On EDI & Access -  Ethical Creatives is guided by those of us in the group alongside:

 

1. The UNCRPD - Article 30 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (Divergence)

2. The 5As: Anticipate, Ask, Assess, Adjust, Advocate - as outlined below by the *BBC

3. The ICCPR - Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

 

 

The Ethical Creatives Group was founded by and is exclusively made up of individuals across the wide and varied spectrum of divergency. Some of us choose to disclose our divergence. Some of us may not. Some of us may view our differences as disabilities. Some of us may not.

It is ALWAYS the Individual's choice as to how they identify.

 

2. The 5As

As Outlined by the *British Broadcasting Corporation

1. Anticipate

We fully expect to work, and continue to work, with disabled people on a regular basis. So we will keep ahead of the game and ensure our structures, processes and environments are - and remain - inclusive. We will engender confidence among disabled talent by actively communicating and demonstrating how we are inclusive. In doing this we will always seek expert advice and stay up to date with best practice.

2. Ask

We avoid assuming anything, of anybody. So, sensitively, and as standard, we will regularly approach every team member - whether they have a condition or impairment that is immediately apparent or not - to invite them to discuss any adjustment needs or access requirements they have in order to fulfil their role. In doing so we will focus on access and adjustments, not conditions or impairments and we will let disabled people own those conversations.

3. Assess

We value self-reflection. So we will be clear and transparent about how accessible we are, ensuring that disabled talent can easily find out about our access provision and support, without having to ask. We will consistently sense-check that we have created a working culture where everyone feels open, confident and safe to communicate their access needs, bringing in specialist expertise when needed. We will also regularly evaluate and improve our inclusion policies and practices.

4. Adjust

We deliver what is needed. So we will consistently, and well ahead of time, put in place any and every reasonable adjustment to ensure the full inclusion as well as the physical and emotional wellbeing of disabled talent - before, during and after their involvement with us. We will do so with the support of relevant experts and ensuring we have sufficient funding in place.

5. Advocate

We set high standards for everyone. So we will celebrate what disabled talent bring, and actively champion them. We will not tolerate any inappropriate behaviour, language or attitudes and we will think long-term to consistently support the progression of disabled talent into senior roles.

These standards are deliberately not detailed tips or technical instructions, as these can change over time and it would be impossible to provide a definitive list of every access requirement, reasonable adjustment or best practice approach in every circumstance for every individual or production.

However, guidance has been provided below about how the standards should be put into practice.

Guidance for putting the standards into practice

Anticipate

• Think 'access first': be proactively inclusive and accessible, rather than reactively so.
• Have dedicated inclusion policies and processes around recruitment, onboarding, budgets and funding and schedules - time and money should never be a reason for disabled talent to be excluded.
• Recognise that accessibility comes in multiple forms: physical spaces, communication methods, equipment and technology and working practices across all parts of the production cycle need to all be fully inclusive to talent with a range of lived experiences of disability.
• Deliberately seek out ways to consistently meet, hire, include and progress disabled talent, including those you have never worked with before.
• Work collaboratively and regularly with skilled professionals, specialist organisations and other relevant groups. This will usually mean people with both lived experience of disability and a professional background and/or training in the field of disability inclusion.
• Regularly attend training provided by trusted and reputable suppliers with lived experience of disability.
• Ensure you understand the legal frameworks such as the Equality Act 2010, which you must operate within, and the funding support that is available, including Access to Work.
• Actively demonstrate how you are inclusive, including using language and making references which signal you understand what is involved in working with and fully including disabled talent.

Ask

• Ensure accessible recruitment and casting processes, consistently offering adjustments and support in order for disabled talent to fully and equally access the process.
• Never ask unnecessarily for details about a person’s conditions or impairments and under no circumstances during the hiring process, where the entire focus will be on talent, skills, knowledge and experience.
• Seek to understand the needs, requirements and preferences of all disabled talent on an individual basis, remembering that conditions often fluctuate and evolve, as do a person’s feelings about and understanding of their condition.
• Consider using Access/Disability Passports, documents which support access and adjustment conversations with line managers and which can travel with disabled talent across different employers to ensure they are consistently supported across their career.
• Regularly check-in with disabled talent to ensure that any adjustments and access support discussed and provided are still fit for purpose.
• Put disability inclusion on the agenda – literally, discussing disability inclusion at every stage of the production process, from development to delivery, and at every key meeting and milestone.
• Regularly report and track disability inclusion, confidentially and within legal parameters, through industry tools such as Diamond and as part of your own company data collection.
• Respect confidentiality, keeping all personal information secure and only sharing it with anyone who needs to know, and with the talent’s knowledge and express permission: no information regarding a person’s impairment or condition is ever public property.
• Bring in expertise when needed, in particular working with Access Co-ordinators early at the initial stages of commissioning, crewing up and casting, to provide advice and support and to ensure that physical, social, communication and cultural barriers are removed.

