Special Events Year-Round
2026 Festival: Oct 18–25
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Accessibility at VWF

At the Vancouver Writers Festival, we understand accessibility as an ongoing process and strive to continually improve our practices. We recognize that access looks different for everyone, and we aim to communicate information clearly, provide a range of access measures and supports, and work alongside people with lived experience to inform our approach. We’re committed to listening, learning, and doing the work to make our events safer, low-barrier experiences for you. Below you’ll find a list of some of our general policies, but if you have any personalized access needs not addressed on this page, please give us a call, come talk to our team on site, or connect with our dedicated Accessibility Coordinator.

Contact Us

To let us know your access needs for an event, please reach out to: boxoffice@writersfest.bc.ca.

If you have questions or feedback about our accessibility policies, please contact:
access@writersfest.bc.ca.

We also provide phone assistance on weekdays between 11am–4pm at:
(778) 658-0462.

If you would like to receive ongoing updates about our closed captioned events, as well as our accessibility resources and ASL events, please sign up for our accessibility mailing list.

Official Accessibility Sponsor: HeyYa Carts

On This Page

Click to jump to the section:
Accessibility Overview
Plan Your Visit
Access at Events
Sensory Access
Venue Accessibility
Financial Access
Our Access Team

Accessibility Overview

Some of our policies include:

  • ASL interpretation is provided at select events, and all events on request. View our ASL interpreted events. Please request ASL interpretation at additional events with at least two weeks notice.
  • We offer Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) captioning at select in-person events. View our events with closed captions. These captions are live-transcribed and accessible by mobile phone during the event at bit.ly/vwfcaptions.
  • Let the box office know your seating needs so we can reserve them for you, or arrange for you to get settled before we open the house to the rest of the audience.
  • Companion tickets can be arranged by the box office staff no additional cost
  • Gender-inclusive – washroom facilities at all our venues.
  • Free or reduced-price – for community organizations and individuals impeded by cost.
  • School subsidies – for school groups to assist with ticket and travel costs.
  • Reduced ticket prices – for seniors 65+ and youth under 30.

Plan Your Visit

To let us know your access needs for an event, please reach out to: boxoffice@writersfest.bc.ca.

Please let the box office know your seating needs in advance so we can reserve them for you.

Yes. Support persons are welcome to attend with you. Companion tickets can be arranged by the box office staff no additional cost.

Please provide *two weeks* notice so that we have time to arrange access supports. However, we understand that access needs and circumstances can change, and we will do our best to accommodate requests made closer to an event.

Please reach out to our box office with any event-specific requests. You can also contact our Accessibility Coordinator with any questions. We recognize that access needs vary, and we’re happy to discuss what might make your festival experience more accessible.

For event-specific requests, please contact our box office. For questions about accessibility at the festival, please contact our Accessibility Coordinator. During the festival, you can also speak with any of our festival volunteers, who can help connect you with the right person.

Audio guides, visual stories, accessibility overviews, and sensory maps can be found in the Venue Accessibility section further down this page, organized by venue.

We live-stream a select number of events during the Festival each year. View this year’s virtual events. Stay tuned for our Digital Festival line-up announcement in November!

Access at Events

ASL Interpretation will be offered at the following 2026 Festival events:

  • October 21 | 30. More than Human: Wildlife in an Age of Extinction
  • October 23 | 51. Ece Temelkuran in Conversation with Commissioner Kasari Govender
  • October 25 | 84. Clara Hughes: Learning to Breathe

CART captioning will be offered at the following 2026 Festival events:

  • October 20 | 09. Mark Medley on Pursuing Impossible Goals
  • October 24 | 70. Echoes of WWII: Resisting Fascism, Then and Now

The following Festival venues have assistive listening devices: The Orpheum, the Vancouver Playhouse, the York Theatre, and the Jack and Darlene Poole theatre (Arts Umbrella). Please check with our box office about your specific event.

Yes. If you are attending with a service animal and would benefit from particular seating or additional space, please let us know when booking.

Washroom facilities vary by venue. Venue access guides will indicate available washroom options, including accessible and gender-inclusive washrooms where available.

Access information for festival venues is available below under Venue Accessibility. Our access guides include information such as navigation, washrooms, and mobility access.

We aim to make festival events accessible to people using wheelchairs, scooters, walkers, and other mobility devices. Accessible routes and seating vary by venue, so please check the relevant Venue Access Guide or contact the box office with questions about a specific event.

