Access
RISING wants to make our festival accessible for Deaf and Disabled people. We hope we can promote change in the arts through our approach to access.
Deaf, Disabled and Neurodivergent people experience many barriers to participation. We define access as identifying and removing these barriers. We aim to create processes so that everyone can engage with RISING in a meaningful way. This includes people with different ages, abilities, gender identities, sexualities and cultural backgrounds.
RISING is committed to the social model of disability. This means we focus on the barriers to participating in society and the arts. We are not interested in medical information. We want to know what barriers people experience. We will then use that information to better design our festival for universal access.
Access services requests
This year, RISING is offering several access services for different program items. Some program items have access already included. For other items, we are asking you to contact us with your Access Services Request. If you want to attend an event, please contact us by email or phone to let us know when you want to attend.
We have listed all of the services available per show on this Access Services Request page with proposed dates and sessions for you to review.
Find out more
You can read more below on how to give feedback on our Access Services below.
Access Packs
Closer to the festival, RISING will make downloadable access packs for each show. These packs will include:
- Dates, times, location and event details
- Detailed content warnings and technical effects
- Venue access information
- Access services information
- Social story for non-traditional venue spaces and events eg. Day Tripper at Melbourne Town Hall
- Sensory Maps for exhibitions and special events
- Show information: synopsis, performers
- Contact us
Companion Cards
Companion Card holders are entitled to free companion ticket to RISING events, experiences and performances. You can call us to book your tickets on 03 9662 4242, or email us at ticketing@rising.melbourne. You can also buy two tickets and call or email us for a refund of your companion card ticket. Alternatively, you can talk to us via our live chat during the festival or present your card to our box office team on arrival. View more information on Companion Cards.
National Relay Service
If you are d/Deaf or are Hard of Hearing, the National Relay Service (NRS) can help you.
A call through the NRS lets you communicate with a hearing person who is using a phone even if you can't hear or don't use your voice.
The NRS has specially trained staff called Relay Officers who help with every call.
Depending on the type of call, a Relay Officer will change voice to text or text to voice. They can also change Auslan to English or English to Auslan.
Voice Relay number | 1300 555 727
TTY number | 133 677
SMS relay number | 0423 677 767
Experience tags
Look out for tags on event pages that describe the audience experience:
Sitting | the event takes place in a seated venue
Standing | a mostly standing room event. Limited seating available
Dancing | time for a boogie
Participate | events with elements of participation from the audience
Access Feedback
We recognise that making everyone feel truly welcomed by RISING is an ongoing process. We won’t get everything right 100% of the time. So we invite constructive criticism and don't shy away from challenging the status quo. We're prepared to rip things up and start again.
If you have a moment to share your experiences, please reach out and let us know what we got right or what needs our attention so we can continue to build towards the most inclusive festival we can collectively conceive.
You can reach us on email: feedback@rising.melbourne
Call us on 03 9662 4242.
Or via mail at PO Box 10, Flinders Lane, Victoria 8009.
We’ll do our best to respond in writing within 48 business hours.