Australia struggles to provide better disability access for performing arts

From the Sydney Morning Herald in Australia. In the picture, Lindsey Chapman is an Ensemble Theatre audio describer. She helps disabled audience members follow the action.

The news this week was upbeat: Australians are increasingly embracing the arts, with fewer people regarding them as elitist compared with a decade ago, and about 17 million people engaging with forms from music and theatre to literature.

But amid the graphs and tables illustrating the positive findings in the Australia Council for the Arts report More than Bums on Seats: Australian participation in the arts was some less palatable news: people with disabilities and migrants from non-English-speaking countries are being left behind.

The council's last similar survey was released in 1999. How far has access to the arts progressed for people with disabilities – one in five nationwide, or more than 4 million? "Not very far would be my summary," Australia's Disability Discrimination Commissioner, Graeme Innes, says.

"Many, many venues are not accessible for people who use wheelchairs. There are only 15, I think, cinema screens around Australia – out of the 2000 or 3000 screens showing movies – that show movies with captions for people who are deaf or have a hearing impairment. There are even less cinemas providing audio description for people who are blind or have a vision impairment.

"I think that the arts community and deliverers of arts have got a long, long way to go before people with a disability are anywhere near in an equal situation."

Disability leaders express similar sentiments. "Things have improved marginally but there's a lot more work to be done," Sancha Donald, the chief executive of the NSW arts and disability organisation Accessible Arts, says. There is clearly more awareness today of people with disabilities, she says, but "areas of access are really embryonic in terms of coming into the consciousness of arts administrators in most – not all – arts institutions".

The Australia Council's survey found that two-thirds of people with a disability or serious illness did not create art (excluding film, which was not covered) in the previous 12 months, but a third of them wanted to.

The benefits could be profound. As one disabled person told a researcher: "When you are limited in what you can do, like I am, the arts makes a big difference to your life . . . more than you would ever understand."

Migrants from non-English-speaking countries also had "significantly lower" participation; others for whom English was not the main household language were also under-represented.

The finding was not surprising, says Innes, who is also the Race Discrimination Commissioner. "We're paying for not having an effective multicultural policy for the last 10 to 15 years."

There is great interest in the arts among ethnic groups, a spokesman for Jack Passaris, the chairman of the Ethnic Communities Council of NSW, says. But "the right communication channels" need to be used to reach ethnic groups by their language, such as ethnic media.

Last month cinemas drew protests from disabled groups after the four leading chains applied for a long exemption from a federal anti-discrimination law in a move that disability groups say means the cinemas would not have to screen captioned films, reportedly in exchange for minor upgrades to access. Innes says a decision is likely in the next few weeks.

Some of the issues will be canvassed when people from Australia and overseas meet at the Accessible Arts conference Arts Activated at the Powerhouse Museum on March 25 and 26.

There have been improvements. The Opera House recently unveiled accessibility improvements including a new lift and two escalators for patrons in wheelchairs or with restricted mobility.

Sydney Theatre Company provides selected mainstage performances with live descriptions of the action (from people known as "audio describers") and interpretations in Australian Sign Language, or Auslan, and captions. The Ensemble Theatre at Kirribilli was another early starter with describers – who are careful to talk around the dialogue and link to patrons wearing a special earpiece. It also offers headphones or links to hearing aids. Riverside Theatres in Parramatta has similar services. The Sydney Writers' Festival had its first event with Auslan interpretation last year.

But Ann-Mason Furmage, the president of the Physical Disability Council of NSW, says not enough thought is put into access for people with disabilities – people who "would like to go and do some of these things if it were made less than a painful obstacle course".

A common argument is that the cost of better access outweighs the return. "But I think it's much more attitudinal," Innes says. "I think providers just don't think about the needs of particular people in our community."

Furmage says as the population ages over the next two to three decades people with disabilities will rise from 20 per cent to at least 30 per cent. "You're talking about one in every family. So this is a problem that, if it is not addressed now, there's going to be a lot of people hurting for business."