Robert Softley Gale: Everyone has limits

Everyone has limits - for me the Unlimited festivals and funding streams haven’t been about pretending that disabled artists have somehow broken free of all the things that limit us (as artists, as disabled people, as humans) – it has really been about questioning what our limits are and why they are there. What we’ve learnt is that if you invest significant funds then you can spur on the development of work by disabled artists and you can host festivals where many - but not all - barriers for artists and audiences are minimised.

I’d argue our limits as people is what makes art interesting and engaging - watching a character on stage trying to achieve something but being prevented from doing so by some internal or external factor is at the heart of a lot of drama. With disability art it can be easy to equate limits with struggle and so with impairments - which can be dangerous territory as it suggests that all disabled people are overcoming some sort of battle (ps we’re not inspirational heros!) - but when used well and when built around great, engaging art, our limits are often the thing that makes our stories interesting, engaging and universal.

The way that work by disabled artists has evolved over the last decade or so has been, to me, nothing short of revolutionary. A lot of important progress was made in the 80s and 90s which laid the necessary ground-work for this current generation of artists to get to the level where we’re presenting our art on international stages and at prestigious venues such as the Southbank and Tramway. We can’t forget this history and we need to avoid repeating mistakes or reinventing metaphorical wheels as much as possible, but we also need to remove any sense of restraint that this history might bring.

For instance, there’s a lot of excitement about making work accessible to audiences at the moment - by embedding audio description, sign language and captioning/surtitling in to the production and by offering relaxed/autism-friendly/dementia-friendly performances. These are really important things to explore and I love seeing new approaches to ‘creative access’ that pushes at boundaries and that fundamentally makes the art better. But we also need to remember that companies like Graeae and Birds of Paradise have been exploring access for audiences for over 20 years - we need to build upon and radically push such work without ignoring what’s gone before.

Having said that, the real excitement comes for me when new work by disabled artists completely surprises me by not feeling the need to reference what has gone before. Jess Thom’s ‘Backstage in Biscuitland’ is part-theatre, part-stand-up but is completely captivating as a show and has taken ‘disability art’ in to entirely new arenas. Graeae’s ‘Reasons To Be Cheerful’ took a piece of musical theatre that had integrated access and made it appeal to a general audience. I saw it at the Southbank as part of Unlimited 2012 and sat among 700 audiences members who would never have gone to a show ‘about disability’ but we rocking along to Spasticus Autisticus. It was magic! And I’d like to hope that productions I’ve been involved in like ‘Wendy Hoose’ and ‘If These Spasms Could Speak’ have had their impact too.

The progress we’ve seen has been about producing great work with the narratives and experiences of disabled people at the centre of it. It can be really tempting to now look at how disabled artists can have an impact on the rest of the arts sector and the rest of society - how we can take our skills and knowledge and use them to increase the inclusion of disabled people generally. This is great and incredibly important but I feel we need to keep going back to the art. All of the conferences, training events, strategic programmes and development schemes from now until the end of time won’t be able to replace that moment when an audience member engages= with a piece of art and ‘gets it’. The strategic impact of work by disabled artists and the role that companies and individuals play in influencing a wider social justice agenda is huge, but this can’t deviate from the art itself. When a young disabled person sees a disabled artist (or a non-disabled artist) on stage and thinks “that could be me” - that’s when the magic happens.

Robert Softley Gale is Artistic Director of Birds of Paradise Theatre Company. He also is co-director of Flip Artists. He spoke as part of the What is Unlimited Conversations to the theme of Evolution on Saturday 18 September 2016.

Image from What is Unlimited conversation at Tramway's Unlimited Festival. Documentation by Beyongolia and Chris Scott

Luke Pell: What if we were all agents for change?

A Note:

These words are a remembering, a revisiting of words found for symposiums and papers in the past for this widening field, as well as some new ones found for here and now.

They include words from: Begin With What You Know 2011; In Dialogue for Candoco 2015; Below The Water Line written with Caroline Bowditch for Reflect, Restock, Re-think: Live Art and Disability 2011; What’s Not Lost? for the Invisible Difference project 2015; Some Gathered Musings for Get Better Soon? from Dan Daw and Kate Marsh 2015; and recent writing Speak: Differences with Claire Cunningham and Jess Curtis 2016.

