INCLUSIVE THEATER(S) is the project supported by Creative Europe program and it will last for 30 months, from 1^st September 2019 to 28^th February 2022. The partners on the project are:

• Associazione Teatraledell’Emilia Romagna (ATER), Italy
• Empresa de Gestao de Equipamento e Animacao Cultural (EGEAC), Portugal
• Fundacion Caja Granada (FCG), Spain
• Theater for People with Disabilities (THE.AM.A), Greece
• University of Wolverhampton (UoW), UK
• PLAVO theatre, Serbia.

The main objective of INCLUSIVE THEATER(S) is to develop new audience in Theaters mainstreaming inclusive practices for visually and hearing impaired persons during theatre performances at European Level.

The main project objective will be achieved by pursuing the following specific objectives:

• To share and improve good practices for Inclusive Theaters between experts through formal and informal training activities.
• To mainstream and scale-up accessible theaters in participating Countries where support services for visually and hearing impaired persons are already provided.
• To validate and test pilot actions for inclusive services in theatres of participating Countries.
• To develop and deploy a Europe-wide Awareness Raising Campaign on the needs of visually and/or hearing impaired persons in theatres, stimulating inclusive policies and community engagement.
• To disseminate project’s findings and the EU support to its implementation, ensuring a long-term sustainability

The project objectives also strongly tackle topics and concerns of all of the following target groups:

• Deaf and hearing impaired people and/or Blind and visually impaired people. They are the key target group for promoting and implementing their inclusion into society through theatre and culture so as to develop more cohesive communities. Their participation to project activities will provide the project with a real European experimentation on methods and approaches for disadvantaged groups participation in cultural activities with equal access and equal opportunities, assuring the effectiveness of Inclusive Theater(s) model. Moreover, their involvement in the project implementation will promote and realize the dialogue and cooperation between them and all other target groups enhancing social inclusion with an immediate impact on the project areas.
• Audio describers, audio translators and audio description service providers / Surtitlers, translators in signs language and similar services providers. They are targeted first of all to strengthen their capacities, to increase the acquisition of skills and competences through formal and informal training activities.
• Cultural Operators and Local Administrators working on art accessibility. They are targeted by the project as a supporting group for reaching audience development within the project implementation and to adopt and transfer project results, methodologies and approaches directly into the social and cultural system, enhancing the principle “culture for all” based on equal access and equal opportunities.
• Policy-makers at regional and national level, in particular those dealing with culture and social inclusion policies. They are targeted to transfer project results directly into social inclusion policies. The exchange of strategies and methodologies made by IT(S) will give them the knowledge and tools needed for promoting the principle of “culture for all”, making an efficient use of resources and linking theatre and social inclusion policies.
• Media and cultural journalists. They are targeted as multipliers of project communication and dissemination activities given their capacity to mainstream project results toward a wider public. At the same time, they are targeted to improve their capacity to promote “culture for all” values and to highlight the positive contribution of theatre to social inclusion.
• General Public and local communities. They are targeted to spread project results as wide as possible in the project area and to change general attitude toward accessibile and inclusive theatres for hearing and visually impaired people.

To accomplish the objectives of the project, a series of main outputs will be delivered:

• Three Study Visits
• Two Transnational Training Courses
• Forty-one series of performances (Pilot Actions) with inclusive services provided among participating Countries.
• “WANT” Campaign and 1 Final Conference.
• Communication and Dissemination Outputs

The expected results are listed as follows:

• Improved competences and skills of audio-describers, audio translators, surtitlers and translators in signs language.
• Improved competences of cultural operators (public and private) in management of inclusive practices for hearing and visual impaired audience.
• New audience developed in involved theaters, thanks to the empowerment of inclusive services.
• Awareness raised among the regular theater audience and policy-makers about policies and practices of social inclusion through culture and theater at EU level.
• Raised awareness

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The project INCLUSIVE THEATER(S) is coming to its end, and one of the results is “Guide on Best Practices and Policies for Inclusive Theatres” that we are sharing here.

https://weallneedtheatre.eu/best-practices-for-inclusive-theaters-and-performances/