Pretty much every public event space, including theaters, will receive questions about the accessibility of their spaces and programs. There are even more questions when the space is a historic building since staircases, doorways, and hallways tend to be narrower and elevators or lifts between levels may not exist.

We will often have spouses, family, and friends visit our theater in advance of an event so they can walk the potential seating locations and pathways themselves.

Last month an organization serving people with disabilities arranged for a mini-concert with one of the artists performing at our venue. They asked to come in a few weeks in advance to make a video so their participants would know what to expect when they visited. The video showed the entrance, view from the wheelchair seating, location of the restrooms and what it looked like to navigate those spaces, location of the stairs, width of the aisles between seating sections and rows.

They provided us with a copy of the video to post on our website so that other visitors could have that information and possibly not need to visit the venue in advance to scout the space.

It was definitely useful to have someone making the video who was experienced at providing a useful viewpoint. The way they proceeded through the space and started panning from a specific point was different from how I think I would have shot the space. That said, the experience did suggest we could have probably made a similar video ourselves.

This summer, we did for example, create a video directing people to an alternate entrance they should use while the street in front of the theater was under construction. That took a bit of coordination and stitching together.

You can see the accessibility video and the one directing people to our super secret entrance on our webpage – https://www.rialtotheatercenter.org/general-information/

Has anyone seen good examples of accessibility videos/digital tours hosted by other event venues?