TripleC is a BAFTA award-winning disabled-led organisation dedicated to raising the profile of deaf, disabled and/or neurodivergent (DDN) people in the arts and screen industries. TripleC’s key strand is DANC, the Disabled Artists’ Networking Community, through which TripleC runs a comprehensive professional development programme comprising networking events, masterclasses, mentoring programmes, and placements. Alongside this the organisation provides training and consultancy for broadcasters, producers and arts organisations around access, equity and inclusion. TripleC also runs a youth theatre for DDN young people and creative community sessions for DDN adults.
We interviewed Melissa Johns, disabled actor, writer and Co-Creative Lead at TripleC, to learn more about DANC, what makes it so successful as an EDI initiative and why representation should be the by-product of EDI activity, not the sole driving force. We also learn more about how Melissa’s lived experiences tie into her equity and diversity work.
Can you tell us more about what TripleC does and its reasons to exist?
TripleC creates projects that break down the barriers for deaf, disabled, and/or neurodivergent (DDN) people accessing the arts and screen industries. This is happening at all levels.
We work with DDN children and young people through our youth theatre and in schools. The aim isn’t for everyone to become actors or people that work in the Creative Industries, but just because every child should have the right to self-expression through creativity.
We then have our community work, which is basically exactly the same, using creativity, role play, drama, all of those things to combat the isolation of DDN people in the community. It provides a safe, accessible, creative space for people to self-express through whichever form of creativity we're working on that week.
Then we have DANC, the Disabled Artists’ Networking Community. It's one of our biggest strands—so big, in fact, that people often think it's its own organisation.
Can you tell us more about DANC and how it began?
TripleC is run by DDN creatives who work in different areas of the industry. For so long, we felt like we were the only ones. Often, on a job, you wouldn't meet another DDN person. We’d constantly have to advocate for access and educate people on what access even is. So, we wanted to create a rich community with a wealth of diverse DDN talent across all areas of the arts and screen industries.
We now have just over 2,000 DANC members. This includes everyone from entry-level right the way up to people who have been in this industry for many years. Actors, writers, directors, comedians, dancers, musicians, visual artists - absolutely anyone working either in front of the camera, off-camera, on-stage, or off-stage.
DANC sits centrally between these DDN creatives and the rest of the industry. We provide a programme of career development throughout the year through masterclasses and webinars on topics that might include how to pitch your new work to a theatre or audition technique for self-taping. We also have in-person events, which are networking events held at a theatre, arts organisation or broadcaster.
We work with theatres, arts organisations and production companies on shadowing schemes, mentoring programmes, placements, and work opportunities. The industry comes to us to let us know they're casting, or crewing up, or looking for new writers – basically anything people can apply for. We then share these opportunities through a newsletter that goes out every week.
Working on career development is really key within what we do, but on the flipside, so is the work we do with the industry on training. We provide something called our TripleC AAA Foundations Training, which is Access, Approaches and Actions training. It's less about statistics and more about feelings and how you do the right thing in the moment because that's the right thing to do. It shouldn't just be about ticking the box of something the law told you to do. Everyone comes away with practical strategies that they apply in their job role – from runners to showrunners.
We also work really closely with organisations on creative consultancy and offer recces where we can come and support people's workplaces to look at how they can be more accessible. We're basically a hotline for organisations to come to and if we don't know the answer, somebody in our 2,000+ creative network will.
What, in your view, makes DANC so successful?
We celebrate everyone, and we understand and celebrate the importance of intersectionality within the DDN community. Our focus groups are another big part of what we do. We have 10 different focus groups, including our LGBTQI+ DDN focus group and our DDN focus group for creatives who experience racism. Other focus groups include deaf creatives, visually impaired creatives and learning disabled creatives. We make sure we're always providing opportunities that support different lived experiences. We see each individual journey and make sure nothing is ever just a blanket process.
We make sure everyone feels that they're represented. That said, I think we use the word representation a bit too much. For me, the driving force has never been representation. I, personally, as a creative, don't want to exist in this industry just for representation. I want our community to exist because we tell stories in a different way. We shine a light on something completely different to the person next to us and the stories we have to tell are fun and interesting and sometimes scary and sometimes horrible - just like all lived experiences. So, for me, representation is the by-product, it's not the driving force.
What do you perceive to be the risks of not addressing EDI within the Creative Industries, particularly for disabled people?
I see this in two parts. So, firstly, there is changing mindsets to even get DDN people into the industry - being able to let the industry know that the arts and screen will always be richer with more voices. That's before you get into any of the practical stuff. We advocate a lot for equality of opportunity rather than always equality of outcome – it's not about giving someone something just because they're DDN, but actually, we need to have more equality of opportunity.
Once we've got over that hurdle and we know that the industry is absolutely ready to start reflecting the world that we live in by employing talented DDN people, we then have to make sure they understand access and how they make sure their environments are accessible. It really does come down to once we've fought for our place and we finally got through the door, how we then get to do our best work in a really safe way.
I think the damage of not doing that, and if we don't change mindsets, is that we will have a high percentage of incredibly talented DDN people who will never work in the arts and screen industries because of the many barriers. This means the next generation and the generations we have now won't see themselves reflected.
Plus, the damaging effect of not taking access seriously or having a deep understanding of access can quite literally have catastrophic impacts on someone with access requirements. Access can mean so many things, too. You might have somebody who suffers badly from migraines, but they don't identify as DDN, for example, and they need reduced screen time or a different sort of lighting in the office. If that isn't put in place and isn't taken seriously, I can only imagine the amount of pain that person's going to be in when they get home. I know that for me personally if I don't have support with carrying things, I'm not going to be able to use my left hand for the rest of the day.
So, it really is about letting people know that an access requirement isn't something 'additional'. Quite often, it's just something different, which is why the terminology 'access requirement' is so important and not 'additional needs' or 'reasonable adjustments'. We advocate strongly for 'access requirements’ because it includes everyone.
What key advice or learning would you share with other organisations considering similar initiatives?
Find out what other people are doing and don't think that just because one other person or organisation has done something, you shouldn't do it too. Follow through with exactly what it is you want to do and team up with other organisations - don't see them as a threat, see them as an ally.
The amount that we could achieve if we weren't so concerned with who did it first would be incredible. If we were less worried about whose idea it was or who came up with it and we just did what we know will make a positive difference, the changes we could make would be unbelievable.
Head to triplec.org.uk to stay up to date with DANC and to learn more about the incredible work TripleC are doing to champion DDN creatives.