Assess

• Produce and keep updated an accurate access statement which covers your current physical environments, communication methods, working patterns and practices, and levels of disability knowledge and understanding.
• Clearly communicate these on your website and in other corporate material and refer to it in your job adverts and posts.
• Ask for feedback from disabled talent regarding their experience to identify any potential barriers and areas of improvement for the welfare and inclusion of talent.
• In particular, consider ways to adjust schedules and spaces to allow disabled talent (and everyone else) to perform at their best.

Adjust

• Ensure all adjustments and access is set up and functioning before disabled talent begin their role.
• Have contingency plans and/or back-up resources in place should the original access provision fall through.
• Get funding secured in advance – whether from Access to Work, from within your budgets or from a third-party fund.
• Be open to doing things differently, providing the option for disabled talent to carry out their role in more than one way, according to what best suits them, and with an emphasis on outcomes rather than processes.
• Value flexibility as a tool which not only supports the inclusion of disabled talent - including through remote working, flexible hours and job shares - but also fuels the creative processes.
• Appoint a trust point of contact for disabled talent, known as an Access Contact, who is embedded within the team (in the same ways as Safeguarding Officers are existing team members) and with whom disabled talent can liaise if they have any questions, concerns or observations.
• Work with trained Access Co-ordinators who can assess access needs, oversee the implementation of access plans and adjustment agreements, and ensure best practice is consistently followed.
• adjust for everything, remembering disabled talent have access needs not only in their day jobs, but in every part of their professional lives - from training courses and employment requirements such as appraisals, to company announcements and wrap parties or networking events.

Advocate

• Regularly make your expectations clear for everybody in the team when it comes to disability inclusion.
• Always challenge assumptions, ignorance and ableism/disablism.
• Work with disabled talent because they are disabled, not in spite of their being disabled, recognising that they bring distinctive skills, experiences and perspectives.
• Guarantee equal pay for equal work, ensuring all disabled talent are paid the same rate as their non-disabled peers, and are specifically renumerated for any expertise they bring in relation to being disabled.
• Consider the long-term career progression of every disabled person you work with, at whatever level, supporting them in ways they might develop beyond their current role.
• Be an advocate and ally among your peers and networks for the talented, experienced and passionate disabled people in our industry.

Background and context

These standards reflect a collective responsibility to radically change the culture and practices of our <the Arts> industry so that we do not continue to “utterly and totally fail” disabled people (Jack Thorne, McTaggart Lecture 2021).

The 5 As have been drawn up by, and in close consultation with, professionals from across the industry with lived experience and specialist expertise of disability. They are open to being adopted by any broadcaster, streamer, production company or industry body who wishes to do so.

Once these standards have been widely communicated and adopted, we believe that well informed, inclusive practical responses will then follow – and indeed become second nature.

These principles should be followed in conjunction with all relevant legislation, such as the Equality Act 2010, other pan-industry commitments such as the Freelance Charter, and each broadcaster’s own guidelines for diversity and inclusion, where relevant.

Definitions

To paraphrase the UK’s Equality Act 2010, someone is disabled if they have one or more physical or mental conditions that are long-lasting and have a substantial adverse effect on day-to-day activities. This covers a wide and diverse range of conditions, impairments, injuries and illnesses, including those which are not immediately apparent such as mental health conditions, chronic conditions, neurodivergence or learning disabilities or difficulties.

It is for each person to decide if they identify as disabled under this definition. Many people have conditions or impairments which are not immediately apparent to an outside observer, but definitely entitle them to identify as disabled. Some have conditions or impairments which, to an outside observer, might meet the criteria and will choose not to identify as disabled. Others may choose not to disclose or share openly that they are disabled. Please note, you may still have legal duties towards all these groups under the Equality Act 2010 (see below).

