The Toronto Comic Arts Festival (TCAF) is a Canadian festival that exists to promote the breadth and diversity of comics and what is considered comics as a legitimate medium of literary and artistic worth. We seek to promote the creators of these works in their broad and diverse voices for the betterment of the medium of comics and to reach as broad an audience as possible for them.

TCAF is committed to making our festival a place where everyone feels comfortable and welcome, and we are expanding our access initiatives to try and meet that goal.

Funds from this fundraiser will go to support efforts at TCAF to provide increased access to the festival, including:

Access TCAF: Our annual program to forgive table fees for creators from historically disadvantaged groups. Access TCAF funds are granted on a first-come, first-serve basis, and can be accessed by emailing registration@torontocomics.com.

Retreat: For our in-person festival, we’re partnering again with Retreat to provide a space where neurodivergent attendees and participants at busy events can get away from crowds and sensory overwhelm. More than simply a quiet room, this space would provide comfortable seating, facilitators, and equipment to help attendees self regulate and get back to enjoying the festival in their own time.

ASL Interpretation and Captioning: TCAF has been steadily improving our access for d/Deaf attendees at the festival, and we hope to continue expanding our ASL interpretation to cover all of our in-person programming, as well as ASL-fluent Festival Ambassadors who can facilitate d/Deaf attendees experience in our Exhibitor Marketplace and professional development programming.