Many people in society cannot benefit from the full value of cultural events if those events are not made available for them to access. While we tend to think of barriers to access as being geographical (the production I wish to see isn't touring to my part of the country) or financial (I'd love to see that production if I could afford the ticket price), people who have sensory impairments - either because of disability or aging - may additionally experience barriers based on lack of support for their access needs. People who have difficulty hearing a theatre production may need captions. People who are Deaf may need sign interpretation. People who have vision impairments may need audio description. Just as people in rural communities can feel excluded from culture as 'it all happens in London, never here', people with access needs may feel that those who create culture do not care whether or not they are excluded from being able to participate in that culture. Responding to this need, and prompted by legislation such as the Equality Act 2010, many cultural institutions have shown interest in making their cultural events accessible to the widest possible audience by making them inclusive. The two organisations at the forefront of providing captioning and audio description services to theatres and live events in the UK are StageText (http://www.stagetext.org) and VocalEyes (http://www.vocaleyes.co.uk). While these organisations collect anecdotal evidence and survey evidence from people who attend their captioned and audio-described events, to date there has never been a rigorous and comprehensive assessment of the cultural value that making theatre accessible to their audiences generates. London Metropolitan University have partnered with StageText and VocalEyes to propose a research study that will seek to answer the following question - What is the cultural value of accessible theatre from the perspective of its two main stakeholder groups: - to the theatres (and businesses around them) that choose to provide captioned or audio-described performances, either to develop new audiences, or to bring former audiences back into the theatre; and - the audiences that those performances are aimed at (both those that choose to attend, and those who do not) We envisage this research providing rigorous evidence for the value of accessible theatrical performance, and of inclusive cultural activity, for a range of stakeholders; supporting the on-going work of organisations like StageText and VocalEyes, and potentially contributing to increased opportunities for hearing and visually impaired people to engage in mainstream culture. It will further contribute to underpinning inclusive practice in the UK; supporting the nation's beacon status in this area. It will also aim to support and contribute to the on-going embedding of inclusion as cultural practice.

Central to the purpose of a museum is communicating with their audiences about their collections. Within the AHRC-NEH funded project (AH/W005549/1) we developed the Workshop for Inclusive Co-created Audio Description (W-ICAD). W-ICAD provides museums with a new tool for supporting communication with audiences. It does this by redefining the way that museums think about and produce digitally available recorded audio description (AD). AD is often described as a verbal description for information available through vision. It is a key tool for blind and partially blind audiences who would like to experience museum collections. In both the UK and US, museums are legally obliged to ensure equitable access to their collections. However, museums need to dramatically increase AD provision both within museums and online. Building on opportunities afforded by the digital revolution, W-ICAD provides museums with a new, equitable and inclusive way to co-create AD. It provides both a theoretical rationale and a practical process that will transform museum digital audio interpretation for use within the museum (often via a mobile phone) or online. W-ICAD transforms thinking by drawing on evidence from psychology and neuroscience to refute three key implicit biases that underpin current museum AD practice: (1) 'experience' through sight is objective; (2) AD is only beneficial to blind or partially blind people; and (3) full sight provides people with a privileged experience of visual arts, and therefore sighted people must do the describing for blind and partially blind listeners. W-ICAD transforms practice by providing museums with a model for producing AD that redefines how museum AD is created, who it is for, and who does the describing: subjectivity and the lived experience of the describers is embraced; descriptions are created equally for blind, partially blind and sighted audiences; description is led by partially blind co-creators, in collaboration with blind and sighted co-creators. Through W-ICAD, we have transformed the ways in which museum collections can be experienced by audiences (in museums and online). This follow-on impact and engagement funding will enable us to embed W-ICAD into museum practice, whilst extending its reach within the museum and heritage sector. We will work with 8 flagship W-ICAD museums, across the UK and US, to make inclusive co-created audio description a standard part of their communication with audiences. The partners include: globally-leading national organisations (National Science and Media Museum, UK; Imperial War Museum Duxford, UK; National Museums Liverpool, UK; Natural History Museum, UK; Smithsonian Institution, US); Medium - large size museums (Eiteljorg Museum, US & Wexner Center for the Arts, US) and Small organisations (Heurich House, US). With these sector partners, we will expand W-ICAD to incorporate: - description of different environments (including exterior), different artworks (including abstract) and museum objects - co-created audio description for multisensory experience including describing tactile exploration - different lived experiences (e.g.intersectionality, diverse cultural backgrounds) within museum interpretation - guidance for W-ICAD to support co-creators to ethically and sensitively describe diversity To maximise the reach of W-ICAD, and to ensure its legacy, we will work with our flagship museums to create an open access online W-ICAD training course for museum professionals, AD practitioners and stakeholders. This will enable other museums across the world to implement W-ICAD within their interpretation strategy for digital AD (available within the museum or online). The promotion and implementation of this model within museum practice will strengthen awareness of the ableist biases within current practice and enhance equity, diversity and inclusion within the museum sector and beyond.

