Latest news on Rix Centre

Newham easy-read website launch

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 13:19:09 +0000

The Rix Centre and London Borough of Newham are pleased to announce the launch of Newham Easy read website for transition and beyond.

The Rix Centre and London Borough of Newham are pleased to announce the launch ‘Newham Easy Read’ a ‘Portal’ website for transition and beyond.

A ‘Portal’ is a website that links to others gathered together to provide information on a particular topic or theme. This particular Portal brings together information from over 40 ‘satellite’ or linked sites, being created using the same ‘template’ by local people. In fact, people with learning disabilities, with a little help from their supporters, are making more than half of the satellite sites themselves. The Portal, therefore, is a unique initiative. Local organisations and services are getting involved too, and making their information accessible for people with learning disabilities accessible online.

All those building websites, sponsoring and taking part in the project attended party at Stratford Circus on 14 November 2007

Multimedia Advocacy Graduation

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 13:19:09 +0000

The Rix Centre’s multimedia advocacy student graduation ceremony took place on the 19th December. It was attended by people with learning disabilities and their supporters who have completed our Multimedia Advocacy Training Courses at the University.

Our students have used multimedia advocacy for all sorts of different purposes:

Paul Baker, for example, who is 32, is looking for office work and has been working with his supporter Jo to develop a multimedia CV. Paul currently works in a pub in Stratford, by developing his CV using multimedia he is able to capture and present his talents and experience in a dynamic format that he understands and is comfortable about sharing with others.

Heidi Cooper and her mother Susan have attended 3 short courses in succession to build multimedia advocacy skills. Her multimedia advocacy portfolio features life story work and represents some of her talents with a display of some of her paintings and drawings. Susan, her mother, has trained alongside her, and is an Art Student at Masters level with the University.

Inclusive New Media Design Project update

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 11:46:41 +0000

Inclusive New Media Design Project update

Researchers on the Inclusive New Media Design project, based at the Rix Centre have been impressed with the response of Web practitioners to their recruitment drive for participants. More than 30 web designers, developers and editors from a diverse array of creative organisations have signed up to the project’s programme of specialist training workshops to be delivered in the New Year. Attendees will have the opportunity to learn about the special accessibility issues that people with learning disabilities face by working and learning alongside a group of web users with learning disabilities.

Andy Minnion, R&D Director of The Rix Centre, said "The enthusiasm of web developers to get involved and learn about the accessibility issues for users with learning disabilities is encouraging. It suggests that creative workers are more sensitive to issues about inclusive design than might be expected, this is a great start for this ambitious research programme."

To find out more about this project click here.

Web Accessibility Workshops

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 13:19:09 +0000

The Inclusive New Media Design project has kicked off the year with its first round of workshops on web accessibility for people with intellectual disabilities.

The workshops, held over two days here at The Rix Centre, gave the participants in the research project the opportunity to meet for the first time. There was a lot of enthusiastic discussion on the subject of accessible web design and the best ways to write code and content. The events offered participants a great opportunity to share knowledge with each and the project team. It was a good beginning for everyone involved in the project.

Day 1 began with the participants, practising web designers and developers, getting to know each other and then being introduced to the broader aims and objectives of the project. With the introductions over, it was off to the labs. The lab sessions focused on existing web accessibility guidelines, assistive devices, and accessibility best practice when writing html code.

Most project participants are familiar with web accessibility for people with physical and sensory disabilities, and are participating in the project to find out more about intellectual disability. So Day 2 started with an introduction by Simon Evans, Consultant Researcher, on definitions of learning, cognitive and intellectual disabilities and how these are used. Further activities that day included an audit of websites designed for people with intellectual disabilities, and exercises in re-writing web content for these audiences.

At the end of the day, participants were asked for ideas to work on in the next workshop sessions which would put into practice the accessibility techniques outlined in these two days. Helen Kennedy, project leader said, “the participants have come up with some really great ideas to prototype, most of which would be an incredibly useful contribution to web accessibility for people with intellectual disabilities”.

