40 Years of... Innovation
Here at AAM, we pride ourselves on being forward-thinking. We’re constantly evolving to the world as it changes around us and how we can adapt whilst maintaining a fun, creative and inclusive community.
We’ve challenged expectations around what learning-disabled people are capable of by providing the tools to grow. And our work is led by and responds to the needs and aspirations of our participants. Here are just a few examples of our innovative work model.
From the beginning, we’ve pushed for innovation. Just as we were starting out, York Film Workshop, as we were then known, held a conference called ‘Reel Practices’. Its purpose was to create discussion around diversity, independent filmmaking and to push for female directors in a male-dominated world. Some key contributors to the conference went on to set up Channel 4.
In 1982, we rented a studio in an old dairy off Haxby Road and named it The Old Dairy Studios. This became our base. Thanks to funding from Help the Aged, we were able to kit the space out with studio recording equipment. With this upgrade came exciting community projects such as a talking newspaper, which was created for visually impaired residents of York.
What’s more, we now had a cutting-edge studio the whole community could use to record music, voice-overs and more. Years later, in 1996, we were awarded Lottery funding (the first in York, no less) and upgraded our equipment from analogue to digital.
Projects were able to benefit from the upgrade to our filming equipment for years to come. It was a real game-changer!
Performances for everyone
Over the years, Accessible Arts staged some fantastic shows, and we’d be amiss not to mention them here. It all started with the 1994 Hands and Voices production of ‘The Beggars Opera’. We commissioned Jeremy Barlow, who was the original composer for the BBC TV production of the same name.
We got The Beggars Opera Band on board to perform live, and the only thing left was the script and the performers!
This set the wheels in motion for the AAM inclusive model that we’ve been developing ever since. From then on until 2007, we put on legendary annual inclusive performances, each with our own AAM twist.
Take for instance the 1995 performance of ‘A Midsummers Night's Dream’. This ambitious performance made us realise that existing scores weren’t quite for us. There wasn’t the flexibility we needed to make sure everyone got their moment to shine.
So we commissioned up-and-coming electro-acoustic composer Richard Causton to write a beautiful and evocative score. His music really helped put the voices and abilities of our actors and singers centre stage.
This was also the first time we worked with Andy Stafford, who became a long-standing-standing collaborator with AAM. We hired Andy, a professional learning-disabled actor from The Lawnmowers, to be our Assistant Director and Narrator for the show.
He did a cracking job and went on to work with us and our actors every year for the next 10 years.
It was during this production that we realised the potential for using sign-supported communication. We knew it would enhance the experience for both the actors and the audience. So, we set to work on creating a model. And before we knew it... Hands and Voices was born!
From then on, we put on incredible original Hands & Voices productions to sold-out audiences. Each production left the audience wanting more. For their 20th birthday in 2017, they put on their most ambitious show to date, ‘Cabaret of Dreams’.
This celebration of 20 years of Hands & Voices and 35 years of AAM was well worth the wait! It was also the first show to include the talents of some of our other projects.
Our Sensory project created some brilliant props, and the AbleWeb team produced this ace film for the show.
Check out some of the wonderful performances from the show over on our Youtube Channel:
AbleWeb and AbleWeb Radio get creative in the community
As we developed our programme, we listened to the voices of our participants. Talks with the disabled community told us that there was a huge need for an information hub in the city centre. At the time, there was a real lack of accessible centres.
So, we took action to empower learning-disabled adults by creating a space for them, led by them.
The idea grew and took on different strands as a response to feedback. It developed into AbleWeb, an information website and radio platform created by and for learning-disabled adults. Members created films that represented them and their life experiences, as well as flexing their creative muscles.
They also worked on commissions for local businesses, community projects, and created their own webpage.
Check out their 2018 showreel here:
AbleWeb was more than just a weekly creative training session. The project provided outreach workshops led by AbleWeb York apprentices, which gave participants real-life training and work-related learning opportunities.
AbleWeb ran for an incredible 10 years and spawned some fantastic footage and creative uses of cinema.
Here’s a peek at some of the films AbleWeb have created over the years:
IMUSE began in 2013, but not as we know it now. It started out in the early 00s as a vibroacoustic programme designed by Professor Phil Ellis of Sunderland University. Phil’s a leading expert in the use of vibroacoustic therapy and was one of the key partners in developing it into what it is today.
We were blown away by the benefits of the vibroacoustic kit for those with severe and complex needs and could see there was real potential for a wider group of needs. Our track record of working with disabled adults meant that we were able to advise, feedback and provide opportunities for participants to try the kit.
Before long, iMUSE (Interactive Multi-Sensory Environments) was born!
We feel incredibly proud to be one of only a handful of organisations in the world to use this exciting technology. Even more proud that we were able to shape it to suit a variety of needs.
The programme was transformational. We were able to adapt our existing model to suit people with complex needs, mental ill-health and people living with dementia. The new kit allowed users to choose their own experience sounds and visuals that worked best for them.
This level of choice and control is something that’s often stripped away by disability, mental ill-health or dementia. iMUSE can be empowering as it allows people to control the space around them.
Here are a few things our participants have said about the benefits that iMUSE has offered them:
“I usually leave and feel my lungs can get air inside again. I feel anything’s possible – it gives me more confidence to feel I CAN do things”
“I’ve never been good at making decisions, but I would say that I’m starting to make more decisions on my own health, both physical and mental. iMUSE has helped with that”
“I have PTSD and I'm on lots of medication. After my first session the affect was incredible! I did not need nearly so much medication the day after.”
When lockdown happened, we had to adapt our kit, so we could keep supporting people when they couldn’t leave their homes. It allowed us to explore new ways of delivering iMUSE. We worked with adaptive technology specialist Mark Hildred to create a compact version of the full iMUSE kit that people could use at home.
Subpac kindly donated some of their backpacks for our iMUSE at home kits. Initially created as a wearable bass backpack for the DJ market, we found them a perfect alternative for the vibroacoustic mattress we use in iMUSE. The backpack vibrates in time with the music the participant chooses. And this helps relax the body.
There were endless ways in which the remote kits could be used, depending on the participant’s wants and needs. With this and some Zoom magic, we were able to offer a truly person-centred experience - even in remote sessions.
The lockdown meant we also had to adapt the way we delivered our projects. So, in response to this and for the well-being of our participants, we took all our sessions online. We were proud to deliver our first Facebook Live session within a week of the lockdown starting. And we continued online throughout the pandemic, moving to Zoom in Autumn 2020.
Since restrictions have lifted, most of our projects have returned to be face to face, but we recognised some weren’t quite ready. So, to ensure that everyone could get involved in the fun, we went hybrid!
Now there’s no stopping our guys from getting together every week!
Sharing skills in the community
In 2003, our Hands & Voices Committee told us they’d like to be able to share their skills with others and teach them how to sing and sign. In response, we launched our Apprentice Training programme. Choir members now had the chance to co-lead workshops in their community and share their skills.
We found this model worked so well, that we rolled it out to our IMPs project in 2013. IMPs members were soon co-leading workshops in schools and community settings. As part of these workshops, participants would lead warm-ups and workshops for regional and national conferences.
Since then, our trainees have been busy! They’ve trained musicians from the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and provided workshops for students from York College and both York Universities.
Check out our Hands & Voices trainees in action at the 2017's International Conference on Social Work in Health and Mental Health (ICSW).
Leadership skills and training are now built into our regular IMPs and Hands & Voices sessions, so every participant has the chance to get involved.
Innovation has led us to where we are now – 40 years later! We’re looking forward to another 40 years, and you can lay the foundations.
Head to our donate page and donate today.