Accessibility at the Vancouver Writers Fest

Accessibility is a crucial consideration for literary festivals, as it allows a greater community of people to participate and engage at these events, particularly people with visible and invisible disabilities. In 2022, the Vancouver Writers Festival formed an Accessibility Roundtable (ART) of paid consultants and stakeholders with varied lived experiences with disabilities to provide expertise and recommendations for increasing accessibility at the 2022 Festival. This report details Writers Fest's process of forming the ART, the ART's recommendations, and the methods for implementing these recommendations at the 2022 Festival (October 17-23). It also outlines short-term and long-term action items to implement in the future. In doing so, this report aims to emphasize the necessity of engaging with disabled stakeholders in improving accessibility at literary festivals and to illustrate how accessibility is a long-term investment in continuous, collaborative work.