But for the tourette's person shouting funk you, merry Christmas. Hedge hog. Biscuit. While I sat sobbing in that sound booth, biscuit. I promised myself I'd never set foot in a theater again. Thankfully this wasn't a promise I kept. Instead I found the only seat in the house I wouldn't be asked to leave on stage. [applause] . 

>> Biscuit. 

Jess: Biscuit. Week created backstage in biscuitland and took this to the fringe where it sold out and won a total theater award. We have gone on tour across the U.K., Europe, and north America, and we'll be taking it to Ireland, Bosnia, and Australia in the fall. As well as telling my story, the show also promotes relaxed performance. A growing movement within U.K. theater that takes a ghrecksible approach to noise and movement. And extends a warm invitation to everybody. Biscuit. The brilliant thing about relaxed performance, biscuit, is that everyone can benefit from being at one. Biscuit. This could include people with learning disabilities, movement disorders, autistic spectrum disorder, or other neurological conditions, those with young children, babies, biscuit, biscuit, or just people with very loud laughs. Biscuit, biscuit. Many other people will choose to attend a relaxed performance either as an actress requirement or because they enjoy the inclusive environments. When they are done well, the whole audience is given permission to relax, move about, and make noise. This is a more exciting thee eat trickal experience. I'd now like to share five key ideas that have played a crucial role in shaping my practice, my understanding, and my expectations. Hopefully some of these will be useful in your work building a more inclusive creative sector. First up, I'm not disabled by my body. Biscuit. I'm going to start by talking about models of disability. By this I don't mean matchstick crotches, papier-mache wheelchairs, or assistant dogs. I mean the models we use to conceptualize disability. Business -- biscuit. For a long time the consensus was we follow the medical model. This sees a person being disabled because that body or mind is impaired in some way. It focuses on what's wrong with the person and not on what the person needs. By contrast, the social model says disability is caused by the way society is organized. Biscuit. For example, if I can't get into a building because it's surrounded by steps, the medical model would say the problem is my wobbly legs. But the social model identifies the steps as the disabling factor. People often nervous about calling me disabled because they view the term negatively. I don't see it that way at all. For me, saying I'm disabled acknowledges the barriers I face because of our collective failure to consider difference. Only if these barriers are acknowledged can they be changed. Biscuit. This idea may be familiar to many of you already. But I wanted to mention it because of how pervasive the medical model is within society. Although I have been taught about the social mottle in training courses, it was years before I truly connected with it. Making that connection has raised my confidence. And it's been instrumental in defining how I have come to think about my body and my experiences. Biscuit. The next idea I'd like to talk about is adjustable environments . Biscuit. Permission to adjust my surroundings to meet my needs is both essential and transformative. Biscuit. When I first started having ticking fits, being able to leave my apartment safely suddenly seemed impossible. But as soon as I realized I could change my environment as necessary, biscuit, it felt much more manageable. Biscuit. This has involved commandeering building lobbies, moving office furniture about, being protected by the rain from a stranger with an umbrella, and on one occasion having a fit in a fire station floor carefully sushonned by blankets. Biscuit. My increased confidence in adjusting to the surroundings to meet my changing needs as made the difference between me being independent and included. And being isolated and restricted. In 2014, Touretteshero collaborated with Kate galleries on we forgot the lot. Biscuit, biscuit. Here's a photo showing a boy at the event in a green jacket reaching out for walkie-talkie from a wooden structure in a gallery full of paintings as other people look on. Hedge hog. Up and down the U.K. with and without tourette's we invited to take over Kate Britain. 300 participants worked with 11 artists to reinvent the newly renovated building. We set them a simple task. Going to the galleries, get involved with the artists, and help them transform to make sure nothing gets forgotten. Biscuit. Permission to change space to meet individual needs was the concept that underpins this whole event and it works. Biscuit. Hedge hog. Biscuit. I'd like to share with you a parent who brought her family. It's nice the way my son dives into a whole load of stuff in a corner and wiggles about in it. I don't need to worry. In fact, all that happened was that other children came and laid down in the fluffy stuff and wiggled with him. It's just nice not to have to worry. Usually it's just me and the public one big mess and I'm trying to cope with everything that's happening for my child. Biscuit. What's been really lovely today is that we have taken over Tate, the public are the ones having to cope with us. There was lady who came along and said that boy appears to be lying on the floor and I felt confident saying yes, he is. And biscuit. And he can do that. He's allowed to do that. Biscuit. Biscuit. Biscuit. To create a truly inclusive environment we have to be ready to effect. Whether that's adjusting the physical environments, biscuit, the sensory landscape, the way we communicate, or the rules. Biscuit. The question I'd like you-all to ask, biscuit, where you work, isn't just what adjustments can we make to ensure we're accessible, but what adjustments can we make to ensure everyone feels safe to be themselves. Biscuit. Disability matters. Biscuit. Biscuit. About 10 years ago I discovered liberty festival in trafalger fair a disability arts festival slap down in the center of London. Biscuit. It was at a time when I was grappling with my own changing needs. I remember how excited I was to discover, biscuit, this incredible disabled-led art scene. I walked into the cabaret tent that was being compared by disabled performers Liz and Matt. Finding funny, irreverence disabled artists make exciting challenging work, business wit kith, rescued me from my own fears and preconceptions. In part of me I saw in my experiences as a disabled person reflected in ways that avoided tired, complacent narratives. Biscuit. That are often presented in the media. Discovering a vibrant, disability art scene, being able to share this with my nondisabled friends and family was instrumental in giving me the confidence to create Touretteshero. Biscuit. A few months ago, biscuit, a journalist in the U.S. asked me whether I thought that disability is seen as part of the diversity conversation in the U.K.? Biscuit. I found this unexpectedly hard to answer because it depends on where the conversation is happening. Biscuit. In the wider context of diversity, key institutions funding bodies, and broadcasters are increasingly appear to be including disability within their thinking. Biscuit. But this isn't necessarily reflected in broader national discussions. Biscuit around diversity. There are still plenty of people who think about disability solely in negative terms. Biscuit. Most people will probably agree that multiculturalism is valuable and should be celebrated. To the achievements of women should be recognized and celebrated, too. But for lots of people I think the idea of celebrating disability culture would seem unusual or uncomfortable. Arts, culture, and humor have great potential, biscuit, to help shift thinking and create a deeper, more widespread understanding of disability and difference. But only if it is led by disabled people. Biscuit. Biscuit. Fear creates barriers. Biscuit. While Touretteshero was inspired by single conversation, single sentence, countless experiences have helped shape it. One such moment happened at conference, biscuit, biscuit, years ago, when I met a man with tourette's whose tics were barely noticeable. As we talked, I got the sense that the relentless negative reactions he had experienced growing up had severely impacted on his confidence. He learned to expect that other people would respond negatively to him. And this expectation was -- seemed to be severely restricting his life. Damage to confidence is always harder to undo than it is to prevent. Biscuit. At the heart is the belief that strengthening the confidence and resilience of disabled people, particularly children, has the power to create significant social change. We focus on inclusive events, biscuit, because creating positive memories is protected in the future. I know firsthand the value of having positive experiences to draw on when times feel tough. I've had tics since I was 6 but they were much less noticeable then. In my early 20's they began to intensify and have a bigger impact on my life. As my tics got more noticeable, I became increasingly aware of the fear that came with them. Fear of me, was I drunk? Mad? Or dangerous? And other people's fear of my unpredictable -- my own fear of other people's unpredictable reactions to me. Some people were scared to catch my eye. Others were worried about saying the wrong thing. A few thought I was possessed. It scared me. I was frightened of losing control of my body and my identity. But mainly it was other people's assumptions, judgments, and laughter, that worried me. Biscuit. I could feel this fear forming barriers in my life. Biscuit. Founding Touretteshero was instrumental in helping me address my own anxieties. Biscuit. And start breaking down other people's. Biscuit. Irbegan by letting myself think more deeply about David Blane, no. Not about David Blane. Biscuit. I began by letting myself think more deeply about tourette's. Biscuit. I started by sharing my experiences in a blog and I developed a new language to communicate my needs in the process. Addressing fear is crucial when promoting inclusive approaches. Because it's all too easy to let anxiety lead to inaction. Biscuit. Biscuit. And open communication is essential for fighting fear and preventing it from cluttering our minds and our society. Change isn't always a battle. I used to think that attitude change was a long, drawn out process. Biscuit. Touretteshero taught me that it can actually happen very quickly. I first realized this on a train journey with my sister several years ago, biscuit, we were on our way to a friend's hen party. The train was busy, and I was conscious of our other passengers were reacting to my tics. A brief search on twitter revealed at least one woman had noticed me. On a train with genuine tourette's person in the same carriage, here's the edited highlights. Biscuit, on the baby, donkey, what an affliction. Biscuit. I responded by saying, it was also a gift. And pointed her in the direction of our website and a video by two performance artists which brought my tics to life. Her next tweet had a very different tone. This is amazing. Not affliction. Create -- creativity. She then asked if she could use the video in an installation about identity she was involved in later that day. I loved seeing this evolution happen in just a few short tweets. And it left me feeling incredibly optimistic. Biscuit. Creating change doesn't always have to be a battle. It can be joyful. Persuasive. Biscuit. And filling. If we can get people to engage, we can get them to change. Biscuit. Every day inclusion. As professionals working to increase access across the cultural sector, biscuit, the work you're doing matters. Biscuit. It can be the difference between someone feeling included or being disabled. I will share a blog post I wrote about small acts of everyday inclusion in my life. Biscuit. Disabled people are always coming up against barriers. Often they are physical. Like a step that's too high, a broken lift, or a cluttered rest room, or a poorly thought out display. Other barriers have to do with attitude and a quick look at the twitter #hearddisabled. Will give you the flavor of the comments and judgments disabled people are regularly faced with. Examples include, you shouldn't be traveling by yourself. Biscuit, haven't you got a carer or something? You're married? Did he meet a disability function? I'm glad your service dog won't be coming on the trip. He would cause a logistical issue. Biscuit. You're so bright and articulate, you shouldn't be disabled. Biscuit. I deal with comments like these on some days, too. And I notice every single one. Biscuit. But I also notice every act of inclusion. The cushions ready in the corner of a meeting room in case I have a ticcing fit. The exhibition with his floor plan arranged so I can wheel easily between exhibits. The clean, uncluttered, accessible rest room. The usher who speaks to me rather than to the person pushing my wheelchair. These aren't big acts, but they have the power to build into something positive rather than maintaining something negative. Biscuit. Taking an inclusive approach, biscuit, doesn't have to be complicated. It's the difference between assuming everyone could do things in the same way and understanding that some people will need to do things differently. Biscuit. This shift in thinking, biscuit, which is far beyond disability, and is something everyone could benefit from, biscuit. In a time of turmoil and escalating division, it's more important than ever that we think independently and inclusively every day, biscuit. Biscuit. What can children teach us about difference? One of the great things about talking to children about disability, biscuit, is that they often ask up front questions. And more importantly, they listen to the answers. As we get older, we tend to worry more about saying the wrong thing or being nosey. Worst of all, we think we know all the answers. Biscuit. This makes it much more likely for us to make assumptions and it makes it much harder to challenge preconceptions if they are wrong. Biscuit. I have an experience at a doctor surgery that I'd like to share with you. I had only been in the waiting room for a minute or so when a boy age about 2 1/2 made a b line for me. Biscuit. He presented me with a plastic gold medal and a newspaper cutting. And then he stood back and surveyed my wheelchair. He inspected every single bit of it. Walking all the way around several times. Biscuit. Identifying and checking every moving parts. -- part. He payed particular attention to the brakes the -- he paid particular attention to the brakes. He did this with no words but lots of smiles. He was captivated by the wheelchair and fascinated by how it worked. He didn't seem at all worried by my unusual noises and the movements I was making and his friendly curiousity was delightful. Biscuit. His mother could see I wasn't bothered by his activities and left him to it while keeping a close eye on what he was up to. He particularly liked the fact that my foot peg could be lifted up and down. Biscuit. After testing it thoroughly he secured it in place and jumped onboard. He looked at me and beamed. Biscuit. If I had been selling the chair, I imagine this would have been the moment I clinched the deal. Biscuit. Biscuit. Children are often ready to laugh, question, and listen. And this is something we can all learn from. Biscuit. So my challenge to you, biscuit, biscuit, I'd like to leave you with three challenges. Through the conference and beyond. The first, foster unplea dictible outcomes. -- unpredictable outcomes. When we started Touretteshero, we had no idea how others would respond and simply acknowledging the humor of tourette's felt risky. Challenge yourself, biscuit, to be open to trying new approaches that might fail, biscuit. Being receptive to the unexpected can lead to incredible outcomes. Secondly, make new connections. Resist the urge to only speak the same people or seek out familiar ideas. It's all too easy to end up talking in an echo chamber retreading old ground. Instead, be open to new discourse. Biscuit. Is crucial performing and reflecting on your own views and engaging with new concepts. Finally, collaborate, innovate, and improve. Biscuit. Creative collaboration across disciplines can help unlock new ways to capture imaginations and expand engagements. Take opportunities to celebrate and share good practice, but don't stop asking what you could be doing better. Biscuit. So in conclusion, biscuit, biscuit. This march Touretteshero celebrated its 6th birthday. And in that time, biscuit, the most important thing I have learned is that if something isn't working, I have the capacity to change it. Biscuit. And that's not because I have any special qualities or superpowers, it's because we all have the ability to create change. Biscuit. Whether -- whatever you're thinking about the barriers you want to bring down is also worth about thinking what you want to create, develop, and protect, biscuit. Biscuit. Changing the cultural landscape isn't too mighty a task and it's definitely not something we should just leave to institutions, politicians, or people wearing capes. Biscuit. It's something we can all do. Together we can create opportunities for challenge to be shared, difference to be visible, and creative community to lead the way in shaping sustainable social change. Biscuit. If you'd like to find out more about Touretteshero, please visit our website or come and find me later. Biscuit. I'll be the one shouting biscuit. Biscuit. Biscuit. Biscuit. Thank you very much for listening. And I'm very happy to answer questions. Biscuit. [applause] 

