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With Not For, a disability-led and founded talent and content agency, has turned to crowdfunding to raise money to pay for its chief executive and co-founder Kelly Gordon, who is a wheelchair user, to get to the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity. 

The move came after the agency realised that it would be too expensive for Gordon to attend because of the extra travel costs her journey will incur as a wheelchair user. These include accessible transport, such as Eurostar tickets and car hire, accommodation modifications and accessible and mobile bathroom solutions. 

“We were quite shocked to find out the associated costs,” Gordon told Campaign. “I know that there is a ‘disability tax’, and I know that there’s a significant cost that comes with being physically disabled and using a mobility aid, but when I looked at the barriers that were created to me, it was quite shocking.”

The crowdfund was set up by Alex Hedges, advertising production recruiter at Curious Connections, who saw Gordon’s initial LinkedIn post, explaining that, despite her invitation to Cannes, she would not be able to attend. 

In the post Gordon wrote: “With Not For will be at Cannes this year, but whether I will be in attendance hangs in the balance. Our ‘accessible’ accommodation is not actually accessible, meaning I will not have access to a bathroom for five days, which could prove slightly tricky…”

She also highlighted the extra transport and equipment costs. 

She added: “Not only do I need to be there, I deserve to be there, I want to be a voice for our community, ensuring that we are seen in these spaces and that we are part of vital conversations that really affect our visibility and treatment within society.”

The crowdfund launched on Friday 6 June and donations have now exceeded £3700. 

Gordon said she would also like to work with Cannes Lions organisers in future to improve the accessibility of the event for people with disabilities, such as helping them provide more “robust guidelines”.

The Cannes Lions website currently has an “Inclusivity and Accessibility” page, which includes information on travel and accommodation. However, Gordon said she struggled finding information about aspects such as bathroom facilities with hoists or details about the locations of events and their accessibility. 

“Obviously we will know more about that once we’ve been and, hopefully, I’m completely wrong. But being able to access those events on the beach or the events that are in the hotels and knowing exactly what to expect when you arrive, that would be a project that I’d be really interested in starting, and something that I would love to roll out into next year’s planning,” she said.

Gordon added that the accessibility issues are not Cannes-specific and are evident in the wider industry too. “I can only speak to my experience, and it’s that we haven’t really had much access at all to any events in adland. We’ve got champions and people that invite us to things, but I feel very much on the outskirts of that,” she said.

Referring to the lack of accessible bathroom facilities, Gordon said: “You don’t feel yourself. You don’t feel that you have access to the things that you need to make you feel like you. So that’s the difficulty for me, is thinking about the whole journey, thinking about how people show up and thinking about making things as accessible as possible, so people, not just disabled people, but everyone can show up as their best selves.” 

Any additional funds in excess of the £6000 target the crowdfund has set will be donated to the community, Gordon said, such as training and development or helping plan access to next year’s Cannes events.  

Gordon added: “Ultimately, it’s not just about me and my experience, it’s about all the colleagues that I couldn’t bring this year, and it’s about all the amazing people that we work with that would thrive in Cannes, but feel that they can’t go at the moment because of  that question mark around all of the external factors.”

At this year’s event, Cannes Lions has introduced safe zones following several women speaking out about their experiences of sexual harassment and assault at the 2024 event.

It also introduced changes to its Glass Lion award, originally created to advocate for gender representation, broadening its focus to disability, race, sexuality and social inequity.

Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity, which was acquired by Informa last year, has been contacted for comment. 

This article originally appeared on Campaign.