As we look to the future, to what’s next. Let’s not forget where we’ve come from, what work has been done and by whom. The ground that we move from and those who cared enough to tend to it.

A driech day at my desk, to the left from my window, slate tiles shine as I wait for some words to come. To the right on my fridge, a magnet with words from John Cage. Begin Anywhere.

I find that liberating and sometimes daunting. So, when I’m making I often say ‘Begin with what you know’.

What do I know?

Words. I work with words in a particular way.  For me language is physical.  I understand it as of the body.  I work with words and movement, words as movements. Words can bring things into being with greater clarity.  And dances, can say so much when words fail.  The poetry of the body.

Words are a way of asking questions and making invitations.  I think of a question as an opening, a space of possibility. And an invitation as a gesture. So these words are to ask some questions: Where have we come from?  Where are we now? Where might we go? What’s next? Who’s next? How? What, if, we were all agents of change? These words are an open invitation to imagine other possibilities, to imagine those we don’t yet know and they are an invitation to act.

What else do I know?  I am an artist.  I am a maker and curator.

I am a body with a body of work. My work is to listen, to touch, to transform, to care. What I do is relational. I have a whole series of relationships, collaborations, connections, encounters, lived experience to reflect upon, to draw from and to question. We all do, we all have some wisdoms for living to share.

I am an artist. I am a quiet activist. I don’t want to ‘get better soon’, my difference, my deviation, ditherings and disruptions, my ‘deficit’, my dances are amplifications of empathy, (little) political acts of love.

Together, we are a gathering of differing cultures, contexts, and sensibilities. Not just in terms of a disability politics or a dance history and the particular lineages of those movements and artists in our countries, our communities, but the lineages of differing cultural politics, people politics, aesthetic sensibilities, ethical practices, economies and ecologies.

All of our very different lived experiences and realities intersect, they come from the margins and from the mainstream, and they can collaborate, they can wrestle, listen, laugh, touch, and dance together to make something greater than the sum of their parts. But this is only possible by being open to difference, to really being open to difference, by not disappearing difference.

In preparing these words I reflected on what I’ve witnessed, what I’ve experienced in the past 5 years. And I have been reminded of what some call loss…. of my nana, of my partner, of friends and lovers, of peers, of politics, of places, faces, visions and values. And in remembering I have been reminded of their influences, how they changed me, how they transformed my reality and what I thought was possible

Influence at this time seems to be an important thing to consider, as across the arts and these islands we come to know our landscapes and communities in other ways. Over the next five years we may see the support and the influences we have grown with or indeed nurtured, transform and disappear.  This is a pertinent time for reflection, while we grapple with change.

In 2011 I gave a paper Begin with what you know… whilst working for the now mainstream dance company Candoco, in it I said… 

“our work is very much about influence and preparation – about who is being prepared for what and about influencing the mainstream. Mainstream understandings of disability differ depending on context. In Film – Television – Sport – Theatre - Dance We might challenge and question some of these representations or misrepresentations but I think it’s important to acknowledge they are where many people are at – people make meaning from the information available to them, the preparations they are afforded. To make change we need to begin there.
Begin with what they know”

I went on to say:

“… it feels that there is a sea change upon us.  Not just for the company, but for a sector often described as dance and disability.  Disability arts and contemporary dance in the UK are now maturing art forms/movements. For 2012 Unlimited will make a significant investment in the work of some disabled artists.  New work to be seen by new audiences and hopefully many, young disabled people and emergent artists.  A significant body of work has been produced.  An expertise that can be distilled, shared, offered up to inform, advise, signpost – to support emerging generations in choosing where to start – as well as being an excellent pool for those maturing artists to reflect on, draw from, move on from.”

In the same year, when Caroline Bowditch was Dance Agent for Change at Scottish Dance Theatre and I was still working as Head of Learning and Research with Candoco we gave a provocation Below the Waterline in response to a series of reviews in newspapers at the Live Art Development Agency event Restock, Reflect, Rethink 2: Live Art and Disability. 

This was the first time that I had been part of what seemed to be a genuine convergence between peers and colleagues practicing in live/performance art, disability arts, contemporary dance and choreography in a proactive and provocative way. The symposium spoke not only to physical diversity, but to a spectrum of diverse aesthetics, ideologies and embodied experiences.