>> She really means it. So we might do a really quick q and a. We've got some microphones in the back. This is your chance to ask a question. 

Jess: Or make a comment. 

>> Comments. 

Jess: Comments. Or ask a question about cats. They don't have to be about cats. 

>> Or Betty doing a lap dance I think I heard earlier. There's a question up here. Microphone's coming your direction. 

>> Good morning. First of all that was amazing. My name is Toby. I am event manager at a performing arts center in stall, Minnesota. -- St. Paul, Minnesota. One of our tenants is the chamber orchestra. And so with chamber music a lot of it is dealing with listening to the silences and the impact that the music has in the changes. So as a person with tourette's, what could you suggest and recommend as a tool for me to help promote buy-in so people with tourette's could be welcomed at those types of events where it is very, very focused on the quietness and the sound? Because that buy-in is very difficult. 

Jess: First I'd like to say as someone with tourette's listening to music or having access to quiet or considered arts is really important to me. Thinking about silence, thinking about noise, those are the things that are a part of my experience and I would love to be able to access them more. I think the relaxed performance movement is broader than just theater and I think this is definitely extending in the U.K. to concerts and different types of music. That would be something that would be relevant to you in your setting. Biscuit. Biscuit. I think sometimes when we talk about relaxed or inclusive performances, biscuit, there is a danger that we think about just certain types of work being suitable for that. Stuff that's warm or -- biscuit. Or loud, biscuit. Focused on children. Biscuit. Biscuit. As an adult, biscuit, I want to see lots of different types of art. I want to see things that are challenging. I want to see things that are quiet and thought provoking. But I need to do that in a safe -- I feel safe. I will -- I think the idea. Biscuit. The idea of offering performances that make that offer openly and build long-term -- biscuit. Relationships with communities of people who might benefit from that, but not as targeted segregated performances. That is open performances. I think everybody can benefit from hearing or experiencing culture in different ways. That could include stuff that's silent. I think often people assume that as soon as you start relaxing the rules around behavior within cultural spaces, there is anarchy. Disappointingly not. Hedge hog. I think it's about people experiencing that. And I think otherwise they come to it with assumptions. I would -- in terms of creating buy-in I start perhaps with small events. Start by thinking about ways like holding a concert or an event that reaches out to a particular group. You you might find it way broader than just tourette's. You can think about dementia, autism, learning disability. People with children. I think -- often, some of those -- biscuit. Some people who are nondisabled people, will find it difficult to access those spaces because of preconceptions about who that's for or how they should behave. Making that offer widely and broadly and enthusiastically and framing it positively and remembering a huge number of people identify as disabled. They should be part of an audience. Biscuit. Biscuit. I hope that is some way to answer your question. Biscuit. 

>> Great. I think we've got time for a couple questions more if someone is -- there we have someone over here. Thank you. Jessica is bringing you the -- 

>> I don't have a question. I just have a comment. I have been coming to these conferences as some of you know for many, many years. I don't think I have ever heard as inspiring, moving, and funny presentation as you gave us today. So thank you very much. [applause] 

Jess: Thank you. That's lovely. I'm really excited to be here and see so many people here. The idea you are all working towards creating a more inclusive sector is incredibly exciting. Thank you for the work that you do. Every single day. Biscuit. Hedge hog. 

>> Do we have another one? 

Jess: Cat, biscuit, hedge hog. Biscuit. 

>> Jess -- we have one over there. 

>> Hi. My name is Mel. I have just one quick question. Do you think you'll ever be touring to the United States so we can see your show? 

Jess: We were here in may. Biscuit. Biscuit. We went to New York and San Francisco and L.A. We're very hopeful that we'll come back to the U.S. with the show. Biscuit. We're back in north America. Back in Vancouver next January. And February. Hopefully we might come here, too. 

>> #bring Jess totheU.S. I think there are people in this room who might be able to make that happen. 

Jess: We're also create Agnew show which really speaks about the idea what sort of work should be accessible. We're looking at something that's very different from biscuitland. Much more challenging. Hopefully doing that in a way that integrates access within that. Look out for that, too. Biscuit, biscuit. There's also, biscuit. I don't know you know this amazing resource created by unlimited in the U.K., which is a guide for producers and theater makers about different ways they can make their work more accessible. It's really useful, and handy resource that can be downloaded from their website. We also have information available on our website an information sheet about relaxed performance which answers lots of the frequently asked questions and fears people might have about that. 

>> Great. Let's give Jess another round of applause. [applause] 

Jess: Thank you. Thank you. 

>> She is hanging around. So please feel free to step up and chat. You guys have until 11:05 at which point the snapshot session starts. So quick. Run for the gender neutral bathrooms in the lobby. Please stand by. Please stand by. Please stand by. 

>> Happy after lunch. This session, is from the NEA and the funding opportunity and resources for accessibility. This is being live stream, the camera is directly back there, so if you to get up and walk around, not walk in front of the camera this way, horizontally from right. Today's presenters are Beth Bienvenu, director of the office of disability at the NEA, Lauren Tuzzolino, accessibility specialists, NEA, Amy Gabriel, deputy director for administration Pennsylvania Council on the arts, and Margaret, rear Pittsburgh arts Council. Allison Ballard, director, Jesters Program, University of St. Francis. Just a reminder, they are going to leave time for questions and answer . If there are a couple of people who will volunteer to run the microphone around, please do not ask your question to you like comes to you. Last but not least, a small, green sheets on tables or evaluations this session Kennedy Center would greatly appreciate it back. 

It is all caps, that you Beth: Thank you all for coming, this is a great group. If you feel like you need to move closer, feel the. My name is Beth Bienvenu, I direct the office of accessibility at the national endowment for the arts. Happy to have Lauren here to help me with the first start of the presentation, and then we will bring out a few of our guest speakers. The goal of this session is to help you understand what is available for funding at the NEA and dates are agencies. Can I get a show of hands -- how many have received funding from the national endowment for the arts? Quite a good number of people in the room have received funding. How many have received funding from the state arts agency? A little fewer. From your local arts Council, city, county? Fewer but still a good number. There is a lot of funding out there, some for accessibility related work, disability related work, and other projects. We will talk about the opportunities and what you can do with those funds. The NEA is in its 50th year. We were founded almost 51 years ago to serve the country, and we have fact sheets that I will be putting out on a table on what we have done for accessibility over the past years, and also we had an online policy dialogue on careers in the arts. I talked about it at the spotlight. We have some extra copies that I will put out. First, I would like to invite my colleague Lauren to come up. Talk about what we are doing today. 

