Equitable Accessibility
Access is not a checklist of things to do; it is a way of making art and being in relationship with you, our audience, our community.
At Kinetic Light, we focus on equity in every part of an artistic experience, starting with the moment you decide to see a show. We strive for accessible communication in our newsletters and social media platforms, and we work with venues to make sure the process of buying a ticket is accessible. We partner with presenters to think through equitable pricing, and work with local disabled people to figure out the best accessible ways to get to our show.
Accessibility in the performing arts is not just a wheelchair ramp to a building.
When you arrive at the theater, we strive to host you as if you were visiting our home. We work with our venues to make sure there are places for everyone to sit with their beloveds and friends. We work to help venues realize the power of choice in seating and experience.
We treat accessibility as an aesthetic of the work and an integral part of the creative process.
We want you to experience the art, not a description of it. If you stop by one of our rehearsals, you may well find us discussing choreography in relationship to access for nonvisual, low sensory, or DHH audiences. Kinetic Light has gathered together an amazing team of disabled artists and culture-makers, describers, ASL interpreters, and disability aesthetic experts who work with us to create the many entry points into our work.
Access is not a retroactive accommodation. Access is a process.
We recognize that we will never get it “right,” because there is no one right way: access is not a product or a checklist. Different kinds of access can interact with each other. Access is a conversation, a growing together. If something is not working for you, or if you have ideas or questions about the way you want to experience art, please let us know and we will continue the conversation.
In Performance
Each of our performances has multiple forms of access and ways of experiencing the work. Access is developed as part of and alongside each work, and often continues to develop as we move into touring and receive feedback from our audiences. For each performance, we work with presenters and venues to state up front what is offered. We always work to ensure every show is accessible: access that limits choice is access denied.
Online
Our online relationship with you is as important as our in-person experience. We work to make all of our materials accessible in artistic and functional ways.
On our website and in our social media, you will find creative image descriptions that demonstrate that description is artistic content. We have chosen to make these descriptions intentional parts of the design rather than in alt-text that is only visible to screen readers. We feature examples of performance access both as materials for study and as a preview of what you might encounter at a live show.
We work with anyone who features information about the artists or company to make sure it is accessible, which means any place you find us online is a deliberate investment of time and labor to create access.
Ask for feedback Lead by example
Kinetic Light believes in transparency, dialogue, and in influencing by example. Please contact us with any questions, feedback, or stories related to your experience of access on this website, at our events, or at our performances.
Access ALLways
Accessibility & Equity Training
ALLways is our holistic curriculum which we share with the broader arts community. This curriculum is grounded in transformative personal and organizational work: exploration and development of principles and frameworks to create equity and hospitality across your art, events, programs, and organizations.
Sessions rotate through a range of focus areas and include exercises, tools, techniques, and interactive small group work to help you unearth assumptions, discover how to craft your own style of artistic access, and build equitable programs and organizations.
Learn more and register for 2025 workshops
ALLways participants receive ongoing support, research and practice updates from Kinetic Light's ongoing access development and technology programs. If your organization is ready to commit to access and equity, reach out to workshops@kineticlight.org to ask about our customized and dedicated training options.
We offer sliding scale fees, and the majority of tiers are highly subsidized by our fundraising efforts. We make every effort to work with you to make this work possible. If you have the capacity to register at a higher tier, you are directly helping us to offer subsidized rates to independent and disabled artists.
Technology
Audimance, Haptics, & More
Kinetic Light engages in ongoing research and development of new ways to embody, experience, and engage with art. We work with and center communities of access and practice to innovate, building new technology and delivering rich aesthetic experiences.
Current projects in development include:
- Audimance, our app for rich multichannel audio description
- Haptic interpretation, including new physical devices and new methods for understanding and creating artistic content
- Visual augmentation, including advanced musical and sonic interpretation
- Sensory modulation
Community
LAB
LAB is an online community offering monthly gatherings for disabled artists and creatives, including opportunities to share work and just to hang out. Our community is made up of and welcomes anyone who experiences disability, including but not limited to those who identify as chronically ill, neurodivergent, with learning or intellectual disabilities, MAD, Deaf/deaf/HOH, Blind, low vision and more. We also welcome those who are unsure or who might not yet identify with disability to this space.