In our paper we noted at that time, in that year, Candoco was celebrating their 20th anniversary and Scottish Dance Theatre their 25^th. This year Candoco turns 25 and SDT 30. We explained:

“Although each company has historically been funded to make and tour dance in the mainstream our roles had become either increasingly concerned with or explicitly dedicated to exploring gaps in the sector broadly described as dance and disability. In reviewing a number of dance critics write ups in mainstream newspapers we have noted that in two decades a focus upon the visibility of impairment, on any difference from normative corporeal ideas of a typical dancer hadn’t really shifted.  We think it would be fair to say that these preoccupations with physical difference are indicative of where understanding remains in the wider public consciousness.  As if it is only what is seen that constitutes the totality of disability.  Key to our discussion is acknowledging that the visibility of any impairment does not directly correlate with an individual’s experience of disability. Visual deviations from familiar structures are more easily observed, alerting us to difference.  However, what many critiques don’t do is go beyond noting this to address how alterity might enhance our art form.  Nor do they draw from notions of disability other than the medical model.  Such as disability being socially constructed, affirmative or anywhere between. This is perhaps felt profoundly in contemporary dance in the UK an art form informed by ideals of modernity and mobility that - for many - is inherently about form.  The few disabled artists emerging frequently come to their practice later in life having carved out informal pathways with little signposting, recognition or validation available in the places their non-disabled peers might look.  As Dance Agent for Change - a title reminding us of the work to be done - Caroline has had significant impact across the UK.  Increasing the visibility and understanding of gaps by listening sensitively to disparate groups and empowering those who feel isolated and marginalised.  In 2012 SDT will host a symposium Pathways to the Profession addressing the issues that inhibit inclusion of disabled people in the performing arts.  Caroline is explicit that as an artist she doesn’t want to make beige work, despite a feeling amongst some in the dance and disability sector that it is this kind of homogeneity that has most currency in mainstream touring. What is clear for us, as we imagine new contexts for making and engaging with disability in dance are the merits of effecting change in both visible and invisible ways.  The need to recognise, articulate and celebrate the complex nuances of these artists work, the subtle corporeal and environmental demands that might interrupt form, break binary understandings of disability and depolarise practice. To go below the waterline.”

This was the year before London Olympic and Paralympic games of 2012, which – I think - were a significant catalyst in the increased visibility, understanding, resourcing and ‘mainstreaming’ of work by and with disabled artists. Here in Scotland we have benefitted from dedicated strategic initiatives and funding streams to develop our work in this area including; The Dance Agent for Change, Promoting Equalities Programme, Talent Hub, Creative Thinking Network and Unlimited. As a result we have rich, vibrant examples of excellent work in this area, but in numerous conversations of late we’ve noted that we’re all beginning to ask questions about what’s next, who’s next, how?

Where are we now? Five years on discourse and action in this territory in the UK has focussed upon addressing deficits, inequalities and invisible differences.  Whilst this work is critical and needs to continue, I believe we’ve only just begun to consider and really value the independent artists, cultural activists working throughout the world, who through their art making offer possibilities for considering what’s not been lost - despite the exclusion of different bodies and ways of being in the world - from dance. Attending to why equality – I believe - shouldn’t be about assimilation into what already exists, how we might re-imagine notions of loss and the importance of artist as agent for new aesthetics and politics in the 21st century.

We have begun to see a proliferation of permutations rather than assimilation into what has gone before. Artists such as Kate Marsh and Welly O’Brien, Caroline Bowditch, Claire Cunningham, Dan Daw and Catherine Long have drawn upon their unique lived experiences, the particularity of their non-normative movement patterns, morphologies and sensorial differences to further expand understandings of who can dance, what dance and the choreographic can be, what it might, look, feel, sound like and what other kinds of spaces and structures this work might manifest in, as well as the ‘mainstage’ repertory companies

Since 2012 Scotland based artists from this territory working both in the margins and the mainstream have presented work at Unlimited Festival London, Edinburgh Fringe, Buzzcut, at Tramway as part of Dance International Glasgow, Gathered Together and now Unlimited Glasgow, they have local, national and international significance and influence

Caroline Bowditch, Ian Johnston Independance 4, Janice Parker, Y Dance’s Project Y, Dirty Feet, Marc Brew with Scottish Ballet and Independence 4, Craig Simpson, Talent Hub, Waterbaby, Jodi Taylor, Jak Soroka, Adam Sloan, Neil Price, George Adams, Jade Adamson, Alex McCabe, Gail Sneddon, Hayley Earlam, Linda Payne, Robbie Synge, Christine Devaney, Kim Simpson.