This research will examine how museums can transform the way that they think about and create digital audio interpretation for their collections, to enhance inclusion and access for all audiences. For people who are blind or partially blind (BPB), audio description (AD) is traditionally described as a verbal narrative for information available through vision. In both the UK and US, museums are legally obliged to ensure equitable access to their collections. AD is a key tool for achieving this for BPB audiences but museums need to dramatically improve AD provision. Incredibly, the charity VocalEyes found that only 5% of museums in the UK mentioned AD provision on their websites. Museums could transform accessibility through apps, such as Smartify. Smartify currently gives over 3 million users worldwide online access to more than 2 million works of art at home or through a QR code in the museum building. Of these 2 million works, only a handful are offered with AD, and all come from only two institutions - the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery (US) and Royal Holloway Picture Gallery (UK). The need goes beyond inclusive digital access for BPB people - this project it is about enhancing the museum experience for everyone. The pandemic has spotlighted both the scope and desire for digital participation and the massive opportunity for museums to grow audiences. Our previous research has shown that AD benefits not only people who are BPB, an inclusive way to audiences globally through high-quality online access. The UK-US research team brings together experts on psychology, aesthetics and design, critical disability studies, cultural diversity, translation studies and includes members who are partially blind and non-blind, neurotypical and with learning differences and of different ethnic and cultural backgrounds. With our digital heritage sector-leading partners - Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery; Royal Holloway Picture Gallery; Smartify and VocalEyes - this research will challenge current AD practice, where sighted curators/describers produce AD for BPB audiences. We will develop and extend AD usage as a tool for all visitors (blind, partially blind and sighted). We will do this by creating and evaluating the W-ICAD (Workshop for Inclusive Co-created Audio Description) model whereby AD creation is led by partially blind co-creators, collaborating with blind and sighted co-creators. The W-ICAD model will give museums a streamlined way to create new AD, extending their digital provision and boosting inclusion. The research will compare how audiences in the UK and US experience AD so that AD creation takes account of varying cultural needs or expectations.

The proposed research network will act as a forum for the discussion of non-sighted modes of beholding art, within the context of situated forms of contemporary art practice. It will question how a shift in the aesthetic engagement afforded by hybrid (intermedia) forms of contemporary art opens up new engagements for the partially sighted and blind community. Sound, smell and touch, for instance, have become an important factor in some installation art, while the discipline of sound art has expanded the spatial reception of the auditory. The network aims to develop a deeper understanding of the spatial and curatorial possibilities of such forms of engagement, and their potential application beyond the world of contemporary art. The proposal is set against a background where the engagement of 'visual' art by blind and partially sighted beholders has primarily been addressed through questions of improving access to medium-specific forms of art, such as through audio descriptions and touch tours, or (more problematically) mediated forms such as 'tactile' paintings and 3D facsimiles. While in a post-pandemic situation access is an ongoing concern, a narrow focus on 'traditional' art does not register how intermedial/installation art has (i) fundamentally challenged ontologies of art, (ii) deliberately sets out to dehabitualise the beholder position, and (iii) challenges the notion of 'context independent' art. Addressing where the criticality lies in non-sighted modes of engagement, the proposition is that the engagement afforded a blind or visually impaired audience should be every bit as complex as that of sighted beholders. This issue is pressing given the prevalence of the default white cube gallery situation and entrenched conventions of 'viewing' art. A deeper understanding of non-visual ontologies of art will not only widen participation to new audiences, but enhance the experience of non-sighted and sighted beholders. This will impact upon the design of galleries and museums - the types of spaces made available, such as their acoustic properties and embedded tactile cues - and attitudes to curating (where partially and non-sighted beholders are rarely treated as part of the core audience, despite the RNIB estimating that over two million people in the UK have visual impairment). This means challenging museum conventions of engagement which prioritise sighted audiences (such as the ubiquitous 'please do not touch'). This research network will facilitate an exchange of ideas that engages interdisciplinary thinking on the phenomenology of the non- or partially-sighted