LUX Scotland was founded with equality at the heart of its vision and accessibility has been central to our work since our first activities in 2015. We recognise that we live in an ableist society and we regularly review our work from an anti-ableist perspective to identify areas for improvement.
In 2018, we undertook a pilot project to improve access for D/deaf, blind & visually impaired and disabled audiences as part of AMIF and produced closed captions (CC) and live captions (CART) for the festival. In 2019 we increased this offer to include British Sign Language (BSL) performance and interpretation, hearing loop, audio flashcards, subpacs and Audio Description (AD) for many events.
From 2019 to 2022 we worked in partnership with BBC Arts and Screen Scotland to commission 40 new artworks for BBC platforms, all of which were captioned and audio described.
In 2020 we committed to captioning all newly commissioned artworks, and from 2021 we committed to captioning all the works we present in our public programme. In 2022 we committed to audio describing all newly commissioned artworks, and in 2023 we committed to providing live captions for all online and in-person events.
In 2022 we secured funding from the Paul Hamlyn Foundation to undertake a three-year project ‘We Contain Multitudes’ with DCA and Collective which includes commissioning, research and organisational development. The project focuses on questioning the institutional ableism in the Scottish visual arts sector and imagining a future in which disabled artists and arts professionals have increased access to opportunities, are visible, and their expertise and experiences are truly valued.
Since 2023 we have been undertaking paid studio visits with artists from a Global Majority background working in Scotland to address any unconscious bias within the team’s existing research interests/channels. In 2026 we are also undertaking a number of studio visits with disabled artists, following a series of studio visits with disabled artists that took place in 2024 as part of the ‘We Contain Multitudes’ project. We are holding these studio visits to broaden our knowledge of artists’ practices as part of our ongoing and regular Disability Justice and Anti-Racism work.
We work with external consultants, such as Quiplash, Collective Text, SoundScribe, live captioner Andrew Howell, Stage Captions (Louisa McDaid), and captioner Valery Tough to inform our approach to accessibility and devise and deliver access measures for our programme.
Please find our Equal Opportunities Policy here.