This season, Ruff has been working with consultants Alex Bulmer, Elizabeth Morris, Jeff D’Hondt, and Angela Sun to explore new accessibility options for our production of Otîhêw. We acknowledge that these offerings won’t make the show accessible for everyone, but our hope is that this is a first step towards achieving greater and more comprehensive accessibility each season.
Every performance is considered relaxed. If you need to remove yourself from the audience space for any reason during the show, please feel free to do so. When you are ready to come back, members of our front-of-house team can catch you up on anything you missed, and help you get safely back to your seat.
For the past few years, Ruff has worked with Autism Ontario to offer relaxed performances with Open Captions. This year, Open Captions will be available at every performance.
We will have a Visual Guide available in both digital and hardcopy formats. Again, Autism Ontario has been integral to Ruff’s development of Visual Guides over the years.
A Large Print version of our program will be available in hardcopy at our front-of-house table.
Ruff will be leading a touch-tour of the set pieces and performance space at 7pm before every performance.
If you require assistance getting from your car or a TTC stop, we are offering Street-to-Seat guides who will meet you and assist you into the park.
Descriptive language has been written into the play, and if you would benefit from having a Description Buddy sit with you to describe any moments in the play that are unclear, we will have a volunteer available to do so.
If you use a mobility device, space will be made for you to watch the show from there.
We understand that our usual camping chairs aren’t the most accessible option for many folks. We will have some different seating options to find what is most comfortable for you.
If you have any thoughts about what we can do in future seasons to make our programming more accessible to audiences, we’d love to hear from you. Contact christine@shakespeareintheruff.com.
We look forward to welcoming you to Otîhêw!
From the team at Ruff