Accessibility provision affects whether people can reach an event, enter a venue, use its facilities, take part in its programme and attend with companions. Recent UK evidence shows both substantial demand and persistent gaps. In England in 2025/26, 22% of disabled adults attended a live sporting event, compared with 34% of non-disabled adults. In a 2022 survey of Welsh museums, 20 institutions reported disability-targeted activities, while 49 reported no formal access audit since 2019.
Contents
- Event participation and accessibility demand
- Venue and public-space access barriers
- Access audits and venue readiness
- Ticketing, seating and companion provision
- Inclusive programming provision
- Unmet access needs and excluded participation
Event participation and accessibility demand
The Community and Engagement Survey 2025/26 measured live-sporting-event attendance among people aged 16 and over in England. Overall attendance was 30%. The disabled-adult figure was 22%, compared with 34% for non-disabled adults. These are participation rates for England during 2025/26, not a count of event tickets or a forecast.
Age is another important part of the participation picture. Attendance was 32% among people aged 60–64, 22% among people aged 75–79, 17% among people aged 80–84 and 9% among people aged 85 and over. The figures show that event planning for older audiences must account for changing access needs across later-life age groups rather than treating older adults as one uniform audience.
The same principle appears in cultural participation. The Participation Survey for April 2022–March 2023 recorded museum or gallery visits for 27% of disabled adults in England, compared with 36% of non-disabled adults. Physical engagement with museums and galleries was 33% in 2022/23, up from 24% in 2021/22, while digital engagement was 9% in 2022/23.
| Measure | Reported rate | Geography and period |
|---|---|---|
| Live-sporting-event attendance, disabled adults | 22% | England, 2025/26 |
| Live-sporting-event attendance, non-disabled adults | 34% | England, 2025/26 |
| Live-sporting-event attendance, all people aged 16+ | 30% | England, 2025/26 |
| Museum or gallery visit, disabled adults | 27% | England, April 2022–March 2023 |
| Museum or gallery visit, non-disabled adults | 36% | England, April 2022–March 2023 |
| Physical museum and gallery engagement | 33% | England, April 2022–March 2023 |
| Digital museum and gallery engagement | 9% | England, April 2022–March 2023 |
Source: Community and Engagement Survey 2025/26 - live sport and gambling: report; Main report for the Participation Survey (April 2022 to March 2023).
Venue and public-space access barriers
The UK Disability Survey research report provides detail on how frequently disabled respondents encountered difficulty using public spaces in 2021. Among disabled respondents, 13.9% had difficulty all the time, 17.5% often had difficulty, 34.0% sometimes had difficulty and 18.2% never had difficulty. The categories describe reported experience and should not be treated as a venue inspection or an event-specific audit.
Public buildings showed a similar pattern. Among disabled respondents, 10.7% had difficulty accessing public buildings all the time, 17.3% often had difficulty and 35.3% sometimes had difficulty. Among respondents who had difficulty accessing public buildings, 51.8% identified theatres and cinemas and 40.9% identified music venues and nightclubs.
For event planners, the venue category matters because access can fail at different points. A building may be technically open while routes, entrances, toilets, viewing areas or circulation create practical barriers. The survey figures do not identify which feature caused each difficulty, so they support a broad readiness check rather than a claim about one particular design fault.
Source: UK Disability Survey research report: data tables, 2021.
Access audits and venue readiness
The Museum Spotlight Survey 2022 gives a specific view of formal access-audit activity in Wales. Nineteen Welsh museums reported a formal access audit since 2019. Forty-nine reported no formal access audit since 2019, and nine did not know whether one had been carried out. These results were reported in 2022 and refer to the period since 2019.
The organizational breakdown is uneven. Five independent Welsh museums reported an audit, as did two local-authority museums and seven national museums. All seven national Welsh museums in the survey reported a formal access audit since 2019. None of the four university Welsh museums reported one.
The Welsh museum report states that access audits are an accreditation requirement to be carried out every five years. That requirement gives event and venue teams a useful planning interval, but the survey results show that a formal audit status should be confirmed rather than assumed. A planner assessing a venue should establish the date of the latest audit, its scope and whether identified actions were completed.
Source: Museum Spotlight Survey 2022.
Ticketing, seating and companion provision
Accessible provision includes the ability to obtain a suitable place and attend with the person who provides support. The 2015 Inclusive and Accessible Stadia Report recorded that one Premiership club ground had only three wheelchair-user places for away supporters. The same UK stadia study found that some wheelchair-user seating arrangements allowed only one carer space.
The companion issue also appears in the 2021 UK Disability Survey data. Among carers, 11.9% had difficulty accessing public buildings all the time, 21.3% often had difficulty, 38.2% sometimes had difficulty and 12.8% never had difficulty. These responses concern carers as a group and are not a count of accessible seats.
Carers also reported being prevented from attending activities with the person they cared for because of accessibility issues. In 2021, the reported figures were 34.8% for museums and libraries, 48.4% for theatre, cinema or arts activities, and 34.6% for concerts or dancing. The same survey recorded 58.4% prevented from going on holiday with the person they cared for because of accessibility issues.
For an event, these findings make companion allocation and booking processes part of the provision itself. A seat, space or ticket policy that cannot accommodate the required companion relationship may still leave attendance impractical, even when the venue has an accessible entrance.
Sources: The Inclusive and Accessible Stadia Report: Attending Spectator Sports: Disabled Spectators’ Experiences and Club Perspectives; UK Disability Survey research report: data tables.
Inclusive programming provision
Access provision is not limited to the physical environment. The Museum Spotlight Survey 2022 reported that 20 Welsh museums, or 26% of respondents, provided disability-targeted exhibitions, events or activities since 2020. The reported breakdown was six independent museums, four local-authority museums, seven national museums, two National Trust museums and one university museum.
The same survey recorded other targeted programming categories. Nineteen Welsh museums, or 25% of respondents, provided exhibitions, events or activities targeted at sexual orientation. Thirty-six, or 47% of respondents, provided programming targeted at age generally. Thirty-three, or 43% of respondents, provided programming targeted at people with dementia.
These measures describe whether respondents reported targeted exhibitions, events or activities; they do not measure attendance, quality, frequency or audience satisfaction. For event planning, they distinguish the existence of targeted programming from the broader question of whether every event has usable information, facilities and support.
Source: Museum Spotlight Survey 2022.
Unmet access needs and excluded participation
The 2021 UK Disability Survey also records whether adjustments were sufficient. Among disabled respondents who had made home adjustments, 37.8% said the adjustments met their needs, while 61.0% said more change was required. A further 1.1% said the adjustments were no longer necessary. These figures concern home adjustments, but they illustrate why the presence of an adaptation alone does not establish that access needs are met.
Among disabled people reporting difficulty accessing public buildings, accessibility issues were associated with being prevented from taking part in several areas. The reported figures were 31.0% for educational opportunities, 35.1% for employment, 57.0% for going on holiday, 49.6% for visiting friends and 35.8% for taking part in sport. The figure for being prevented from attending theatre, cinema or arts activities was 47.8%.
The results provide a wider context for event exclusion. They are not estimates of the proportion excluded from one named event, and they do not establish that every barrier was caused by event organizers. They do show that public-building access difficulty can coincide with restricted participation in social, cultural, sporting and educational activities.
For event teams, the practical implication is to treat accessibility as a chain: audit the venue, publish usable access information, provide a workable booking route, plan seating and companions, and check whether the programme itself is available in forms that meet the audience’s needs. The available statistics show why each link matters, while the specific arrangements must be confirmed for the venue and event being planned.
Source: UK Disability Survey research report: data tables, 2021.