We will be looking forward to the next workshops in the series, on the 15th & 16th of February. Here, topics covered include:

more on design & development for people with intellectual disabilities
implementing best practice
issues in user testing with intellectually disabled users.

For more information on the days events, participants and presenters go to the Inclusive New Media Design website.

Jack Petchey Foundation donation

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 14:04:12 +0000

The Rix Centre received a £30,000 cheque from the Jack Petchey Foundation at a ceremony held at UEL’s Docklands campus on Friday 28 March.

The grant will enable the Centre to continue developing an innovative range of projects aimed at supporting local people with learning disabilities, including the Newham Easy Read website, www.newhameasyread.org , launched in November 2007 to ease the transition from school to work for young people with learning disabilities.

Chris Bullock, Grants Officer at the Jack Petchey Foundation, said: “One of the questions I always ask myself when assessing a project is whether or not it adds significantly to the lives of young people."

“In the case of the Rix Centre, there was never any doubt in my mind. This is the second year we’ve supported the Centre and it’s wonderful to see how our funding has helped. £30,000 is an unusually high grant for us to offer, which goes to show how highly we rate the Centre’s work."

Andy Minnion, Director of the Centre, said: “We believe that with the right help a large number of people could become much more independent and self-supporting, so relying less on their parents and the Social Services and enjoying a better quality of life."

“With the crucial support of organisations like Newham Council and the Jack Petchey Foundation, we’re developing a wide range of multimedia tools to encourage engagement with the wider world. Computers are generally seen as anti-social, but they can actually provide a tremendous platform for social interaction and communication."

“It’s been wonderful to see how projects like the Newham Easy Read website have already inspired real enthusiasm and engagement among local people with learning disabilities.”

The Newham Easy Read website is supported by Newham Council and much of its design has been undertaken by local residents with learning disabilities. Ajay Choksi (27), of Forest Gate, has worked as a technical assistant at the Rix Centre for over a year, updating the site with simple advice and guidance for other people with learning disabilities.

Ajay said: “I’ve really enjoyed building the site and sharing the things that I’ve learnt in my life so that other people can aspire to live more independently. For example, I recently achieved my driving licence; visitors to the website can follow simple guidance about how to approach both the theory and practical tests.”

Zeeshan Naseer (27), of Manor Park, helped to develop the Firstline section of the site, which aims to assist people with learning disabilities in finding rewarding employment.

Zeeshan said: “I’ve really enjoyed working on the project. I first came to the Rix Centre to learn multimedia skills, so it’s been great to put them into practice. I’ve now found a job as a receptionist at Stratford Village; I’m really looking forward to starting and hope that the site I’ve helped to create can enable many other people with learning disabilities find work.”

Lord Rix said: “At a time when 73% of all councils in the UK are planning significant cuts in their services for people with learning disabilities, the Rix Centre provides a far more positive example through our pioneering projects and community support. It’s wonderful to see how our work is already making a major difference to people’s lives in Newham and beyond.”

Graduates presentations from Waltham Forest and Redbridge

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 13:19:09 +0000

The latest group of students from The Rix Centre’s Multimedia Advocacy training course have graduated. A ceremony was held at the Peterhouse Centre in Walthamstow to present each person and supporter with a certificate and a DVD of their final work.

Sharing people’s lives
Everyone who attended the course presented their Multimedia person-centred-plan to an audience of parents, friends and support staff from Waltham Forest and Redbridge Learning Disability services. Gosia Nowicka, Rix Centre Course Leader explains, “ The work was created in a very short period of time and everyone on the course has worked very to finish their plans before the presentation day. I think they have all done a great job! The work shown told us a lot about each person, their past, their present life and what they want for themselves in the future, we all learned a great deal from the experience.” Andy Minnion, director of the The Rix Centre, said, “It has been a real privilege to be able to share people’s stories and plans for the future”

Supporters learning alongside those they support
There were a total of ten students with learning disabilities and each had a supporter who also graduated at the event. The students have come from across East London to The Rix Centre to take part in the course, which have been a great success. Cathay Boyle, who supports John, said, “The courses have been great for me as a supporter, because it give me the opportunity to meet other care workers and build relationships with other local groups” Other people said how much they had got from the course by learning new skills but also making new friends and sharing during the process of make their work.