Lauren: Hello? Some of the goals for this session and what we are going to be talking about today -- we are talking about funding, hearing from our state and local representatives about funding opportunities available to you . Beth and I will be talking about with the NEA offers in terms of our grants. Also, some other things that we like to go into, before the grantmaking process begins or you start looking into grants and funding, what can you possibly be doing internally, more creative in your own organizations to be more accessible? Being resourceful in that aspect. What are some examples of projects that are currently being funded that are accessibility focused or enhancing projects that you already had to make them more accessible. And examples of best practices and, as I mentioned, being creative. And when you are writing those grants -- this is something that Allison Ballard, one of our speakers today, will be speaking about -- her experience in putting together their grants and focusing on what to your own. Some other takeaways will be better understanding of how to organize goals into the grant application, as I just mentioned. How to capitalize on what you have. Those are some of the bigger ones as well. Beth will go into the legal requirements. 

Beth: We will talk about with the NEA does. As you know, we are the federal agency that funds the arts across the country. Every state, territory, congressional district. We award more than $115 million each year. My office is the office of accessibility, we are the technical assistance and advocacy arm of the agency to make the arts accessible for people with disabilities, older adults, veterans, and people living in institutional settings. There is a lot of overlap. Just a little bit about our legal are meant. -- requirements. If you received funding from the NEA, you must comply with the Americans with disability act, title two for state and local government agencies, title III for places of public accommodation and services. That can include museums, performing arts facilities. In addition to that, there are additional requirements under section 504 of the rehabilitation act which prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in programs conducted by federal agencies such as what we do, our Jazz Masters, National Heritage awards, any of our programs. Also those receiving federal financial assistance, our grantees. Anything that you do with our money has to be done in an accessible way and inaccessible facilities. A little bit about our grants. We support a range of artistic disciplines, including artist communities, arts education, performing arts, folk and traditional arts, literature, museums, and media arts and visual arts. Who may apply? Arts organizations must be a 5013 C, arts service organizations, local arts agencies, local state in governments, school, but not individual schools, colleges and universities, federally recognized tribal communities and other nonprofit organizations. We do not fund general offering support, individuals, individual schools come a facility construction. That is one thing with a lot of federal agencies, we don't support capital improvements or construction. That also includes renovation for accessibility. We do not fund commercial for-profits -- [NO AUDIO] Creation of new organizations, academic degrees, re-granting, or projects placed. Effective to medication, and we recommend you build that into your application budget. So that we support the inclusion of sign language interpretation, captioning, audio descriptions. You just have to make sure you account for that in your budget, and that goes a long way toward ensuring full accessibility. We have four main grants. The artworks grant, two deadlines per year. The new guidelines will be coming out in December. We have passed most of our deadlines for this year, the keep an eye on in December. Artworks is our main grant, between $10,000 and $100,000. The deadline will be in a new area and July. Check back about that. We do fund research. We have usually one opportunity per year for that. Challenge America, many organizations have applied under that because it serves underserved populations. There is a flat grant amount of $10,000 for that. And our town, which is our creative place making grant which partners civic organizations with nonprofit arts organizations. So I will pass it back over to Lauren. She will talk about the grants that we had awarded in the field of accessibility and disability. 

Lauren: When we were putting together this presentation, we thought it is always useful to show how we apply these grants, the different examples we had. One of them is the art mobile of Montana, which was our artworks and visual arts $15,000 matching grant. This is a youth arts education program that goes around to different schools, settings in Montana, and they are bringing the arts to different settings. What I liked about this also was , when I spoke to them on the phone and asked how they started applying things for when they are visiting groups, where maybe there is a specific need, visiting students who are deaf, maybe blind, how they can accommodate in that sense. This is where certain programs -- I used to work at a museum also -- where you have request for people with disability, how you can apply them. This is just another example of where to keep in mind to budget in for that. They have worked with different sign language interpreters when it is needed, different -- this is an example of artwork that was more tactile. Those are all things to keep in mind when you are doing these types of grants as well. The Jesters Program at the University of St. Francis, we will hear more from one of our grantees about. Just to give some background, they provide weekly instruction to their students who have intellectual and development disabilities, which culminates in an original program, presentation, performance at the end. Allison will speak more about that. This is just an example of how different programs can be working with students with disabilities as well. They work with different professional teaching artists. Spring awakening, I know Beth will want to talk about that. Deaf West theater is in any a grantee as well. They received to this performance -- his performance received Tony nominations, so another example of highlighting our funding. Inking beyond accessibility. What can you be doing that does not require much funding, whether providing large print, tactile opportunities. You can even, for some performances, there are more sensory friendly things that you could be doing behind the scenes , things you could offer to your audience members, to make it more so that they can access it in different ways. That is an example of the Flynn Center in Vermont. They do behind the scene stores for people who are blind or request other things as accommodations as well. That is subject to keep in mind before you start going through more funding options. Also, what are the needs of the community? That was a reason why I look forward to Allison speaking with you. They did that assessment to find out what was needed, so they knew what requests and accommodations they could be answering in that regard. Also, talk to local chapters, for people who are deaf and blind, find out what their needs are. Collaborating once you know what you're doing, promote and continue building partnerships. 

Beth: I just want to mention a few of the resources. We have a list of our regional and state arts agencies coordinators, arts.gov. There is also the national arts and disability center. They have been a partner of ours on several initiatives including the online policy dialogue. Regional ADA centers. I'm sure you are aware of them, the 10 regional centers around the country. Adata. org. Also the job accommodation network. We have done work with them over the years. This can translate into other types of accommodations for organizations. I just want to say a couple more things. I miss the opportunity to describe a couple of slides. Earlier, we had a picture of two dancers from axis dance company. We had funded in threat the years to physically integrate a dance company in Oakland. A photo from a production of "tribes" a play written about a family with a deaf son by the studio Theatre in Washington, D.C. And a photo of the blind boys of Alabama, a group that one hour National Heritage award several years ago. I just wanted to point that out. Before I go, I will put up our contact information, our general number is 202.682.5532. There is our e-mail. That is our website. I would be happy to give all of this to you slower afterwards if you would like. Also, the PowerPoint should be up in the guidebook. Before we move on, I want to ask , those who are in the room who are state arts agency representatives, I would like each of you to stand up and wave your hands. I like to gauge reduce you briefly so that if there is anyone else in the room from your state, you can reach out to them to ask questions about funding. You can do that at the end of today, or if you see them in the conference room. And the regional arts organizations. I am just going to -- I'm trying to do this in a way that everyone can see where everyone is from. Nebraska, Minnesota, Tennessee, South Carolina over on your right. If I keep going, counterclockwise, -- I'm sorry, what is your name? We have a representative from Massachusetts. I will not ask everyone's names. Coming for the front we have Ohio and Illinois. Tour the back, another Massachusetts, Charles. In the back -- Montana, welcome. Thank you for coming. In the middle of the room, Western arts Federation. Her first time here. As we head toward the left , Oklahoma, and then Amy from Minnesota, who will be speaking. Tour the back to your left is Idaho. I'm sorry I'm not saying anyone's names, but you can introduce yourselves. Did I miss anybody? Amy will be talking about what state arts agencies does -- I'm sorry. Minnesota popped into my head. I want to welcome amy the deputy director for the, Pennsylvania Council on the arts, and also serves as excess ability coordinator. Most of the folks here are the accessibility coordinators for their states. We have some extra folks here, including four from Ohio. 

Amy: Thank you. I do not have any slides today, but I do have a lot of handouts that I will have up here at the table for you, especially if you are from Pennsylvania. A couple of questions before I start. Who in here you there works for an arts organization, arts program in Pennsylvania, or as an individual artist in Pennsylvania? Great. Out of that group, how many of you do not receive Pennsylvania Council of the arts funding? Everybody who is here from Pennsylvania receives p ca funds, that is awesome. Well, I don't need to say much. [LAUGHTER] You are welcome. Thank you. We actually do not have a specific role of funds for -- p ool of funds for accessibility. We did at one point, but we felt organizations needed to incorporate accessibility into their overall budgets and funding, who primarily -- the funds that we do is general operating support. Just to let you know of the importance of accessibility in our agency, most of our programs have three criteria that they are reviewed and questions are tailored to these three criteria. One is artistic quality. One is management. And the other one is access. All of our grantees are reviewed based on those three criteria. Access, specifically, states demonstrated results in reaching underserved communities as the applicant defines it, evidence of provision of services or accommodation for people with disabilities. So, not only do our applicant answer questions based on that criteria, we also review them, our panel reviews them , based on those three criteria. It is an important component of all the applications that we receive and review at the PCA. By doing this, we encourage our applicants to include people with disabilities as audience members and artists by asking questions. We do have a couple of funding opportunities, which most of you already know about. The one that you probably -- you may or may not know about that is a professional development and consulting. This program is now done through citizens for the arts in Pennsylvania. This program can help you bring in consultants. It specifically stated in the guidelines, to evaluate and plan to make facilities, programs, and staff accessible to people with disabilities. Any of our grantees that are already getting funds from the PCA, whether directly or through a partner, is eligible to apply for these funds. The other categories in that are peer-to-peer consultations. If you are an organization that has a peer at another similar organization, and you like to visit them and see their accessible programming, you can apply for funds to travel to that organization, even if it is not in Pennsylvania, to get some feedback and information from them. This program also provides travel to conferences, like this one. You can apply to the program, up to $500 a person, to attend conferences, arts conferences like this one, or any others. Specifically, today, you could have applied to find yourself to come here, at least a little bit. I realize some of these have limitations. This program, professional development and consulting funds, up to $2000 for consultations, $500 for conferences, and the last component of this is busing. Which is pretty important to get audiences with disabilities to your evidence. Many times, one of the barriers to participate in arts activities and events for people with disabilities is transportation. You can apply to this program to fund accessible transportation, up to $250. Again, any applicant can apply to this, any current grantee. The other area we have is our arts and education program. The things for accessibility with this, if you are an artist at this conference, an artist with a disability, without a disability, you can become a rostered artist, to go into any educational setting. A lot of what is funded and done his residencies at schools, but it can also be any educational facility, like senior centers, prisons, veteran homes and hospitals, anything like that. Also, as an arts organization, you can bring some of these rostered artists into your arts organization or facility for a residency, and maybe you want to work with them to start including a with disabilities into your program that are not currently participating. We have partners all across the state. Our arts and education partners do the rostering for us and make sure that any artist going into any kind of setting, whether it is a hospital, senior center, school, is not only trained to be in the kind of setting, but is trained to work with a population that they will be working with. The is important for you to know that, because I know sometimes artists are just put in places and maybe not have experience with that population. We make sure that it happens. Our arts and education program, you are also eligible, if you are a current grantee, you are also eligible to apply to this program for additional funding. I will not get into the other programs, because you are already grantees, so I don't need to talk about the other programs because you are already applying to them. Like I said, I have a lot of handouts on the things I talked about today. One of my goals for this conference was to come here and start getting a more defined role and planned for accessibility in the arts for Pennsylvania. I have been doing this work for a long time. Between me leaving and coming back, a lot of changes in the field, there is really no defined role for the PCA. We do do some wonderful projects that are -- we grab them as we can -- doing some creative aging projects, some projects with veterans . But I am definitely open to talking with anybody about any ideas you have, whether the PCA should be a cheerleader or a resource, surveys , establishing pure networks -- peer networks. Of course, a realistic role for us, too, would be great. I see the great things the greater Pittsburgh arts Council is doing, which you will hear from next. Extremely proud, and jealous, of what Anne Is doing in Pittsburgh. I would love to hear any ideas that you have with the PCA in that. Thank you. 

