Being prepared can help you handle the unexpected.

By working together with the staff: technicians, producers, managers, artists, volunteers, and so on…

you can help ensure that people of all abilities will be able to participate in your event. 4 00:00:30 --> 00:00:39 Let’s take a look on what the Coordinators of Simbiòtic festival have done to solve unexpected issues and how they prepared their team to handle the problems, 5 00:00:40 --> 00:00:43 in order to help avoid and rectify common problems. 6 00:00:45 --> 00:00:47 But first a little introduction: 7 00:00:48 --> 00:00:55 Simbiotic Festival is a scenic arts festival in Barcelona, with a contemporary and accessible offer, for people of all abilities. 8 00:00:57 --> 00:01:02 The festival has had two editions so far and consists of two parts: 9 00:01:03 --> 00:01:06 Simbiotic Laboratory: Conferences, activities, master classes 10 00:01:07 --> 00:01:16 and exhibitions of inclusive projects with the aim of generating a space for meetings and reflection on the accessibility of the performing arts 11 00:01:17 --> 00:01:20 and Symbiotic Scene: accessible and multidisciplinary shows. 12 00:01:22 --> 00:01:27 The coordinators of the festival: Maria Oria, Aina Pociello and Ana Candela, 13 00:01:28 --> 00:01:33 will talk about how they trained their staff to make the event accessible, 14 00:01:34 --> 00:01:38 how they used different types of communication during the festival, 15 00:01:40 --> 00:01:44 and what the most common issues are encountered at various venues, 16 00:01:45 --> 00:01:51 They will also discuss what is meant by the so-called "unawareness barrier" 17 00:01:52 --> 00:01:55 and the importance of communication between all the partners. 18 00:01:57 --> 00:02:02 We are ASSOC, we are María Oria, Aina Pociello and Ana Candela. 19 00:02:03 --> 00:02:08 We are a producer of accessible stage arts that was born a year ago with Movistar Simbiòtic festival, 20 00:02:09 --> 00:02:11 a festival of scenic arts accessible to everyone. 21 00:02:12 --> 00:02:17 we put a lot of emphasis on training our volunteers, 22 00:02:18 --> 00:02:22 who are a team who helped us make the festival, 23 00:02:23 --> 00:02:27 train them beforehand in the understanding of disability or sensorial diversity, 24 00:02:28 --> 00:02:35 what we have been seeing during the preliminary research was that there is a lot of ignorance 25 00:02:36 --> 00:02:42 about disability and on top people find it hard to approach a blind or hearing impaired person, 26 00:02:43 --> 00:02:55 they don’t know how to treat them, and for this reason we wanted that our team at the festival was trained had some basis to interact with people without any prejudice. 27 00:02:56 --> 00:03:00 So, prior to the festival we held workshops about sign language, 28 00:03:01 --> 00:03:07 how to treat a blind person if they ask you for something, 29 00:03:08 --> 00:03:10 because sometimes we are very intrusive without wanting to. 30 00:03:11 --> 00:03:14 And so with this we tried to really emphasize it, 31 00:03:15 --> 00:03:18 as we think it is the basis of everything, training to change things. 32 00:03:19 --> 00:03:25 Then we also produced a part of our flyers in braille, 33 00:03:26 --> 00:03:30 because a part of the blind population who only read braille, 34 00:03:31 --> 00:03:34 and we wanted them to have easier access. 35 00:03:35 --> 00:03:43 Amongst other things we also introduced ‘sensory’ elements, but shared. 36 00:03:44 --> 00:03:51 For example there was a music event with live painting where the musician said to us: 37 00:03:52 --> 00:03:56 “why don’t we see how we can make them vibrate, 38 00:03:57 --> 00:04:00 how can we transmit te vibration of the ‘hang [instrument]’”, 39 00:04:01 --> 00:04:06 because on this occasion there was a central ‘hang’ where the piece was played. 40 00:04:07 --> 00:04:14 So what we did we distributed balloons, and while specific sounds were played, 41 00:04:15 --> 00:04:24 so when people hugged the balloons they could feel the sounds, on sway or the other 42 00:04:25 --> 00:04:33 We try to transmit artistic communication sensibilities with all means possible. 43 00:04:34 --> 00:04:37 But also the entire communication of the festival was accesible. 44 00:04:38 --> 00:04:46 If we did lectures there was audio description, our web is accessible, 45 00:04:47 --> 00:04:53 we strived that all communication of the festival did not loose the quality of a scenic arts festival 46 00:04:54 --> 00:05:00 but that it also is accessible for groups that usually don’t have this easy access to such cultural content. 47 00:05:01 --> 00:05:07 When implementing the accessibility measures at the existing venues, 48 00:05:08 --> 00:05:13 we find these problems that Ana mentioned, which are problems of infrastructure, many venues are not designed to be accessible, 49 00:05:14 --> 00:05:20 to have audio description booth next to the stage or above with the technicians booth. 50 00:05:21 --> 00:05:26 They don’t have a audio loop, moreover there are theatre spaces that are renovating 51 00:05:27 --> 00:05:34 and they are not thinking about putting in an audio loop. There is no education around this, and there is the excuse of the cost, 52 00:05:35 --> 00:05:43 that of course these updates cost money, which surely could be met if there was a plan, but it’s not a priority. 53 00:05:44 --> 00:05:52 There is no problem, that is, there is simply a will not to want to approach this group 54 00:05:53 --> 00:05:57 and sometimes it is the two parties, not just the people who see and hear many times, 55 00:05:58 --> 00:06:03 it is this collective he has faced many daily barriers throughout his life. 56 00:06:04 --> 00:06:13 So they also have a reluctance or distrust to approach events or projects that are accessible and inclusive, 57 00:06:14 --> 00:06:20 because there have already been many and they have not worked due to lack of will, politics or financing, 58 00:06:21 --> 00:06:31 so I think there is a disagreement, the biggest problem is not have lived with these audiences and have not spoken and establish a dialogue of: 59 00:06:32 --> 00:06:33 what you need, what you do not need. 60 00:06:36 --> 00:06:39 In fact what it does is enrich somehow more mental barriers 61 00:06:40 --> 00:06:44 at the level of a creator for example, often questioned 62 00:06:45 --> 00:06:49s "ok yes, I'm going to put an interpreter on stage but what is going to mean for my work, 63 00:06:50 --> 00:06:55 is going to get ”dirty" or is going to respect the aesthetics of the message, 64 00:06:56 --> 00:07:03 in any case it will enrich but precisely you have to do this work of education and talk 65 00:07:04 --> 00:07:12 and put in common among all the actors involved so that these barriers in people who have to take a stand 66 00:07:13 --> 00:07:18 to promote accessible culture, promote communicative accessibility in the venues, 67 00:07:19 --> 00:07:26 in any artistic piece has to be born by all the actors involved, 68 00:07:27 --> 00:07:33 from the spaces, the cultural managers, the creators, the same people who are dedicated to the accessibility 69 00:07:34 --> 00:07:38 and just all these actors that we have just named 70 00:07:39 --> 00:07:47 should be met to find the ways to make the best product that just corresponds to the need of all audiences. 71 00:07:49 --> 00:07:51 That's like the fish that bites its tail, 72 00:07:52 --> 00:07:56 after the programmer, why I have to program something accessible if they do not come to see it in the background 73 00:07:57 --> 00:08:00 and well they do not come to see it because you do nothing accessible.