ALISS Disability History Month showcase 2023

a padlet of useful resources created by speakers, aliss members and attendees

National Paralympic Trust Digital projects
Vicky Hope-Walker of the NPHT described the work of the organisation and its plans to create a virtual museum. preliminary work on 3d digital objects can be seen on the website. A key concept is the incluion of the voices of lived experience of ‘disability’.

Collections on the go: A walking tour app for Paralympic heritage. 

Samuel Brady (He/Him) and Bethany Watrous, Sam is a AHRC funded Collaborative Doctoral Award candidate Working in partnership with the University of Glasgow and the National Paralympic Heritage Trust  Research project: The Social, Political and Technical History of Sporting Wheelchairs. Bethany is the app developer. The talk  covered the background historical research and technical innovations.

“Lucy: A Story from the Normansfield Archives” by Dr Sarah E Hayward  

Sarah recently completed a PhD at Kingston University London in the field of Museum and Heritage Studies. She is now a freelance researcher, podcast editor for the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, and a heritage assistant at the Royal Hospital for Neuro-disability, Putney.  

This presentation was based on research carried out in the Normansfield Archive Collection. Normansfield Hospital was founded by John Langdon Down in 1868 as a private residential home and school for people (mostly children) with learning disabilities. The story of Lucy, who was admitted to Normansfield in 1879 at the age of 5, is narrated through letters written by her father, mother, and grandmother. Lucy’s story demonstrates how archival documents can be used to rediscover a person, and reconstruct a story, both of which had been entirely lost over time. It was a fascinating case study which showed how the voices of the ‘disabled ‘ are often absent from official records about them and how they might be rediscovered via documentary research.

“Be not denied access”: improving Accessibility to Collections at Shakespeare’s Globe
Philip Milnes-Smith is an archivist with lived experience of disability.  He works part-time as the Digital Archivist at Shakespeare’s Globe where he has been leading the archive’s work in decolonising and inclusive practice.

His presentation presented a work in progress in improving accessibility. This extended beyond improving physical access to the reading room.

He spoke about improving audio descriptions. Providing visual stories to audiences in advance so they know what to expect from performances in terms of storylines, settings and actions

Enhancing catalogue records of archive collections to make resources about disability traceable. This involves indicating which plays include disabled characters or disablement as a theme in the text of production. It includes listing props related to disability such as crutches or eye patches. Listing the availability of texts, captioned recordings and audio descriptions of productions.
Aims to develop subject guides to disability, gender, queerness and race in the collections during 2024. In association with an advisory panel and to update them annually. the panel will include representatives from local communities and those with lived experience.