The Stratford Festival has brought Shakespeare's plays to life on stage since 1953.

And, thanks to the festival's commitment to breaking down barriers, people with disabilities — like Elizabeth Grandbois — can enjoy time-honoured performances in a world-class setting.

Lesley Spencer-Cooper, Former Associate Director of Patron Experience: About two years ago, all of our reps took an accessibility course, dealing with different patrons with different disabilities — being someone who is hard of hearing, being someone who is vision-impaired — and so they've been given those tools on how to deal with that.

Shelley Stevenson, Director of Human Resources: We started by inviting in the March of Dimes, who did a full audit and gave us some recommendations. And then we try to build that into every time we renovate or any time we have plans to purchase equipment — we try to build that into our planning.

We made the facility large enough so that the turning radius is large enough that you could turn a wheelchair inside. The faucets are automatic. We insulate the hot water pipe which would potentially burn somebody's knees if they were to roll in. So, little things like that. We had a list of those things that we have tried to take care of.

One thing that we introduced this year was we have put our house programs into Braille. So we have copies that the house managers hold and we have signs up so that a patron who might wish to access that speaks to our house managers. And they can read all of the background information and information about our actors and our technical crews and our creative staff who are working on our shows.

And we also have hearing devices at all four of our theatres and anybody who is hearing impaired can use our devices. We also have special devices for people with hearing aids.

We have what we call "Toronto Direct". It's usually Saturdays during our peak season. You can take a bus from Toronto to here and it's part of the package when you buy your ticket. And we identify certain dates where you can actually get on an accessible transportation and come. So, patrons coming out of Toronto could access that.

About every other year, we pick a Shakespeare performance and invite any school in the area and any seniors group and we do have two signers who stand very close to the stage and do a whole performance. So, it's extremely important, because it's welcoming to absolutely everybody. And that is so important. It doesn't matter how you come. It has to be accessible. It has to be welcoming.

Elizabeth Grandbois: It's inclusiveness. When there are so many barriers that we encounter day to day. The whole idea of inclusive has the same feeling as welcoming — to know that it's not just for a select group. They are looking at everyone to come and share the pleasure and the joy and the enrichment value.