Beth: Thank you, Amy. You have been a really good partner in this work. Looking forward to continuing to work with PCA and all the states. As a reminder, 40% of the NEA budget goes to the states, so our funding trickles down. Any of the funds that go down to our service organization, comes to us through the state agency, the 504 requirements are triggered as well. I rely on our network of excessively coordinators and the states to help us with this, so thank you for talking about what you do, and feel free to reach out to your state agency if you are not in Pennsylvania to see the programs they have. I want to welcome Anne. The theme is funding programs at the NEA. We have worked with the Pittsburgh doubts -- arts Council to work on these issues. 

Anne: Hello and welcome to Pittsburgh, we are thrilled you are here. We are thrilled that you will see the result of five years of work. In January, 2011, we have to greater spur arts Council, began animalistic initiative to increase access to the arts or people with disabilities. I will take a moment to talk about a few of my slides. The Pittsburgh glass center a year and a half ago had this incredible exhibit, which was a bunch of letters from neon signs . A neon sign repair guy had collected them over the years. They are all different fonts and colors, and he installed LED lights behind them. The picture that is up here now is the word access spelled out in these little letters. They attached ropes on them and hung them on pegs on the back of the wall. Several of my slides are from that because they let me in early, and I took a bunch of axis-related slides, to make my slides pretty. The exhibit was called ABC@pcg. The next slide is a definition of what our work is. We call it increasing accessibility in Pittsburgh arts and culture. It is a copperheads of initiative designed to provide arts organizations with the knowledge and skills to welcome people with disabilities as patrons, volunteers, volunteers, and artists. I want to point out what this means. When we say welcome people with disabilities, we are not talking compliance. We are talking, making those peoples -- every person with a disability should be able to walk into any organization in the 10 county region of southwestern Pennsylvania and feel like they are just another person. They should be able to walk in, -- that is our goal. We have done a lot to get there. Of course it's not perfect. I know, because my background is in disability advocacy, not the arts. I came to this job as the bridge. All of my friends in the disability community do not hesitate to call, text, send me a Facebook message when they have a bad experience. My job is, I am the glue. I am the person that people call when they are stuck, when the have a customer service issue, they call. I have my fingers in all the pies. I help organizations of all disciplines, of all sizes. I help individual artists. What I will talk about now is all the different components of this holistic support. The next slide is all the different components. Since January, 2011, we have presented 28 Texas ability workshops in five years. That is a lot. We have had over 105 local organizations participate. We have had 609 attendees at these things. Every single presentation we do, every workshop is either presented solely by a person with disability or has a person with a disability as a presenter. Almost every single workshop is a lunch and learn, where we feed people. What we have learned, and this sounds silly, people have to eat lunch. They do not have any trouble getting their boss to say, can I pay $15 to go to this workshop where I will get lunch and learn about accessibility? Sometimes if they have to come early or leave, it seems suspicious, but if they are going at lunch, even without institutional support, they can go. As you can see, at least 34. Here is the other component. This is where funding comes in. Since 2012, we have been providing scholarships to the LEAD conference. We had over 80 people from Pittsburgh go to those conferences in four years. I don't think that includes the current number. We had $7,000 in scholarships to give away this year to people in the cities, so we didn't have to pay for travel. We have people going to all sorts of things. There are a lot of us here, a lot of people who are switching their registrations, so the marketing person can go to a marketing thing, the evaluation person -- David is here from our office. He is our group of research and advocacy. We are trying to get all the right people here from the different organizations. The other key is our access to your group. Our axis P or group started as five people and now it is over 100. We usually have 25 to 30 people at every tear meeting which is quarterly, or as needed to get ready for LEAD. This is a group of people who get together and share everything. One of the results of this has been, we have developed a tremendous expertise in sensory friendly and relaxed rules performances. We have the ballet, the Symphony, the Pittsburgh cultural trust, through their Broadway series, doing sensory friendly events. There is a sensory friendly gallery call called the art March. The Pittsburgh international children's Festival commissioned an immersive theater experience for children with autism spectrum disorders. At the three Rivers arts Festival, there are sensory brick stations, which is a huge arts Festival. What has happened, the people in our community, people with disabilities in our community now have very high expectations of our organization. In five years, we went from people with disabilities being problems to just patrons. Moving to the next slide, basically we have improved inclusion of people with disabilities as patrons and participants on a regional scale. I will give you examples of what we do in the next slide. We have our workshops. They do different things. This is a photograph, taken in the human engineering research laboratory of the University of Pittsburgh. We called it our assistive technology field trip. What you see is a young man who is a graduate student, and he isn't speaking to a circle of women, many of whom are here. He is sitting in a room that has a really high tech wheelchair in it and a bunch of computer screens, but the human engineering research laboratory is a place where a bunch of PhD students, many with disabilities, are solving their own technology problems. If you have a high spinal cord injury, you often cannot use a debit card . One of the things they were trying to do was figure out a way to adjust mac machines, so it would be easy for somebody with limited dexterity to use it. They also had to figure out how people with disabilities could weigh themselves with regularity. One of the things they showed us was a bed which they had put on four scales and were experimenting with it. What this workshop did, it gave a window into what it is like to live with a disability in a different way than you might normally see. That allowed the arts organizations, and then we all have pizza and beer after. Never underestimate the value of food and drink. What really has happened here, as we have all of these arts managers -- we all have friends. Our advisory committee is not an advisory committee anymore, they are our friends. Our friends come to these things, parties at our homes. Our friends come to our events. There is a lot of -- Brian would hate this. Brian used to be a costume designer, still is. He lost his sight to a stroke a few years ago. He remembers the choreography of every musical he has seen. He will say, that all you describe or was terrible, she completely missed this part. How could you tell? I know this choreography, and she missed it. These are our friends. When they communicate with you and you listen, they do. That is an example of one of our field trips. The next slide is, we have an interesting funding opportunity, we call the access microfund. If you get a person who is committed to accessibility at their organization, but the bosses do not get it , they cannot find a way to actually offer programmatic accommodations easily. This is a very small reimbursement for up to $500 for someone who wants to try audio description, ASL interpretation. When you send these things out you never know when you are going to get. This was a reimbursement that was given to a program called start with our. This funding is available to informal collaboratives, individual artists, arts organizations. This young man , a former Iraqi veteran, and a photographer. He decided that his goal in life was to start every baby born in Allegheny County as an art collector. He has some of the best artists in the region take a photograph, and he printed off, and every baby born goes home with one of these photographs. They are stunning, as you can see. It occurred to him one day, if a baby is born without site, what is this going to do? So he hired a local writer to audio described every photograph . He posted podcasts on their website. I would never have thought of that as being something, but you throw these things out into the ether and you provide the ability to accommodate people as they see fit. It was a very long process to reach this decision because she wanted to do a tactile map. I just said, have somebody audio described it. We also have an arts access data project which is difficult. We spent years trying to figure out how to gather specific data. What we are try to do is gather all of this data through SurveyMonkey. I will not to -- talk too much about it because it is complicated and is not working as well as we hoped it would. My role is to look at this and figure out how to quantify the work we are doing. We know it is working, we have been asking the same basic questions for five years. We know it is going well. In my head, I have a lot of stuff in it but cannot quantify it. This is the thing that is most important to me. We provide technical support. As our organizations become more sophisticated, we always have any for basics. Basic 101 workshops available to everyone. People get stuck. What I have realized is when people get stuck, unless they can call and ask to and get an answer, they stay stuck. I am the answer person. Part of our technical support is that, anybody has a problem, they call me. I got a phone call from an immersion theater company, and they needed six lined actors. I am like, there are not six lined actors here. I can give you six people who are blind who can stand up and say something, but I cannot give you six blind actors. Do you want somebody who was born without site or somebody who lost sight? All of a sudden, I could see his nine blowup. I'm sorry, I have not been describing the slides. The last one was from a temple. This particular one shows the end result of that conversation, which was an immersive theater piece that explored the experience of being blind. It is called Ojo. What you see in the picture is a participant wearing a pair of light blocking goggles. You come in sets of four. It is set up as sort of a travel agency. At the center of this immersive theater piece or two blind actors, one that had lost her sight, one that never had her site. The whole process was making you experience what it was like to not have site. Being in this accessibility field, I have been to countless workshops are people have said to me, close your eyes and imagine what it is like to not have site. It was nothing compared to this. We went outside in the rain. The funniest part, at some point you have to use a pay phone. My kid did not even know what a pay phone was. I remember them looking at the thing saying, what do we do with this? We went outside. We went outside in the rain. We went outside with other people. The most important point, they duplicated what it was like to go to a party. I was asked to hold somebody's trick while they went out to do something and left for 10 minutes. My son set down next to a table and said there is a jigsaw puzzle here, have fun. My daughter center is popcorn over here. They had to figure out all of these things. It was fascinating. This later went on to the festival in La Jolla, California as the centerpiece production and was sold out. Sorry, I can talk forever about this. The photograph here is a glassblowing demonstration within ASL interpreter during the signs for glassblowing, which is mimicking glassblowing. This was a group that wanted to have ASL interpretation at their monthly demonstration but were not sure how to do it. I went and did training because the staff was a little hesitant. What ended up happening, they had 40 people who are deaf there. They posted it once and people showed up. They have been doing it ever since. The picture of what they made, it was right before Easter, so it was a terrain a source at bunny coming out of its mouth. I am proud of working with artists with disabilities. If we go down to the next one, I want to talk about the impact on people with disabilities in our community. We have provided people with opportunities for creative expression. The images up here are an improvisational dance piece by a French director called a micro-history of world economics, danced. 34 members of our disability community, young people who were deaf, people who were blind, I ended up performing because they needed sighted guides. We have a picture of a performance, a mother with a facial disfigurement. The right side of her face looks as if his is melted. She was with her son. During the course of our personals, the mother said, people often cross the street when I'm walking down the street with my son because they don't want to be near me. Suddenly, she had to put herself on the stage. She had to offer herself up as something beautiful. Do you know what has happened to her ever since? She has become an advocate, posting things about people with disfigurement. The best one is the next slide, a picture of a young man named Dennis. He has an autism spectrum disorder. That is his mother. That was on the first day when they had ever talked to take portraits. Two pictures. He is sitting there, looking absolutely terrified. His hands are on his knees, facial expression is blank. His mother is kissing him on the cheek. In the picture next to it, she literally has her fingers on the side of his mouth, pushing his mouth into a smile. That was at the beginning. If you look at the next slide, here he is performing on stage with 50 other people. We were all wearing street clothes. There is a person in a wheelchair next to him. He is smiling from year-to-year, he is intense, and focused. I deliberately never spoke to him. I did not want to stress him out. After our performance, he ran up to me and looked at me and said that was amazing, I had the best time. I am looking at him and thought, you did not say a word for two weeks. Here is the next picture which is my favorite. Now he has his head on the shoulder of the director, smashed into the picture of this cast. He did not want anyone to touch him the first day. Ever since then, he is asking his mom, when are we going to do it again? He also got paid, so he wants another paycheck. What I have found, art and the opportunity for creative expression for people with disabilities is the most powerful bit of adequacy -- advocacy we can do. People do not want to hear what they have to say a lot of times. When they are given the opportunity for creative expression and get great feedback, on a stage being powerful and positive, it changes lives. We need to have more artists with disabilities on the stage. We need more people with disabilities and their voices heard. If we do not, they will always be in the shadows. Every year we have gotten a grant, money from the national endowment for the arts, a local foundation called the Pfizer foundation. That funds our workshops, part of my salary, all of our funding programs related to disability as well. I am also the great maker, so I grant money for the Pennsylvania Council of the arts. I include people with disabilities on my grant panels and the changes would refund as well because they say, that is not accessible to me, because I am deaf. Why should I fund that? I encourage everyone in the room to serve on as many grant panels as you can and advocate for disability. Thank you. Sorry. [APPLAUSE] 

