A disability content creator and campaigner has highlighted how “barriers” in the ticket booking process and limited availability of accessible seating “absolutely affect how often disabled people attend cultural events”.
Jenni Pettican told the Arts Professional website how her experience trying to book tickets to the West End musical Paddington prompted her to post a video on LinkedIn.
Jenni said: “The post wasn’t really about one specific theatre, it was about the wider experience of booking theatre tickets as a disabled person and how unnecessarily complicated the process can be.”
Jenni compared her booking experience to that of a non-disabled friend, who was able to book her seat “in 40 seconds”. By contrast it took Jenni, who is a wheelchair user, “over an hour of actively booking tickets and days of waiting in between” for her application to be approved.
She told Arts Professional the Access Card scheme, which was introduced to streamline the ticket booking process for disabled bookers, is not yet widely adopted by theatres, meaning “many disabled people still have to register separately with each theatre group’s own access scheme”.
Jenni added: “Those schemes often have different requirements and expire after different lengths of time. One of the biggest themes in the comments was how exhausting it is to have to repeatedly prove your disability. For many disabled people this is a normal part of everyday life, but it’s something the wider public rarely sees.
“Going to the theatre should be something enjoyable and spontaneous, but the booking process can be so time consuming and frustrating that it sometimes puts people off attending altogether.”
Jenni also raised the availability of accessible theatre seats and said a combination of the additional booking requirements and not being able to attend alongside another disabled person meant she “ultimately decided not to complete the booking”.
She added: “Many deaf audience members shared their frustrations about captioned and BSL-interpreted performances often only being available once or twice during an entire run, and often on weekdays, meaning they have far fewer opportunities to attend than hearing audiences.
“It showed just how many different groups are affected when accessibility isn’t fully considered.”
Arts Professional noted that the Arts Council recently launched All In, an initiative that includes a free membership for those with disabilities to register their access requirements in one place, along with its All In Accessibility Standards guidance, aimed at removing barriers for D/deaf, disabled, and neurodivergent people.
Jenni, who is also a presenter, actor and voiceover artist, said theatres are “moving in the right direction”, but need to provide clearer information when it comes to both booking accessible tickets and the environment within the venue.