New report and suite of videos demonstrate minimum service disabled people should receive from arts venues, galleries and museums

As part of Arts Council of Wales and Amgueddfa Cymru's commitment to widening engagement with arts and culture, a report has been published which sets out the minimum standards for welcoming disabled people to cultural venues, along with a supporting series of accessible videos to bring the standards to life. 

The Arts Council of Wales / Amgueddfa Cymru Widening Engagement Action Plan 2022-25 included an action to establish and embed best practice standards for user, audience and visitor experience at arts/cultural venues and national museums. Arts Council of Wales and Amgueddfa Cymru commissioned culture research specialists Richie Turner Associates to better understand whu disabled people (including neurodiverse, visually impaired and D/deaf people) don't attend or participate in the arts as much as non-disabled people. 

Richie Turner said, "Instead of listing examples of best practice, as is commonly the approach, we chose to develop minimum standards. These minimum standards aim to demonstrate the minimum service that all disabled people should received from arts venues, galleries and museums. The standards have been devised through extensive consultation with disabled people throughout Wales, and were facilitated by disabled arts and community practitioners with specififc lived experience in their own aspect of disability." 

These standards are grouped into actions which arts venues and other presenting organisations will be asked to ensure they are offering over the next few years. Some actions require no financial costs and little staffing resources; other actions require some financial and staffing resources; and some actions require significant financial and staffing resources. 

Hannah Raybould, new Deputy Director of Equalities and Partnerships at Arts Council of Wales adds, "We recognise that arts organisations will need support to deliver against some of the proposed actions included in this report. The document supports our ongoing aim to better understand the overall resoruces required by the sector, so that we can make a case for increased investment to ensure our arts and culture sector is truly accessible. These actions also tie-in with the work we are doing with All In, an expansion of the successful and transformative Hynt access scheme in Wales, which will be rolled out by arts councils throughout the UK and Ireland over the coming year. 

"We have agreed that consultation with arts venues and other presenting organisations in Wales should be timed with the publication of the highly-detailed new All In standards to simplify discussions with the sector and avoid duplication of work. We envisage this happening in Autumn 2026, with the Wales-wide consultation supported by Richie Turner Associates."

In the meantime, this report and accompanying suite of videos provides an opportunity for all arts venues, festivals, galleries and museums in Wales to digest and discuss the minimum proposed standards fully and consider the implications and needs from their own organisation's point of view. 

The report is available in full, accompanied by an illustrated summary version, and are supported by a series of films aimed at helping arts venues, festivals, galleries and museums demonstrate to all staff as quickly and simply as possible what good practice looks like in terms of welcoming visitors that are disabled, visually impaired, D/deaf and/or neurodiverse. 

Links to all the published materials in all accessible formats are available here.