Making Primary more accessible

Over the past four years, we’ve been making changes at Primary to increase accessibility and inclusivity. This is an ongoing journey and in this article we want to share some of the changes and learning that’s been taking place. We’re grateful to everyone who’s helped shape this learning and the work of many disability rights activists and artists who have done so much to shift the conversation on access, disability and neurodiversity over many years. The dialogue and resources shared by our peers has helped inform Primary’s thinking about what “accessibility and inclusivity” mean in many different forms. 

Critical Friend Jo Tolley visiting Primary. Photo: Adam Grainger.

Changes to the Building 

Between 2021-23 Primary undertook planning and major building works to make the site more accessible and welcoming for all our users. This work included creating a new entrance from Seely Road, creating step-free access to our playground, ground floor gallery space, Reading Room, kitchen and public toilets as well as independent businesses Small Food Bakery and Beam. We also expanded and improved the kitchen facility, installed gender-neutral and accessible toilets and installed new signage and a reception desk to welcome visitors. 

This first phase of work on the building has made significant improvements from how Primary was previously, but there’s still more to do and we welcome feedback from our visitors. 

Work with Critical Friends 

During the development of the building, we worked with two ‘Critical Friends’. We invite Critical Friends to work with Primary to bring different perspectives and offer feedback on our work. Sam Metz worked with us in 2021 to provide feedback on the programme, bringing a neurodiverse perspective, and followed up this work in 2022 to create a brilliant resource for Primary called Building Test. This set of cards was designed with Sian Morrell and provides creative prompts and tools for use with young people with learning disabilities and who are neurodiverse, to feed back on their experience of visiting the building.

During the building project in 2023, we worked with Jo Tolley who gave Primary feedback on the updates to the building and communication to visitors from the perspective of a wheelchair user. Jo also worked with us to create an Access guide to Primary. 

Art Fund - Reimagine grant 
 
In Autumn 2023, Primary received funding from the Art Fund’s Reimagine grant that focused on supporting meaningful and sustained organisational change, to create a more accessible and inclusive organisation. Through this funding we were able to recruit a new role, an Associate Curator from the global majority, and undertake development and training for staff and board. We are working with three new Critical Friends over two years (2023-25) with a focus on anti-racism; supporting neurodiverse people in the arts; staff recruitment and development; and digital programming. Their in-put has helped inform training that Primary is undertaking including on neurodiversity, access riders, mental health support, and anti-racism. 

The Reimagine grant has also supported Primary to undertake an in-depth Access Audit to identify key areas for future improvements to the building and to our website and communications.  

Learning from this grant is feeding into our Equity Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan for the next year. 

Exhibitions and collaborative projects 

Primary has a free public programme of exhibitions, events and collaborative projects. For our exhibitions, we now have large print, braille, and easy-read versions of the exhibition text available at reception; please ask our Front of House Assistant for details when visiting. We are working to create audio description guides for upcoming exhibitions and provide translation into relevant languages. 

We continue to learn alongside our collaborators, audiences and community partners, to put in place different forms of support for those taking part in projects and support more equitable ways of working, for example through translation, childcare, and transport costs. 

Primary is still on a journey and it's important to acknowledge our limitations. Currently there is no step-free access to our first-floor gallery space. We are small team working with limited budgets, so we also acknowledge that we won’t always be able to meet all the access requirements that we’d like to. We aim to communicate clearly about what we can provide and always welcome feedback on how to do better. 

More information and feedback 

You can find out more about visiting Primary here: https://www.weareprimary.org/visit 
You can find a guide to all of Primary’s public spaces on the AccesAble website here: https://www.accessable.co.uk/primary/access-guides/primary-main-building 

Please email admin@weareprimary.org if you’d like to comment on any of the points in this article. We provide space for verbal feedback and surveys at all our events. 

Thanks to: Sam Metz, Jo Tolley, NEUK Collective, Cecilia Wee, Crocus Fields, Space Inclusive, Art Fund 

Links and resources 

The Social Model of Disability: https://www.disabilityrightsuk.org/social-model-disability-language  

Neuk Collective: https://neukcollective.co.uk 

All In: https://allin.online  

Shape Arts - Making your organisation more inclusive: https://www.shapearts.org.uk/news/making-your-organisation-inclusive  

https://www.accesstoolkit.art/ 

https://sinsinvalid.org/resources/ 

Since writing this article, the government has announced disability benefit cuts. Primary will work with our artists and communities affected to find relevant ways to support and act in solidarity. See Unlimited’s article for more information: https://weareunlimited.org.uk/disabled-artists-under-threat-time-to-take-action/