Amy: Thank you. Finally, I want to introduce Allison Ballard, the director of the Jesters Program. We are going to put up that slide and the background to reference it. University of St. Francis, Fort Wayne, Indiana. She will speak about her experiences with accessibility. 

Allison: Hello, I am Allison Ballard. My program is called the Jesters Program. I inherited the program, I find it somewhat offensive, and we are working on aging it. The Jesters Program is a performing arts group of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The program was founded in 1978, and I became the director in 2008. When I became the director, the first thing I did was assess what was happening. There were 35 people in the program at that time. They were ranged in age from teens to adults. When I took the program on, it had its own unique history of how it operated and what it did. The group would meet weekly and they would do arts activities, performing arts activities, and they would then prevent -- present an original performance in the spring. The first year, I did not do a lot of changes, I just wanted to figure out what was going on. I did, however -- and this is an important piece -- because Lauren asked me to speak to how I developed the infrastructure of the program and putting us in a position where we were eligible for grant funding, most recently, funding from the NEA. I did ask for a program budget, which I thought was completely reasonable, and my boss last. -- laughed. This program had existed for 20 years, and I needed to know, can I buy music, floor take, what can I do? He said there is not a program budget, but just know you do not have much money. So, in an effort to quantify that so we were all on the same page, I created a program budget. I was working with a very small team of volunteers, many of whom were not artists, so they did not have specific skill sets. We just made it work that first year. I would facilitate the group of participants through various activities, theater arts, dance, storytelling, music, and we just kind of made it work. The second year, I said it is time that we ask ourselves what the next step is as a program, as a project, keeping in mind we were part of the University. Part of the University, many of whom, did not know we existed, because we served people from the University and not students within the University. With a background in art administration, as an artist, I started going out in my community, asking various stakeholders, what do you feel the needs are for people with developmental disabilities, in particular, but people with disabilities in general? It was interesting what I found out. It was not really surprising. They said, basically, they need access, they need opportunities , and they need the opportunity to showcase their abilities in what they do. I could have sat in my office and figured that out, but it was important that I went out to talk to people to get their opinions about what was needed. I took that information back to the university, I talked to my boss about it. We asked ourselves, how can we make sure we structure our program to make sure we address those specific needs? My next question was how can we make sure our program addresses the mission of the University, since we were a university program? The University's mission was to serve and develop students. I started talking to department heads, asking if they were aware of the Jesters Program. Many were not, which I found horrifying, and asking them how we could serve their students. It seemed to me a great opportunity right there on campus for students to get hands-on service learning, which was a huge priority within the University. When I started my second year, there were these other pieces in place that enabled us to have a better idea of who we are and what we were striving to achieve. I called for a community -- committee of stakeholders, so we could talk about this information we had gathered, and ask ourselves now, what do we do with this information? We created another budget, this was your two that we had a program budget, which was exciting. We looked at what it was going to cost us to develop our program. And then I thought, before we start asking for money from the state and from the federal government, we should look at our local funding base. As a professional grant proposal writer, it makes sense to me to start locally. We approached a local funder and talked about what we were doing, and we got them interested in our program, we submitted a grant, and we received $25,000, which was really exciting. It will not change the world, but certainly gave me some resources to work with. In exchange for that first year's grant, and this was a suggestion I made, we agreed to start a strategic planning process to develop a three-year strategic plan to make sure we were all on the same page. My concern was, if I was moving forward, and they numeracy At Large was not aware of my vision , or did not have buy-in to my vision, I could create a program that was really solid and could get funding, but was not supported by the University. So we started is tedious -- strategic planning process that was spearheaded by the president of the university. So there was buy-in on that and buy-in from leadership. That process took about three months and we ended up with a three-year strategic plan. Then it was a matter of implementing that plan and continuing to revise that plan as things changed. As this process of infrastructure was continuing, I was making changes in our service delivery. As a multimedia, interdisciplinary performance artist, it was important to me that we provide a range of artistic opportunities to our participants, and that we really engaged them as artists, and tha t we taught them artistic skills. Now that I had a bit of money, hiring a professional team of teaching artists, instead of working with volunteers without specific skill sets. In the process, what happened, our participant population grew exponentially. Now instead of working with 35 people, this past year, our program served 80 people. It has continued growing exponentially year to year. And we do that with no marketing. It is word-of-mouth. These services are so desired in our community. As we continue growing, developing our artist team, I suddenly thought, what is going to happen when we are no longer here doing this? Who will be doing this work? It became incredibly important to me that we engage our student body and provide training opportunities to the student body that was there at the University. We now pay students to assist our professional teaching artists and every service delivery hour is a training our. That has become incredibly important. With the money from the NEA, we are also hiring people with intellectual and developmental disabilities to join those teams of professional teaching artists, student assistants, and now people with intellectual developmental disabilities. So creating a strong team and allowing our people to gain new skills in many different ways, not just in the arts. The other thing that became important to me was that we continue building our capacity. 80 people is a lot of people. 80 people with developmental disabilities to serve over 82 24-hour period is a lot of people to engage. I'm not sure that we can accommodate to many more, although I refuse to tell them that they cannot dissipate -- participate. So not training and replicability has become an important part of the program. We are going to service providers outside of our immediate area but within close geographic jurisdiction, and working with their staff teams to teach them to do this kind of programming, so we can ensure that the opportunities continue to be available to other people with disabilities who cannot dissipate in our program -- participate in our program. I think that is it in a nutshell. I am so pleased to have the opportunity to talk about our work. The only other thing I want to say, as the director of this program, I feel my primary job is to hold great vision, to hold great vision for what is possible, for what is possible for my participants, for what is possible for my team, and for what is possible for my community. And then I have to sell that vision, and I have to frame that vision in a way that makes it achievable. But I encourage you all to hold vision for whatever groups you are working with. Thank you. [APPLAUSE] 

Beth: Thank you, Allison. You provided a wonderful example of the types of programs that are out there that are serving people with disabilities, the types of things the NEA funds. You gave a great example of taking your program and building it up to the point where you can apply for funding from different sources. Great, thank you. I want to take a moment to take advantage of the fact that we are being lies cap -- live cast from howl round, which we partnered with in January to host a roundtable for producing presentations for deaf theater artists. Ho wlround helped us to deliver the final report, which is in my hand, a beautiful color photo featuring several of the young women  cast of "Spring awakening . They were able to take that play to Broadway last year. 

>> [INAUDIBLE] 

Beth: This report is now available on our website on our publications. On the website, to the top, there is a tab for publications. It is one of the most recent ones. It should be toward the top. It was a wonderful opportunity. There is going to be a session on Saturday. Actually, I will have the microphone to Anne. The director of Deaf West theater, the artistic director, will be speaking -- actually, I will be interviewing him to talk about the development. Deaf West theater is theater that incorporates the death and hearing actors, takes existing plays, and recasts them in a way where you have death artists playing the roles with hearing artists speaking or singing the roles, and they are double cast. They did a beautiful job. I will let Anne Talk about the session on Saturday. 