We have such a brilliant spectrum of practice, from people who call Scotland home. As a community of artists, arts organizations and advocates we are increasingly being referred to as leaders in this field worldwide. Many of the leading disabled dancers and choreographers are based in Scotland, a number of disability focused organisations are now part of the CS Regularly Funded portfolio and our dance artists, companies, dance centers and festivals have said they are committed to championing this work and its significance as part of an evolving art form and diverse dance ecology.

What Next? Many of our artists and advocates are at capacity and whilst we can cite numerous examples of established artists and experts working in both the margins and mainstream, we wonder where the next generation will come from and what else needs to happen to ensure we can continue to nurture this growth in Scotland.

As a result of our conversations, a consortium of artists and organizations have been trying to come together to review where we are at as a community, re-fresh our thinking and practice and ask what we - as a community - want and need to happen next.  In Spring YDance, SDT, Festival Theatre Edinburgh, Tim Nunn, Dance Base, Indepen-dance, Scottish Ballet, Waterbaby, Janice, Claire, Caroline, Robert Softley Gale, Kim and I arranged a meeting. Of the 14 folk who had hoped to make it for the two days only a handful could turn up.

We had hoped it would be an opportunity to come together and update one another on what we are up to, what’s working and where the gaps might be, to review where we are at as a community, to consolidate and distill our work into propositions for action going forward and invite some guest artists to offer other perspectives that would enhance our thinking and practice. We wanted to share the results at Indepen-Dance’s, Gathered Together and Unlimited, Glasgow.

Katie Miller a recent dance graduate was one of the handful of folk who could turn up, told us that there are so many people who want to be part of this work but they don’t know how to get in.

And so this is a very simple open invitation. We began to draft an application. But I’m not sure. I am not sure about another working group or another consortium, another layer of administration absorbing resources that should go to artists to make art.

But we don’t want these artists or others to disappear. We don’t want to lose that space of possibility, this spectrum of practice.

There are questions of capacity. And there are questions of priorities. Of transparency and permeability. It’s not one persons or organization’s responsibility. No one is an island. It is about all of us. About the what’s in between. The continued development and support of people and practices that enrich and evolve our art form. Our realities and the realities of those we don’t yet know.

This is an open invitation for action, to gather together.

What if we all acted as agents for change?

Watch Luke Pell delivering this talk for Gathered Together in Glasgow 2016. 

Luke Pell will also be part of the What Is Unlimited conversations on Evolution and What Next? on Sunday 18 September at 5pm at Tramway. He will also be co-facilitating Day 2 of the What Next? symposium at Tramway on 22 September. 

Claire Cunningham tells us what....

On her work at Tramway’s Unlimited Festival

The Way You Look (at me) Tonight brings me back together with Jess Curtis, the US choreographer and performer who really kindled my fascination for working in movement. A lot of my early introduction to dance with Jess was really rooted in proprioception and Contact Improvisation and really opened up an entirely new way of thinking about, feeling and understanding my body that led, through other artists such as Bill Shannon, into an embracing and ownership of the difference and potential of being a disabled body and artist. And so this work feels like a really beautiful reunion of Jess and I that is in one way coming back to a familiar place, but yet meeting anew 12 years later with older bodies and different lived experiences. 

The idea of perception had fascinated us both in different ways - for myself in recognising that the lived experience of disability literally influenced how I moved through the world, the choices I make and my relationship to space and time, and in turn how I myself am perceived in the world.  So it has been incredibly exciting to look at how these ideas intersect with Alva’s (Dr Alva Noe – our collaborator and philosopher of perception) theories of “enacted perception” which argue that perception happens in the whole body not just the brain, and is enacted by our capacities to move and engage with the world. The combination also of my desire that my work (and the ethos of Unlimited commissions) be as accessible as possible, alongside the thinking of where choreography, philosophy and perception intersect presented an incredibly rich and fertile ground for investigation and lent further evidence to the idea that making “accessible” art actually can be a source of enormous creativity rather than needing to be a “bolt-on”.  The richness of the conversations on this project have really been mind-blowing, around philosophy, choreography, gender, disability, collaboration and perhaps unexpectedly, love. 

