Liberty: Access Funding and Disabled Creatives

This section is about the additional costs you might encounter as a disabled artist—costs that non-disabled people wouldn’t typically face. These could include things like a BSL interpreter (for deaf signers), personal assistance during the day, support with managing and regulating mood or sensory input, help with administrative tasks like numbers and spreadsheets, extra costs for taxis or hotels if public transport isn’t an option, or many other things.

We want to be transparent about the access budget for this festival. We have an additional access budget for the festival, however this budget is finite. While we want to be able to support as many access costs as possible, we may not be able to cover all access costs for all commissioned artists. To help everyone understand how we’re managing requests for personal access funding, and to try and make the process and the festival itself as accessible as we can, we’ve outlined our process below:

Support while applying

We’ve designed our selection process with disabled artists in mind. All applications will be reviewed by a neurodivergent team, ensuring an inclusive and understanding approach.

To make things as clear as possible, the application questions will come with detailed guidance and will also be translated into British Sign Language (BSL). There’s no need to stick to ‘standard expectations’ when answering—you’re free to use whatever structures, spelling, and grammar feel natural to you. You can respond using the form, by video (in BSL or spoken English), audio, or by having one of our team members transcribe your answers—either for the whole application or just certain sections.

If we need a bit more clarity on something you’ve shared, we’ll reach out to ask for more information. So, don’t worry about making everything perfect on the first try—we’re here to support you through the process.

Selecting artists

Our selection decisions will be made on creative merit, and fit with the vision and line-up of the festival. We will ask you to clarify any personal access costs in your application, however we will not take the size of your personal access budget into consideration when selecting projects for the festival. We will assign budgets for personal access costs once we have made decisions on the festival programming, and will work with artists in cases where we may not be able to provide the entirety of their requested personal access costs budget.

Assigning a personal access budget

Once projects have been selected, we’ll work closely with you to understand your access needs and the costs involved in meeting them. Our aim is to allocate the access funding across all commissioned projects as fairly as possible, so that everyone can fully participate. However, it’s important to note that we may not be able to cover the full access costs for each project.

We’re here to support you in finding additional funding to bridge any gaps—whether that’s through Access to Work or by applying to other creative funders.

We understand that finite access funding could impact the ability of some artists to move forward with their projects. We’re committed to doing everything we can to support each project and help it succeed.

Embedded access support

Support for all artists will be embedded in our approach to producing the festival, with active help for commissioned artists in marketing, production, finance, engagement, and gathering feedback. We know that these are areas that many creatives, especially neurodivergent creatives, may find difficult. Our support along the way will include:
 

• Regular Follow-Ups and Check-Ins: We’ll stay in touch regularly to provide support and keep you informed about upcoming work and deadlines.
• Clear, Simple Templates: We’ll provide straightforward templates to help you easily share the information we need for:
  • Marketing and promotion
  • Production and technical requirements
  • Financial management and invoicing
  • Engagement and attendance
  • Audience feedback
• Production Support: We’re here to assist with production, including connecting you with community groups and venues if needed. We’ll also help with the administrative side of your production to lighten the load.
• Technology and Tool Recommendations: We’ll suggest useful technology, apps, tools, and resources to support organisation, note-taking, reminders, financial management, task planning, and more.

Our aim is to make the process as smooth and supportive as possible, so you can focus on creating your work.

Making your work accessible to disabled audiences

As a disability arts festival, it’s essential that the work showcased at Liberty is accessible to other disabled people.

We believe that making work accessible is a shared responsibility, and are keen to support artists who consider the needs of different audiences, and thoughtfully and creatively integrate accessibility into their work. Your approach to audience accessibility will be taken into account in decision-making.

Please include the costs of making your work accessible to disabled audiences within your application budget. 

If you’re applying for a larger commission, we expect to see a higher level of accessibility built into your costs.

For applications of £1,500 or under, you don’t need to budget for audience access costs. However, if you’re applying for more than this, we will consider the access provisions you’ve planned and budgeted for when reviewing your application.

Our goal is to ensure that Liberty is an inclusive and welcoming experience for everyone.

When thinking about disabled audiences and accessibility you should think about the specific needs of:

• Blind and visually impaired people
• Deaf BSL signers, and other deaf, deafened and hard of hearing people
• Neurodivergent people
• People with mental health conditions
• People with sensory sensitivities
• People with learning disabilities
• People with mobility impairments
• People with assistance animals
• People with sensitivities and allergies

You might not need to make adjustments for every group, and the accessibility needs for different creative projects can vary. We just want to see that you’re thinking about how different groups of disabled audiences can access and enjoy your work. 

Costs

We have provided example costs for some common provisions for making work accessible to audiences here, to help you budget for these. 

If you have not worked with access providers previously, you can include these figures directly. You do not need to provide all of these if they are not appropriate for your project. 

If you are applying for £1,500 or under, you do not need to budget for the below.

BSL Interpreter Rates:

• Full day: £350
• Half day: £175
• Short duration: £150

BSL Performance Interpreter Rates:

• First performance, which includes time for prep/translation and watching a live or recorded show: £700 - 900
• Each performance thereafter: £400

Audio Description: 

• £150-200 per day

Creative Caption Designer: 

• £150-300 per day
  Standard Captioning: 
• £300 for 2 hours remote captioning

There are lots of helpful guides on how to incorporate various access provisions online. We recommend having a look around, to see how you can incorporate access into your show.

Access provisions we will provide

If your project is selected for Liberty Festival, we’ll work with you to figure out what access provisions are needed and who will be responsible for them.

Where possible, we’ll try to lower costs for certain elements—like booking BSL interpreters for a full day of events. However, you should still include the full cost of these elements in your application budget. If this approach doesn’t work for your project (for example, if you’re working with a specific audio describer or BSL interpreter), just let us know.

If you don’t yet know anyone who can provide the access provisions you’d like to offer, that’s okay—we’re happy to make recommendations. You don’t need to have identified your access providers at the application stage.

There are also a number of access provisions that will be provided for some or all projects, including:

• Venues with a high standard of accessibility
• Venues with chill out / quiet spaces / care rooms
• Information provided in multiple formats, e.g. plain English, BSL, Video/Audio
• Front-of-house staff to help with directions & getting people to events
• Accessible event booking procedures 
• Access training for venues and event staff 
• Hybrid event technology