Accessible public engagement - Bath Spa University

Tell us a little bit about your Hub programme and how you put it together?  

Being Human Bath delivered an ambitious programme that celebrated people’s imagination, intergenerational knowledge and shared experiences of landscape – philosophically, physically and through literary dialogue.  

The Hub’s eight events were held in cultural venues across Bath’s city centre: Bath Central Library, Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution (BRLSI), Burdall’s Yard, Fairfield House, The Jane Austen Centre and in various outdoor locations (identified by Bathscape), such as Queen Square, Pulteney Bridge, Bath Locks and Widcombe Hill view. The Hub’s headline event was the Bath Readathon! for which there were several sub-events to encourage a diverse range of audiences and formats for participation.  

Researchers and practitioners - including authors, illustrators, publishers, dancers, poets and naturalists – delivered activities founded on research across philosophy, history, environmental humanities, publishing and English literature. The public were talking, walking, eating, thinking, dancing, reading, listening, writing and making together through interactive workshops, guided walks and public debates.

The Hub was led by Bath Spa University, Bathscape and BRSLI who came together with some shared aims: engaging new audiences in the humanities; sustaining inclusive place-based activities; and encouraging people to think about how art and literature have ‘recorded’ the Bath landscape through the years.  

Being Human Bath was produced by Bath Spa’s Centre for Applied Humanities. 

Your programme championed inclusive, accessible engagement. How did you go about ensuring the accessibility of your Hub programme for your audiences?  

To encourage a proactive approach to inclusivity and accessibility three key actions were taken:  
1. 10% of the Being Human Bath budget was dedicated to accessibility from the outset.  
2. A bespoke, detailed Accessibility Guide was created.
3. The Being Human Bath team engaged with EDI and accessibility experts.  

The purpose of the Being Human Bath Hub Accessibility Guide [PDF] was to share as much information as possible about venues for audiences. This was a 6-step process:  

Step 1     Research: accessibility information was gathered from venue websites
Step 2    Verification: each venue lead confirmed and supplemented information
Step 3    Feedback: suggestions for enhancing the guide’s readability were incorporated
Step 4    Design: graphic design ensured consistency and coherency of brand and content
Step 5    Validation: users of access support tested accuracy and usefulness of guide  
Step 6    Publication: the guide was made available in two different formats, in Word & PDF 

From whom or where did you seek guidance to inform your team’s thinking about accessibility?  

Bath Spa University (BSU) was The Sunday Times University of the Year for Social Inclusion 2024. Colleagues, festival partners and the individuals they identified through their networks were generous with their insights, experiences, perspectives and practical advice. Some of those we liaised or worked with included:

BSU’s Equality and Diversity Officer
BSU’s Audience Experience and Development team
‘We Are The People’ (Wellcome Trust) Disability Network researchers
Independent Living Centre Wiltshire
West of England Centre for Independent Living
VocalEyes
National Registers of Communication Professionals working with Deaf and Deafblind People 

Being Human Bath festival partner Bathscape works with a range of charities to offer wellbeing walks that are suitable for people who may have limited mobility. Walks can be shorter, step free/flat, or designed for wheelchair users. The guides set the pace to suit the group.

How did being a Festival Hub expand or extend your thinking and practice in accessibility and public engagement?  

Being Human Bath gave the team the confidence, time and resource to trial some new approaches.

For our ‘Trees, Food and You!’ event, VocalEyes’ audio describer became a co-collaborator in the delivery of the event itself. In other words, the audio description was a part of the audience experience for all participants.  

Secondly, Being Human Bath hosted a forum for Festival Hub stakeholders, led by Dr Tanvir Bush, a Bath Spa researcher and National Coordinating Centre for Public Engagement (NCCPE) Engage Fellow (2024/25). ‘Every Body In!’ provided a forum for sharing individual and collective experiences and aspirations for inclusive and accessible public engagement, with Dr Bush challenging the group to think beyond, ‘How do we help them’, to a place where as stakeholders we are all asking, ‘How do we all help each other?’

Do you have any top tips or advice for future event organisers?  

The Being Human Bath team learned a lot about the practicalities of programming public engagement activities and events that included audio description and BSL interpretation. Below are some of the tips from our experience that are now included in Bath Spa’s new public engagement toolkit: 

• Avoid “On Request” Services: Phrasing like “Interpreted/Described on Request” can deter Deaf and visually impaired attendees due to uncertainty. Guarantee BSL interpretation and audio description (AD) where possible to build trust with audiences.  
• Book Early: Interpreters and audio describers are in high demand. It is important to secure their services as soon as your event is confirmed to avoid last-minute issues. Where possible, work with interpreters and audio describers as part of creating your event.  
• Consider People’s Welfare: Continuous interpretation or description over a sustained period is mentally demanding for the professional and likely to affect the overall audience experience. As expressed by one of our collaborators, “Interpreting is a bit like a mental sprint. The longer we work continuously for, the less clear our output will be”. It is recommended that for sessions of over one hour a second professional describer/interpreter should be employed. Alternatively, short breaks can be scheduled to help maintain the quality of output.  
• Provide Preparation Materials: Share with your professional interpreters and describers any scripts, slides, discussion points, room layouts, and descriptions of notable visual or sound aspects of your event in advance to allow them to familiarise themselves with the context and content. A pre-event meeting also helps to clarify key details and ensure a smooth experience for all ‘on the night’. This is particularly important when the venue or activities are unusual.  
• Venue Setup and Visibility: Ensure interpreters and describers have a clear view of event facilitators/speakers/performers and are positioned to deliver their service effectively. Check lighting, seating, audio visual technology, and overall event setup to maximise accessibility for all attendees. These details should be part of the pre-briefing but will often need adjusting on site as needed.  
• Targeted Promotion: Promote your programme through a range of mediums and identify the organisations who will be well placed to promote your activities to your intended audiences, and through a range of platforms: social media, posters in community hubs, local radio, and via word of mouth with trusted community figures.