The partnership will focus on designing accessible experiences as LEEDS 2023 embark on an extraordinary year of culture.
Our experience design and accessibility team will work with LEEDS 2023, advising on the accessibility of their interactions.
LEEDS 2023, Year of Culture is a unique programme of events, projects and activities which will highlight and harness creativity throughout the city. Artists, creatives and storytellers will lead the charge, with a programme that aims to engage over 75% of Leeds’ residents.
We’ll be working in collaboration with LEEDS 2023’s team to create a set of accessibility principles and an accessibility rider, to underpin the LEEDS 2023 experience.
I am super excited to be part of the accessibility partnership with LEEDS 2023, as a deafblind person who comes from an arts background, I feel it’s a long time coming to ensure every experience within the arts and culture - experiences that help shape our planet, is inclusive. The arts can engage any individual, whether it be a hobby, form of relaxation or a place to make memories. The experience should be unforgettable whoever you are, whatever your needs.
Molly Watt, Usability and Accessibility consultant
During the initial stages of our partnership, we’re engaging with a diverse range of LEEDS 2023’s accessibility consultants who themselves face access barriers. Often, people think of web accessibility as the only consideration, using guidelines such as the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, but accessibility is so much more. The principles will form the basis for an accessibility rider. The rider will be used to empower artists and partners who may face barriers to access and will be implemented by LEEDS 2023’s other agency partners.
On Global Accessibility Awareness Day 2022, we want to celebrate LEEDS 2023’s commitment to designing accessible experiences. For organisations like LEEDS 2023, accessibility is not an afterthought, or a check box exercise, it is responsible design that is inherently linked to the success of their programme and legacy. In the arts, culture and heritage sector, it’s vital that accessibility best practice transpires through to physical spaces so that digital efforts become integrated to real-world experiences. LEEDS 2023 have recently appointed an Access and Inclusion Officer who will drive the application of the principles in practice.
Accessibility is a thread running through LEEDS 2023’s entire model. We believe designing experiences that welcome and embrace diversity. We’re thrilled to be working with Nexer alongside other great experts in this field to create an inclusive year of culture.
Sarah Jane Mace, Head of Experience Design LEEDS 2023
