Setting the standard for accessible experiences

“After many years in development, All In, the new arts access scheme for the UK and Ireland is at last open for business. It’s an exciting moment and one I have spent much of the last decade advocating for.

For disabled people, All In is a free membership scheme designed to remove barriers, making it easier to book tickets and aiming to improve our experience of creative and cultural events and sites.

For the cultural sector, All In is a paid-for subscription change programme created by the 5 UK and Irish arts councils that aims to standardise and improve access, and critically to grow disabled audiences and visitors.

Access to culture in the UK has developed in a piecemeal and rather random way. But for disabled people like me there is no consistency. The good practice where it exists, has not been shared out well and very often disabled people experience discrimination and poor service. As I have experienced through a lifetime of cultural event attendance  – I’ve been buying access tickets for 40 years – this lack of consistency often makes what should be an enjoyable experience unnecessarily difficult and stressful. That’s why we need All In.

“I firmly believe this is access on the next level.”

Throughout 2025, All In was piloted in Leeds where our ground-breaking Access Standards for Creativity and Culture were real-world tested by organisations from across the cultural spectrum: Leeds Playhouse, Leeds Museums and Galleries, Leeds Heritage Theatres and Opera North.

The input we’ve had from these companies has been invaluable. Wendy Cook, Head of Cinema at Hyde Park Picture House commented: “The Accessibility Standards lay out an invaluable roadmap which has already helped us to begin to identify the steps we need to take tomorrow, in the year ahead and over the next decade in order to truly make our organisation open to all.”

This is a clear example of how the All In Standards are set to make it easier to improve disabled people’s experiences. Some of the bigger changes may take time – access is all about making progress after all – but some changes will be quick to implement and have an immediate benefit to disabled visitors. Quite simply adoption of our Standards could be the difference between someone deciding to attend or turn away; having a great inclusive experience at a venue or leaving unsatisfied.

Our team are enormously excited about the Standards’ potential to transform the cultural sector and beyond. Developed in collaboration with disability arts organisation Attitude is Everything, they have been shaped by lived experience and by organisations of all sizes to ensure their practical, structured guidance works for everyone.

There are four Standard Pillars, containing a grand total of 94 individual Standards. The four pillars are: digital communication, creative and cultural experiences, customer services and the built environment. They cover everything from Blue Badge car parking to auditorium sightlines, from equity for disabled artists to immersive accessible experiences.

Each Standard is presented in overview, offering practical examples of good practice, key considerations with lots of useful detail, definitions of all terms used and handy external references.

Whilst we believe the Standards offer a significant incentive for potential subscribers, All In also comes with a directory of access support organisations and consultants, a full support and skills development programme, a vast database of accessible performances from across all our subscriber venues and audience data metrics.

Two subscriptions will be available for organisations to choose from, All In Essentials – which is available now and All In Plus – which is due to launch in the summer. So what is the difference?

All In Essentials is perfect for organisations wanting to improve their accessibility and knowledge but who are not dependent on ticketing or box office systems, for example some museums and galleries. All In Plus adds digital features to streamline booking processes, making it easier for disabled customers to share their access requirements and buy tickets. All In Plus will be compatible with Action Links, Spektrix, Ticket Solve and Tessitura box office systems. More integrations will be announced in due course.

All In will be fully operational in England this summer with Wales, Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland following. We were thrilled to secure UK-Ireland 2030 Cultural Cooperation Investment which will enable us to host our first access conference in 2028 and broaden our work across the five nations.

All In is a transformative new resource for the cultural sector that provides a road map to grow disabled audience and visitor numbers. And I can’t wait to see how our Standards begin dismantling barriers for disabled people to engage with arts and culture, initially in England and then later this year across the UK and Ireland.

I firmly believe this is access on the next level.

Welcome to All In.”