Case Study: Understanding and Meeting the Needs of Your Participants in Heritage Projects
What is this case study about?
This case study is an excellent example of how an organisation planned and provided access support for project leaders and participants for a project in which people share and discover histories sensitive and personal to them.
NSG demonstrate the big and small steps to take in understanding people's needs and set out how they met them.
What are the key points?
- It is important to budget money, time and resources towards understanding and meeting access needs
- It is healthy to set the pace and outcomes of a project with the pace and preferences of the people involved, especially those whose marginalised identities might be explored
- Calling participants 'co-authors' sets the expectation of equality and responsibility, and that all have the same opportunity to set the direction and accessible experience of the project
What was the project about?
Members of 'NSG', a volunteer-led LGBTQIA+ group based in Newcastle upon Tyne, explored the history of drag in the 'Pink Triangle' gay quarter of Newcastle city and centred accessibility for all throughout the project.
In addressing disability access from the beginning, they made it easy for everyone involved to ask for their neurodiversity, wellbeing, and mental health needs to be met.
Who was involved with the project?
The co-authors from NSG (who had a range of needs) collaborated with researcher Dr Lucy Wright, socially engaged artist and drag king Lady Kitt, socially engaged composer Bridie Jackson, and drag performer/opera singer Sarah Li.
What were the aims and objectives?
The project had several aims, including co-creation and the chance for people to learn something new.
However, some specific aims demonstrate access was important to deliver from the very beginning of the project:
- For outcomes to be easily accessed and enjoyed in entertainment venues in the Pink Triangle and other settings
- For people to feel welcomed by the project and feel autonomy over their own research
- For people to feel supported in following their own interests
- For people to feel able to share their access needs and to feel the project met these
- For people to feel comfortable expressing their LGBTQIA+ and working-class identities and experiences
The outcomes of the project included:
- 12 free and accessible art and research workshops
- A celebration event
- A co-created docu-song
- An essay by Dr Lucy Wright on drag as a folk art
- In-depth individual research by 11 co-author volunteer participants
How was this approached?
The project lead, Lady Kitt, supported by their assistant, made every arrangement for the project's activities to consider accessibility regarding physical disability, neurodiversity and mental health. Everyone's comfort was thought about, which further helped the co-authors to build an environment of trust and openness.
This was key to the exploration of LGBTQ+ history and participants' lived experiences, which had the potential to be emotive and make co-authors feel vulnerable. The project environment ensured a level of safety and comfort.
The things Kitt and their team did to support this included:
Budgeting for access
- Having a budget line for access so co-authors could claim expenses for access support, travel expenses, childcare, food and loss of income
The physical space at venues
- Only meeting in venues with step-free access, gender-neutral toilets, accessible toilets, blue badge parking nearby, and sober spaces
- Performing at a venue with a wheelchair-accessible stage and LOOP system
Content and project programme access
- Creating image, video and audio descriptions for all content
- Printing large-print versions of written material
- Providing adaptive tools for workshops (like left-handed, spring-handled and table-mounted scissors)
- Providing stim equipment and activities at all workshops
- Providing a detailed schedule for workshops for those who wanted them
- Printing out the lyrics for all songs and having a BSL interpreter on hold for the final event
Acting on the information co-authors shared
- For 'closed sessions', using doodle polls to find dates and times which suited people's availability and provided 121 online catch-ups for people who couldn't attend in-person events
- Inviting co-authors and facilitators to share their access needs via email and access phone/video call
- Creating consent forms to define what people hoped to share and enjoy in being involved in the project. The forms were developed as part of another project by Lady Kitt and Sarah Li in collaboration with Newcastle University Academic, Dr Tina Sikka, who specialises in consent
Appealing to neurodivergence and learning styles
- Programming a range of creative activities, including crafting, smell maps, and sound baths. These appealed to different learning and communication styles
- Making time for emotional regulation by creating physical things together like costumes, props and wigs, bringing bodily and mental calmness and openness to the group
- Making time for emotional and practical support to be offered, sought and shared
Centering the principles of co-creation for all
- Using Lady Kitt's 'Mess Making As Social Glue' ethical framework, which centres autonomy, active listening and collective decision-making
- Using Lady Kitt's 'Exchange Rates' approach to fair management and credit of labour and value in the project
Building trust
- Starting every workshop and rehearsal with a care, wellbeing and access check-in, which is simply an open conversation to find out how everyone is feeling and if there's anything else they need outside of their usual access requirements
- Wellbeing check-outs after longer sessions, asking how everyone found the session and ensuring no one leaves feeling unsafe
- Having 30 mins set aside at the end of each session for people to have 1-to-1 wellbeing check-outs if they needed to (called 'aftercare')
- Discussing strategies for gently correcting the use of incorrect pronouns and gently challenging assumptions about people's sexuality, gender, socio-economic situation and background
- Starting each session with an intro for each person, including pronouns
- Project leaders, facilitators and administrators leading by example, with active and reflective listening, holding space for people to share their experiences by leaders sharing their own, and having email sign-offs which include pronouns and links to access info where applicable
- Sending all co-authors a list of support services, groups and activities which may be useful or relevant to their lived experience in relation to the project
- Only promoting the celebration event through NSG and performers' word of mouth, as some were first-time performers and anxious about large audiences
What were the challenges?
The main challenge in this project was underbudgeting the amount of time the project coordinator would need to manage the needs and preferences of the co-authors.
It is important to ensure not just adequate but generous time for project coordinators to deliver in this area. In this case, the project lead used the underspend of the generous access budget to pay for more project coordinator hours but said that in the future, they would reprofile their budget.
What lessons were learned?
- It is essential to have a budget line for access
- Accessibility goes beyond step-free venues; it includes an understanding and respect for consent, which opens everyone up to share what they need to feel safe and able to contribute to a project
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