Multimedia Advocacy
An Introduction
The Rix Centre champions ’Multimedia Advocacy’ as a range of different ways in which people with learning disabilities can have a stronger say in their lives and make their voices heard. Multimedia advocacy enables people to explore and understand their personal options and make informed choices, tell their own stories, plan ahead and communicate day-to-day using cameras, videos, microphones and computers.
Multimedia Advocacy is proving a really effective way to improve the lives of people with learning disabilities... and it can be fun to do for both users and supporters!
The benifits of multimedia advocacy
People with learning disabilities can benefit from the use of multimedia in many ways:
- They can gain confidence in communication and engage more effectively in shaping their day to day activities
- They can share their interests and tastes and explain the ways that they like to be supported
- They can develop their skills in the use of Computers and in general social interaction and communication
- They can prepare presentations to highlight their gifts, talents and achievements and so improve their prospect of being active citizens and finding suitable employment
- They can use multimedia to explore their opportunities and make informed choices and decisions
- They can use multimedia to record their life stories and their experiences to help others really get to know and understand them.
Those providing care and support can also benefit:
- Families, professionals and supporters gain additional ways to work and interact with people with learning disabilities by using multimedia
- It provides an engaging and accessible way to make plans together and produce records that everyone can engage with
- Working with multimedia provides a great platform for the sharing of ideas and the capturing of subtle communication
- It gives supporters a way to record all the things that they have learned about the people that they are working with, so that it is not lost but it is handed on by the person themselves in a format that they can understand
- Supporters develop technical skills and confidence that will help them personally and professionally
- Professionals who complete these courses will also build more understanding about person centred approaches to care, advocacy, communication, empowerment and inclusion.
