I can’t keep up with the number of autism events happening in museums. I keep a list, and it grows bigger every day. I have spoken about autism in museums at Museums Showoff and a Kids in Museums Carnival. I have been to the Natural History Museum, Science Museum and the Jewish Museum to visit their autism openings with my …
Museums Showoff, doing it for the girls (and the boy)
When I quit work to help my daughter after her autism diagnosis back in 2012 I began volunteering to keep my sanity and keep my confidence. I could never have dreamed of where the volunteering and blogging would take me. But I knew if I didn’t get out there and do ‘stuff’ it would get harder and harder to get …
Sensory Backpacks for the Visually Impaired – a case study from the V&A with Abigail Hirsch
Launched in August 2015, the Curious Ceramics backpack is the V&A’s first backpack aimed at children with visual impairments. The V&A offer a number of backpacks for families, but for this special sensory version they worked in close collaboration with Sense, the national deafblind charity, and Abigail Hirsch an artist and an educator with experience and expertise in multisensory …
Dawnosaurs – Natural History Museum Autism early opening, April 2016
I remember when I saw the job advertised for a ‘Dawnosaurs Programme Co-ordinator’ back in July 2015, it was a first sign that the Natural History Museum (NHM) in London were going to put on early opening for children on the autism spectrum and their families. I don’t know if you have ever seen the queues outside the NHM on …
Well aware of Autism
Occasionally I weaken from my daily diet of museums and exhibitions and offer up something a little bit more personal. I always find these blogs harder to write but they often feel kind of therapeutic too. Today is Autism Awareness Day, for a day, a week, a month, the focus turns to Autism. My thoughts have been on autism a lot lately, …
‘Night Owls’ at the Science Museum, Autism Late
The thing about autism, the thing that makes me most sad, is the misapprehension that it is a childhood affliction. That somehow if you have a child with autism they will ‘grow out of it’. Not true, I am afraid, a child with autism will become an adult with autism. But what about that bit in the middle, the teenage years, …
Opening Doors: Rethinking disabled access and interpretation in your museum, Sept 2015
I recently attended the Museums Association Seminar ‘Opening Doors’ on disabled access in museums at the Royal College of Physicians in London. It was a fascinating and inspiring day and I have written up a piece for the Museums Association. You can find it here – http://www.museumsassociation.org/comment/22092015-the-time-is-right-to-rethink-disabled-access If you went along on the day, please let me know your thoughts in …
Twitter Takeover at the Science Museum for Early Birds Autism morning
I am nervous, we are off to the Science Museum. Early on a Saturday, got to get all the kids up and on the train by 7.50am. Last night thunder and lightning, two kids slept through the lot, one was up till the early hours. Very tempted to stay in bed but today is special, today the Science Museum are …
Re-imagine: Improving access to the arts, galleries and museums for people with learning disabilities – New report
A few weeks ago ‘Kids in Museums’ drew my attention to a report produced by Lemos and Crane for the City Bridge Trust on improving access for people with learning disabilities, it was a fascinating read and I highly recommend that you take a look. The report looked at art organisations, museums and galleries across London and learning disability specialists …
Reaching for the stars is harder than you think – Autism friendly at Greenwich Museums
At the start of the summer, out of the blue I received an email from Katherine Weston, Access Officer at the Royal Museums Greenwich. She was putting on her first autism friendly event at the Planetarium, she had read my blog and wanted to know if we as a family would like to try out the show and give her …