Access

Access & Equalities Guide

It is one of Solar Bear's main aims and top priorities to have a positive social impact and make progress in the areas of access, inclusion and integration within the arts. It is our intention not only to ensure that our services are accessible, barrier-free and avoid discrimination to users and potential users on grounds of ethnicity, disability, gender, age or sexual orientation, but also to build constructive relationships and take positive action to encourage participation in our arts activities from under-represented groups.

Solar Bear offers the same opportunities to all regardless of gender, age, colour, race, ethnic or national origin, disability or sexual orientation. We encourage involvement from under-represented groups and take positive action, developing positive action training programmes.

Solar Bear aims to make performances as accessible as possible, and is particularly enthusiastic about artistic development in regard to inclusive work from an aesthetic point of view, and has made several investigations involving the integration of audio description and British Sign Language into onstage action.

To facilitate the above Solar Bear have employed an Access Officer to ensure that the company has the knowledge and ability to fully support the needs of all people who work or train with the company and that access requirements are met as far as is possible and members are given every opportunity to meet their full potential.

The company is committed in standards, practice and belief to equality of opportunity participation and inclusion. Staff are trained to be aware of the national standards and legislative requirement to treat people from diverse backgrounds with respect and regard.

The company believes that excellence will be achieved through recognising the value of every individual. We aim to create an environment that respects the diversity of staff and enables them to achieve their full potential, to contribute fully, and to derive maximum benefit and enjoyment from their involvement with Solar Bear.

To this end, the company acknowledges the following basic rights for all members and prospective members of its community:

• to be treated with respect and dignity
• to be treated fairly with regard to all procedures, assessments and choices
• to receive encouragement to reach their full potential
• to be free from discrimination

These rights carry with them responsibilities and the company requires all members of the community to recognise these rights and to act in accordance with them in all dealings with fellow members within the company. In addition, the company will comply with all relevant legislation and good practice.

This Policy is available to all staff both in hard copy and will be on the company web site.

Training will provide a means by which the supporting policies are communicated to staff/volunteers and internalised in their behaviour. All staff/volunteers should attend training events related to equality and diversity that are organised by Staff Development and which will help to translate the law into working practice.

We aim to ensure that copies of material can be produced in Braille, large print, audio and cd rom. Please contact our Access Officer if you wish to receive information in alternative formats.

Accessibility & Text Size

This website validates as XHTML 1.1, and uses CSS for all layout and design purposes. All pages on this site were designed to meet WAI accessibility Level A or Priority 1 guidelines, and where possible all guidelines at Level AA or Priority 2 and Level AAA or Priority 3.

Site mark-up is clean and structured to support those using browsers that cannot display images and visual styles.

Navigation assistance

This website is designed to allow those using screen readers or non graphical browsers to follow descriptive links to website content. Where possible links contain title tags to further describe where specific links lead and we have used access keys on top level navigation links to assist those who can only use a keyboard to interact with the web.

Resizing text

To change the text size of this website you can press ' Ctrl ' and ' + ' to increase the text size, ' Ctrl ' and ' - ' to decrease the text size. ' Ctrl ' and ' 0 ' returns you to the default 'normal' size. Alternatively you can hold ' Ctrl ' and use the scroll wheel of your mouse to increase or decrease the text size of this website.

Cross browser support

The web is a fast paced dynamic medium with web browsers and standards updated on a regular basis. We have worked hard to ensure this site conforms to the latest standards and works with as many web browsers and platforms as possible. At launch we tested the output of the site in the following: Mozilla Firefox (version 3.0 on PC and Mac), Microsoft Internet Explorer (versions 6.2, 7.0 on PC), and Opera (version 8.0 on PC)

If you have any comments or queries about our website or encounter any issues while using the site, please contact us.