Accessibility - Spaces & Locations

Initiated by Amazon Prime Video and Channel 4, the Industry Access Survey was carried out by YouGov in November/December 2022 among broadcasters, streamers and production companies. It asked about their access provision and approach for the inclusion of Disabled talent, in order to give an overview of where the TV industry is following best practice and where there is room for improvement. The survey found that physical access in the industry remains extremely problematic, with 1 in 4 offices used by companies in the TV industry physically inaccessible.

If the TV industry is to become accessible and inclusive, it is important that production companies identify and remove barriers so Deaf, Disabled and/or Neurodivergent employees can work in the buildings and spaces associated with TV and film studios, post-production and office environments. In addition, the Equality Act places a legal duty on employers to make these adjustments.

When thinking about access barriers, we need to consider:

• Physical – how we move around the space
• Visual - what we see
• Auditory - what we hear
• Tactile - what we touch
• Cognitive - what we understand

Where companies identify barriers that cannot be immediately addressed, both short-term and long-term strategies should be put in place. For example, a production company whose office is not physically accessible should make sure they can hire a nearby accessible meeting space whenever needed. But long term, it should plan to move to an accessible office once its current lease comes to an end.

When considering access, it is vital to seek regular feedback from the lived experiences of deaf, Disabled and/or Neurodivergent people. You should involve employees with lived experience and representative organisations such as TripleC and DDPTV.

An access audit is an inspection that can be used to assess the ease of access to, and ease of use of an environment, service or facility. They can help:

• Verify compliance with the Equality Act.
• Verify compliance with Part M of the building regulations.
• Prepare applications for funding, planning permission or building regulations approval.
• Reduce the likelihood of claims of discrimination.
• Identify potential difficulties.
• Identify adjustments that could be made.
• Assess and justify proposed changes.
• Make recommendations for training, organisational changes, minor works, adaptations and major works that might be undertaken.
• Develop an access strategy or access plan.

An access audit is a useful first step towards ensuring that your company is accessible, inclusive and able to employ a wide range of disabled talent. There are lots of audits and providers on the market.

We have produced the TAP Self-Assessment Audit Checklist, which provides a comprehensive guide to enable companies to assess their own access and provides best practice guidance. The checklist is detailed and extensive. It should be regarded as a journey from arriving at the building, going into reception, moving through the building, accessing the toilet and arriving at the primary workspace. Not all sections will apply to every building, so you can use the template to create your own bespoke document. Beyond the tick box is a space for comment so you can add key details. These results should then be publicised on your website for users to identify what level of access is available. 

When you work though the document, think about the ‘quick wins’ like changing your signage or installing visual fire alarms. Can you implement new policies to be a more inclusive company? Improvements are expected to be reasonable and appropriate for each company, but they should go beyond statutory compliance to create best access.

There are access audit checklists available for:

• Production buildings
• Locations – external
• Locations – internal
• Outside broadcast

You can access these checklists on the TAP BAFTA Hub.

Once an access audit has been completed, the results should be used to create a long-term strategy for making your physical spaces accessible and inclusive.

The 2021 Underlying Health Condition report found that:

“The overwhelming conclusion following the survey is the sheer lack of any accessible facilities available. Half of those that replied have fleets with hundreds of vehicles and have no, or just one, accessible trailer to offer. In the entire survey, we found one company that is able to offer one wheelchair accessible honey wagon. One honey wagon cannot service an entire industry and surely the stories in this report alone show that a demand far greater than this already exist.”

TAP has produced blueprints for accessible facility vehicles for the film & TV industry. These blueprints contain suggested changes that can be made to facility vehicles. Each of the standard vehicles provided by a facilities company is documented. It was written by Translux International and Katie Player to aid companies in making changes by providing a starting point and some helpful guidelines. The TAP blueprints are available here.

Here is a list of companies who provide accessible facilities vehicles:

• Translux International
• ADF
• DBS
• Movie Makers
• On Set Location Services

If you are a company providing accessible facilities vehicles and wish to be added to this list, please contact [email protected].

Here are some additional issues to bear in mind when filming on location.

Toilets

• Make sure there is an accessible toilet at the location and not too far away from where the Disabled cast and crew will be working.
• Where this is not possible, hire an accessible honeywagon or portaloo.
   

Accommodation

• Access is not standardised across the hotel industry and accessible rooms can vary widely in terms of provision.
• Where possible, always try to visit the venues in person to check access as often websites are not reliable when it comes to providing accurate information.
• Hotel staff may have a limited knowledge of access.
• Where conducting a walk-through of the hotel is not possible, ask them to send pictures of the bedroom, bathroom and communal areas, as well as door widths, heights of steps, and turning dimensions of the bathrooms and hallways.
• Ideally everyone should be in the same accommodation. If this isn’t possible, please try to not have just the Disabled people cast and crew in the other accommodation.
   

Transport

• An airline needs 48 hour's notice of access bookings to ensure access is in place.
• Similarly, if travelling by train, to get passenger assistance you must book at least 24 hours in advance.
• Provision of accessible taxis varies wildly across the country, especially outside the large cities. They can be unreliable so do some research and book in advance.
   

Parking

• Check that there is parking available at the location and accommodation.
• Check that the car park is well signposted, and that the accessible parking spaces are easily identifiable.
• Accessible parking spaces should ideally be on firm level ground, rather than on gravelled or sloping surfaces
• Offer to have staff on hand to assist people from their cars to the entrance, especially if the car park is not on a level surface.
• There should ideally be a 1.2 metre clearance at the end of each accessible parking space to allow access to the boot and operation of hoists.
• Confirm with the location management that they will monitor the use of accessible parking spaces to make sure they’re not used by people who do not need them.
   

Dining

• Make sure that the area where cast and crew eat lunch is accessible to everyone.
• Where people are staying in accommodation, make sure there are accessible places to eat either in the hotel or close by.

TAP Activators are organisations who have made a commitment to becoming accessible and inclusive by 2030. 

In order for your organisation to become a TAP Activator, the main things you must commit to are: 

1. Adopting the 5A’s as part of your working practice
2. Appointing an Access Lead within your organisation
3. Carrying out an access audit, for example the TAP production audit checklist
4. Publishing an action plan saying how you will address the issues highlighted by the audit and become accessible and inclusive by 2030.

By signing up to be a TAP Activator, you are agreeing to join us and adopt a set of key principles to help us achieve our vision. Find out more about becoming a TAP Activator.

As a TAP Partner, BAFTA has committed to being the hub for Production Spaces information. The future aim is to raise funds and create a searchable digital database of access facilities at production spaces across the UK. 

At present, companies can already input the results of their Production Spaces access audit into a digital form and generate a digital version to publicly share their access information for potential employees and clients to find on their own websites.  

Click here to go direct to the Production Spaces Access Audit Form.

FurtherResources

• READ: Everybody Forgot About the Toilets, Underlying Health Condition
• READ: The Industry Access Survey