Widening Engagement in the arts and cultural heritage sectors in Wales - Survey of individual disabled people

Research Project on behalf of Arts Council of Wales and National Museums Wales

The Arts Council of Wales (ACW) and the National Museum Wales (NMW) have recognised that “...despite targeted initiatives, we are not reaching as deeply into communities who face the greatest disadvantage as we would wish. We have more to do to ensure equality of opportunity across our communities (Widening Engagement Tender Brief, July 2020”. In response to this acknowledgement they have contracted us as a group of disability consultants to attempt to understand the reasons for many disabled people being excluded or disengaged from arts and cultural heritage activities in Wales.

The consultants are:
-Trevor Palmer: Disability community consultant
-Jonny Cotsen: Deaf community consultant
- Mary Allen: Learning disabilities consultant (especially for non-verbal communicators)
-Richie Turner: Lead researcher
- Lyndy Cooke: Project manager

ACW and NMW need to know what disability led organisations, disability support organisations and individual disabled people themselves have to say about engaging in creative cultural activity, and what support might look like if they’re to be enabled to do this? They are seeking to better understand the interests, ambitions, frustrations of those who, for whatever reason, either choose to believe that the arts “aren’t for them” and have chosen not to use National Museums Wales as a resource, or who have been excluded and unable to attend, participate or work in the arts and cultural heritage sectors throughout Wales.

The term “disabled” in the context of our research covers people who self-define as D/deaf or otherwise sensory impaired, as neurodiverse, as
physically impaired or as having a learning difficulty or cognitive impairment and who experience socio-economic barriers related to their impairments.

Please note all data collected as part of this survey is collected by the consultants on behalf of the Arts Council of Wales and National Museums Wales and you agree for this data to be shared with both these organisations for the purposes of undertaking this research, and further possible engagement. Personal data will only include your name and contact details, subject to you agreeing to provide this information. If you do not wish to provide your name and personal contact details you can still complete this survey anonymously.

This survey will also be available in British Sign Langauge (BSL) very soon. If you wish to be notified of when the BSL survey is available please email:

richie.trnr@gmail.com with: BSL Survey for Widening Engagement Research in the Subject Header

We are also carrying surveys of:

- disability led and disability support organisations. The link is https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/LXPCGVQ

- carers of disabled people. The link is https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/LFCPMST

This survey is also in Welsh: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/LG5K58S

Question Title

* 1. Have you been to an arts event or taken part in some form of arts activity?

Yes

If yes, how many times in the past 2 years? -
If yes, would you like to attend more arts events?
If yes, what is stopping you attending more arts events

If no, why haven’t you?

Question Title

* 2. Have you visited one or more of the National Museums in Wales?

Yes

If yes, how many times in the past 2 years and which ones?
If yes, did you take part in any specific activities whilst visiting?
If yes, would you like to attend more often?
If yes, what is stopping you attending more frequently?

If no, why haven’t you?

If you answered no to either question 1 or question 2 or both, please answer all the remaining questions from Question 4 onwards in the following section.

If you answered yes to either question 1 or question 2 or both, then we thank you for taking part in this survey, but our aim is to primarily engage with disabled people who have not attended an arts event or not visited a National Museum in Wales. Please add any comments in Question 3.

Question Title

* 3. If you wish to further comment generally on your experience of provision of arts events or activities in the National Museums across Wales please write any comments here:

Question Title

* 4. Are you aware of the range of arts events and activities that you could attend locally?

Yes

If yes - why have you not attended any arts events?
Please explain the reasons:

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* 5. Are you aware of the range of events and activities that National Museums Wales offer locally that you could attend or participate in?

Yes

If yes - why have you not attended any museums or their activities?
Please explain the reasons:

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* 6. Do you need support to attend an arts event or visit a museum?

Yes

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* 7. Do you have any access requirements in order to attend an arts event or visit a museum?

Yes

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* 8. If you have previously experienced difficulties attending an arts event or visiting a national museum please explain why?

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* 9. Are you interested in taking part in further group discussions (safely online) to discuss in more detail why you have not attended an arts event or have not participated in a National Museum activity?

These discussions will also be asking for your feedback on what a programme designed to fund and support creative activity for you locally, and run by the Arts Council of Wales and the National Museums Wales, might look like, how it could be organised and how it could widen arts and cultural engagement for all disabled people?

Yes

If you would like to take part in further discussions around the issues being researched here, e.g. an online 121 interview or an online group discussion, please provide us with your contact details in Question 10.
You can, of course, respond to this survey completely anonomously.

Question Title

* 10. Contact details

Name

City/Town

ZIP/Postal Code

Email Address

Phone Number

Question Title

* 11. In which part of Wales do you live?

North Wales

Mid Wales

West Wales

South Wales

Thank you very much for completing this survey