Accessible festival at the Wellcome Collection

This Thursday 22 June the Wellcome Collection is hosting Land Body Ecologies, a free, four-day, accessible festival exploring the relationship between mental health and the eco-system.

Land Body Ecologies aims to promote marginalised, indigenous or land-dependent communities through the art installations, exhibitions and performance pieces, and does this through the concept of Solastalgia - this is described as “the distress that is produced by environmental change impacting on people while they are directly connected to their home environment.” 

There are different access features being offered throughout the events, which are in-person and live-streamed. These include sensory events, activities and soundscapes for all ages and abilities, and their audio described, BSL interpretated or audio captioned too.

If you’re at the event in person and looking for a space to relax, there are chill-out rooms open all day. These offer a quiet space to get away from busy crowds or loud noises, with a host of sensory activities designed to help you relax.  

Getting to the festival 

The four-day festival is taking place at the Wellcome Collection in central London near to Euston and King’s Cross stations. 

If you’re driving, parking is available, with blue badge parking and accommodations for access requirements that can be arranged ahead of your arrival.  

Accessibility at the festival

There’s a Changing Places toilet on this level, along with an accessible toilet and baby-changing facilities, and accessible toilets are available on all floors of the building.  

The building has step-free access throughout, allowing wheelchairs to move freely throughout the venue, and wheelchairs available to reserve in advance of your visit. Alternatives can be arranged for queueing.

Assistance animals are catered for with drinking bowls available at the information point on level 0.

Throughout the displays there is a wide range of visual access options, including large-print labels and guides, magnifiers, subtitles, Braille titles, audio description, and screen-reading software.

For auditory access, fixed induction loops can be found on various floors throughout the building, with portable induction loops available to reserve before your visit.  

There’s a range of sensory items available to borrow from the venue, including tinted glasses / visors, ear defenders and weighted lap pads. 

Live tours

You can arrange a live tour of the building, which accommodates different access requirements. These include audio description, BSL-led and interpreted talks, and speech-to-text options which can be arranged before your visit.  

The Land Body Ecologies Festival is hosted at the Wellcome Collection building from 22 to 25 June, with the Being Human, Milk, and Genetic Automata exhibitions free to attend. Find out more about the accessible events list on the website.

Read more the Wellcome Collection's accessibility.

© Image courtesy of Invisible Flock.

Tags: events, accessibility, accessible events