Connection online

Background 

This is one of a series of five articles showcasing the interim insights of the Learning through the pandemic project.

Common Vision and Creative United have been commissioned by Arts Council England to deliver the project, listening to cultural practitioners and sharing community engagement and participation best practice from the first two years of the pandemic.

Each of these articles are a preview of content which will appear in a final playbook; they include an overview of the learnings under this theme followed by practical resources you can explore. The playbook will expand on this with top-tips, case studies and consideration points

This article was written by Matilda Agace, Senior Research and Engagement Manager, Common Vision.

Learnings

The shift to online has broken down many traditional barriers to accessing creativity and culture. Many community members are more able to participate in culture inside their comfort zone, and on their own terms. Yet over the past two years, cultural organisations have been keenly aware that digital doesn’t work for everyone. Practitioners have seen how many people lack the resources, environment, skills, confidence, support, or inclination to participate in the creative and community life online. 

In response, cultural organisations and practitioners around the country have been working hard to get people the tools and skills they need to join in, creating safe, supportive and accessible digital environments. Our research has highlighted the breadth of approaches to developing safe and accessible online cultural opportunities. We have heard about the rise of hybrid delivery approaches with phone calls and creative packs supporting online resources; schemes for donating and repurposing unused devices to enable participation; new best-practice standards in digital facilitation; and concerted effort to develop methods for safe and supporting digital working in culture. 

Anecdotally, our research has suggested that the pandemic has provided a more fundamental impetus for many cultural organisations to reassess how they practice inclusivity. As work shifted online, there were opportunities to redesign engagement methods that were leaving people out before that pandemic, making them better for the long-term. By adopting key lessons from the first two years of the pandemic, we can continue the work of building a more inclusive and equitable sector:

 

Digital access and getting community members online

A big concern for many cultural organisations during the pandemic was digital exclusion and data poverty. Whilst some pivoted to analogue methods like creative packs to bypass the digital divide, others tried to tackle it head on by offering tech, data, and skills support to participants. They found that different audiences face different barriers to getting online: for many children it’s not having a quiet space of their own; others struggle to afford data or live in a rural area where reliable connection is hard; and people of all ages don’t have all the digital skills they need to participate fully. 

We heard that it’s best to think of data inclusion/exclusion as a spectrum not binary, that in turn requires of spectrum of approaches to address it. Some organisations used culture as a tool to develop digital skills, like Artspace Cindeford’s project which supported older community members with dementia to develop their digital skills through the process of growing a runner bean and sharing the results with a Facebook community. Others focussed on getting existing community members online so they could keep participating, Collective Encounters rang every participant in early March 2020 to establish their digital access, and then bought and gave devices, data packages, and 121 skills support for those who wanted it. And many libraries, offered internet access in the heart of lockdown to those with no access at home, Westminster libraries’ PC service was used by just under 400 people per week.

Accessibility for disabled participants 

This has been a mixed picture during the pandemic. On the on hand, many people with physical disabilities and mental health problems have found engaging with culture online easier than having to access a physical venue or gallery. Anecdotally our research suggests that cultural organisations have seen the number of disabled people taking part in their work increase. Campaigns like #WeShallNotBeRemoved have been working tirelessly to bank the gains experiences by disabled audiences as venues reopen, and push for inclusivity to be at the heart of designing online arts activities.

Accessibility comes in many shapes and forms: Theatre company Bamboozle made sure their online performances were engaging for children with profound and multiple learning disabilities by personalising their sing-a-longs, incorporating very children’s name into the songs and focussed on one family at a time; Heart n Soul formed steering group to co-create an online programme of activities for those with learning disabilities; and cultural organisations across the country have developed their commitment to captioning and audio/text-describing videos and calls, using inclusive facilitation techniques, and designing activities for people with different abilities. 

Safe and supportive working 

Furthermore, the digital shift poses new challenges to many organisations’ safe working and safeguarding policies, particularly for those that work with children. Digital environments can make it harder for cultural organisations to control the online environment they’re asking people to participate in, while the wider Covid-19 context is having a negative toll on peoples’ mental health and family relationships, meaning more people might be at risk than a pre-pandemic risk analysis accounted for. 