The start of something bigger…
The multimedia advocacy training course and the final work presentations really helps people with learning disabilities to communicate to a larger group of people about their needs and wishes. It also helps everyone to understand the different ways in which people with learning disabilities do communicate. Most people agreed that this course was ‘just a beginning’ for them and want to continue to update their person-centred-plan and use multimedia advocacy tools to do this. “We are hoping to see more people on the courses getting the best from the Multimedia Advocacy approach to supporting people in the future” said Andy Minnion, “this is an important tool for effective support and self advocacy for people with learning disabilities and our graduates are proving this again and again”

Panel Session: Inclusive new media design

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 13:19:09 +0000

Eight keys to designing inclusive Web sites usable by people with learning difficulties were revealed at the Rix Centre this week. A panel of experts pooled their advice for Web designers and came up with the top eight to improve accessibility:

User testing;
Design for assistance;
Use symbols to enhance accessibility;
Big is beautiful;
Use multimedia;
Personalise;
Go beyond inclusion and create something special; and
Integrate accessibility into the budget.

User testing
There is no substitute for real user testing, advises Ann McMeekin, freelance Web accessibility consultant. Users with learning difficulties have to be involved with the testing early on.

Design for assistance
Design Web pages so as to enable assistants to sit with those with learning disabilities and work together. This includes keyboard control of what happens on the screen, says Nick Weldin, Multimedia Profiling Worker at Paddington Arts and a freelance.

Use symbols
Symbols, especially when combined with speech, can enhance accessibility. Designers can use symbols for navigation or go as far as having fully “symbolised” pages. “Anywhere you can use text you should be able to use symbols,” says Simon Detheridge of Widgit Software.

Big is beautiful
Make all the visual items on the page larger, advises Antonia Hyde of United Response, the learning disabilities and mental health charity. Make icons, graphics and pictures large. Make any control to change colours etc very large. Make access points and signposts large. And make help options large, says Hyde.

Use multimedia
Use a range of media reinforcing each other to improve inclusion, says Jonathan Hassell. Hassell looks after audience experience and usability at the BBC.

Personalise and go beyond inclusion
Create something special for groups of different users with different abilities, says Hassell. What may work for one, does not work for another. For example, what works for the blind may not work for those with learning disabilities.

Integrate accessibility into the budget
Do not put accessibility features as a separate line item in a budget, warns McMeekin. It is then far too easy for managers who control budgets to cut it in order to lower the costs of the project.

The panel of experts was convened and chaired by Andy Minnion, director of the Rix Centre. It completed the Centre’s Inclusive New Media Design (INMD) courses. Designers spend two or seven days debating accessibility issues and developing designs alongside the learning disability community.

My New Media Life

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 13:19:09 +0000

My New Media Life examines the revolution in new media support for learning disabilities. Keynote speakers to talk of their experiences using new media. My New Media Life conference explores new media use for advocacy, support and social inclusion
The use of new media to improve the social care for people with learning disabilities is the subject of this unique conference. It will be held at the British Museum in London on October 1st, 2008.

My New Media Life will be led by people with learning disabilities. They use computers, digital cameras, sound and video recorders in their daily lives. They use this new media for advocacy, support and social inclusion. They will demonstrate the tools and practices which are revolutionising support for the learning disabilities community.

The conference aims to inform directors and managers of social care about the latest uses of new media.