engagement of art. Crucially, it will engage the blind and partially sighted community and organisations that promote cultural opportunities for this audience, and those within institutions enacting policy around inclusion and access to (and the design of) museum/gallery environments. But it will also draw upon disciplinary insights from: cognitive science and psychology (i.e. non-sighted spatial orientation, and the interdependence of perceptual systems); the philosophy of art (the ontology of art and the aesthetics of reception); art and design practice (sighted and non-sighted artists making work where the engagement extends beyond the visual); theoreticians engaging critical disability studies. The workshops and symposium will be organised around three key themes: (i) non-visual perception and orientation (such as sound/haptic localisation); (ii) architectural and spatial situations/contexts (rethinking the gallery situation); (iii) expanding art and curatorial practices (theorising new types of encountering art). The discussions will be transcribed and made available through the network's research website, and live-streaming will facilitate virtual participation. An edited book, organised around themes emerging from the network discussions, will be published at a later date, and made available as an audiobook and large format print edition.

Audio Introductions are used by many theatres to provide blind and partially sighted theatre goers with essential information about a play's setting, costumes, props and characters. Despite their obvious benefits for audience comprehension, engagement and enjoyment, audio introductions are not currently provided by film and television makers although there is nascent interest in adding them. The fellowship will engage theatre professionals, audio describers and BPS people with the creation and promotion of inclusive audio introductions which celebrate actors' diversity. References to actors' or characters' protected characteristics such as race, gender, sexuality, disability and age are not always made in inclusive and equitable ways in audio introductions. Either describers erase markers of diversity by avoiding mention of certain characteristics for fear of 'saying the wrong thing', or they inadvertently use loaded or negative language to describe them. In both cases, the improved inclusion of disabled people in the audience achieved through the provision of audio description is undermined when people on stage are either erased or treated unfairly. Inclusive audio introductions, particularly those created after consultation with actors and the creative team, are a means of improving accessibility, diversity and inclusion for both audience members and members of the theatre company. The Fellowship will disseminate the findings of the report Describing Diversity: An Exploration of the Description of Human Characteristics Within the Practice of Theatre Audio Description which was published by Royal Holloway and VocalEyes in September 2020. The report's findings address the current lack of inclusive audio introductions by presenting a set of 12 recommendations about best practice in inclusive audio description for both audio describers and theatre professionals. These recommendations are designed to promote equality, diversity and inclusion both for people being described (actors and their characters) and for people listening to the descriptions (including but not limited to BPS theatre goers). The fellowship will enable, support and encourage the implementation of these recommendations through a programme of workshops to co-create audio introductions for 10 productions, chosen to include a wide range of protected characteristics; activities to engage diverse theatre audiences with the benefits of inclusive audio description; and the development of training materials and resources about the value of audio introductions both in and beyond theatrical settings. The fellowship will support and enable theatre professionals and audio describers to engage with and explore the research findings in order to promote the creation of inclusive descriptions which celebrate diversity in accessible ways. We will work with casting directors, actors, access professionals, front-of-house teams and producers from 5 producing theatres to promote the benefits of inclusive audio introductions for theatre professionals and audience members. We will enable audio describers to work with theatre professionals on the creation of inclusive audio introductions and we will involve BPS theatre goers and members of the communities depicted in the productions through a process of consultative co-creation. The fellowship aims to promote the value of the inclusive audio introduction as both a communicator and a driver of equality and diversity. As part of its promotion of inclusive audio description, the fellowship will also seek to increase the diversity of audio describers, BPS theatre goers and theatre professionals by engaging under-represented groups with the creation and reception of inclusive audio description. By showcasing the benefits of inclusive audio introductions in the project MOOC, the fellowship will also encourage the wider creative industries, particularly film and television companies, to add audio introductions to their access provision.