I’m Jessica, and I’m a rising fourth year student at the University of Massachussetts Amherst, originally from northern New Jersey.
As a psychology student with experience in psycholinguistics research, I came into this internship hoping I could branch out and get involved some completely new professional settings. At the time I was just thinking of person-facing work, but I had the opportunity to experience that and much more in just six short weeks with RIX!
I spent one day per week at the newly-opened Dialogue Express Cafe in Stratford, which employs exclusively d/Deaf and hard of hearing baristas. I had never been involved in anything like it, so it was really interesting to see what goes into getting a small business off the ground. I helped them out with a competitor analysis and with reaching out to potential collaborators in the area, and I was excited to learn some beginner BSL signs along the way. I’m most proud of the fact that I was able to connect Dialogue with Graeae Theatre Company, a Deaf-run organisation that puts on bilingual performances in English and BSL. I think that it will be a wonderful collaboration, which I hope to follow through social media in the coming months!
In my second week, I was able to attend a RIX meeting with Egyptian professors visiting from Cairo to discuss inclusive education and universal design. I learned a lot at that meeting, and from going with them for a tour of Charlton Park Academy, a school for kids with various disabilities. I was able to sit in on a class that used assistive technology, chat with some of the students, and learn to make sentences using a picture and audio app on one of the school iPads. Every student had access to one of them, and I could see how useful it could be for students who struggle to express themselves verbally. That section of class was led by a teacher on Zoom, who himself uses Eye Gaze technology to communicate. It was great to see how assistive technology and patience allowed everybody in the room to be fully included!
In the final two weeks of my internship, I was able to work with Gosia to compile sources that detail government policy on inclusive education in Uzbekistan for an upcoming collaboration with Tashkent State Pedagogical University. I also worked with Paul and my fellow interns, Caroline and Disha, to put together two RIX EasySurveys which will help RIX understand the experiences that staff and students have around disability and inclusive policy at UEL.
Finally, I had a great time visiting with the Airthrie Home residents, some of whom are co-researchers at RIX, following a health technology workshop at the UEL office where they were given step trackers, pill reminders, and Fitbits. When Caroline, Disha, and I went to visit, we talked with the residents about how they liked the technology, how often they were using it, and how it might be helpful to them, then supported them in recording their thoughts in RIX Wikis; we had the opportunity to create our own Wikis earlier on, with help from the WikiMaster, Ajay. We got some really valuable feedback from everybody, and also just had a great time chatting about London and things going on in the world. One resident, on our way out, said something along the lines of: Aren’t you glad you came here? I mean it’ s one thing to learn about things in school, and it’ s a completely different thing to actually talk to people, and really listen to them. I think that sentiment nicely sums up my time at RIX. The most valuable experiences I got out of my internship here were the ones that can’t necessarily fit into a line on my resume, but which helped me better understand and interact with lots of different types of people.
These opportunities each brought me out of my comfort zone in different ways, but ultimately helped me connect with more diverse ideas and groups of people I hadn’t had much opportunity to interact with before. Thank you so much to Gosia, Kanchan, Ajay, Hakan, Yash, Caroline, Disha, and everybody who made my experience at RIX so varied and interesting! I hope to cross paths with you all again sometime in the future.
Jessica Murray, CEA CAPA Intern