On her practice or experience as an artist working in a ‘disability-led’ context

I think something that is perhaps not realised or appreciated by those who are not considered to be within “marginalised” identities is the sense of responsibility that artists like myself take on - mostly through choice but not always - and how exhausting at times that can be. I'm not convinced that many white male normative-bodied choreographers are expected to be responsible for representing all white male normative-bodied choreographers, or for having the answer to how to develop more white male normative-bodied choreographers, or are expected to advocate for, articulate the situation of, or whenever they work abroad have to consider how they can contribute to the development of local white male normative-bodied choreographers, nor examine/check all their press, marketing social media etc to ensure that it is not in any way perpetuating negative stereotypes of white male normative-bodied choreographers….? 

I certainly do this with regard to disability because I want to, it is my means of trying to create change in the world…but I feel at times those layers of privilege must surely allow those individuals a bit more free time…!  Or at least allows them to talk about the art more…?

I will say that am fortunate with this collaboration in Jess to be working with a white male normative-bodied choreographer (who is now however dealing with a body that no longer does what it used to) who is pretty aware of his layers of privilege and makes real, heartfelt effort to address any imbalances either of us perceive. But it has been interesting I think for him to note – and has prompted some very rich conversations - this whole other level of responsibility I feel I carry into the project, that even the simple act of picking the promo image for the show carries a whole other layer of scrutiny for me that was unanticipated for him.

I unquestionably have my own levels of privilege and the unpacking of these is a lifetime task, as is my need to widen my vocabulary to find less binary ways of referring to people that undermine the whole embracing of intersectionality that I am growing to value so much and is threaded through our piece. The tiredness however that I alluded to earlier, is not meant as a complaint therefore, but more about casting light on a perhaps unacknowledged element of identifying as a disabled artist, and the unstable relationship it can create within of both wanting to take on responsibility for supporting the progress of other disabled people but of also questioning when that perpetuates ideas that I am “representing” disabled people. 

On the theme of intersectionality 

I think what's been very interesting in the creation of a work looking at perception is the importance of intersectionality, that so many factors of our lived experience, gender, ethnicity, disability, physicality, different sensory modes, age, sexuality, “nationality”, language, “class”, height…and so on and so on, shape how we navigate the world, literally and socially, and that in everyone these aspects meet at different places, (which changes over our lifetimes) but are still all held by our bodies, and the importance of recognising that many of these things are not fixed but influenced by each other.

Claire Cunningham's performance of The Way You Look (At Me) Tonight will be on at Tramway's Unlimited Festival on Thursday 15 and Friday 16 September 2016 at 8:30pm. Claire will also join us in the What? space on Saturday 17 September to chat about the theme of commitment from around 5pm. 

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Calling Emerging Artists, Producers, Students and Graduates!

Tramways Unlimited Festival is coming soon and as part of it we will be hosting a What Next? symposium, generously supported by Unlimited Impact. We would LOVE to hear from you about joining us for it.

What Next?

21^st and 22^nd September 2016

10am - 3:30pm 

In a context of economic uncertainty, harmful narratives around disability, lack of access to training and education and dwindling arts provision in schools, how do we ensure the next generation of disabled artists? A two-day symposium for emerging artists, students, graduates and the sector asking what our commitment is to the next generation?

There are a few ways you can be involved.... 

1. COME ALONG!! It's YOU that we want and need to hear from you. We'll do the work to get the funders, companies, programmers and everyone else along that can support the next generation of artists but we need your voices there to ensure that it's you setting the agenda. There will be long lunch each day giving you a chance to sit down and share food with colleagues and peers.                                                                                                                            
2. Prepare a provocation or presentation for the Platform section of the day. We have four mentors (Janice Parker, Aidan Moesby, Ramesh Meyyappan and Caroline Bowditch) who will work with one person each to prepare this in advance of the day. The mentors will select their mentee from their expressions of interest which should be sent to Kim on unlimited@makeshifthappen.info using Platform as the subject line. A fee will be paid.                                                                                                                                                                           
3. Work with me (Kim Simpson) to facilitate the Lab part of the day. This will involve some time with Kim in advance of the day discussing facilitation and the aims of the session. These individuals will also help identify the pressing issues for further discussion. A fee will be paid. 