Anne: On Saturday, for those of you who can stay or have a later flight, all day we ha ve a workshop. Beth has agreed to interview him about "Spring awakening." They had two actors playing the same role at the same time. Anyone who can manage egos like that needs to be listened to. We also have people from the Shakespeare company. Large and small arts organizations of all disciplines and the artists with disabilities with whom they work. That is on Saturday. Also Thursday night, a performance, three artists with disabilities, $25. It will blow your mind's. If you walk or hold down Penn Avenue, we also have a gallery, 709, Art from artists with disabilities, complete with tactile representations. 

Beth: What this has shown us, it is important to incorporate, to include people with disabilities in your work. Yes, what we do is be the arts accessible to people with disabilities, but you need people with disabilities on stage making the art and advising you on a type of work being done. We have less than 10 minutes , if anybody has questions for our speakers. Any comments? Someone over there. 

>> I think this question would be for Amy. I wanted to ask you, I think you said there were three criteria that you used. The first one was artistic quality? One of the things I have seen in our community, especially artistic quality is seen as sometimes a barrier for some arts organizations, especially in communities of color, cultural organizations. People look at artistic quality in one way, in the traditional way, whereas cultural organizations may look at it in a different way. So the question is, how do you educate your advisory panels, people doing the decision-making , that artistic quality is not just this one standard , but can be seen as more of a broad-based way of looking at things? 

Amy: I think the most important thing to do is to diversify your panel in every way possible, geographically, Eckley -- ethnically, ability, discipline, so that you have all those voices at the table. So if something is not to a particular person's taste, somebody else can chime in -- I have experience with that, this is high quality -- or maybe they will all agree it is not high quality. We also always emphasize that it is not about taste, it is about the artistic product. Staff will often times say that during panel meetings, because we do not allow that to come into the discussion. That is why we have three different criteria. Somebody may do very well in artistic quality, but not so well in access. And access can be very broad , in terms of education, disability, geography, anything like that. The other is the same. They could also do very good in access and perhaps the artistic quality is not as equitable as the access. So it kind of balances itself out, too. That is how we deal with it. 

Beth: With NEA, we make sure all of our panels have a high level of diversity. I worked to make sure we have people with disabilities on the panels. We recently had a desk panelist on one of them. Our criteria are artistic excellence and artistic merit. Artistic merit comes into how well you are serving the community, how is the program being managed. We also recommend , if you are applying to submit high-quality work samples, high resolution photos, not just a scan of a photo or newspaper clipping. High-quality video. We encourage you to make sure that you have that quality in your applications. 

>> I was described earlier as a research guru, so I worry about research questions. I read a lot of reports about funding trends, public-private funds, etc. at the state and local level. Unless I'm missing something, I do not see a lot of actual data about trends with arts and disability in terms of funding. Is anybody collecting that, is anybody tracking that? If so, what are the trends, perhaps? 

Beth: I am looking around to see if anybody has any examples. NEA has not been tracking that. We recently collected data on arts participation for people with disabilities. That is different. We found the numbers were definitely lower than the general population, but not as extreme as we thought it might be. We are not tracking that, at this point. Does anyone -- is anyone aware of a group doing that? 

>> I am just going to offer a cautionary tale to anyone who presents the arts or whatever in any way. It has been about eight years ago that hour is tuition -- our institution had a complaint about noncompliance with accessibility. In retrospect, it was a little bit ridiculous from the beginning, because one of our original board members had written the book on ADA compliance in universities. We were very keen about being accessible for a long time before, but this was a particular situation where, for a single year, we were outside of our normal venue, and the complaint arose in connection with that. Happily for us, not only have we always been involved with accessibility, but we had also done the 504 workbook at some point and had that. We were on the campus of the nation's largest university, Ohio State University, whose ADA compliance officer is a national expert in ADA accessibility. This individual, who had a grudge against the University, for reasons that do not matter , took his complaint not just to the greater Columbus arts Council, but to the Attorney General's office, to the state office, to the Ohio arts Council , probably two or three things in between, and to the NEA. Fortunately for us, we have a history of being sensitive to these things from the very beginning . We had an expert who was able to articulate all of the reasons that the facility was accessible. But it took essentially a year and an incredible lineup of time to get this resolved at every level, seeing there is no validity to this complaint. So I would just urge that people do actually cautionary work and fill out the workbook and have that, which increases your sensitivity about how everything needs to be in the bathrooms, all the other my new shop. It would not hurt to find a local expert inaccessibility to look at your facility to say, there is a threshold. That may be an impediment to people. I would add, this individual offered to withdraw the complaint, if we would provide six lifetime seats to our series and recordings of all the artists that appeared on the series, various other things, which sort of took the wind out of his sails. Nevertheless, it was a terrible experience. 

>> Thank you for the experience. 

>> For those of us involved in autism-friendly, relaxed performance programming, is there any funding available to study the impact the person with autism or other cognitive disabilities or sensory sensitivities over April 2 of time, attending performances with his or her family? It is something that we have always talked about doing but has not happened. Is there funding out there to do that? We all know anecdotally the impact, but I would love your advice. 

Beth: The NEA has been funding research. We have a funding opportunity coming up but I do not have the deadline. Research on anything across the spectrum with the arts, whether it is an effect on the individual, education, childhood development, the effect of the arts on older adults with the mention. We funded research projects across the board. We recommend that you partner with university, recognized research institution. You usually need to partner with researchers. It takes for a more eligible application if you partner. There is an opportunity. On the website, there is a tab for grants. You can see the opportunity for research. We tend to have a great every year, so it is an opportunity. 

>> I am wondering, the report you mentioned about participation, is that available on the site? You said there was a report done on a number of people with disabilities participating, is that available? 

Beth: That is our arts and data series. If you go to our website under artistic fields, there is a tab for research. Toward the bottom right-hand corner, there are links to the arts data profile series. If you look through that -- 

>> it is under the research tab? 

Beth: Yes. Any of these things I am mentioning, if you want to e-mail me, I would be happy to send you the direct links for them. 

>> [INAUDIBLE] 

Beth: October 11 is the deadline for the research. Thank you for looking that up. I encourage you to look at the website and contact our research office. I also want or my people to look for your state urgency -- art agency folks here. They would be happy to talk about funding opportunities in your state. I just want to thank all the panelists for your time and expertise. [APPLAUSE] 

>> Please fill out your surveys. Once they are completed, you can drop them at the registration table or on the front table. Thank you all so much. Everybody has a break for another 20 minutes, right? The next round begins at 2:55. Thank you, everyone. please stand by. Please stand by. Please stand by. 

>> Good afternoon. Thank you for coming to our session. I'm going to ask, of course, that if you are able, would you please come forward and come if a little bit tighter. It will make our conversation a little easier to -- if you wouldn't mind coming in OK. I have the pleasure today on basics, planning for accessibility. This is for those who are starting out or those who want a refresher on improving access at your institution for performing arts. We're lucky to have today Robin Jones, executive director of the Great Lakes A.D.A. center. We'll have time for q and a afterwards. Unless it's extremely urgent, leave questions and comments and we will have time for a session after the presentation. I'm going to go ahead and turn it over. Thank you so much for your participation this afternoon. 

