How to access the Edinburgh Festivals?

It is on! The Festival Season is upon us: And with the festivals, hundreds and hundreds of shows: Comedy, dance, theatre, art, book readings and what not.

But not all are easy to attend and enjoy if you have a disability. Edinburgh is an old city and many shows take place in old basements at the bottom of dodgy staircases – or on first floors at the top of equally dodgy staircases.

This week we have taken a look at what the biggest of the festivals, The Fringe, have done to make some of the shows accessible:

Signed, Captioned and Audio Described

For people with people with hearing or visual impairments, The Fringe offers a series of signed, captioned and/or audio described shows, which can all be found here

One of the highlights from that list is disabled Australian comedian Adam Hills, who is the host of the Channel 4 show “The Last Leg”. He is in Edinburgh with his “Happyism” show, which will be signed on two of the dates: the 18^th and 25ft of August.

Another show worth mentioning is “If These Spasms Could Speak”, which is a one man play based on the stories of several disabled people. You can read much more about the show and the guy behind it, Robert S…, in this week’s People’s Story.

There are also a good few shows not about disability, but accessible for disabled people within this collection of shows.

Help with tickets

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe has it’s shop on the busy High Street in Edinburgh, and tickets are to be collected from the deep basement. This is not an accessible place, and the people behind the shenanigans know it. Therefore they have suggested that either: Disabled people can collect tickets from the fully accessible Virgin Money Half Price Hut and the University of Edinburgh Visitor Centre.

The alternative is to contact certain staff members in the main Box Office, who have been designated to deal specifically with access enquiries and ticket bookings: These can help with finding shows and collecting tickets if you call them. Numbers can be found here (https://www.edfringe.com/accessibility).

What about the wheelchairs?

One thing that is a bit of a mystery is the wheelchair access to the many different venues.

Edinburgh is an old city and many shows take place in old basements at the bottom of dodgy staircases – or on first floors at the top of equally dodgy staircases.

A complete list of accessible venues does not exist, and that is a pity. If one wants to access the Fringe with a wheelchair one must go through the venues individual descriptions, which unfortunately are not completely updated.

bespoken have talked to some of the people behind the event, but they say, that it is the responsibility of the individual venues to provide this information. And some just haven’t. It is therefore suggested that one takes a look at this page: https://www.edfringe.com/venues.

The other festivals

The Edinburgh Book Festival runs from the 10^th to the 26^th of August and promises that all venues at Charlotte Square are fully accessible. Furthermore they have a selection of signed events, and both guide dogs and hearing dogs are welcome. More information about the bookie events can be found here.

Edinburgh International Festival runs from August 9 to September 1. They have gone the extra mile and made a version of the entire programme in both large print and Braille. They have also decided to sell wheelchair users, visually or hearing impaired people tickets for all shows at the lowest fare no matter where the best spot for the specific person is placed. More EIF accessibility information can be found here (http://www.eif.co.uk/access).

If you have experience with Fringe venues that are or are not accessible for wheelchairs, please feel free to share them here

How to access the Edinburgh Festivals?

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