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UK theatres lacking online ticket accessibility for wheelchair users

A new report from cloud-based ticketing platform Spektrix revealed that only 15 per cent of arts organisations sold one or more wheelchair accessible seats online last year.

The report states “there appears to be considerable unmet demand for wheelchair accessible seats available for online booking”.

The data also revealed that only four per cent of bookings for audience members needing wheelchair access occurred online, as opposed to over the phone or in person.

Kevin Walsh, the operations director at D/deaf and disabled theatre firm Graeae, said in comments released by the group: “We’d hoped the figure would be higher, but we’re not that surprised. Time and again we have tried to make bookings online and failed, only to be told we have to go through a specialist ticket line. We always thought it was a necessary evil, but it looks like that assumption was wrong.”

The Spektrix Insights Report 2019 analysed transaction data from 343 arts organisations across the UK, predominantly theatres, and more than 25 million items purchased across the system in 2018.

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