Visiting Towner
We strive to be accessible to all and will do all that we can to make visits as comfortable and enjoyable as possible for everyone. Helpful, well-informed staff are always available to provide support if needed. We can be contacted in advance to discuss any specific requirements that need to be in place to support a visitor with additional needs. Please contact us on 01323 434675 or towner@townereastbourne.org.uk for general queries. Alternatively, you can also contact our Duty Managers directly on dutymanagers@townereastbourne.org.uk to make specific arrangements.
Towner is a participating venue in the i-go leisure card scheme which provides additional support to young people with additional needs and their carers. This includes being available to answer queries in advance so visits can be planned with confidence as well as being open to making adaptations as necessary.
We offer free admission for carers supporting a person with a disability.
Building facilities
Towner is a bright and spacious modern building that includes the following features:
· level access entrance into the ground floor through automatic doors.
· a very large lift to all floors, which is particularly useful for groups.
· an accessible unisex toilet on our second floor and a further accessible toilet on our ground floor close to the cinema.
· a manual wheelchair for visitors with mobility difficulties (contact us to book in advance)
· an induction loop system at the welcome desk and in the cinema
· large-print exhibition guides available in all our exhibition spaces and can be downloaded in advance from our website.
· staff available in each exhibition to provide support/assistance as required.
· seating available in foyers and exhibitions spaces, including portable stools.
Guide, hearing, and assistance dogs are welcome at Towner – feel free to ask at the welcome desk for a water bowl.
If you have particular needs in the event of an emergency evacuation, please inform the welcome desk on arrival.
Getting to Towner
By Car
For Towner via satnav use postcode BN21 4JJ or for College Road Car Park use BN21 4HZ.
Pay and Display car parking is available in College Road Car Park, 100m from Towner which includes blue badge spaces (free). Charges (except blue badge) apply 8am - 6pm daily, incl. Bank Holidays. Minimum charge is £1.40. Free on-street parking is possible on College Road and other adjacent streets.
5 Blue Badge spaces are available in the layby alongside the Devonshire Quarter Plaza. There is also a drop off/waiting area for blue badge holders immediately outside Towner, with a 30 minute waiting time.
By Bus & Train
There are regular trains to Eastbourne station from London Victoria, London Bridge, Brighton, Bexhill, Hastings and Ashford. Buses 12, 12A, 12X, 13X, 3, 98 & 99 stop near Towner.
Cycling
Bike racks are available on Devonshire Quarter Plaza in front of Towner.
Our programme
We are committed to making our programme accessible and inclusive for everyone involved, which includes audiences, artists, participants and staff.
Our team is mindful of physical barriers when planning activities and seeks to eliminate these where possible or provide appropriate alternatives. In addition, we strive to remove socio-economic barriers to participation in Towner activities, with many of our events being offered free of charge, or with ‘pay what you can’ schemes.
We proactively collaborate with partner organisations that support under-represented groups. These partnerships help us to develop understanding, knowledge and skills within our team which then informs our programme and organisational ethos. In return, Towner can provide a safe and welcoming space for such groups, creating opportunities together for participation, skills development and creative expression.
We know we can do more to provide opportunities for individuals and groups from underrepresented backgrounds, both within our artistic programme and within our team. This is a key priority for the organisation over the next five years.
If you have any comments on this statement or Towner’s accessibility please contact Niamh Pearce, Deputy Director on niamh.pearce@townereastbourne.org.uk
Website accessibility.
At Towner Eastbourne we aim to provide all our online visitors with an accessible experience, and we have designed this website to be compliant with the W3C’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). Following these guidelines will make content more accessible to people with a wide range of disabilities, including accommodations for blindness, low vision and other vision impairments; deafness and hearing loss; limited movement and dexterity; speech disabilities; sensory disorders; cognitive and learning disabilities; and combinations of these. Following these guidelines will also often make content more usable to users in general as well as accessible to people with disabilities.
Towner re-launched its main website November 2021 and has worked hard to achieve a good level of accessibility but we’re aware that achieving greater accessibility is an ongoing process and Towner will continue to research, evaluate and test its online content against the latest accessibility guidelines and will endeavour to make constant improvements to the website.
If you are a user with a disability and you encounter any problems when using our website or have suggestions on how we could improve accessibility, we would welcome your feedback. Please email Will Barrett, Head of Marketing and Audience Development, will.barrett@townereastbourne.org.uk.
A list of current specIfications include:
Alt text on images
All posts on Towner’s social media channels now include text descriptions. Images on the website will, over time, all have descriptive alt text to ensure blind or partially-sighted users can still interpret the content. By Spring 2023 all images on the website will have complete, unique alt text descriptions.
Captioning
Our exhibition trailers are captioned, and online events have BSL interpretation.
Clear language
Content can be programmatically determined except for proper names, technical terms, words of indeterminate language, and words or phrases that have become part of the vernacular. All our online copy is carefully edited to be clear, meaningful and avoiding jargon, idioms and confusing terminology.
Keyboard accessibility
Users are able to navigate the website using just their keyboard.
Navigational structure
We’ve ensured our navigation system is simple, easy to use and consistent so that it’s easy to tell where you are and how to move around the site.
Responsive design
Our website has been designed to be responsive so that it works equally well on computers, smartphones, TVs and tablets. Content does not restrict its view and operation to a single display orientation, such as portrait or landscape, unless a specific display orientation is essential.
Sensory characteristics
Instructions provided for understanding and operating content do not rely solely on sensory characteristics of components such as shape, color, size, visual location, orientation, or sound.
Visual contrast
We have provided sufficient contrast between foreground text and its background. We’ve ensured our core colour palette achieves good colour contrast when used in conjunction with text-based content.