My New Media Life is being organised by the Rix Centre of innovation for learning disability at the University of East London (UEL). The conference will be opened by Lord Rix, after whom the Centre is named.

The conference is sponsored by the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE).

First national guide map

The first national guide map of multimedia for those with learning disabilities will be launched at the conference. It is being researched by the Rix Centre’s director, Andy Minnion, on behalf of SCIE.

This guide map will provide case studies to address the implications for:

• Person-centred care and the ‘Valuing People’ agenda
• Implementation of The Mental Capacity Act 2005;
• Individual budgets and self-directed services; and
• New roles for advocates and brokers in social care.

My New Media Life will show how new media is helping people with learning disabilities including:

• ’Multimedia advocates’ from across the UK - making their own digital portfolios for personal planning and day-to-day communications

• Social Networkers with learning disabilities from Swansea - forging new online support networks with each other to help them lead independent lives

• Teenage web developers with learning disabilities in East London - building a new generation of online ’easy-read’ information for themselves and their peers

The conference will be held at the British Museum Conference Centre. It will include exhibitions demonstrating model practice. Delegates will have hands-on experience of the technology and be able to browse through the tools available.

Policy formers will comment on the growing use of new media in social care.

SCIE was established by Government in 2001 to improve social care services for adults and children in the United Kingdom. It identifies and spreads knowledge about good practice to the social care workforce. SCIE supports the delivery of transformed, personalised social care services. www.scie.org.uk

BP is a sponsor of My New Media Life.

Rix Multimedia Techniques on "Planet Advocacy"

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 13:19:09 +0000

Planet Advocacy, the magazine of Action for Advocacy, explores, in the cover story of its last issue, the increasing role of multimedia in advocacy, interviewing Andy Minnion, director of Rix Centre.
Action for Advocacy already have a history of working with both the Rix Centre and UEL’s School of Social Work as a result of past collaboration to deliver courses in Advocacy at the University. Advocacy is at the heart of the Rix Centre’s research, development, teaching and training. Andy Minnion, the Centre’s director uses the term "Multimedia Advocacy" to describe this specialist work for which the Centre has something of a growing reputation. In the feature the Rix Centre is described as the institution that is “leading the way in developing new approaches to working with people with learning disabilities through the use of multimedia”. For the feature Andy Minnion retraces the path of multimedia advocacy from its foundation “in the youth and community media projects ...of the 1980s and 1990s" in which artists and media practitioners worked with various marginalised groups to create media that would challenge stereotypes. Moreover, he alerts Action for Advocacy readers to some of the risks associated with multimedia advocacy; “some teachers and teaching assistants have other agendas and see multimedia as simply a way of developing a student Record of Achievement. The danger is that the advocacy element and student ownership of the multimedia work can be lost. Multimedia is a chance to bring in these person-centred values to other professions. This is an example where it is important that multimedia is a process, not a product”. The latest findings of the Rix Centre’s work and Andy Minnion’s research will be made available for everyone during “My New Media Life”, the conference organised by the Rix Centre that will take place at the British Museum on Wednesday 1st October 2008.

Rix Centre on Channel 4 News

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 13:19:09 +0000

Monday 30th of June, 12:20, Channel 4 News will show from the Rix Centre how web accessibility can be improved to help the learning disability community.
Dr Helen Kennedy, Project Leader of “Inclusive New Media Design”, and Nick Weldin, Multimedia and Learning Disabilities Specialist of Rix Centre, will explain the importance of accessible web design for including people with learning disabilities in the online community.

Inclusive New Media Design is a research project run from the Rix Centre which aims to identify the best ways to encourage web designers and developers to build websites accessible to people with intellectual disabilities.
A special thanks to Adam, from Tower Project , Donna and David, from Ellingham Employment Services, for their special contribution, which helped with the realisation of the report.

