On the 11th and 18th October Professor Angharad Beckett and Rachel Heaton hosted a workshop with the help of PhD student Daria Borisova, with local disabled families.
Aim
The aim of the workshops was to hear what disabled parents, and parents of disabled children, experiences are in society.
From this we wanted to work with them, as part of our co-production, to ensure the project is as accessible as possible to as many people as possible.
Where we were
The workshops took place at Mencap Leeds. Mencap is an independent charity, started by and for those with learning disabilities.
Their hospitality and welcoming atmosphere made the workshops feel even more accessible and helped us create a safe environment for the disabled families to speak on difficult topics.
What the workshops looked like
The workshops had an outline of what the team aimed to discuss, however with it being co-production the parents had agency to discuss and bring up concerns they had.
We carried out a number of activities, the first was specifically hearing about the families experiences being a disabled family and the struggles they have had navigating healthcare, childcare, schools and feeding, to name a few. This task was particularly insightful and helped the team get a real feeling to how difficult things can be for disabled families.
Other tasks included a Wisdom tree, where we asked the families to offer advice to newly disabled families. And asked them to think about what advice would have been helpful to them at the beginning of their journey.
On each day we had a lunch break where Mencap Leeds’ hospitality team brought us wonderful catering.
Overall thoughts and next steps
The day was extremely informative and gave the team a lot of insight into the experiences and feelings of local disabled families.
The information shared and insights given to us are being written up by Prof Angharad Beckett, Dr Neve McLean and Rachel Heaton.
This information will assist us with the project and give guidance for how we are a team can make the sessions accessible, appropriate and welcoming to disabled families, and therefore to everyone.
