Screen Festival Accessibility Program

Festivals and industry events are vital spaces in the Canadian screen sector. They are where professionals build relationships, projects find opportunities, careers advance, and audiences connect with films and filmmakers. But accessibility barriers can prevent disabled creatives and audiences from fully participating in these spaces.

The Disability Screen Office's Screen Festival Accessibility Program (SFAP) is a multi-year initiative created to advance accessibility across Canada's screen festival landscape. With support from Telefilm Canada, the DSO partnered with Banff World Media Festival, Vancouver International Film Festival, Reelworld Film Festival, and Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival to identify barriers, assess existing practices, and put accessibility measures into action.

Through this collaboration, the DSO and its partner festivals explored what accessibility looks like in practice across different organizations and festival environments. This work included accessibility audits, community engagement, consultation with disabled creatives, and the implementation and evaluation of access measures.

A key outcome of the program is All-Access Pass: A Roadmap for Festival & Screen Industry Event Accessibility, a free resource that brings together the knowledge and lessons gained through this work and provides practical guidance for the broader screen sector.

The guide covers accessibility planning, community engagement, accessible venues and communications, inclusive programming and representation, accommodations, and a wide range of access measures. It also includes a multi-year roadmap to help festivals and screen industry events establish priorities, coordinate accessibility efforts across their organizations, and strengthen their practices over time.