For years the Locarno Film Festival has been working to become accessible to an increasingly wide audience. This active approach has now been made official with the label “Inclusive Culture” by the Inclusive Culture Service of Pro Infirmis, which provides consultancy and assistance to cultural institutions keen to introduce enhanced inclusivity policies. By signing up the Pro Infirmis Cultural Inclusion Charter, the Festival intensifies its efforts to raise the awareness of the public at large, expanding the conversation on disability-related issues by offering fresh opportunities for debate, committing to the removal of architectural barriers and experimenting with new modalities of access to content. More screenings with subtitling and audio description, relaxed screenings, easy language, Italian Sign Language (LIS) translation: these are just some of the actions that the Festival will take over the coming years to enhance accessibility for its community.
Sara Bellicini, Head of Pardi di domani Programming Office and person responsible for inclusion for the Locarno Film Festival: “Diversity represents the variety and wealth of human experience, allowing us to discover new ways of thinking and living, of growing as individuals within a community. Raising visibility for diversity helps enhance awareness and create a fairer and more welcoming society. That’s why the Locarno Film Festival is committed to promoting an event accessible to all, valuing and empowering the diversity and participation of every individual.”
Areas of intervention
The four-year plan in collaboration with Pro Infirmis (2023-2026) will be developed across a number of different areas of intervention:
Cultural offering:
- At its 2022 edition the Locarno Film Festival opened a debate on inclusion issues with the creation of a discussion panel, open to the public, featuring participants from the world of film and arts with disabilities. Another panel will be set up at the 2023 edition.
Access to content:
- Relaxed screenings - screenings of films from the official selection during which the lights are simply dimmed but not shut off, noise is tolerated, and you can leave and re-enter the theater at will - will be again part of the offering.
- The Festival is also keen to enhance its collaboration with Regards Neufs towards sourcing audio description for blind and visually impaired people as well as subtitles for people who are deaf or hard of hearing.
- It will work to introduce LIS (Italian Sign Language) translation for some of its official events.
- The Festival is evaluating the introduction of a personal assistance service for festival-goers with disabilities.
- Actions to enhance accessibility and staff awareness will be conducted in consultation with appropriately remunerated experts with disabilities.
Architectural accessibility:
- By 2026 the Festival will complete alteration work on its official venues and existing structures to make them more accessible, while all new structures will comply with accessibility requirements from the outset.
- Pictograms will be used to advertise the characteristics and accessibility levels of its official venues, while parking spaces for persons with disabilities will be indicated on an online map.
Communication:
- Accessibility information will be more easily available. The relaxed screenings will be advertised in the program and highlighted on the website in the section on accessibility.
- From 2025 the Festival will work on the accessibility of its website to WCAG standards and will also ensure its social profiles are more accessible.
- By 2026 the Festival plans to introduce subtitling for video content and alternative texts that can be read aloud by screen readers used by visually impaired users.
To learn more about any new actions from the Locarno Film Festival on accessibility issues, visit the official website.