This event aims to highlight the concerns and ideas that you, as emerging arts practitioners have and the barriers or opportunities you face. What Next taps into active conversations about how disabled arts practitioners find pathways into an arts practice or career… we want to hear from you on this stuff and use What Next to amplify your voice, identify some actions we can take and share our collective learning with the arts sector in Scotland and beyond.

We have a budget for access and welcome expressions of interest from all students, graduates, artists and producers.

Please do contact Kim if you have any questions regarding Tramway’s Unlimited Festival, Kim Asks What? or What Next? 

kimaskswhat@makeshifthappen.info

unlimited@makeshifthappen.info

Image: Crippen/David Lupton cartoons

REPOST: Jess Thom - The fringe still has some way to go before it is truly open access

Jess Thom is a theatremaker and co-founder of Touretteshero, a website dedicated to Tourette’s

Article originally posted on The Stage - Opinion

by Jess Thom - Aug 4, 2016

The world’s largest arts festival? Not if you’re a visually impaired child, or a wheelchair user with Tourette’s. Before I arrived at the Edinburgh Fringe in August 2014, I’d seen only nine theatre shows in my whole life. For a 34-year-old theatre-lover, this doesn’t sound impressive, but, as a wheelchair user with Tourette’s, my access to live performance has often been difficult, and at times intensely emotional.

But through my love of storytelling, comedy and theatre, I persevered, and this led to the creation of my first show, Backstage in Biscuit Land, which debuted at the Edinburgh Fringe two years ago.

By the end of my first week, the number of performances I’d seen had already doubled – but this wasn’t without access challenges bigger than the hills. I left tired, inspired and excited, but also frustrated by how difficult aspects of it had been. I contacted the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society, and it seemed receptive to my feedback and keen to make improvements.

So, as the world’s largest arts festival opens for another year, how is it faring? To answer this, I revisited my top three frustrations from previous years:

Inconsistent information and use of symbols in brochures

At my first fringe, I’d found the abundance of choice overwhelming, between shows, venues and even the number of brochures. To confuse matters further, there was little consistency in the way access information was listed.

For example, in the main fringe brochure, I discovered that just because there wasn’t a wheelchair symbol next to a show, it didn’t mean the venue itself wasn’t accessible. It could just mean that a company hadn’t completed that part of their listing form. The only way to be certain was to check the detailed venue information at the back of the brochure, a time-consuming process.

So in 2016, has this been resolved? Of the first 24 shows in the fringe brochure, 11 either had no access symbols at all or had information that seemed contradictory. Cross checking this against the detailed venue information revealed that four apparently non-accessible shows were, in fact, accessible.

Worryingly, there’s one – at Le Monde (venue 47) – that’s listed as accessible, but according to the venue information appears not to be. To clarify, I called the venue and was told: “There are five steps at the entrance, no ramp or other way in, but we say it’s wheelchair accessible because there are always staff to help people get in.” Ridiculous as having to write this is, five steps is not wheelchair accessible.

Uncovering this made me worry about the other 13 apparently accessible listings, so I double-checked all of these, too, and found another show where the listing and venue information contradicted each other. This time it was the Liquid Room Annexe (venue 276), but when I called to clarify, I couldn’t get through. Wheelchair users be warned.

So in just two of the 367 pages of listings, 25% had inaccurate or misleading access information. Working this out took me two hours, two phone calls, and several sheets of paper, and because I didn’t get through to the Liquid Room, I haven’t even completed the task.

Choosing what to see is integral to the Edinburgh experience for everyone. But the processes for doing this are still far from equal. I want to be scratching my head wondering what amazing work to see, not tearing my hair out worrying about where I can physically get in. Choosing a show shouldn’t feel like an IQ test.

Not being able to book tickets online or via the app

In 2014, I kept being told how handy the fringe app was for booking tickets. I downloaded it only to discover that it wouldn’t let me book either wheelchair spaces or companion tickets. I couldn’t do this on the website, either; in fact, it took me more than a week to find out that I needed to call a separate access phone line to book tickets.

