A new survey has shed a worrying light on the world of music gigs for people with learning disabilities; including reports of refused entry, bullying and a lack of assistance from venues, according to the BBC.
The survey, carried out by Mencap, found that 29.2% of respondents to the survey had been bullied or suffered abuse from a member of the public, at a gig, concert or festival. Perhaps cause for even greater concern, is that almost half of those surveyed (45.2%), said that they had concerns about asking venues for help. This might be at least in part down to the fact that 12.5% of the 300 individuals surveyed said it was the music venue itself that had discriminated against them by refusing entry to the concert. In a way, however, these findings also represent an opportunity and a roadmap for improvement as a majority (55.6%), said they would go to more gigs if venue staff understood learning disabilities and could offer support if it was required.
The scale and seriousness of the problem exposed by this survey is put starkly by head of campaigns at Mencap, Rossanna Trudigan; ‘The reality is if you are young and have a learning disability you’re likely to be blocked out of something as universal as music due to fear of staff or public attitudes.’ 24-year-old participant in the survey, Kelsey Ramsey has added her own personal experience to these abstract numbers, recounting to Huffington Post UK, ‘When I was volunteering at a music festival recently a man called me a retard every time he saw me, it really hurt my feelings and made me feel unwelcome.’ She added that, ‘It makes it hard to carry on doing the things I love.’
Mark Davyd, who is the founder of the Music Venue Trust, an organisation which aims to ‘preserve, improve and protect UK Grassroots Music Venues for the benefit of venues, communities and upcoming artists’, said in an interview with the BBC that, ‘It’s very worrying if they’ve come back with 29%, it’s quite outrageous.’ He added, however that, in his opinion, ‘It’s less of a problem [in small venues] than in bigger venues… small independents are community-driven.’ Mr Davyd is also head of another music charity that helps young people with disabilities, and he continued in a more hopeful direction, I’m acutely aware of the kind of steps you need to take in this area. It’s something we’d be very keen on exploring with Mencap.’
It can only be hoped that this survey will shed light on a problem that individuals, communities, music venues and the music industry at large must urgently address. Charities like Mr Davyd’s are obviously one way in which people who want to help can get involved, while Mencap are asking for people to join the Sidekick initiative, which they say is, ‘a great way that gig goers can help, by meeting up with people with a learning disability and going with them to gigs and clubs; allowing people to get out, see their favourite band and feel safe.’ You can find out more about the Sidekick scheme here.
