VIEWPOINT attitude is everything Attitude adjustment
As CEO of Attitude Is Everything, Suzanne Bull has worked tirelessly to improve deaf and disabled people’s access to live music. Here, she explains why her recent governmental appointment as a Disability Sector Champion can be good news for the entire live music biz...
VIEWPOINT BY SUZANNE BULL
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hree months in, and 2017 is already feeling like a landmark year for Attitude Is Everything. We have a new chair in place, new trustees and staff members, new funding, and a host of venues and festivals recently join the 120+ already signed up to our Charter Of Best Practice - from End Of The Road and Cambridge Folk Festival to DIY Space for London and Stockton’s Georgian Theatre. The Paul Hamlyn Foundation award, from the Arts Access and Participation: More and Better Fund, is of massive importance. It will enable us to deliver an entirely new programme called Breaking The Sound Barriers - allowing a greater diversity and number of deaf and disabled fans to inform our work, helping transform our Mystery Shopping programme and provide new ways for volunteers to give us feedback online. By encouraging more disabled people from different communities to participate, Attitude Is Everything’s work will become even more effective. To top this off, last month I was appointed by Government as one of 11 “Disability Sector Champions”. Each Sector Champion advocates greater accessibility for deaf and disabled people across a number of industries - such as retail, media, games and transport - to show other businesses the merits of making disabled customers a priority. I will be championing the music industry. In many ways, this is simply an extension of Attitude Is Everything’s existing mission, albeit with an even wider platform. For precisely those reasons, it is an opportunity I intend to make the most of. Like many in our business, I believe passionately in the idea of inclusion - and the right of everyone, whatever their background and circumstances, to enjoy access to music and the arts. Amidst an important and ongoing industry-wide conversation around diversity, it is imperative that disabled audiences and artists are not left behind. If anything, we need to be more deeply involved. Thankfully, we’re not starting from scratch. Last year, 3.6 million disabled adults attended a live music event - which, on the face of it, is an astonishing figure. However, when you consider 11m disabled adults live in the UK, you can appreciate there’s much more we could be doing. It is worth bearing in mind that the spending power of these 11m households, the so-called “purple pound”, is worth an estimated £250 billion per annum. Reaching out to disabled music fans and making live music inclusive is a huge opportunity for our entire sector.
20 MAY 01 Suzanne Bull: “This is a real opportunity”
In a nutshell: if you work in partnership with disabled people, they will come. More than that, they will also bring their friends and family.
As is the Attitude Is Everything way, we will pursue this opportunity not through criticism, but by sharing the many examples of best practice out there, by making the commercial case for greater accessibility and by demonstrating the creative and innovative ways in which businesses can get on-board and start dismantling barriers. In most instances, implementing change initially requires a mental leap - to make clear to disabled people that they are welcome and actively encouraged to participate in live music.
“Amidst an industry-wide conversation around diversity, it is imperative that disabled audiences are not left behind” SUZANNE BULL, AIE
To help with this mission, I am delighted to welcome a new chairman, Paul Taylor. Paul first came into contact with our charity at Latitude Festival and he signed up as a mystery shopper, so he knows our work first-hand. He is joined by Ailsa McWilliam, our new business & operations manager, and a raft of incoming Trustees including Del Garland (who was our first ever chair) and Mel Barber who, like Del, has volunteered extensively for Attitude Is Everything. Thanks to Paul Hamlyn Foundation funding, we
also have in place our first ever grassroots project manager, Natalie South - helping us build on successful partnerships with the likes of Independent Venue Week to encourage even more small venues to improve their accessibility. This new role will also help oversee delivery of Breaking The Sound Barriers and work with grassroots music venues to improve their access.
Building communication channels between disabled audiences and the music industry is vital. Mystery shopping, in particular, has been an essential component of Attitude Is Everything’s success to date - offering event organisers honest and direct appraisal and encouraging them to go that extra mile, while ensuring that under-represented fans within the disability community have a voice. This is especially important at grassroots venues. If these important spaces are not open to everyone in their local community, a whole section of society risks losing out. Ultimately, I think the UK music business has much to be proud of. In the 17 years since Attitude Is Everything was founded, I have personally witnessed a sea change in how deaf and disabled people are included in every facet of live music. However, as Disability Sector Champion, I want to see us lead from the front. So if you’ve never thought about access and disability, or don’t think it’s relevant to your business, then think again. Come and visit our website. Give us a call. Engage with us on social media, and consider our door open. I reiterate again: this is a real opportunity. We want to talk to you.
MUSIC Week
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