To find out more about the accessible design and the Inclusive New Media Design project:
Click here to read “Experts reveal eight keys to accessible Web design”

CSUN 2008 Conference

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 13:19:09 +0000

Andy Minnion, Director of Rix Centre, and Simon Evans, Technical Director, participated at CSUN 2008, the 23rd Annual International Conference on Technology and Persons with Disabilities that took place in Los Angeles in March. Feedback from the delegates was extremely positive and the Rix Centre was able to forge promising links with US-based practitioners and academics who were introduced to multimedia advocacy for the first time.
The conference has been sponsored by the California State University Northridge Center on Disabilities, and is the leading International annual Conference on he theme of computers use by people with disabilities.
This year’s CSUN Conference featured over 4,530 researchers, educators, practitioners, 125 exhibitors and was attended by a wide variety of persons gathered together to share research data, best practices, and preview new products and applications. Attendees ranged from teachers of the disabled and consumers with disabilities to techies from IBM, Microsoft and Apple.
Minnion and Evans delivered a seminar entitled “Multimedia Advocacy for people with Intellectual disabilities”, in which they showed the activity of the Rix Centre, its software tools, sharing the “Best Practice” developed at the Rix Centre for a global audience.
The next Conference of CSUN will be held in March 16-21, 2009 at the Los Angeles Airport Marriott and Renaissance Montura Hotels.

Click here to read the presentation of “Multimedia Advocacy for people with Intellectual disabilities”

Rix Centre and BBC together in a research programme

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 14:42:13 +0000

The BBC has completed a research programme with the Rix Centre to find out how people with learning disabilities use media.
Twelve young people with learning disabilities monitored their use of media daily. They monitored how often and when they used radio, computer games, the Internet and mobile phones.
They composed daily diaries for a week. They used stickers and their own text comments to log their use of media.
The main outcomes of this research for the Rix centre were:

- People with learning disabilities use their mobile phones less than was expected;
- About half of them have Internet access at their homes;
- They were avid watchers of Big Brother.

The BBC will use this research as a baseline for evaluating some of their services and how they can be improved for their audiences with learning disabilities.
The Rix Centre will use the outcome of this and other research to inform its input to My New Media Life, its conference in October at the British Museum to explore the revolution in social care using multimedia.
The research was led by Pat Staples, Rix Centre Web Project Manager, and Simon Evans, Technical Consultant to the Rix Centre. It was conducted in collaboration with the BBC and the Ellingham Centre local employment service for those with learning disabilities.

Rix pickings

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 13:22:48 +0000

Ajay Choksi, technical assistant at Rix Centre, explains in an interview to the magazine ’Learning Disability Practice’ how Multimedia Advocacy at Rix Centre helped to change his life and to improve his job skills.

Ajay first came at Rix in 2007. Thanks to his skill and his imagination he got a job in few days. Ajay is responsible for all the technical equipment in the courses run at the centre, for example, digital cameras, microphones and headphones.

He helps people with learning disabilities to use different softwares, digital cameras, recording sound and with scanning images.

Thanks to the competence acquired at the Rix Centre, Ajay has been able to build his own website, using an ’easy-build’ template. You can visit it at http://web.thebigtree.org/ajay.

Age Concern England Project

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 14:40:28 +0000

The Rix Centre recently completed a programme of action research, commissioned by Age Concern England as part of their campaign to tackle the social exclusion of older people with dementia who experience lack of mental capacity.

Age Concern England is a federation of over 370 charities concerned with the needs and the interest of the elderly population in the United Kingdom.

The Age Concern England Project aimed to look at the nature and extent of social exclusion of older people who are seen as ‘lacking mental capacity’ and to explore the ways in which this situation can be improved.

Through the use of ‘Multimedia Advocacy’ methods, the views and experiences of older people who have dementia, or have lacked mental capacity, have been solicited and captured.

The project was led by Gosia Nowicka, Researcher for the Rix Centre, Pippa Sweeney, Research assistant, and Andy Minnion, Director of the Rix Centre.