Access doesn’t fail because people don’t care. It fails because we treat it as something to be completed, rather than something shaped through systems, behaviours and the small decisions that sit underneath them.
Much of access work is hidden. It lives in what I call the ‘in transit’ spaces, the early stages where things are being formed but not yet recognised as access work. This could be how information is framed, how it is layered and what is made visible or hidden before anything is delivered.
People tend to think access happens when someone gets through your door at the venue, during the event or when adjustments are made. But by then, something else has already happened. The decision to engage or not has often already been made.
Not because of the event itself but because of everything leading up to it.
Your invitation
Access starts at the invitation. That email you sent, the open call or the way your exhibition is framed on a page. Before anyone arrives, they are already forming impressions. Is this for me? Do I understand this? Do I want to deal with this?
It’s rarely a clean decision. More often it’s quick and not always conscious. A gradual sense of ease or friction formed through your tone, clarity and structure as someone reads.
I notice this a lot, how people don’t necessarily opt out because something is inaccessible in an obvious way but because it feels slightly unclear, heavy, just slightly not for them. And then they just don’t respond.
I once supported a programme where everything was technically well resourced on the day. We had interpreters booked, the space was adapted and staff were briefed. On paper, it looked pretty solid but participation was still low.
When we looked at the invitation, it was long, quite formal and the important information was buried halfway down. Nothing was actually ‘wrong’ but it didn’t feel easy to enter. It felt like work before you even got to the work.
And that’s the thing. When the front door feels heavy, it can outweigh how good the room is inside.
If people don’t know it’s there or find it hard to understand, it might as well not exist
People often assume that if you’ve included access information somewhere whether this is a PDF, web page or tab, then you’ve done the job.
Now inclusion is not the same as usability. Access has to be visible, easy to find and be understood quickly. If people have to find it, decode it or work to understand it, it is not yet accessible in practice.
I once worked with an organisation to support their event. The access information was included but it sat in a section labelled “Additional Information.” This might seem clear, we all understand what ‘additional information’ means. But it also signals that it is optional – something to look at later if I have the time for it.
When we tested it, most people never clicked it. Not because they didn’t care but because nothing in the invitation made it feel essential to their decision to attend.
Then we made a very simple change. It wasn’t a budget shift or new provision. We changed the wording so access was clearly signposted, rather than implied.
We replaced ‘Additional Information’ with ‘Access information’ and added a short line by the venue details ‘Access info included below.’
That alone changed how people engaged. Not because we added more access. But because we stopped making people hunt for it.
A small shift
Instead of just asking, ‘Have we included the access info?’, let’s start asking
- What is immediately visible in the first 10 seconds?
- What have we hidden or delayed?
- Where might someone hesitate?
Because access is not only about provision. It is also about attention. And attention is shaped early through small decisions that signal whether something feels open or closed.
Access is often talked about in terms of money. But I think the biggest cost is the extra work and time that happens later because things weren’t made clear from the start.
When invitations work well, they make access information part of the main message rather than something separated out or hidden. They don’t assume prior knowledge or rely on people already understanding how things are usually done. The tone is clear and direct without feeling closed or excluding. They reduce the need for interpretation or decoding, so people aren’t having to work out what is meant as they read. Instead, it becomes easy to understand whether something is for you and whether you can engage with it. In that sense, the invitation can be read and understood in one pass, without hesitation or second guessing.
