgathering—in three sections (five essays, each) and sequences (the December 2020 issue, the Winter 2021 issue, and during the winter of 2022-23). The winter issue includes:

• • • 1. Against Being Disappeared: On Disability Culture, “Inclusion,” and Community

      2. Introduction to the Second Cohort of “Disability Futures in the Arts” by Kenny Fries

      3. Rotations: Crips and Care During Covid-19 by Penelakeke Brown

      4. A Hole in Waiting: Delineating Embodiment into Performance by Calvin Seretle Ratladi

      5. Working for Exposure: The Dangerous Costs of Memoir Writing by Elsa Sjunneson

      6. Performance. Disability. Art.: Public Celebrations of Love, Creativity, and Disability by Syrus Marcus Ware

      7. Unfit to Print: Refusing the Page in Deaf Poetics, by Meg Day
         
         

• Disability Culture Leadership Initiative - by 3Arts in Chicago. 

An archive of conversations with Deaf and disabled artists, many of whom have participated in a 

disability-specific residency program. There are recorded interviews and a report.

• access arts resource list- by petra rowe

A comprehensive resource list for access in the arts and organizing events.

• Arts Midwest Accessibility Center- by Arts Midwest

Resources designed to help arts and cultural organizations make programming, services, and communications more accessible.

• Arts Midwest: Embracing the Social Model of Disability for Arts Organizations- by Arts Midwest
  
  How an organization approaches accessibility makes all the difference. By simply taking a more holistic approach to accessibility, your organization can take huge strides toward building a culture of understanding around inclusive, accessible programs and offerings.
  
  

• Arts Midwest Ideas Hub-  by Arts Midwest
  
  The Ideas Hub is a collection of free, curated articles and tools that help creative leaders foster growth within their organizations. We aim to make the work easier by simplifying complex concepts in relatable ways, sharing real-life examples, and providing the framework for how to turn concepts into reality.
  
  

• South Arts Accessibility Guide- by South Arts

This page is intended for Arts Administrators and Arts Organizations who are interested in making their services and programs accessible. Whether you are beginning or expanding your accessibility research, the resources listed below may provide guidance.

• NEA Section 504 Self-Assessment Workbook- by National Endowment for the Arts
  
  This Program Evaluation Workbook (Workbook) is designed to assist the staff of Endowment grant recipients in evaluating the current state of accessibility of their programs and activities to disabled visitors and employees.

Email Lists:

Crip News by Kevin Gotkin

Disability Debrief by Peter Torres Fremlin