Why digital accessibility in the cultural sector is not a one-time job

Digital accessibility in culture

For Martijn, the importance of digital inclusion became clear when a colleague was in rehabilitation and met people who thought theater wasn’t for them because of a disability. “But that’s nonsense. You just need different conditions. With small digital and physical adjustments, you can make culture accessible to everyone.”

What do you learn from an accessibility test?

Martijn Westerop is a marketer at Het Nationale Theater and part of HNTOnbeperkt: the department committed to accessible theater. Since 2020, they have made performances accessible for people who are hard of hearing or deaf, visually impaired or blind, and for people with high sensitivity to stimuli. In the 2024-2025 theater season, they will offer 27 different performances aimed at one of the target groups of HNTOnbeperkt. They also started working on digital accessibility in 2020. Martijn had the theater’s website tested for accessibility. What did they find? “There were all sorts of technical and content-related issues that we didn’t see ourselves. For example, the search function was read incorrectly for blind users, which greatly worsened the user experience.”

A few examples from the test results:

These are not minor details: they are barriers that exclude visitors. Think of someone who cannot buy a ticket or find where the performance takes place. The website was made accessible at the time. Naturally, in the years that followed, the site was further populated, and developments took place.

Digital accessibility is never finished

The loyal audience now knows how to find the HNTOnbeperkt team well. For example, Martijn received feedback from blind visitors who couldn’t properly access some information – particularly the prices.

This prompted Het Nationale Theater to conduct another accessibility test five years later. “New issues came to light again. That’s part of it. A website is always evolving,” said Martijn Westerop.

Ensuring that a website remains accessible requires structural attention. It is a shared responsibility of content creators, marketers, web developers, and managers.

Digital accessibility is not a technical detail – it’s digital hospitality. Ensure your organization is ready for the future én accessible to everyone.