LET’S is proud to continue our working relationship with Vancouver Writers Fest. We are a member of the accessibility roundtable, a group of individuals passionate about improving accessibility at the Writers Fest as well as other festivals.
Accessibility Roundtable History
(Sourced from Accessibility at the Vancouver Writers Fest written by Ruth Ormiston, M.A., University of Victoria)
Vancouver Writers Festival was founded in 1988 by Artistic Director Alma Lee. Originally from Scotland, Lee was one of the founding members of the Writers Union of Canada and, upon moving to Vancouver, saw a “need for an organization that would celebrate literary arts in this city,” as current Artistic Director Leslie Hurtig explains. Lee began Writers Fest as a three-to four-day festival, and it has since grown to a week-long event every October with more than 20,000 attendees, becoming Writers Fest’s flagship Festival among its growing year-round events.
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.
Origins of Accessibility Roundtable
The idea for the ART came about through discussions among the Writers Fest team: they knew they wanted to prioritize increasing accessibility, but wanted to ensure they had “the resources to look at it more intentionally,” as Executive Director Kaile Shilling recounts.
Shilling had previously done participatory research and community engagement in the United States, and, knowing the importance of engaging and compensating those most impacted, developed a rough outline and goals for the roundtable and applied for grant funding. The team wanted to encourage free-flowing discussion through the roundtable format, providing a loose structure rather than a strict agenda while still having a facilitator to ensure that everyone’s voice is being shared. Shilling explains, “In my experience, [this model is] often most effective for enabling people to share things into the circle when trust is still being built.”
The Accessibility Roundtable (ART) met five times over six months (June-November) in 2022. Recruitment began with the Writers Fest team connecting with people they knew from the arts community, then asking for more recommendations at the first meeting.
Examples of Roundtable Members
Amy Amantea is an artist and actor as well as a member of and community outreach coordinator for VocalEye, a non- profit organization that works to Increase accessibility in the performing and visual arts for blind and partially-sighted attendees.
Heather McCain is Executive Director of Live Educate Transform Society (formerly Creating Accessible Neighbourhoods), a non-profit they founded in 2005. McCain is proudest to be called a Crip Doula, a Disability Justice term for someone who helps disabled people navigate our complex systems, provides resources, support, and builds community.
Ladan Sahraei is an Iranian-Canadian award-winning Deaf filmmaker. She is involved with Kickstart Disability, Greater Vancouver Association of the Deaf (GVAD), Vancouver Community College, Pride In Art Society and Queer Arts Festival.
Anika Vervecken is a queer, neurodiverse single mom and caregiver for a Deaf man with a developmental disability. She is a leader in accessibility for performing arts, using her background in theatre, music, translation, as well as her lived experience to hone her skills and vision as an access activator.
Each ART member received a $1,500 honorarium and invitations to attend 1-3 Writers Fest events.