To my delight, this year both the website and app include customisable searches for access information. It’s fantastic – you can now see which shows are wheelchair accessible, captioned, audio-described or relaxed (though of course this information depends on it having been correctly entered in the first place).

But, and it’s a big one, having found the accessible show you want, you still can’t book the tickets electronically.

When I called the access team to check why this was the case, I was given two explanations: “We can’t trust the general public not to abuse companion tickets,” and: “With so many venues, it’s too logistically complicated to allocate wheelchair spaces online.”

Neither issue seems insurmountable to me. And there’s a strong business case for resolving both. People increasingly expect to be able to book online, and because it’s quick and easy, it’s more likely that they’ll follow through on purchases or book on an impulse. The access team is great to talk to on the phone, but the process is far less spontaneous.

In an age of robot-assisted surgery, hoverboards, and GPS that’s accurate to within 3 metres, I’m sure there’s a way to create verified user accounts and match wheelchair users with allocated seating.

It’s not good enough for disabled people to simply ‘be able’ to book – we deserve equality of experience; this is how inclusive audiences will be built and maintained.

The low numbers of signed, captioned, audio-described and relaxed performances

Disabled people aren’t a homogenous mobility-aid-wielding group; different people require different types of adjustments or services to access performances.

The new search feature on the fringe website helped me quickly ascertain that 53% of shows reported being wheelchair accessible. That’s more than I’d expected, but it still means there are 1,658 I wouldn’t be able to see.

More disappointing, though, is how few shows there are for people with other access requirements.

This year, there are 107 relaxed performances (3% of the total), most of which are children’s shows.

While there are 11 million Deaf and hard of hearing people in the UK, there are just 24 captioned performances at this year’s fringe (0.6% of the total) – that’s fewer than in 2013.

If you’re one of the UK’s 87,000 Deaf British Sign Language users, then the festival offers just 37 shows you can see – a mere 1% of the total.

And if you’re blind or partially sighted, you won’t need to plan a long stay, because there are only 11 audio-described shows (a shocking 0.3% of the total). And if you happen to be a child as well, you can forget calling it a festival at all. There are just three shows for you, two of which are classical music events.

Come on. Surely we can do better than this?

One big barrier to progress is the issue of responsibility. Whose job is it to make sure that shows are accessible: the Fringe Society, the venues, companies, performers, disabled people, or the law?

Think of access as an asset – if you make your work accessible, you open it up to new audiences

In a hectic, high-pressure environment where budgets are stretched, it’s easy to assume that accessibility is someone else’s responsibility.

Ultimately, we all have the power and responsibility to improve the accessibility of our cultural landscape. This isn’t just a ‘nice thing to do’; it’s absolutely essential if we want a vibrant, relevant arts sector.

Disability isn’t a niche issue. Almost one in five people in the UK identify as disabled. It’s time to think of access as an asset – if you make your work accessible, you open it up to new audiences.

Recently published figures from Attitude Is Everything support this. They show that a 26% increase in disabled fans attending live music events over one year has led to additional sales (including food and drink, and spend by personal assistants) of an estimated £7.5 million.

Although progress feels painfully slow, there have been some major developments since my first fringe two years ago: a community engagement and access manager has been appointed, and the brilliant Euan’s Guide has been delivering equalities training to many venues. For the first time this year, the venue details section in the brochure includes information about whether staff have had such training – a quick count revealed that more than half the venues have trained their teams in inclusive practice.

Of the big four – Assembly, Gilded Balloon, Pleasance and Underbelly – only Underbelly seems not to have invested in training. This is interesting, because Underbelly is also the least accessible, with just 48% of its venues being open to wheelchair users. By contrast, 95% of shows at the Pleasance are accessible.

If you’re a performer, producer or company interested in making your work more accessible, check out Unlimited [impact]’s excellent demystifying access guide.

I want to see a fringe where disabled people are in audiences, on stages, and working behind the scenes. As the agenda-setting trade fair of our sector, Edinburgh matters because it has the potential to create deep-rooted change across the UK and beyond. This is the way for inclusivity to become embedded within our creative, cultural and social practices.

It’s time to move accessibility up the to-do list so we can take action together.

Image: Jess Mabel Jones and Jess Thom in Backstage in Biscuit Land at the Barbican Centre, London, in 2015. Photo: James Lyndsay