Kendal Mountain Festival, in collaboration with Coldhouse Collective and Danielle Sellwood are launching a programme of events to tackle the lack of accessibility for d/Deaf and blind/partially sighted audiences in adventure films and festivals. These initiatives, which include an accessible screening, free accessibility services for filmmakers, workshops, and an open-source information guide, are the first phase of a long-term project that aims to evolve to a place where all films of this genre are accessible.

The outdoor industry has made progress in helping shift attitudes towards disabled people through celebrating and promoting their stories, and now people with disabilities need equal access to all the inspiring content that is being produced. Levels of inactivity amongst disabled people make for dire reading, the Sport England Active Lives (adults) data shows disabled people are almost twice as likely to be physically inactive (43%), compared with those without a disability (23%). Clearly, having access to facilities is a major part of the problem, but being motivated through representation and equal access to motivating content is also critical.  

Stats:

·      20% of the UK population has a disability.

·      11 million people in the UK are deaf or hard of hearing and there are 151,000 BSL users in the UK. 

·      Nearly 2 million people in the UK are blind or partially sighted.

·      About 700,000 people in the UK are on the autistic spectrum. 

The Programme

"Access the Best of Kendal" Curated Film Session

Kendal Mountain Festival has curated a 105min public programme of films to represent the full "Kendal" experience. All films chosen for this session will have open captions and audio description and a selection will also have some films with on screen BSL translation. 

The session will be at the Brewery Arts Centre (Screen 2), Kendal at 12:00 on Friday 18th November.  Tickets available here. Please email info@mountainfest.co.uk to notify the team of any specific access requirements (including anybody wishing to have audio description headsets).
 

A selection of these films will then be available on the Kendal Mountain Player and further screenings are planned for the Kendal Mountain Tour. Details TBC

Workshops

Filmmakers and brands are invited to attend one of two free workshops which will illustrate the importance of making film and content accessible and be educated on how to do it. The workshop will screen examples, share best practice, and include a Q&A hosted by Tim Burton from Coldhouse with Danielle Sellwood and blind outdoor enthusiast Poppy Levison along with another TBC. 

Kendal Mountain Festival, Friday 18th November 2.15pm 

Kendal Mountain Festival, Saturday 19th November 11.15am

Open-source guides

Open Source guides covering alt text, captions, audio description will be made available to filmmakers who want to learn these skills themselves, as well as brands who want to understand the area so they can allocate budget within their projects. 

Legacy

Filmmakers whose films have been chosen for free caption and audio description services will be able to use these features in other festival submissions, creating further reach and influencing other events. 

Sponsor - The project has been kindly supported by Berghaus. 

Contributors

Coldhouse Collective - Coldhouse is an agency with a singular focus on storytelling. We work to forge meaningful relationships between brands and their audiences. Our clients are pioneers – companies, organisations and individuals who are fueled by a desire to go further. Our roots in documenting expeditions to some of the harshest environments on the planet has carved within us a core appreciation of both the wonder and fragility of the natural world. While we are now a global collective with a wide-ranging set of skills, our time in the far reaches taught us lessons that benefit our clients to this day. Crucially, that small teams of specialists – compelled by purpose and passion – can tell stories that would otherwise be out of reach, and may soon be out of time. @coldhouse_ on Instagram. 

Danielle Sellwood - Danielle's 30+ year career in the sports and outdoor industry began as a designer for major brands before moving into global trend forecasting at WGSN. Frustrated by the lack of coverage of women's sport she co-founded Sportsister in 2008 and was Director of Visual Campaigns at Women's Sport Trust from 2012. Danielle moved into film and video content in 2016 when she co-founded Find It Film. In 2019, motivated by her daughter Poppy who is blind, she set about learning accessible captioning and audio description. Alongside her filmmaking, Danielle gives presentations to brands on how to make their content accessible and provides specialist captioning and audio description services to the sports and outdoor Industry. 

Kendal Mountain Festival - the largest adventure film festival in the UK, Kendal's aim is to "inspire more people to explore, respect and represent mountains, wilderness and their cultures". An in person event with over 15,000 attendees, it has around 150 speakers as well as films, on stage events and entertainment for all ages. @kendalmountainfestival on Instagram. 

Berghaus - Founded in North East England in 1966, Berghaus is the UK's leading brand of performance outdoor clothing, footwear and equipment. For nearly six decades, the brand has been responsible for introducing many new innovations to the market and, from its world class headquarters in Sunderland, continues to develop kit that is right at the cutting edge, including the latest generation of its renowned Extrem range. Berghaus regularly equips some of the world's greatest adventurers as they explore the planet, from remote Himalayan peaks to Antarctica, and tropical forests in Venezuela to the Atacama Desert in Chile. To find out more about Berghaus visit www.berghaus.com and www.facebook.com/berghaus, or follow @TheRealBerghaus on Twitter and @berghausofficial on Instagram.