The mission of the Festival is to be a space that is accessible, open and welcoming to anyone who is interested in our city, its architecture and the Built Environment sector. Therefore, it is important that LFA events and outputs are, where possible, as diverse as London itself.
To achieve this, it is vital that every event organiser has this in mind when creating and delivering their Festival activity.
Content of Festival activity
However, this is not tick-box exercise to ensure that your event ‘looks ok’ – with an appropriate gender balance and disabled or global majority representation. It is about putting genuine thought into what the content of the event is, who is involved, and what the experience will be of those attending the event.
For example, if your panel all looks and sounds like the same person, it is likely you are only going to get people who look and sound the same attending the event and feeling welcome in the space– which goes against the missions of the Festival, and therefore your event is unlikely to be accepted into the programme.
You can find some suggested questions to reflect on at each stage of your event planning here.
Access of and to Festival activity
Once you’ve carefully thought about the topic and people for your Festival activity, now it is the moment to think about the outputs of the event, and any communication around it – and any barriers which might restrict someone’s ability to participate.
To help you work through improving the inclusivity of your event and communications, we’ve prepared an guidance document with FAQ, advice and further suggested resources.
The guide is broken down into four sections:
- An overview of why inclusive events are importance, and the difference between an accessible vs an inclusive event.
- Areas to consider ahead of your event, in the idea and prep stages.
- Areas to consider in terms of marketing and communications ahead of the event.
- Areas to action on the day of your event and lead-up time.
- Areas to reflect on post event and ways to move forward.
Find the LFA Inclusive events guide here
We will be asking all organisers to share with us the steps you’re taking to ensure your event is as inclusive as possible. Below you can find examples which are acceptable and not acceptable.
Answers which are not acceptable
“We regularly hold similar events”
“The building is always open to the public from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday to Thursday”
“The venue is accessible” (For who? / What does this mean?)
Positive examples from previous years
“To ensure accessibility, we will provide wheelchair access and clear signage at all entrances and access points. We will also provide audio description for any presentations or performances, and ensure all our virtual content is captioned and has an audio component. Additionally, we will ensure that all event spaces are well-lit and have seating available.”
Weaving Togetherness (workshop, tour and talk)
“The Gallery entrance is level access, with lower floors served by a lift. An accessible bathroom is located on the lower floor of the Gallery building. The Manor is served by flat access from the Gallery reception, and a lift to all floors open to the public. Pitzhanger does not have any onsite parking, however there is a large charged car park at Ealing Broadway shopping centre, about 7 minutes walk from Pitzhanger. There is also some very limited street parking around Pitzhanger. There are three disabled parking spaces on Mattock Lane, a very short distance from Pitzhanger, however we do not own these so cannot guarantee space. Alternatively there is a drop-off point immediately outside the entrance to Pitzhanger on the corner of Mattock Lane and Ealing Green. The film is captioned with English subtitles and will be free to all to book. Tickets include a free visit to the exhibition Anthony Caro: The Inspiration of Architecture, reducing the cost barrier to access arts programming. The screening is scheduled in the evening as most young people and adults will not be at work at this time.”
‘The South Bank Show: Anthony Caro’ Screening (film screening)
If you’d like support ensuring your event is representative, welcoming and inclusive for all, contact the team by emailing info@londonfestivalofarchitecture.org or sign up for an LFA surgery day to chat to one of the LFA team or mentors.
Taking this work beyond the Festival
While it is vital your LFA activity is inclusive and representative, we hope that this is not something that is achieved just for LFA and is something that runs through all you do as an individual or organisation.
To help with accountability in this area, something we recommend is the Diverse Leaders Pledge. The pledge invites those in the industry to make a pledge to help make the built environment sector more representative through recruitment, progression and advocacy. The pledge came out from an identified need to overcome chronic discrimination based on gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, age and socio-economic background to create a strengthened, resilient and representative workforce, and is split into three sections: recruitment, progression and advocacy.
Find more about the Diverse Leaders pledge and how to sign up here.
Note: While we encourage you to sign up to the pledge and practice in all three areas, we suggest the following actions are those you can start to put into action that when thinking about your LFA event:
- We will commit to zero tolerance of harassment, bullying and discrimination of any kind.
- Opportunities will be made available to have different voices of the organisation represented externally.
- We will sign up to the Future of London Speaker pledge.
- We will support groups advocating for fairer, more inclusive practice, whether this is financially, by working in partnership with them, by reviewing our own practice, or by outwardly advocating ourselves.
- We commit to tell the stories of diverse people and provide a platform for better representation.
To understand the work LFA is doing around accessibility more generally, please see our Access at LFA page here.