In this document we have used the term 'disabled', in which we also include those who are deaf and/or neurodivergent. We recognise that some people prefer to use the full term 'deaf, disabled and/or neurodivergent', or other terminology – and that terminology changes over time.

We use the term 'disabled talent' to refer to both on-screen presenters, contributors and performers, and off-screen administrative, managerial, production, editorial and craft professionals – whether employees or freelancers.

Ethical Creatives' quick takeaway for anyone working with any of us

 

• Never ask unnecessarily for details about a person’s conditions, impairments, identity, or their political, philosophical or religious/spiritual beliefs - and under no circumstances during the hiring process, where the entire focus will be on talent, skills, knowledge and experience.
• Value flexibility as a tool which not only supports the inclusion of divergent talent - including through remote working, flexible hours and job shares - but also fuels the creative processes.
• Consider the long-term career progression of every differently-abled person you work with, at whatever level, supporting them in ways they might develop beyond their current role.

 

Give and give. Take and take...

How can you help?

Help Us to Ensure that Trained, Experienced Artists are Valued as Specialists.

Educate yourself, colleagues, co-workers, family and friends to value Artists' work.

Many highly creative, gifted, talented, especially divergent, people are impoverished.

This is because their work, despite being extremely helpful and useful in creating a progressive, positive, beautiful world is, taken for granted.

Their music, films, designs, paintings, writing and so on are downloaded, streamed, copied - taken.

Their work unpaid, they suffer and endure extreme hardship only to again and again be met with the expectation of, giving their work ie, for it to be, yes, taken.

Or paid at a rate so low, or Grant pathways so hard, that Artists simply cannot access a living, dignified wage.

 

Helping others to achieve their fair place in Society is rewarding. It's Empowering to succeed in helping others to reclaim their caring, child-self sweetness. 

 

After all, we've all heard it, perhaps even said it, as we sank into the couch to watch our favourite show, or relax (or energise!) to our favourite song:

 

Why don't they get a proper job?

 

Consider next time you hear someone, or yourself, saying that, to take a look around; at the Artists working for, and with your children in education, in school, TV, online, in live performances; look at the clothes you're wearing, the furniture you're using, the show you're watching and the music you're listening to.

All around us, every building, every room, every colour on a wall, every tile in your kitchen or bathroom, the style of your taps, the patterned wallpaper, the washing-up liquid bottle - this world, your world, made more bearable, more beautiful, by Creatives

 

And ask, why do we not Value Artists? 

 

But surely everyone got paid? Perhaps. In the very long line of creative production, perhaps not.

And consider this; what if you, every time you'd completed your hard week's or month's work, then had to fill out pages and pages of invasive funding forms, with ever shifting goal posts, formulate submissions for creative ideas, that can take weeks, months and years to devise, simply, or perhaps, maybe, to get paid?

And then your boss, 'asks': "Actually, you need to volunteer your hours - to help your profile for next week's work?" Afraid to say no, for fear you won't get another week's work, or you'll be black-marked across all the Arts 'charities/organisations' for saying, "Em, I need to be paid for my 38 hours work" (to feed your kids, clothe your kids, pay your rent/mortgage, pay for your electricity/gas/bin collection/LPT/business/home/car insurance/accountant fees/credit union loans/professional memberships/kids' pets' veterinary fees - "Oh! It's fine, my accountant, or vet, or both, can volunteer their hours to me," you don't for a nano-second think.)

 

Now, even if you successfully, against all the other desperate workers, are the one 'chosen' to be paid this week, you may have to wait weeks and weeks for that payment.

It's fair to say isn't it, that you may be, pretty quickly, driven to social welfare to help feed your kids, and keep a roof over your head? Driving you into the never-ending cycle of poverty.

 

And to be, that family, with the car registration dating back to before people could tell, if it was the 1st or 2nd half of the year it came onto the roads, living in that house, with the crumbling wood-framed, drafty windows, and peeling-paint, old front door. The one with the €10 yellow skip bag, full to the brim with decaying ráméis that you never can find that €100 to have it, finally, collected.

