What is an Access Coordinator?

Full-time Access Coordinator Julie Fernandez and founder of Bridge06 Sara Johnson explain the benefits of employing an Access Coordinator for your production.

An emerging crew role worldwide, Access Coordinators play a vital part in increasing and sustaining ongoing inclusion of diverse Deaf/Disabled and/or Neurodivergent (DDN) talent in the screen industries.

Screen Australia recently hosted the Access Coordinator Training Program at AFTRS – run over five days including an on-set practical training module – this immersive course was an opportunity to support and educate people who identify as DDN and better equip them with the skills that they need to implement and support fellow DDN cast and crew members on screen productions.

Julie Fernandez who has extensive experience on film and television productions in the UK and is now a full-time Access Coordinator attended the workshop; “It is my responsibility as a production’s Access Coordinator to work with all cast and crew on your production who is DDN – deaf, disabled, neurodivergent. I will work with that individual, find out what their access requirements are and then work with the production company to put those access requirements in place, so that individual can be creatively brilliant and not be discriminated against.”

In this video, Fernandez and Johnson discuss the importance and benefits of having an Access Coordinator on screen productions, why they are needed industry wide, the types of barriers they are working to overcome and their aims for the future within this space.

To find out more about Access Coordinators, watch this video and click here to access more resources on the Screen Australia website.