Iris Sowlat, disabled theatre artist and the first guest star of “Access Design with Global Hive,” is used to people not understanding just how important accessibility is.
Iris Sowlat
Iris was kind enough to speak with us here at Global Hive about her work and experiences in the Chicago theatre community. Iris lives with achromatopsia, a form of low vision, and this affects how she develops and interacts with shows both as a director and an audience member. Not everyone is as aware of this dimension of theatrical productions, however, and Iris illustrated just how important it is to educate about theatre accessibility with a story about a time she worked a touch tour for the show The Roller Derby Play.
“We did the touch tour before the show, and then I was in the lobby...and then an older man came up to me and asked if today was a special performance.” Iris says. “And I was like, ‘Oh, we had a touch tour for patrons who are visually impaired.’ And he was like, ‘I didn’t know visually impaired people came to the theatre.’ And...it took everything in me not to laugh at his ignorance, but I guess there are people who just aren’t really thinking about that.”
As Iris also stated, though, more people should be thinking about that. People of all different ability levels want to come to, participate in, and enjoy the theatre, and deserve to be accomodated. This story just further illustrates the need to educate everyone about accessibility, not just in theatre but in every walk of life, so that it is normal for people to think of and include those living with disabilities in their public spaces and events always, not just sometimes.
-Julia Petterson
