How to make your event all inclusive. Ella’s top 5 tips

Being that I’m the Head of the Skiddle Customer Care team, we’ve noticed a rise in the number of queries we’re getting from our customers with accessibility needs. Naturally, we would love them to have the same ticket booking experience as everyone else!

Recently, I went to London with our Press Officer, Vicky to attend the Attitude is Everything State of Access Report.

We had the opportunity to listen to some highly interesting and honest points from a panel which made up of Ruth Patterson (lead vocalist of the band Holy Moly & The Crackers), Sam Jennings (a very witty gig goer!), Chloe Hearne (Ticketing Manager of the Roundhouse LDN) & Jonathan Brown (STAR).

After a post-talk mingle and armed with a shiny copy of the State of Access Report I returned back to Skiddle HQ feeling positively inspired!

We’ll be making some changes to the Skiddle site in the near future to help improve the service we provide and assist with the ticketing aspect of making your events all inclusive. However, as we operate a completely self-service platform, I thought I’d start with some tips to help utilise the tools currently available to you within the Skiddle promotion centre.

You’ll be glad to know that I’m not suggesting expensive viewing platforms or elaborate disabled access schemes!

These tips are simple, straightforward and most importantly…don’t cost you a penny to put into effect.

1. BE HONEST-and upfront about the accessibility of the event & venue. If there will be strobe lighting at the event then do state this on the event listing. That way the customer can decide for themselves if the event will be suitable or not based on their needs.

2.DON’T state your eventvenue is wheelchair friendly if you haven’t done your research. There’s nothing more frustrating for a customer than getting to an event to find out that it’s not actually wheelchair suitable for them. Every customer has different needs so what might be ok for one person, may not be for another. The best thing to do is follow tip 1, be honest about the accessibility and provide as much information as possible about the venue. It can be the difference between someone coming to your event and having a really fantastic experience, or having to leave because they’re so restricted, they simply can’t enjoy themselves.

3. OFFER PERSONAL ASSISTANT TICKETS– some people with accessibility needs cannot attend a gigclubfestival without a personal assistant to accompany them. I would suggest you offer personal assistant tickets free of charge for all your events so that people with additional needs can enjoy the event without concern and without their companion being charged.

These can easily be set up and issued via the guest list manager and will be hidden from public view…

4. USE CORRECT TERMINOLOGY– ‘Disabled tickets’, ‘access tickets’ or ‘accessible tickets’ although may seem welcoming, can be very confusing for the customer. Attitude is Everything advocate the use of ‘Personal Assistant Tickets’.

5. MAKE IT EASY FOR CUSTOMERS TO GET THE INFORMATION & TICKETS THEY NEED- Login to add accessibility information and Personal Tickets to your new or existing event or venue page. For now, I’d suggest using the ‘Main description’ field or ‘Disabled access’ if you manage a venue.

Here’s an example of an event which has followed all of the above pointers https://www.skiddle.com/festivals/highest-point-festival/

You can also check out the Attitude is Everything website which is packed full of information about #Ticketingwithoutbarriers, including a fantastic DIY Access guide!

Further announcements coming soon…