Accessibility to culture An overview from Finland Outi Salonlahti / Culture for All Service Culture and Accessibility Conference Helsinki

Equality of culture Diversity Accessibility Participation Inclusion/ main- streaming Equality Starting point Means Aim

How do we define accessibility of culture? Regional possibilities Accessible communication Social accessibility Accessible pricing Accessibility of the build environment Various possibilities to use different senses Understanding made easy

Some examples What kind of good practices there are in Finland?

Social accessibility: ” Cultural companions”

Accessible pricing

Various possibilities to use different senses: Audio description Jill and Joy’s Winter and The Fencer MovieReading application

Various possibilities to use different senses: 3D printing The Sports Museum of Finland

Open captioning = OC Closed captioning = CC The various possibilities to use different senses: Captioning

Interpretation to Sign Language The National Opera: Carmen

Mainstreaming & inclusion

Absolutely AbNormal, Exhibition at The Finnish Labour Museum Werstas

What are the means of the cultural administration to direct cultural institutions to be more equal?

Non-Discrimination Act New act 2015 Reasonable adjustements to realise equality of persons with disabilities Non-Discrimination Ombudsman

The Ministry of Education and Culture Working groups, reports, action plans and strategies Working groups have diverse members ”The Accessibility of Art and Culture” (report 2014) Monitoring or evaluation of how the planned actions have been carried out can be missing?

The Ministry of Education and Culture Financing for accessibility Grants for promoting the accessibility of culture Grants for cultural activities of the language minorities and disability organizations Grants for easy-to-read literature Grants for buying accessible materials to libraries Information: e.g. The Culture for All Service

The system of state funds for the cultural institutions The quality and effectiveness of the institutions will maybe affect on how much money the institution will get in the future (to about 3 % of their fundig) Planned indicators include some viewpoints of accessibility The culture field has mostly been against the indicators 2014 some indicators were removed E.g. Accessibility considering the build environment

Arts Promotion Centre Finland (Taike) Peer review On 2014 the disability organizations were asked to propose artists for the first time

How accessible is the culture field in Finland?

Survey about the accessibility and diversity of art and cultural institutions funded by state (survey 2012) Source: The Ministry of Education and Culture. Valtionosuuden piirissä olevien taide- ja kulttuurilaitosten moninaisuus ja saavutettavuus - syksyllä 2012 toteutetun kyselyn tulokset sekä vertailu vuoden 2007 kyselyyn. DRAFT, will be published 2015?

Overall conclusions Most of the institutions had done improvements for accessibility or diversity Museums have been working with accessibility longer, so they have developed accessibility more than other institutions Institutions seem to take the public better into account than the needs of the staff

Planning The institutions had included accessibility and diversity aspects into their action plans and budgets quite often Most of the institutions did not have a special plan to improve accessibility or diversity

Accessibility surveys The institutions had done much more accessibility surveys than in 2007

Communication and information Information about accessibility is given in 73 % of the museums 65 % of the theatres 57 % of the orchestras 30 % of the libraries

Communication and information Accessible websites 71 % of the orchestras About half of the museums 30 % of the theatres 34 % of the libraries

Various possibilities to use different senses Many institutions provided cultural experiences and information for different senses e.g. combination af sound and picture, possibility to touch or the possibility to do something yourself, e.g. visual elements in concerts Interpretation is rarely offered

Staff of the institutions Training of the employees includes more and more accessibility issues Less than half of the institutions told they support the employment of the minority and special groups

Biggest challenges Limited resources especially money Also time and challenges with the premises/buildings There is interest and will to develop the accessibility, but the resources limit the possibilities

How accessible are the cultural events and festivals in Finland? Source: The Culture for All Service Kulttuurifestivaalien ja - tapahtumien saavutettavuus. Keväällä 2011 toteutetun kyselyn tulokset. Kulttuuria kaikille -palvelu / Kehittäminen ja yhteiskuntasuhteet KEHYS. Valtion taidemuseo. stivaalit stivaalit

Overall conclusions Many festivals had contributed to develop their accessibility The physical accessibility was taken into account quite well 80 % of the festivals estimated, that they should improve their accessibility About half of the festivals was going to develop their accessibility

Festivals had… Accessible entrance: 92 % Accessible toilets: 76 % Information available in many languages: 90 % Free entrance for the personal assistants and interpreters: 68 %

But there was… Not so much accessible parking possibilites Stages and other places where people perform were mostly not accessible Lack of information about the accessibility of the festivals Websites are not so accessible Lack of interpretation possibilities Not so many possibilities to use different senses

The biggest issues Small staff Money Premises: Rental venues Historic venues Outdoor challenges: pathways grass and gravel/soft sand, weather Lack of knowledge

What do the people with disabilities think? (Survey published 2012) Source: Kähkönen, Kirsi Vammaisten ihmisten kokemukset taide- ja kulttuuripalvelujen käyttäjinä - Kyselyyn ja haastatteluihin perustuva selvitys vuonna Kulttuuria kaikille -palvelu / Kehittäminen ja yhteiskuntasuhteet KEHYS. Valtion taidemuseo uuriala_yleisesti

Communication and information: challenges The information doesn’t reach the right people The information isn’t always in accessible form Lack of information about accessibility of cultural services and premises There is too little information or no information at all The information isn’t always reliable

What is needed? Cultural institutions should provide more assistance The producers of cultural services need more knowledge There should be different alternatives for booking and buying tickets

Comparison to a similar survey in 2002 No significant development of the accessibility of the art and cultural field during 10 years Interviews: the attitudes have become significantly better towards accessiblity In some areas of accessibility people were even less satisfied in 2012, for example about the information of accessibility

Other conclusions Younger respondents were most critical and not so satisfied with the services The respondents who were over 65 years old were the most satisfied People living in southern Finland and bigger cities were more satisfied with the amount and location of services Investing in accessibility and services is worth the effort, because it increases the degree of satisfaction

How can one become an artist?

Art and culture universities and univerisites of applied sciences Researches show, that the attitudes of the teachers and lack of knowledge can make the studying difficult There is lack of wide strategies, which include every aspect of the education Marketing Entrance examinations – who gets to study? Studying, support Teaching Equality monitoring?

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