Accessibility Plan

  1. Accessibility Statement
    Elevate is committed to making Festival accessible and welcoming for everyone, ensuring they maintain their dignity and independence. We believe in inclusion and equal opportunity, and we are committed to meeting the needs of people with disabilities in a timely manner.
    1. Relevant Definitions
      The following definitions apply throughout this plan:
      Disability: Any impairment or difference in physical, mental, intellectual, cognitive, learning, or communication ability. Disabilities can be permanent or temporary and can change over time.
      Barrier: Anything that might hinder full and equal participation by people with disabilities. Barriers can be architectural, technological, attitudinal, based on information or communications, or the result of a policy or procedure.
      Accessibility: The design of products, devices, services, environments, technologies, policies and rules in a way that allows all people, including people with a variety of disabilities, to access them.
  1. Accessibility Commitments
    1. Accommodation Requests
      Elevate formally requests accessibility accommodations from individuals through the Festival Registration form. Elevate will continue to collect and deliver these accommodations as long as they are submitted prior to the stated deadline.
    2. Training
      Elevate provides training to volunteers on Accessibility Standards and Human Rights. Elevate keeps and maintains a database of the training participant’s names and dates of completion. 
    3. Festival Venue(s)
      Elevate will establish plans to meet the Accessibility Standards for our venues. Elevate will strive to design and outfit every activation and space to meet AODA standards i.e. 5 foot pathways and emergency routes throughout the building.
    4. Service Animals
      Elevate welcomes people with disabilities and their service animals onto Festival property and into all Festival venues.
    5. Support Persons
      A person with a disability who is accompanied by a support person will be allowed to have that person accompany them to Festival. The person must notify Elevate Festival ahead of time so accreditation can be provided. A support person is not required to purchase a ticket.
    6. Presentations
      Elevate will provide recommended guidelines to presenters to ensure presentation materials are accessible. These guidelines will include using large fonts, high contrast colours and clean layout, as well as providing a visual description of slides when making a presentation.
    7. Videos
      Elevate will include captions for all Elevate-created videos shown during Festival, and will ask all presenters to include captions on their videos.
    8. Accessible Seating
      Elevate will provide accessible seating in the front rows closest to the stage in each theatre and seated activation.
    9. Signage
      Elevate commits to ensuring that signs are readable in all light conditions and follow accessibility guidelines.
    10. ASL Interpreters
      Elevate will provide ASL interpreters for Main Stage programming if requested 3 weeks prior to Festival. If an attendee requests interpretation for other stages, Elevate will provide this, within reason.
    11. Emergency Response Plans
      Elevate will continue to update and improve its written emergency plans to outline processes specific to people with disabilities.
    12. Communicating with Elevate
      Elevate welcomes feedback on how we provide accessible customer service. Feedback can be provided by email at festival@elevate.ca, or by phone if requested. Feedback will be reviewed by the Operations team and shared with relevant teams.

      Elevate is equipped to support over the phone ticket purchasing, if required. A request must be made via email at festival@elevate.ca with a phone number to call you at.