 

The mother at the school gate, who never has control of her wild, wavy, dark hair. That Celtic mane that UK casting directors wanted 'tamed', the whole time in her 20s in the '90s, when she was touted round on the abusive, auditioning circuit as

"That gifted one, with the Celtic imagination, but too brown, and surprising, insane"

"Mane?"

"Turn of phrase!" 

 

Yes you're that woman now, that 'gifted' actor... in her mid 50s over a quarter of a century later, in this new millennium. So broke, her mother nearly 80, had to buy her sandals...

 

And yet unvalued, and destitute, she, you remain driven, to give and get beyond destitution.

 

You see, you are gifted in the Arts.

 

That's what you're a fit for. You cannot 'do another job', anymore than those talented in engineering, or IT can. That's their gift. Their value.

 

Creatives, undisciplined, across the disciplines, drive progress. 

 

Many Neurodivergent people, like our actor, are different from normative standards, with 'wild, untamed', brains (as well as manes), whiring grey matter magic, and respond, confused, when presented with "we'll need an out of the bosca on this one.",

 

"Ha?" you will say "'What box?!"

 

But trying hard on the 'get a proper job' front, in this group, here you are, keeping focussed, schtum, say nowt, not owt - and, so continuing spinning, bewildered, you hear, the 'normal' people asked (begged), again, to "think. outside. the. box." - in order, apparently, to solve this, complex problem. So monstrous this problem that it's quickly collapsing the planet!

 

"Plastics, maybe..." someone vaguely ventured. "Fossil fuels, for sure." Eamonn Egan Electric-car of HR full-stopped.

"Elon Egan!" Síofra hee hee-d sniggered to the at once compliant and, uninterested Aoife

 

But before the question was finished, just before you started to whirligig witch twitch, twist - you knew the answer. She, that actor, knew the answer too.

 

She worked it out one day at 17 in '88. In a flash she saw the Earth as the bottle garden she tended, in her father's Garden Centre. Amended.

Completely self-sustaining. Its own perfect little tropical world, a mini-me Amazon Rain Forrest. Plants as trees, creating their own eco-system in the Sting sealed, message in a bottle.  

 

That sudocreme faced, black-eyed teen. Chubby, short, with hair pine green. Director of a business at sweet sixtween.

Bizarrely good at Biology and remembering latin plant names: Fagus Sylvatica, that had been her first. Taught to her by her father as they drove home one dappled summer evening. The majesty of the giants, flailing their ancient arms about, like a half dance. Rooted as they were, standing solid behind famine walls, but revering the divinity of their belovéd life-giving sun. Never a day went past, as she and her Pa drove home, that these colossals weren't giving praise. She had to shut her eyes very tight, pull her polo-neck up to her eyebrows, AND put her hands over her eyes too. Her father noting, that her "I feel sick", was rather muffled, had  asked what she was doing? "Their dancing is making my head wonky, so I have to hide until they've finished." She said this matter of factly. It was accepted as such. The only answer had been, "Presumably, the Fagus Sylvatica." That was a warm memory.

 

"Fagus Sylvatica."

She repeated it again. And again. And again. At seven, she felt happy and warm.

 

"Fagus Sylvatica."

She repeated it again. But not again. At Seventeen, she felt unhappy and hot.

 

Her big heart skipped a beat. That lifetime ago, in second class, Teacher had held up a leaf in Nature class. Looking at the plump little girl in the middle row, with the jet black hair, and black button eyes peering out from under her Fír bolg fringe, had said, "Now, you should know this one, what with the Gardening Centre..." The little girl hated that, 'Gardening Centre', it was, 'Garden Centre'. Her mind had wandered on that suffix irritation. Suffixation.

"An bhfuil fíos agat?" she heard the Teacher say, "Sorry Teacher, yes, it's Fagus Sylvatica." Phew, close one. All the other children started to laugh. Not in a nice way. Her eyes sea-salted up.

 

And nearly a decade later they still stung.

 

Back to the bottle.

She insisted on enjoying the thinking, through the process, forward, away from the nasty past síofra sniggering. She methodically arranged the 6 green bottles

"six green boggles, hanging on the wall", her mother had taught her how to overcome her difficulties with some words, by singing.