ROBIN: Welcome, everybody. Let's kick off with accessibility. A quick comment for you on something that you're just coming into, to learn more about the process. How many -- great. Have an idea about that. So move through developing an access plan. The tools that are available to assess what you do. We're going to talk about the methods for developing policies and procedures and then getting input from your colleagues. So, one of the first things, not informal, because there is so much to it and enough that to be done or wrong, the consequences of doing that and such. So hopefully I can go through the framework with regards to how to pull it together and understand that this is an ongoing process. This is something that you will be doing for a long period of time. This is not something that gets accomplished in a week, a month, six months or whatever because like anything, it has to be sustained. You can't do it once and you are done. Every time you're in a theater or show, every time you have to think about this stuff. You do not think that you can walk away and one type of context, make accessibility accessible and you have snow and ice on that ramp, you have something that breaks, it has to be fixed and the alternative, all these things, anything else in the operations, they do have things associated with that, some more than others. So, why do we have an access plan. One of the best reasons is the process gives organizations the opportunity to undertake a cycle of continuous improvement in relation to access and gives them an opportunity to add value and increase their impact. This is the rationale. This is why we take it to our administrators and why it's important for us to do. They understand this is something that we want to make sure we have a full and broad impact in what we do for all of those participating in the program. And the reality the considerations of why you want access. The legal reasons and you don't want to end up in court, OK. If nothing else, you can't sell it on the altruismic reasons why you should do this, add a little fear. Sometimes when I work with people in the facilities, access issues, they try to advocate on behalf of themselves and others to try to get the message, and you get brushed off and advocate a well placed complaint. It often accomplishes more than anything else does because it does cause people to have to react. It's not the best way to do it, but sometimes it is the only thing that works if you can't move forward. I was working with an organization who encourage their customers to file a complaint because they're not able to get their organizations to listen to them. They're trying to advocate and they have encouraged some to say, file a complaint. This will help me, take care of me and it will help me to accomplish what I need to do. So some may be familiar with the type of scenario that happened to take place across the country. We encourage many of us across the country and individuals and facilities and they go through Main Street and they go around and look in your facility, they look at your parking lot, your entrances and they'll file a complaint. And they'll say if you provide us x number of dollars, and that doesn't necessarily result in more access, but an access plan if you want to look at it that way. So what is the accessibility plan? It outlines a simple approach to how your organization intends to proceed to become more accessible to people with disabilities. It's not the people in facilities that has wider doors from ramps, from elevators, from the bathrooms and things of that nature. It empowers with the bathrooms and may -- it's temporary facilities. A lot of good reasons why access is something that everyone, not just the population. Serves as a blueprint for board, staff to follow, they can talk about it. The fact this is something to be looked at. It documents the process so that as staff change, the concepts are not lost. So often the organizations, the person that worked there, and then they leave, they rehire and a lot of that is lost because it was they changed their mind or the processes and it wasn't talked about what was done. Also, documentation of a good faith effort should there be a complaint. We were considering working on that. Hey this is something that we have to try. We plan, the person can't do the show and so and all of a sudden your organization is very involved when we go through this process. We understand that you won't take my concerns lightly but take them seriously. As a member of the audience . An accessibility plan covers four different areas. One is physical. When I say physical, I take a building and I turn it upside down and shake it. And when I put it back upright again, everything that is still there is my access. Bricks and mortar are the access. Other things like the stuff that comes out, my temporary chairs and my layout, my tables and chairs, all of that is part of my program of accessibility. That's why I'm bringing the program accessible to you. The bricks and mortar and then what is inside of it, you move around, temporary, access. Communication, huge. And how do we communicate? Whether we would communicate visual or auditory or whether it's multimedia, who do we communicate with, telephone, methods, our fliers, our posters or papers, radio spots whatever we're doing. And then the processes. The policies and procedures that make us tick. The policies and procedures that we follow to make it go a long way and should go along in an assistant manner, how do we respond to things. We're going to talk about all of the various things today. Don't forget the plan. The customer size, we are all employees. Large or small, the chances are we have to have facility in our workforce. And hopefully we're in and are at the same time. Employment is a whole other thing, I think it's one of the huge areas often taken into consideration. It's practices and plan. Your employed. The planives what are our assets. What do we have going for us. You want to document your assets. What do you have already in place. Even though you have the most accessible building in the world, it takes one and you negated your access. So you have to look at that. Not only are priorities from your own internal perspective what are our clients perspective. We want to understand the people that serve, we serve to come and enjoy our priorities, participating in the program, what are their priorities and mesh them with our priorities. And then absolutely taken which should be inclusive of what's the time frame that you're going to put it in. Is it a three-month, six-month, is it a year, is it a five-year campaign and then who is going to be responsible and who is not necessarily a person's name to get a position because we know we moved up. There is a possibility front office -- this is the responsibility of the front office, this is the responsibility of whatever, Joe, Sally, sue or whatever because, again, it should not be tied to just one person. You want your plan to recognize the diversity of needs within the disability community and you want to integrate the fabric of your organization or institutionalize it. We don't want it to be the oh, yeah we should take care of this after the fact. When we have a show coming in, we should have all of those issues on that same list as all of the other issues are. It shouldn't be, oh, yeah, we need to solve this for people with disabilities in this program. That is after the fact. It should be -- you want to institutionalize, that everybody thinks about it all the time, purchasing, procurement, when you do planning, we do budgeting, et cetera, they come up and say we don't have it in the budget. Why don't you have it in the budget? Because you did not integrate in your planning process when you did your budget. With a show, that should be included in your budget process. It should be including to add listening devices, things of that nature. That should be included in the cost of production, the cost -- not oh, yeah, I'll be back three hours and we'll figure it out. No, that needs to be in the whole process of the budget, integrated into it. We want to change that culture and the process of our administrators. It's not we're doing special, not a good star or whatever, we're doing it because this is business, regular policies and procedure. Taking into consideration the organizations unique circumstances and situations. The understand that one size does not fit all. So many variables in your organizations. So works in one may not work in another. There are differences in how you do it or one theater may not be the same as the other theater is. So one size does not fit all. You can learn from other people in regards to that. That's really great where you share your processes and information. You can change it because of the culture of your organization on that same date, you may not get that same place, you may get close and you really understand that and look to find an example. Remember, evaluation your own organization. What works there may not work here. Most importantly, it respects the need to independently and with dignity, get to, get in, get around, and to meaningfully participate in and engage with the content and programs. Keep that in mind. This is our ultimate goal. You want participants at this facilities to have same or equivalent opportunity as your participants . So that mindset, we need to help them get out, we have some space, that's not necessarily doing that. The kind of framework and again just something to talk about. So let's talk about the cycle of planning for accessibility. Key, organizational commitment. How many of you can say right now you know you have commitment to these issues? I do, great. How many here say voluntarily, that's the right track, right. So that continually be brought forward. You are to help other people in the organization, but there is that one place and this one office, there is everybody in your organization and you got all the different parties saying what their goals are and they are engaged and excited about the possibilities as you might be. So from the top down, the board and making funding decisions. They need to understand the importance of these issues. All the way down to your maintenance staff who need to understand the importance of these issues as they understand the importance of these issues. Now it means something. To me that level is very fine as well as the top. Your community, you need to engage your community. Your community as a whole, your disability community, sometimes you take complaints from your leaders for accessibility, they don't understand accessibility issues. People will say I don't want to come to a performance that's captioned. You understand why you have the captioned performance and the importance to have the captioned performance. Somebody else might need that and can't come on that night because they don't have access. The disability, why we do this, why do we have it to be used for this. Assessment evaluation, we see what we have, what is the process we're talking about that but it comes before your accessibility. You don't have the buy-in and you're not going to get to your community, to your performance, your facilities and things of that nature, you don't have to understand what they want, then everybody else comes. Polls, procedures, and practices they are following. Then train your staff. It's no good if they're not trained on what to do. You can have all of the practices and procedures in the world but only one person knows them and they'll fail. Look, we had them. We don't have practices. Yes, we do. Nobody told me about it. I'm answering the phone. I didn't know about it. So it's really important to have that type of training. Communicate with audience, visitors and community. If we don't tell the community about our accessibility and we are not accessible, we do not expect change in the culture of our community by adding people with disabilities attending our program. Word of mouth is huge. How we find out about things. So if you're not telling me, you now have real contact , you have assistive listening devices, you have whatever to your community, then you have wasted all of your time. They're not going to come . Evaluate and update. Make sure the practices of what you have done, reassessment of it and update as needed. The A.D.A. guidelines changed in 2010. So if I did something back in 2004-2005, I need to reexamine and relook at those things and of course make changes. Technology is changing . So something that we bought five years ago are outdated, outmoded now and there is something different and probably more tech. We have to know about it, consider it, stay relevant, stay current. That's really important. It is included in our plan. Looking at it again, make a commitment and adopt a written accessibility statement. One of the most powerful things you can do is have a statement in your organization that has your commitment for accessibility. This is what the public sees. This is what your employees sees. A new employee coming onboard, somebody considering a move to your community and looking at your description to your place for next year or whatever . Have an accessibility coordinator, somebody that has as their job. It should be somebody's responsibility to do this. There should be a point person. That doesn't mean it should be the only person. There needs to be somebody who at that point goes to the person, knows -- reaches out to the different parties that are involved, different aspects in the organization, top coordinator of things and did you consider this. Did you do that. Did you do whatever at the appropriate time. And important for resources. So the process, be successful on these issues. Stay on top of it, you're more than halfway there. Here are some sample accessibility statements. The Ohio arts council is committed to making the arts accessible to all Ohioans, the agency believes that accessible buildings or spaces, programs and creative opportunities enrich the artistic experiences of all and enhance a community's cultural climate. To that end, -- t he funding or to make grants, it's all in the statement of accessibility. For those of you I'm more than happy to share with you a PowerPoint , if you are trying to read my very small print. The Kennedy center welcomes patrons and visitors with disabilities. What do you do, your statement, here is input. Who, do you know who the organization is, are you engaging or do you know, you want feedback, the process, talking about a committee with the population the entire population. We have to do a broader population. The facilities at one time, the organization able to or those who have injury or Alzheimer's or -- not the wheelchair use, not just that group and intend to see in the community and that will often mean the population in the community who are not seen. So it does take in the community and being part of or participating in activities so they can create relationships , individuals, good feedback for you and some -- or not coming to the facility, they don't know about you. They don't understand how they interact with you. You need to get out there and engage with them. So know who it is. Participate in their activities and they will participate in your activities. Often they see you out there interested in what they're doing. Our committee, so we have and tables, the information, about the facilities and activities and things. That's how you get them to you and you get to them. You invite individuals to share and be part. Knowledgeable in the community who specializes in certain things of that nature. Pull them in. Get a consultant and that thing and have that ongoing engagement. You do your assessment and identify your assets and your debts. Survey your existing facilities. Survey your existing programs. Then you prioritize what needs to be fixed or what needs to be changed. So the purpose of the organization, the effort you're going to take to do it and what's the cost. The most important stuff and then you got up here. The stuff getting things done, but you can have success. Again, keep in mind back offices in other areas for your employees and your artists, not just the public space. There are surveys, chick lists to assist you in this process. Tool kits are available , to obtain access to emergency planning. We often don't think about this, emergency planning, right. We think about evacuations, but what is that evacuation process and then we come back. Be inclusive of your program. It's not a problem until it's a problem. You have one fire or one situation that occurs or while you own a business and then you find the problems at that time. Advance planning. Enough examples of this in this country to know what we should be thinking about and planning for. The plan for resources involved and your facilities, network online tool. I have it on my iPad, I input on these things, it scores it, you print it and use it so it's an online tool. It's nice to document and to use the online version of it. All the temporary , the facilities, all of the things out in fields or in parking lots and things of that nature so some are temporary, the construction, think about that, what is available. Again, all of the active links. A.D.A. standards 2010, it's important to understand you look at these things and double-check to make sure they are in regards, to not all. The summary is current, the list is current, some of the resources have not been updated yet. The context is still there. You're looking for inches and things you want to check to make sure that yours is correct and such in provisions of those. That's three hours, right. From around the world, accessibility around policies and procedures and things of that nature. You have the planning process and other frameworks to look at and see what happens internationally. Known to be more productive with devices and what you can get from here. So as you conduct your have you vase, consider, what areas are currently accessible and what needs improvement. What actions need to be taken. What order or priority. What is your estimate of the actual costs for each action. Which department is responsible, so you have a stage manager and after it. You have the stage manager and right now someone else or just the stage manager. A timeline, completion dates, include both long and short-term goals. You may have profits, you have long-term goals for four years, the campaign we're going to get to this or we have steps in-between. The temporary parking on the side or whatever, it's undertaken. Here for accessibility for right now, and over four years. You have short term and long term goal. Even if you don't meet your time frames, it's really important to put time frames on it. It keeps things moving. If you leave it open-ended, you have nothing to look forward to. Your time frame, it's so important to include that to keep it moving. This is an example of a worksheet for an access plan. The location for access, actively, horizontal, up and down circulation. The barriers, not a lot of head room, people mobilizing in that space. So what are we going to do, we have a solution and identify what resource it takes to need that. We have a meeting to do it. The costs to raise that, we have a follow-up meeting and then we take action. So we got a plan of what we're going to do, who is responsible, very simple. It gives us a way to track what we're doing and guide with a we're doing so you don't have to have any extensive, very simply creative. You see a flow sheet, and here is another type of worksheet by area and priority. Notice it's got dates, who did it, when they did it, back and forth. Photos are very important in the process. Take a picture of what you have so you don't have to go back onsite or whatever and look at it. You have the solution, the second source. It's really important. Also the before and afterstory where you want to show what you have done. Here is before, here is what is on the site after. So before and after as well. The practices again, review and update existing policies and practices. Determine if new ones need to be addressed and you have a policy that two weeks' notice is needed . You need to update those things and make sure they're current. Maybe you have different processes. So if something is missing and then you add it and make sure your practices are consistent with your policies and procedures. Procedures and then the practice is different. The policies and procedures should be the same. This is where you become vulnerable and complaints. You have the practice and then the policy. You can always go up and make sure they're consistent. This is the same, this is the same. Policies are the big picture, policies that we shall include. Those are the policies. We shall provide for our performances even broader policy. And your procedure is what is the process that you go through in order to get to that. How do you implement that policy so what are the procedures for requesting or scheduling or paying for time. And practices , so policies. So policies, global and how to fit in the policy, how you should state what you're going to do and what your output is and your procedures should contain your details, who, what, when, where and your policies should reflect your procedures. Again, keep in mind this is A.D.A. application. The practices and procedures so you may have a policy, so it's OK for you to have a policy, but you make modifications to that policy when necessary and go back and readdress it. So seven steps recommend to craft or eight steps to craft policies and procedures. One, clearly identify the issue. Do your homework, make sure you address and know your legal immigrations for that issue. Create a draftle your policies and procedures vet them. Implementing, review them. Add a step. Rewrite them and then train all staff. Don't pick and choose. Some need to have more detail, but all steps for all staff, policy and procedure, even that cuss stowedall staff, even though the volunteers, they are still you. They all understand what you do and how you do it. They will be your lowest denominator for get  in trouble. Post for the public, on your website, brochures, et cetera. The policies for enconclusion, the policies and procedures requesting or initiating or doing something, access, et cetera, let the public know that. Having no information does you no good. I'm not going to want to call everybody and try to get that information. I want to see it, the organization does the same, I'm going to be looking for that if I'm a visitor. And then establish a review process to ensure they remain current and relevant. When you work with an organization, make sure you have process. I don't want to see a policy when I come to your organization in 1999 that has not been updated. So you don't change it, you go back and you do. You may be gone and the next person coming in does not know it. So make a change, review. That helps you keep track of what you got and where you're going and if you need to change. It can make or break you in their experience. Make sure they can communicate clear and accurate information and empower them to take action as needed. Don't -- empower them to know where you're going to get the information. At least they're empowered to know where they can go to get the information. That last piece of accessibility, they'll have a whole brochure in the organization but make sure get something, use your traditional marketing tools for promotions, use it. So social media, make sure it's captioned. Don't rely on captions, word of mouth and make sure that you're doing accessible. The conference here about being accessible and using one, snap chat or whoever, who knows, Pokemon go, people may be using your facility chasing Pokemon, on the stage somewhere. But if you're going to use those programs, make sure it's accessible to get your message across. Multiple ways to reach out to them. And evaluate, you didn't realize for the last six months, narrowed the hallway from 36 inches to 24 inches and there complaint, it should say that. So somebody needs to make sure and evaluate or you should have known. Well, what do you want? And the area where we have snow, when we have wind and we have rain and other things that happen, be accessible . That is the same way. If you prefer steps over cycles, resources, access plans to go through. 10 steps to go through and Texas commission the arts and arts midwest, the programs, steps instead of processes. There are other ways to look at it, the official resources for you to follow those and get things you can look at and use as a way to adjust proper process. Some can be adopted as they stand. Others may need to be tweaked. The -- so the processes, know that before you. And at the appropriate time, once you have laid all of that out and see if there is anything else. It another way to show them where these areas exist. And they understand , -- it shows the accessibility it was instituted, it started out with 10. Now bringing more people into the facility who have never come before and coming back and even though associated with that, that is with your memberships. So, again, having that in place goes a long way in helping making the decisions. All right, we have time in the whole process here which we're ready to take some questions from people. So hopefully you have questions. Anyone has some questions, don't be shy. Absolutely none. Yes. 

