Everybody Dance! Inclusivity in Action
Professor Pierre-Alexis Mével and Dr Martyn Gray reflect on how a collaborative project with Nottingham-based IMPACD CIC is using research to make dance and digital spaces more accessible and inclusive.
Why accessibility rocks
Disability is far more common in the United Kingdom than you may think. In 2023 to 2024, around 25% of the population – around 16.8 million people – had a disability. When you think about disability, you may imagine just one or two types of impairment. In reality, the picture is far more complex. Some of the most common conditions affect mobility, stamina, dexterity, memory, learning, social or behavioural functioning, as well as hearing and vision.
Having a disability can have a serious impact on someone’s overall quality of life. Yet, despite disabled people making up such a large part of the population, society still isn’t set up with them in mind. In many ways, it remains easier for non-disabled people to navigate the world. But it doesn't have to be this way: by making things more accessible, we can remove those barriers, whether physical, social or informational, which limit opportunities and prevent full inclusion. Accessibility is a way to unlock potential and create a culture that truly reflects the diversity of modern Britain.
Dancing towards inclusion
IMPACD CIC is a Nottingham-based community interest company dedicated to creating inclusive, creative spaces where people of all abilities can explore movement and express themselves.
If you walk into an IMPACD CIC session on any given day, you’ll see something quietly radical: people of all ages, abilities and experiences moving together, laughing together, and building community through dance. Based in one of Nottingham’s areas of highest deprivation, IMPACD offers all its sessions for free – because affordability is accessibility. But as we discovered through our project, supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, even the most inclusive dance floors can only be reached if the doorway is open. And for many people, that doorway is digital.
IMPACD’s website is its main gateway to the community. It’s where families check what sessions are available, where disabled adults learn about respite opportunities, and where newcomers decide whether this is a space where they’ll feel welcome. Even with UserWay’s accessibility widget already in place, we realised that the structure of the text itself was creating barriers.
Why words matter more than you think...
As one participant in an Office for National Statistics (ONS) survey put it, accessible information isn’t just practical: “It tells us: we want you here.” That sentiment became the heartbeat of our project. When people can understand what an organisation offers, they can picture themselves taking part. When the language feels welcoming rather than intimidating, it signals that the space is meant for them too.
That’s why we didn’t just focus on what the website said, but how it said it. Our first major task, therefore, was to translate key pages of IMPACD’s website into Easy Language – a structured, research-based approach to simplifying wording, sentence structure and layout so that more people can understand and use the information. And no, this isn’t about “dumbing down.” It’s about opening up.
We replaced complex vocabulary with everyday words while keeping specialist disability terms (like Parkinson’s or cerebral palsy), because IMPACD’s community often knows these terms well. Dance terminology was trickier. When a term couldn’t be simplified – like “Laban method” – we added a short, clear explanation so no one was left behind. We also reorganised content, so it flowed more logically, reduced repetition, and strengthened signposting. Dense paragraphs can feel overwhelming, especially for people who process information differently, so we shifted to a clearer, more spacious layout. A line-by-line style, similar to the BBC News website, made the pages easier to scan, easier to navigate, and far more inviting.
In many ways, the website began to move a little more like IMPACD’s sessions themselves: open, responsive, and ready for everyone. The result is a website that feels calmer, friendlier, and more welcoming – just like IMPACD’s sessions.
... and images too!
Images are central to IMPACD’s identity. Their photos show real dancers – disabled and non-disabled, old and young – moving together with joy and creativity. But without alt text, these images are inaccessible to blind and visually impaired users. So, we created bespoke audio-described alt text that captures diversity, movement and emotion while avoiding stereotypes and reflecting IMPACD’s ethos of dignity and inclusion. Alt text isn’t just a technical requirement. It’s storytelling. It’s saying: you deserve to know what’s here.
IMPacting the dance classroom
But our work with IMPACD doesn’t stop there. We have also been collaborating with the team to make dance and movement sessions easier for everyone to take part in. IMPACD already uses a specially designed tool in the classroom called IMP (Inclusive Movement Prompt). It’s a set of physical flashcards that employ accessible symbols, language and creative ideas to support people with different learning styles and abilities.
Our goal? To make this creative approach even more accessible to even more people. Transforming the IMP into a digital tool allowed us to record a wide range of movement options using motion capture – from full-body sequences to movements designed for people who express themselves primarily through their upper body or head – ensuring that the digital tool reflects the many ways people move (see our very own Professor Mével in a motion capture suit in the image below for this very purpose). We also developed inclusive features such as captions and audio descriptions so that people can use it in ways that suit their needs.
“When people can understand what an organisation offers, they can picture themselves taking part. When the language feels welcoming rather than intimidating, it signals that the space is meant for them too.”
Professor Pierre-Alexis Mével and Dr Martyn Gray
Collaboration at the heart of it all
This project worked because it was collaborative from start to finish. Amanda Hose Hawley and the IMPACD team shared their expertise in inclusive dance, community care and the lived realities of their participants. We brought research on Easy Language, accessibility and translation. Together, we learned from one another, tested ideas, and shaped solutions that none of us could have created alone.
The result is more than a redesigned website or a new digital tool. It’s a shared commitment to inclusion made visible – and a reminder that accessibility grows strongest when communities, practitioners and researchers work side by side.
Because when everybody dances, everybody wins.
Explore IMPACD’s work and find out more about their inclusive sessions by
Bio
Pierre-Alexis is Professor of Media Accessibility and Audiovisual Translation at the 海角黑料. His research interests include creative captions for the screen and for the stage, the translation of non-standard language varieties, and media accessibility. He teaches subtitling for D/deaf audiences and audio description at the 海角黑料. He is a fierce advocate for inclusive media-making practices and has a long track record of working with partners from the creative industries.
Martyn Gray is Assistant Professor in Translation Studies at the 海角黑料. He is the author of a recently published monograph entitled Making the “Invisible” Visible? Reviewing Translated Works (Peter Lang, 2024), which focuses on the criteria against which translated works were assessed in 2022. He is currently working on an AHRC IAA-funded project with a Nottingham-based dance company that aims to make its marketing and provision more accessible and inclusive. Dr Gray is also on the editorial board of the Humanities and Social Sciences Communications journal.
You can find out more about Pierre-Alexis and Martyn’s work at WeSpeak: