ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT: #MUSICWITHOUTBARRIERS

Attitude Is Everything (AIE), a music charity that works to improve deaf and disabled people’s access to live music, has launched the #MusicWithoutBarriers campaign – with the support of high profile artists including The Cure and Frank Turner alongside various venues, festivals and trade associations.

The initiative aims to aims to encourage more UK venues and festivals to join the 90+ venues and events already signed up to AIE’s Charter of Best Practice.

According to the charity, the vision is that “Deaf and disabled people can be audience members, employees or artists at any live music event of their choice: music without barriers”. This follows the launch of their ‘State of Access’ report earlier in the year, which estimated that organisers are losing £66m in revenue from ticket sales each year as a result of booking systems that are inaccessible to deaf and disabled audiences.

The key messages of the campaign are that improving access doesn’t have to be costly, that there is a strong business case for improving access, it’s crucial to have access information in advance of an event and that not all disabled people are wheelchair users.

Chief Executive Officer of Attitude Is Everything Suzanne Bull MBE said: “Since founding Attitude is Everything in 2000, we have always found some fantastic support from within the music industry, and particularly among the artist community. So I am delighted that so many musicians and bands are supporting #MusicWithoutBarriers”.

Bull continued: “In those 14 years, we have proved that improving access need not be expensive. And, more importantly, when the right facilities, policies and information are in place, live music can be opened up to the 11 million disabled people living in the UK and transform their lives for the better”.

The Featured Artists Coalition, the Music Managers Forum and the Musicians’ Union are also officially supporting the initiative. Find out more and see a complete list of supporters here.