Watching a public performance with her son, who is on the autism spectrum, was once something Ms Lim Wei Ping could not imagine doing. She did not know how he would react and if it would upset other audience members unused to his behaviour.

All that changed eight years ago. While struggling to find suitable family activities during the school holidays, she wrote to Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay to ask if she and her son and other families who have children with autism could attend the rehearsal of an orchestra’s upcoming performance.

The request by Ms Lim, the founder of autism support group Shoulders SG, dovetailed with Esplanade’s own desire to do more as an arts centre serving different communities. Today, in a sign of a more inclusive arts landscape, Esplanade along with other venues like the Singapore Repertory Theatre’s (SRT) KC Arts Centre and Wild Rice @ Funan have dedicated public performances that accommodate the needs not only of neurodiverse individuals but also persons who are deaf, blind or have mobility challenges.

Beautiful Sunday, the monthly series of free concerts in the Esplanade Concert Hall that Ms Lim had wanted to take her son Hong Yang to, now allows audiences to talk, make sounds or leave and re-enter the hall anytime. This is known as a Relaxed Environment performance, suitable for seniors or individuals with special needs.

In recent months, theatre productions such as The Necessary Stage’s Three Years in the Life and Death of Land at Esplanade, Wild Rice’s Psychobitch and SRT’s 2:22 - A Ghost Story had performances with creative captioning to cater to audiences with hearing difficulties. This is live text transcription of all speech and sound cues, projected on or near the stage. Persons who are blind or have low vision can access either assisted listening or audio description—a verbal commentary on a production’s visual elements—via personal devices where available.

Cynics may ask, with limited resources, why should arts organisations expend so much effort on accessibility. It may seem like the numbers who benefit are not large, but this will soon change in a rapidly ageing society. I think it is timely to take stock of how the arts benefit persons with physical, intellectual and developmental disabilities, or PWDs, and the valuable lessons learned so Singapore can move towards being more embracing of them in all areas of everyday life.

A safe space for integration

PWDs and their caregivers, who come for performances with access features, have shared their appreciation at the efforts made to create a safe space so they can enjoy the experience. Ms Lim remembers being worried if Hong Yang could sit through a 45-minute Relaxed Performance, where the lighting and sound design accommodate children with sensory sensitivities, but “he did, and even attempted to imitate the actions when the performers asked the audience to follow them”.

She notes that it is rare that people with autism and their caregivers get to go out for arts or entertainment events like other families.

There is a growing body of research on the correlation between the arts and wellbeing. Exposure to the performing and visual arts decreases levels of depression and stimulates memory and cognitive functions. This is why more than half of all hospitals across the United States offer arts programmes, and closer to home, Esplanade works with social service agencies on arts programmes tailored for individuals with diverse needs and disabilities.

Adding access features to a ticketed performance for general audiences does something more. It opens up a live communal experience to those who would otherwise be excluded, and makes individuals without disabilities aware of the needs of others in their midst.

Bringing PWDs to the table

While disability is currently prevalent in 3.4% of 18-49-year-olds and 13.3% of those aged 50 and above, the numbers will likely grow as the population ages—by 2030 around one in four will be aged 65 and above. Currently one in 10 of those aged 60 and above suffers from dementia, another leading cause of disability.

With better awareness and detection, the number diagnosed with autism rose from 76% between 2010 and 2014, making up one in 150 children here. Hence arts organisations should try out and build up access capabilities before demand grows over the long run.

“Accessibility” is a catch-all term for a whole series of processes and labour designed to make the visit to an arts venue friendly and comfortable for a PWD.

For example, it is not just the performance experience that has to be rethought for neuro-diverse individuals and their caregivers. Pre-visit videos or visual guides are provided to prepare them for the visit to an unfamiliar venue. A Calm Space may need to be set up just outside the performance area, for the individual to decompress if he or she is affected by any part of the show, or just restless. Ushers and venue staff have to familiarise themselves with the individual’s needs. These are the result of extensive consultation with representatives from the disability communities.

The fact is, for real change to happen, instead of mere lip service, it is critical to have PWDs “at the table” to be part of or driving the conversation, as Australian disability arts advocate Caroline Bowditch notes. The artistic director of Alter State, a major biennial festival in Melbourne celebrating the arts and disability, spoke at a regional performing arts conference organised by Esplanade late last year.

The empathy gap

It has taken a lot to get this far, and much more can be done. Since 2021, Esplanade has offered discounts for PWDs and their caregivers to ticketed shows it presents. By 2027, the centre’s goal is for accessibility to be top of mind and for all performances to have one or more access features to reach out to different communities.

Yet all the work and collaboration will come to naught without buy-in from the wider society. A few years ago, when Beautiful Sunday had not yet been designated a Relaxed Environment performance and promoted as one, a patron was riled by the noise coming from a fellow audience member. The usher explained to the patron that this individual had special needs but this did not stop the patron from writing in to complain.

Greater visibility of these communities aside, sometimes it just takes life experience to make you more accommodating. As a mother of two tweens, my heart goes out to families who have children with disabilities. As I enter middle age, having watched my late father battle dementia and Parkinson’s, I am all too conscious of the struggles and infirmities of age, and the little acts of kindness that can leaven the road ahead.

Several years ago, I used to see the late architect William Lim, a patron of the arts, steadfastly attending performances at Esplanade in a wheelchair, accompanied by his wife and caregiver Lena.

More recently I saw Lena herself, now wheelchair-bound, at a show with a caregiver. It was a sight that moved me, a regular arts-goer. I hope for my husband and myself, like the Lims, to be able to continue attending arts performances well into our old age—and wish for the inclusive arts ecosystem that makes all this possible.

This op-ed piece was first published by The Straits Times on 30 September 2023.