THIS WEEK
News Review The headlines: in brief
EIBF backs Inklusion accessibility guide
EVER DUNDAS AND LEFT JULIE FARRELL
Julie Farrell and Ever Dundas have been funded by Edinburgh International Book Festival to develop a guide to making book events more accessible— and are seeking further help
A
project to develop a guide for making literature events accessible for disabled people has received £4,000 from the Edinburgh International Book Festival (EIBF) and is now appealing to raise the rest of the funds it needs. The Inklusion guide was conceived by disabled writers Julie Farrell and Ever Dundas aſter they became frustrated by “the litany of excuses” about why literature events couldn’t be made accessible. Covering accessibilit
for both event speakers and audience members, the guide will outline best-practice access for book launches, festival events, conferences, panels, workshops, fellowships and residencies. It will include information on running in-person, online and hybrid events.
The guide will be available as a free PDF and print booklet. Farrell and Dundas hope it will “take the onus and emotional labour off disabled individuals” to educate events providers and publishers.
They are seeking to raise a further £16,000, which will enable them to complete the guide. The project has the backing of prominent authors including Val McDermid and Kit de Waal. McDermid said: “Paradoxically, lockdown made festival access easier for many disabled people because everything went digital. What’s important as we emerge from that is to make sure this access is replicated in the face- to-face world. A guide to make that more straightforward for everyone organising a book event of any kind is exactly what we need. I want to live in a world that is inclusive; books break down all kinds of walls, and access to books and writers should also be free from barriers.”
Alongside £4,000 in fund- ing, EIBF also commissioned
An industry-wide disability network is launching this autumn, run by Penguin Random House Children’s assistant editor Ellie Drewry pictured and Cat Mitchell, lecturer in publishing at the University of Derby. The network will seek to
Mitchell and Drewry launch disability network
38 24th September 2021
improve working conditions for disabled people in the industry and create a community of disabled publishing professionals. This will include people who are neurodiverse and/or chronically ill, or who are currently coming to
terms with a shift in identity. Its longer-term goal will be to
improve the representation of disability in books, and to make sure there are better opportunities for disabled writers looking to get published. Speaking about the network,
Mitchell said: “With my disability research [see p22–23], my main aim was to raise awareness of the difficulties disabled people face in the industry, and launching an industry-wide network seemed like the best next step for making
Inklusion to carry out a venue assessment in August 2021, looking at the accessibilit and equalit of access at its new site at Edinburgh College of Art. Farrell said: “The funding we have had from EIBF has been incredible, as has the support we have had from world-famous authors like Val McDermid, Kit de Waal, Frances Ryan and Helen Sedgwick. The pandemic has seen a rapid increase in access and inclusion in the arts all over the world, and for the first time disa- bled people are feeling included. For so long we were told access was ‘too complicated’ or that organisers didn’t have resources, or it was ‘logistically challenging’. The pandemic has proved this is not the case—and we must not go back to our old ways.”
Dundas added: “One in four of us is disabled, and it’s time we were included. We want to make access in the literature sector consistent, transparent and reliable. And fun! In all our hours consulting with organisations in the sector, the most common response to accessibilit was fear of the unknown. We’re here to demystify access provision and instil confidence in every event provider.”
The pair hope to launch the guide at an event at the Edinburgh International Book Festival in 2022. Anyone inter- ested in funding the project can email
hello@inklusionguide.org.
tangible, practical changes.” Drewry added: “I’m excited to
work with disabled people from across all areas of the publishing industry to create meaningful change. This industry-wide network is a way to tackle acces- sibility and disability representa- tion in the publishing industry together, and to find ways for us to thrive and flourish.” To keep up to date with
the network, readers can sign up to its newsletter at
https://bit.ly/3EzyqCg.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52