>> So earlier you had something which is to help you get patients in the general population to buy into your accessibility. In one sense I feel like you're not -- 

ROBIN: One, that you're not excluding them. You're offering them an experience. They don't like that experience, they have other options for when they come and you can offer great experiences and for other people in the community. The older population who likes things to be done a certain way and the technology changes here and find the captions distracting or whatever else it might be, I think that's for some people and performances, you would like to come on Friday every month. Right now captions and you know, right now how it is. You talk to people. Beyond the traditional population, there are a lot of people with disabilities who where English is not their second language benefit from the captioning. I can speak spanish, so there are different things on both sides. I'm sure that all of our patrons wish to do so and you look at it so that you can invite them back again in April or whatever. To educate in a nice way and demonstrate who uses it. They look at maybe this way, something saying they have other options for technology and it's not for everybody. You don't have the experience like they might see, offers available, that's moving technologieses, other ways that don't have the same distractions. 

>> We have another question. 

ROBIN: Sure. 

>> So in your presentation about that, designating that person, many of our organizations are all volunteer run have a very hard time, would you recommend working more in an environment with a single volunteer or a board committee and essentially any or the structure there with a working board? 

ROBIN: That's a great question. I think that it's all volunteers, you designate a person somewhere. One person, everybody needs to know what the other hand is doing and what is going on. You could get a volunteer who agrees to be the point person. They may not do everything, but they are the point person who does the coordination of those things, other people and volunteers act like that and they are volunteers. That one person is the one that is the go to be able to know what is going on and help find other people. I think having an advisory group external is a good way, another way with a volunteer organization structure, people can give you input or people with disabilities on your advisory. I advise you or what was and show you the disability there. Only one person contact, nobody is surprised. Like that, accessibility in a wheelchair and be strong in the facility but have other issues. Has to do that. But people are only representative of their own lens. Now there is a seat for everybody. Too cumbersome, having listening sessions a couple times of year and invite people, your audience , they come in and have an open mic and do that and you'll see that and that's one way to make sure that you are -- that structure. 

>> Hello, thank you. Small question, example in the session, the security guard who said who knows service animals and service animal is a service animal. Now on the other end, the definition of service animal, a situation where people have a toy Poodle and it's a little suspicious. Maybe the person is not really bringing a service animal. Any information there. 

ROBIN: There has not been -- a change in service animals , whereby the service animal to a dog and animal in certain circumstances. But there are other state laws in states across the country . You know what your stay law is and also service animal which provides actual service and emotional support, a dog that provides emotional support. Service makes you feel better, service actually performs service. So because of P.T.S.D. might have an emotional support animal that makes them feel more comfortable or more secure. They may also have a service dog that can actually do something as opposed to ptsd. The triggers that set off their ptsd and trained for a fall, trained to distract them, et cetera. So the difference between service dog and emotional support dog. That's a key issue. Dogs come in all sizes and shapes. The Poodle, they provide services, for example, dogs are used for alerting to medical conditions. For example, somebody may have diabetes and that dog has been trained by the structure of my body, an odor, it is trained and that miniature Poodle that you might think should not be a service animal, he is not going to do a lot of things for someone in a wheelchair, it could do that in service. There are different issues. It keys on behaviors. A dog that is trained is a service animal, should not growl, should not be bark, should not be doing anything of that nature. That's not a trained service animal. You look at those kinds of things. You want to have some checks and balances in your relationship with those things, but dogs are snarling or snapping or things of that nature, the dog does not cause anything of that nature. The only personal questions that you can have is that animal trained to provide service, you cannot ask what the service is. So you're very limited in what you can ask. 

>> [no audio] . 

ROBIN: Yes, correct. So you cannot ask me to demonstrate. You can't ask me, show me that that dog alerts you to something so I can see it. You can't ask that as well. There is no certification program. You can't ask them to show you a card to show the dog is certified. You can't inquire if the dog or the animal of that nature, the dog should be contained or tethered in some way. The dog is untethered, it has to be under control of that individual. So as long as that dog is under control, et cetera, it's fine. I just can't -- it goes back to practice and training. You should be training staff about this. What are you going to do this and why are you going to do it ? Having a policies for animals to be allowed now with our procedures, are there impacts for those kinds of things. Don't be surprised if you're going to -- you have people who try to improve it. All are in your policies and practices. Any other questions? My name is up here as well to reach me. 

>> I just wanted to know how to access this. 

ROBIN: That is very helpful to have it because the PowerPoint has that. Any other questions? I think we're one minute. Go ahead. 

>> A question where I'm curious about accessible as being the same experience and being respectful. The appropriate -- 

ROBIN: That's a good question. There is nothing legally that requires you to provide a discount or any special assistant pricing that relates to people with disabilities. You are incorporating the possibility and you cannot incorporate accessibility at all of your price levels. You may have to reflect policies and procedures to modify taking prices where you do have access proportion in that. And it impacts us through the website, when you talk about just ticketing for people with disabilities, that is going to be totally -- senior seating or people with disabilities, that would be your choice to do as something you as an organization policies and practices, ticketing policies, there is nothing that says you have to do that. A model in regards to it, the low income program, you will be in a certain income. So there is not necessarily that cheaper, the best way to do that. Think about that. You cannot provide me $25 or $10 of accessible, we don't have that, you may need to stick me in the $100 section for that. But that's my access and equal access to the performance versus a program that gives a discount to people with disabilities. Totally separate issue. Again, addressing the policies and procedures, how do we implement that? How do we value that versus that. 

>> We have time for one more quick question. Yes. 

>> You mentioned two questions ago, how would you reject someone who has a dog or did not respond to -- how would you say no to that? 

ROBIN: So the culture of your organization, how to do that. The objection would be by that animal, so, for example, it could be that the animal is barking or has behavior and that policy, your animal is not welcome to be here. If you remove it, you're welcome to come back. The circumstances or situation of why, don't -- verbal behavior, they're not consistent with your organization. Of course provide a person full access, very large dog -- a bull mastiff, a very large dog, the afternoons, back at times and things of that nature. That dog is inappropriate and the crowd is fearful, offer the woman another option, one to come back at another time when there is time, the performance, they have more options in different situations of their space. So you use that information and be consistent with that. 

>> I want to give a tremendous thank you. [Applause]