D&D satellite: How can we make Croydon’s social scene truly accessible?

Each year Drunken Chorus invite Improbable to run a Devoted & Disgruntled Satellite event as part of A Bit Of A Do festival. This year they have asked local organisations Club Soda and Gig Buddies to host the event and set the agenda. Check out their invite and starter question…

How can we make Croydon’s social scene truly accessible?

People with learning disabilities have as much of a right to go out to socialise, party and have a good night out as the rest of us. Yet there are longstanding and pervasive boundaries that stop this from happening. Or at least makes it far more difficult than it should be.

At Gig Buddies and Club Soda we are continually fighting these barriers to try to create an accessible and inclusive social scene in Croydon. However, there is only so much we can do without systemic change in local venues and organisations. Adjustments need to happen across the board. It should not be left down to projects like ours or people with learning disabilities having to advocate for themselves.

We see changes and reasonable adjustments happening in some of our favourite local venues, but there is still so much more to be done to make these spaces truly inclusive. We understand that certain barriers may remain unknown to some venues and organisations unless they are exposed to some of the lived experiences of adults with learning disabilities in the community.

We invite you to our Devoted & Disgruntled event to get to the bottom of what needs to be done to shake up the status quo in Croydon’s social scene. This event will be a safe space to learn from others’ experiences, expose the exclusion in our community and discuss the action that needs to and can be taken.

We are under no illusion that many turn a blind eye to genuine access and inclusion due to the time and effort it takes to achieve.

It’s not just a case of adding a ramp. There are fundamental changes that need to happen in the workings of our community … So let's start the conversation.

This conversation will be facilitated by Improbable, a theatre company who specialise in using a process called Open Space Technology (OST). OST is a simple way for groups of people to think, work and take action together around a shared concern. There is no set agenda and you decide what to discuss. You are free to move between conversations in a single session depending on what interests you.