Inclusion and accessibility
Disclaimer
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The Medway River Lit festival is a literature festival that welcomes all in the community irrespective of social mobility, age, race, religion, genetics, disabilities, gender, gender reassignment, or transgender.
This is a Festival for Everyone.
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The website Medway River Lit festival (www.medwayriverlit.co.uk) contains information that is for general information only and may contain links to third party content, which we do not warrant or endorse, or assume any liabilities for.
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The author assumes no responsibility or liability for any errors or omissions in the content of this site and any leaflets, cards, brochures, promotional material, and performing material in any format. The information is on an as is basis with no guarantee of accuracy.
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Whilst we try to ensure that all activities, performances, and productions, as part of Medway River Lit Festival, are accessible, and inclusive, we are unable to guarantee this, as some venues may not be accessible for wheelchair users, and those with limited mobility. This may be due to the age of buildings or other environmental factors.
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This may mean that stair lifts, lifts and disabled facilities are limited. It should also be noted that there may be some venues that are not accessible for those who are hard of hearing and or deaf, due to hearing loop devices that may not connect to Bluetooth, and/or the venue simply does not have these facilities.
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Some events will be recorded and uploaded to Youtube at a later date with subtitles, which will be highlighted by an asterisk (*), and whilst we endeavor to accommodate all who wish to attend and participate in the festival, there may be some events that are not accessible for certain disabilities.
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We will not be liable for any inaccuracies or where performances are cancelled, or where those who wish to attend certain events are unable to due to the venue location.
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Please note the venue location may also change and some that were noted as accessible may not become so if there is a venue change.
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Unless otherwise expressly noted anything you see, hear, or otherwise receive is copyrighted, trademarked, or other intellectual property owned and licensed by Medway River Lit Festival which includes images illustrations, photographs, text, sounds, music and other materials.
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The copyright of any writing, performance, workshops, photos, images, remains with the author. Any reproduction of these images, or writings must have the express written permission of the author.
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We do not tolerate any racial, sexual, gender, transgender, homophobic, or disability abuse, and anyone being abusive, and disrespectful to any group with a protected characteristic will be refused entry and asked to leave the event.
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In any case where there is hostility against a person with a protected characteristic where a hate crime is alleged, the relevant authorities will be notified.
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It should be noted that guide/assisted dogs and disabled carers are welcome.
We encourage everyone to be free to enjoy this festival, and Medway River Lit festival has at the outset inclusion, equality, diversity as the catalyst of what we do.
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We welcome families, children, the elderly, adults, people from all areas of society, and cultures, whether English is your first language or not. We will create visual Access Stories for Autistic and Neurodiverse People.
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Please note some performances will not be suitable for children under the age of 18 and any performance with adult themes will be noted, in any promotion.
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We are Dyslexic-friendly as much as possible and have taken into account accessibility for the community. There may be occasions where full accessibility is not able to be met. The Medway River lit Festival will not be liable for this.
Please note the following in terms of inclusion/accessibility:-
It is preferable to making any printed material in readable fonts, such as;
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Arial, comic sans, calibri, verdana, open sans, with a font size between 12-14, note some dyslexic's require larger fonts so in any printed material have larger size print available. It is good practice to character space.
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Character spacing in the text being presented should be applied.
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This helps with reading any text for dyslexics.
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Be mindful that if there is too much letter spacing, it can equally be difficult to read, larger line spacing can assist with reading.
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We do not underline any texts, and italics should not be used, but bold can be used to enhance text, we do not use all capital letters, as lower-case letters are easier to read, for those with dyslexia.
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We can use some headers as this can assist with the structure of the written text. The Font size for the headers will be bigger than the main text, and we can use formatting tools such as lists and text alignment, line paragraph spacing as this can assist those who use assistive/adaptable technology.
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Some assistance technology (Job Access with Speech, (JAWS) is a screen reader that allows blind and visually impaired users to read the screen. It uses text-to-speech and/or braille on the screen.
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Read and write, and Dragon software use text to speech, different colours and predictions, spell checker, and grammar.
Note
Any usage of Hyperlinks will look different to normal texts and any headers, with regards to colour, we use a single colour background such as light yellow, avoiding background colours, pictures and patterns as these can be difficult to read.
We use a dark text on a coloured text like light yellow, but not on white, avoiding greens and pinks, red, as they are difficult to read including those who have colour blindness.
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We note that some dyslexics have their own colour preferences, and some have their own screen readers.
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Printing: materials will be used, and we use Matt, not Gloss as Matt is more accessible, with thick enough paper to prevent the other side being visible.
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Where possible, we have used left align text without justification, so that writing can be clearer, any writing will be as clear as possible, in simple language, without any acronyms, or abbreviations. This assists those with dyslexia and those whose first language is not English.
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Those who are blind/ visually impaired, deafblind: We are mindful that not all blind or visually impaired people can read braille, and those who are deafblind may have a communicator with them.
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If performances are longer than half an hour, there may be breaks in performances for those who may require these. Please note this may mean the performance schedule is longer than stated on promotional material.
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Any breaks will be placed in joining instructions for artists that perform at Medway River Lit Festival. We are aware that pace of delivery must be reflective of the attending delegates within the community.
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It should be noted that those who are deafblind and blind, or visually impaired may bring their guide dogs/assistive dogs and carers or deafblind communicators into the venue, at no additional cost.
We will endevour to ensure that those attending are aware of the facilities at events; tea, coffee bar, food, and disabled toilet, where available.
Whilst we appreciate that some venues may not accommodate all disabilities, we have tried to endevour that venues are accessible, but there may be occasions where they are not and Medway River Lit festival holds no responsibilities for this.
It should be noted that it is the responsibility of attending delegates and performers to provide their access riders at any events they are engaged with and to inform River Lit Festival of any requirements.
We will endevour to assist, but there may be circumstances that certain needs cannot be accommodated, Medway River Lit Festival hold no responsibility or liability for cancellations, or accessibility issues during the period of the Medway River Lit Festival.
This document is courtesy of Sam Rapp (The Dyslexic Poet) (Fun with words Productions)
The writer takes no responsibility for its content or accuracy.
28th April 2023