Inclusive and accessible events

While every organiser should ensure their event is a safe and welcoming space for everyone who attends, it is important to think about the benefits that an event can bring to the wider community and how it can impact the wellbeing of all those who attend in the broadest sense.  

Examples of this could be bringing communities together, improving physical, mental, and social health, community cohesion, and pride in place. 

Being able to measure these effects has become increasingly important as local and regional authority support for events has grown.

eventIMPACTS provide more information on developing and measuring your social and community impacts.

Community participation

Involving people from the community in the organisation of an event and encouraging them to attend is a great way to give a sense of ownership. It can offer an outlet for creativity and an opportunity to try something new and meet new people.  

You can do this through accurately identifying your community stakeholders and ensuring you understand their respective needs and communicate with them effectively. You could consider hosting community consultation sessions, providing regular and consistent updates, engaging with the local community council(s), having open and responsive communication channels and co-design opportunities.

Place and civic pride

Events often become synonymous with their setting, particularly when they have been held there over many years. That means that how people see an event can strongly influence how they see the place in which it is held. This is true both for how visitors feel about an area as well as how the local residents feel about their community as a place to live and work. The aim is to support their sense of pride in where they are from.  

This guide is useful for anyone involved in organising events, regardless of their size, nature or location. 

This guide contains practical information for event organisers on how to make accessibility and inclusion a core part of your event planning and delivery. This could be anything from adding an access section to your website, to food and drink meeting a range of dietary requirements and individuals’ own budgets. 

The guide covers:  

• your legal obligations as an event organiser  
• key considerations when planning your event  
• how to make the event programme accessible  
• how to ensure you welcome everyone to your event  
• making your marketing and information provision as accessible as possible  
• accessibility of the event venue  
• providing advice on getting to the event venue  
• parking provision for people with additional needs  

Read the inclusive and accessible events guide | PDF 7.5MB.

The Contribution of Events to Scotland’s Wellbeing 

This report from 2021 provides more information on how events contribute to Scotland’s wellbeing and how to measure this effectively. Wavehill were commissioned to deliver this report by VisitScotland on behalf of the Events Industry Advisory Group.  

Read the Contribution of Events to Scotland’s Wellbeing report.

Scotland’s National Strategy for Economic Transformation 

This strategy provides useful context and information on the relevance of wellbeing to Scotland’s economy. It sets out the priorities as well as the actions needed to maximise the opportunities of the next decade to achieve our vision of a wellbeing economy. It was developed by Scottish Government. 

Read Scotland’s National Strategy for Economic Transformation.