Ontario has a rich and diverse arts community with some of the best music, dance and theatre that North America has to offer. Despite this, however, our museums and theatres often find themselves struggling to find an audience.

Today, one in seven Ontarians lives with a disability and that number continues to grow - that is a market that no organization can afford to overlook. One of the best ways to reach out to this growing market is to ensure that you are providing quality customer service that takes people with disabilities into consideration, and this is as true for the ballet as it is for the local shoe store.

The Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake is known for its world class stage productions, but the organization also strives for excellence off-stage in its efforts to make each aspect of the theatre experience accessible to every one of their visitors.

"The Shaw prides itself on providing the best experience possible for our patrons from the time they order their tickets to the moment they applaud a stunning production," said Shaw Festival Executive Director, Colleen Blake.

The organization has made a number of accommodations for patrons with disabilities including an accessible ticket window, wide aisles in the theatres with extra room provided for visitors who use wheelchairs, a complimentary ticket for visitors with visual impairments who require a support person, and assistive listening devices for visitors who have difficulty hearing the performances.

During the regular season, the festival also offers full performances of some of their most popular shows entirely in sign language for patrons who are Deaf or hard of hearing. Organizations such as the Canadian Hearing Society help to organize audiences for these unique performances and they are regularly sold out.

Customer reaction has been positive to the efforts at improving accessibility. According to Susan Benton, Audience Services Director at the Shaw Festival, "Patrons are very happy with the special access seating at the Festival Theatre and often comment on the effectiveness of the assistive listening devices." Benton also says that they have noticed an increase the number of visitors using the assistive listening devices and, in response, they have actually purchased more of the devices for each of their three theatres.

Quality customer service is crucial for a festival like the Shaw in order to keep bringing visitors back year after year. For that reason, the organization has gone to great lengths to train their staff on how to best serve visitors with disabilities.

Training has been done with front-line staff to ensure that they are aware of different accessibility requirements that guests may have, as well as how to help guests benefit from the different accessibility accommodations such as the assistive listening devices.

In 2007, the Audience Sales and Services Management Team and front-line staff underwent a training session on diversity and how to use inclusive language.

Parking staff have been trained on how to handle situations where people need assistance getting in and out of their cars.

Accessible customer service is about quality customer service for everyone. It's about listening and responding to the unique needs of each customer or client. And often small changes can make a big difference.