Digital Access to Arts and Culture
Arts and Humanities Research Council COVID-19 project, 2020-22
www.digiaccessarts.org
@DigiAccessArts
Principal Investigator: Richard Misek
Co-Investigator: Adrian Leguina
Project partners: Arts Council England & The Space
‘Digital Access to Arts and Culture’ is the first major UK research project dedicated to investigating the accessibility and inclusion implications of the rapid growth in online arts and culture since the pandemic.
Carried out in collaboration with Arts Council England and The Space, the project gathered knowledge about how arts and culture organisations have delivered digital and hybrid live/digital content in response to the pandemic, and aimed to advance the sector’s understanding of what ‘digital access’ is and how it can be achieved.
Looking to a future in which all arts and culture organisations are multi-platform content providers, the project also explored how to develop hybrid programmes in which live and digital content support each other, and work together to generate greater social and economic value.
Its findings were widely reported throughout the media, and including a report and follow-on coverage in The Guardian (October 2021) and two features on the BBC’s Front Row (October 2021 & May 2022).
The final report is available here. Its key findings include the following:
The increased availability of online arts and culture during the pandemic led to accessibility benefits for many people – in particular d/Deaf and disabled, clinically vulnerable, older, and geographically remote participants.
Many participants with accessibility needs now see the provision of online arts and culture as an essential accessibility feature.
However, various factors have recently caused performing arts organisations in particular to pull back from providing regular streaming content. These include low revenue potential, no sector-wider digital rights framework, a hierarchisation of in-person over online content, and a funding environment that favours one-off digital projects.
As a result, many people with accessibility needs now risk returning to pre-pandemic levels of exclusion from arts and culture.
The report’s authors conclude by arguing that hybrid (in-person and online) programming must form a key factor in future accessibility improvements: the more routes that exist for engaging with arts and culture, the easier it is to engage with, and the more inclusive it can become.