ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the importance of issues concerning accessibility, diversity and inclusion in events discourses and praxis. These are broad terms encompassing a multitude of facets related to social, cultural, economic and political approaches and interactions. We recognise that individual events have distinct issues to explore; however, we intend to provide a general discussion about these three interlacing topics in order to provide a platform for further debates and improved applications in events landscapes. We acknowledge that these concepts and corresponding experiences do not exist in silos. They are interrelated and entangled, and the boundaries between them can often become blurred, especially with regard to event design, programming, production, and consumption. Yet, we believe it is important to analyse each in-depth separately, as well as to illustrate the ways they intersect, to gain a greater appreciation of how they impact on the contemporary events environment. It is through better understanding of accessibility, diversity, and inclusion that advances in events can be achieved for the benefit of more people and communities. The chapter discusses accessibility in terms of ‘getting involved’, diversity in terms of ‘who can be involved’, and inclusion as ‘how involvement can be realised’. A worthy goal for all events is to be inclusive – to welcome everyone and enable them to participate fully, on their own terms – and to achieve inclusivity, issues of accessibility and diversity need to be addressed.
