Stephanie Dower on the importance of building an accessible culture on set, engaging Deaf, Disabled and Neurodivergent crew, and her experiences working in the Australian screen industry.
Find this episode of the Screen Australia Podcast on iTunes, Spotify or Pocket Casts.
Years spent advocating for her own access needs inspired editor and producer Stephanie Dower to consider the potential of a dedicated on-set role specifically focused on supporting access for the Deaf, Disabled and Neurodivergent community – or DDN.
As a wheelchair user, Dower was limited in the types of roles open to her as a student when starting out in the screen industry.
“I fell into post-production a little bit because it was probably the most accessible space for me to work. Not all sets are very well-equipped for wheelchairs,” she says. “We’re always coordinating our own access, as someone with lived experience, that’s just your day-to-day life. And I’ve always thought wouldn’t it be cool if you could do that for everyone [on set]?”
Dower was inspired by similar roles in the US and UK, and following training with US-based DIsability Belongs and Screen Australia’s Access Coordinator program, Dower is now one of nine recognised access coordinators in Australia, and is already seeing industry interest and demand growing.
“Access coordinators are following the trajectory of intimacy coordinators like ten years ago,” she says. “And I hope that access coordinators can follow the same path and become the expectation [on set].”
In the latest episode of the Screen Australia Podcast, Dower talks about the emerging role of access coordinating; the philosophy and vision behind the role; the distinctions between access coordinators, safety officers, and support workers; and her experiences as a coordinator on upcoming feature films Australian indie (Spit) and international swashbuckler The Bluff – both due for release in 2025.
Dower sees the role of access coordinators as removing some of the barriers historically experienced by screen practitioners from the DDN community, allowing practitioners to be more forthright with their needs in a supportive and confidential environment.
Dower believes access support processes are an integral part of resourcing for crew – similar to intimacy coordinators or safety supervisors – with the access coordinator as an intermediary between individuals and production to ensure everyone is able to get what they need to complete the job. It allows individual cast and crew to focus on their role, and establishes a framework to minimise potential delays or future costs to production.
“I think of access coordination as risk mitigation,” she says. “You don’t want to have everything logistically set in place and then realise something isn’t going to work, and then have to rewrite or change something. …All of the relevant heads of department have that knowledge from the get-go, they can work that into their practice.”
She says developing an access inclusion mindset on projects supports all cast and crew beyond the DDN community.
“There’s always opportunity for [everyone] to require further access, whether it’s physically or cognitively,” she says. “By engaging [access coordinators] it tells the wider cast and crew that the production already has that mindset.
“And if people feel like they’re going to be supported and they’re going to have that access requirements or needs met, then they’re going to feel empowered in their role and they’re going to deliver a better result overall.”
For more information about the role of Access Coordinators, visit:
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