She must have witnessed a thousand green bottles - that witnessed their comrades' accidental falls.

Takes ten thousand hours of practice to become a master, she'd read somewhere.

Hmm.

She concentrated. Ok. Internal 'Plants use sunlight via photosynthesis to convert Carbon Dioxide into and, release Oxygen. And water vapour. The heat of the sunlight causes the water vapour, on the leaves to steamy rise up, transpire into the skies, or glass. At night when the temperature drops - the glass cools, the steam turns back into water and precipitation drips, rains onto the - bottle - forrest'.

 

Swish. Switch. External.

"If we let our bottle gardens, our guards down, get seared", she thought,

"by blazing fire sunlight", she sought

"like logging companies, and animal-farming agri-corporations" she wrought,

"who slash, rampage burn, young terrified running innocents, ancient un-running Forrests" she fought,

"we'll have broken bottle barren, dried dead desert world" she blurts, "oh, no lovely lush self-sustaining, clean oxygen making, CO2 grabbing gorgeous trees, and myriad Beings," she hurts, "it's a Star Warsy droughty planet, with flash floods crashing onto hooves hard packed red dead earth", she yells "where once soft soils swelled and eager tendrils tenderly tipped the first delicate drips of fragrant rain drops. Pregnant with nutrient mineral haze to birth the seed in Mother's earth. Aternal." She fell.

 

The Golden Voice solved the problem.

 

No Net.

 

No World Wide Web.

 

At fourteen in '85 it said "Go Veg"

 

She knew at 17 in '88

 

It meant

 

"Go Vegan."

 

At 19 in '90

 

She learned 

 

1.4 Acres of Rain Forrest is Cleared every second

 

At 55 in '26

 

She laments

 

68% of land mammals on Earth are now farmed animals.

 

1000 liters of water to produce, to take, 1 litre of cow-mother's milk

 

5000 liters of water to produce, 1 kilo of cow-mother's milk for cheese

 

15000 liters of water to produce, to take, 1 kilo of a cow-mothers' calf-babys' bull-fathers' body for beef

 

77% - 80% of the World's Soy is fed to farmed animals 

 

90% of the Oceans' Sea life has been wiped out by Fishing

 

Creatives are notoriously good at complex problem solving simply because they see the problem as it is.

 

The Arts abound with complex problem solvers - just watch, or read, or listen to the average thriller for all its twists and turns.

 

If Creatives, and that includes Artists(!) are not supported, or valued and are instead forced into an entirely unnecessary hand to mouth existence, with no clear (safe) career pathways, then the world is losing access to some of the most useful problem solvers. Individuals and groups who can flourish can solve,  offer and share perspectives on how to normalise compassion, empathy and kindness. To extend those traits to include every single sentient Being on Mother Earth. The very characteristics that can lift each and every one of us to a place of ongoing peace in our time. In our lives.

 

Why would we not value that?

 

Illogical.

 

But if, even after global catastrophes, it's still hard for you to understand how Artists balance this world and help to prevent it from tipping into a crushing, trudging drudgery, imagine the lock-down world without us.

 

And if imagination is not your gift, and you can't imagine that, then it's best to value, to pay those whose creative minds keep the grey, baying dangerous wolf of wall street from our uniquely designed, colourful doors.

 

Pay in perpetuity. 

And in money.

 

Never, ever expect Artists to work at poverty rates, or worse, go unpaid.

Never.

Ever.

Ever.

 

 

If our ONE Collective Green (and Blue) Bottle should 'accidentally' Fall...

 

So

Let's Take Action To Solve The Biggest Problem We've EVER Known.

To Save the Planet, we must STOP Killing It.

We can actively choose, every single day, to opt out of the killing of the TRILLIONS of Noble, Dignified & Gentle Beings whose Lives we humans feel entitled to Take.

We are each personally responsible for what we choose to do. We can choose to change our Violent, Selfish Behaviours to Good and Kind ones.

It only takes a second. 

 

Ethical Creatives operates a wholly non-speciesism, non-human ego-centric Policy, akin to our Anti: Racism, Misogyny, Ableism, Homo/Trans/Other phobia, that is, we extend the Respect, Compassion, Right to Agency over one's own Body and Decisions to EVERY SENTIENT BEING On EARTH.

This is non-negotiable.