While we cannot guarantee early entry, we do prioritize guests with access needs once the house opens. Our volunteers are also happy to arrange courtesy seating in line and in the lobby while you wait. Please contact the box office in advance.

Yes. Our 2026 festival volunteers will receive guidance and formal training on accessibility and how to support guests with a range of access needs. While our volunteers won’t be experts in every aspect of accessibility, we encourage guests to let us know what they need and work with us to find solutions.

Due to the nature of live unscripted conversation and audience questions, we cannot provide specific content warnings beyond those attached to specific books. Please note that authors and moderators may move into conversation about topics unrelated to what is listed in the program descriptions. If you'd like to know content warnings for a specific Festival book, we recommend consulting the warnings submitted by readers on The Storygraph.

Sensory Access

With the exception of some events, such as The Literary Cabaret (which features live music), most of our events are conversation-based talks and live readings with reasonable microphone amplification and warm overhead lighting. Conditions may vary depending on the venue and event, however. If you would like to know more about a specific event’s sensory environment in advance, please consult the access guides in the Venue Accessibility section below, or feel free to contact our Accessibility Coordinator.

While we don’t currently offer designated relaxed events, all guests are welcome to leave and re-enter the space as needed. If you have questions about the sensory environment at a particular event and what we can do to meet your access needs, please contact our box office.

Please consult our annotated map, which includes quieter and low-stimuli spaces on Granville Island.

We ask guests to be mindful that some people are sensitive to fragrances and other scents. Please check our venue accessibility audits (listed in the Venue Accessibility section below) for further detail on which washrooms have unscented hand soaps.

Masks are welcome and encouraged, particularly as the festival runs during cold and flu season, but they are not required. Masks are available at our event venues. If you are feeling unwell, we ask that you consider staying home, or wearing a mask if attendance is a must.

Concession snacks and drinks will be available at some events. We ask that you avoid bringing outside food, unless needed for medical reasons. Water bottles are welcome.

Yes. Please let our volunteers know if you need help with re-entry.

Yes. We have a small collection of stim toys available for anyone that wants them. These can be picked up at the event venues. 

Venue Accessibility

Explore our Festival maps, including a printable version and an annotated Google map with venue locations and information, suggested walking paths, locations for water fountains and public washrooms, transit locations, and more.

We currently offer the following types of information for our Granville Island venues:

Accessibility overviews: Simple text documents highlighting accessibility information at each venue, including parking, doors and stairs, seating, and bathrooms.

Audio guides: Information on getting to and around the venue to help you prepare for your visit, including descriptions of walking routes, lobby spaces, bathrooms, and theatres.

Visual stories: Visual guides with lots of pictures to help you prepare for your visit, including pictures of walking routes to the venue, parking lots, bathrooms, box office, and seating.

Accessibility audits: Spreadsheets detailing whether the venues meet various accessibility standards. Completed by PuSh Festival in 2015.

Granville Island Venues

Off-Island Venues

  • 350 West Georgia Street Vancouver, BC V6B 6B1
  • Incite takes place in the Alice MacKay room located on the Lower Level of Library Square. From the main level, the Lower Level can be reached by elevator or stairs.
  • Accessibility information for VPL – Central Branch
  • Parking is available under the library at Lot 27 – 775 Hamilton St. Learn more about this lot. There is also 2 hour meter parking available around Library Square.

Financial Access

We offer free or reduced-price tickets for individuals impeded by cost whenever possible. Tickets can be arranged by the box office staff. We recommend you book these tickets as soon as possible to avoid missing any sold-out performances.

We consider all requests for tickets from community organizations, and we offer free or reduced-price tickets whenever possible. To request free or discounted Festival tickets, please email info@writersfest.bc.ca and we will respond as soon as we’re able to.  

Yes. Companion tickets can be arranged by the box office staff no additional cost.

Our Access Team

Our Accessibility Coordinator works with the box office, festival staff, and volunteers to support accessibility throughout the festival. For the 2026 Festival, our Accessibility Coordinator is Matthew Tomkinson, whose work is informed by lived experience of multiple disabilities, and by ongoing learning around disability justice, decolonization, diversity and equity in the arts. This work is also shaped by the contributions of our Accessibility Roundtable, consultants, educators, and previous coordinators, whose knowledge, experience, and guidance help us continue to develop our accessibility practices.

We are always open to hearing about ways we can improve our accessibility measures at the festival, and we also recognize that providing feedback involves labour. Time and energy permitting, we welcome any feedback you wish to share via our Festival feedback forms or an email to access@writersfest.bc.ca