As such, cultural organisations have developed different approaches to supporting participants’ safety and wellbeing online. Open Clasp Theatre Company have produced a number of ‘digital-first’ shows informed by the lived experiences of disenfranchised women, they worked in partnerships with community organisations to ensure participants had the device, Wi-Fi, privacy and post-session fellow-up support in place so participants could be open and vulnerable in the sessions. Other organisations worked with children, Conductive Music CIC tried to create a welcoming and safe environment for children with anxiety by keeping mics and cams off, and Restoke CIC like many other groups developed new safeguarding policies before starting work.

Resources 

The resources below are a selection of the resources which we have been pulled together to celebrate what works when it comes to digital engagement, help overcome challenges, and demonstrate the wealth of expertise that exists within the arts and culture sector. More will be available in a forthcoming ‘Learning from the pandemic playbook’ due to be published by Common Vision in early 2022.

Resources on digital inclusion:

Good Things Foundation: Digital Inclusion and Exclusion in the Arts and Cultural Sector: This report is a useful primer on the digital inclusion context, and how it applies in local communities and the arts. Pages 17 to 19 are particularly helpful, with practical tips and considerations for arts organisations to become more digitally inclusive. 

Catalyst: Digital Inclusion tools and resources: An open-source spreadsheet of over 50 resources, services, and guides to help you overcome specific digital inclusion challenges.

Local Trust: Digital Pathways guide: Simple, easy to use guide, to help you develop your own and others’ core digital skills. It takes you through a digital journey from ‘Getting going’, to ‘Building confidence’ and ‘Helping others’.

Project Reboot: Guide to recycling and distributing devices: A customisable toolkit that takes you through the step-by-step process of collecting unused devices, cleaning and rebooting them, and getting the devices to those who need them in your community. 

Learn my Way: Resources for helping someone else get online: From this page you can download our learning guides to help someone learn about the internet. It contains learning guides for common computer hardware and software, and could help you support participants to take part online. 

Ability Net: Request free IT support at home: A free service for older people and disabled people to sort IT challenges, from setting up new equipment, fixing technical issues, showing you how to stay connected to family and use online services.

Resources in accessibility:

Guidance for working online, and online safeguarding if you’re working with vulnerable people: Produced by a network of organisations, it covers two areas: a general guide to meeting online, and how to make the space as welcoming and safe as possible; and online safeguarding, it has a particular focus on how on assessing the practical tools you’re using.

Disability Arts Online: What we’ve learnt about online access during the Covid-19 crisis: Reflecting in June 2020, this article considers how to address the physical, sensory, cognitive, technological and financial barriers disabled people experience accessing culture.

Digital Culture Network: How to make your online content accessible: An introductory guide to accessibility across websites, social media, language, images, and video.

Drake Music: Accessibility in Video Conferencing and Remote Meetings: This practical blog covers accessibility for disabled participants across a series of different considerations: controlling pace; making audio accessible; sign language; using visuals; and security. 

Little Cog: Guide to hosting an accessible online meeting: This guide helps you navigate a series of accessibility considerations for digital meetings and facilitation, and what access features you should be providing.

Lisette Auton: The Inaccessibility of the Future (or, What To Do When You Just Can’t Zoom): A blog by actor Listee Auton discusses digital accessibility from a personal perspective, it concludes with 13 practical pointer for maximising the accessibility of your online meetings.

StageTEXT: Digital Subtitling guide: A detailed, practical guide for subtitling audio-visual material, covering everything from how long a subtitle should last, to how to describe sounds.

Resources on safeguarding:

Collective Encounters: Remote Working Safeguarding Guidelines: This document provides the from participatory theatre specialists Collective Encounters demonstrates safe communication methods, social media interactions, creating ground rules for participants in live sessions, and sharing content/recordings online.

Norfolk and Norwich Festival: Online safety module and toolkit: Designed help arts organisation’s safely produce online cultural content for schools during the pandemic, this training has 25-minute video, alongside a training toolkit and a safety checklist.

Libraries Connected: Safeguarding for online events toolkit: Produced for library professionals, but useful to other too, this is a brief top-level guide for keeping online events safe.

Incorporated Society of Musicians: Safeguarding for music teachers giving lessons remotely: Simple advice for anyone giving one-on-one lessons or activities to young people during lockdown. It gives practical guidance on things like asking for the door to be kept open, and how it’s safer to user parents’ Zoom/Skype accounts. 

NSPCC: Keeping children safe online hub: A very comprehensive hub of guidance on all issues surrounding online safety, from minimising risks when streaming, dealing with inappropriate content, and using social media responsibly. It has specific resources for professionals.