Author: Richard Lohan

We spoke to Ajay Choksi, member of the Rix team and peer support champion, about his work at The Rix Centre and his interest in research

Ajay, please tell us a bit about yourself

I have an intellectual disability and I’m passionate about digital inclusion, accessibility and design. I’m really interested in using different devices like my iPad, smartphone and laptop.

What do you use those devices for?

I make photo collages and do graphics work and video editing. I take photos and video on my iPad and use these to tell my story. I add them to my Wiki to inspire people.

What is a Wiki?

A Wiki is an easy-build website. You can add photos, video and sound to tell people about yourself, your hopes and dreams and anything else you want to share with others.

Who can see the Wiki?

You can invite people to view your Wiki by using the Invite button. I share my Wiki with other staff, social workers, service users and others by sending them an invite from the Wiki software. I also share my Wiki on screen during meetings and presentations and when I’m teaching other people how to build their own Wiki.

How does it feel to share your story with other people?

It’s important to share my Wiki, it makes me feel proud and confident because I am speaking up and working on my advocacy and leadership skills.

Why is that important?

So that other people can see how they can speak up for themselves with their stories. It’s an easier way for people with learning disabilities to be heard and to have a voice.

How many Wikis do you have?

I’ve built lots of Wikis.
Ajay Advice 3 is about me and has advice about being independent.
I use my Research Wiki to help me learn how to be a researcher – it has lots of information about the different Rix Research projects I’ve worked on.
I use my Advocacy and Leadership Wiki to keep a record of my learning and skills development in these areas.
We also have project Wikis like MYS (Me and Your Stories), Aspire (Zoom training) and purpleSTARS (Museum of London).

Where can we see examples of your Wiki work?

There’s a link to Ajay Advice 3 below and you can also check out the Me and Your Stories (MYS) Wiki. Me and Your Stories is a European partnership project all about storytelling and how we can use digital devices and special software in the classroom to capture and share our stories.

Ajay Advice 3

Me and Your Stories

The PRSB is delighted to welcome Rix Inclusive Research, a technology firm specialising in helping people with intellectual disabilities, as the latest organisation to become a PRSB Standards Partner and join in our mission to accelerate the adoption and meaningful use of standards.

Rix Inclusive Research carries out research and develops digital tools for the benefit of people with intellectual disabilities, and promotes their use across education, health and care. Working from the Rix Centre at the University of East London, the Rix team co-develops highly accessible multimedia software tools with people with a learning disability, autism and dementia, their families and carers and the spectrum of organisations and professionals that work with them.

Speaking about this new partnership, Director of Rix Inclusive Research, Andy Minnion said: “Our aim is to help people help themselves. The accurate sharing of data across care settings and geographical boundaries is integral to this, and we are working to demonstrate the tangible benefits, but also the risks and consequences of failing to do so. Aligning with PRSB standards is a progressive and positive step forward in that journey.”

Rix tools help people advocate on their own behalf as well as through their carers, and this in turn leads to more person centred care and support services. The Centre’s flagship product, the Rix Wiki, has been adopted by local authorities, CCGs, care provider organisations, schools and colleges across England and Wales and is a selected Innovation with NHS England’s National Innovation Accelerator programme (2020).

The Rix Centre sees partnership with the PRSB and its community of practice as a critical part of helping health and care services to engage more effectively with people with disabilities so that their information and insights, as well as those of their carers, can improve the provision of person centred care.

Professor Andy Minnion, Rix Director, underlines the importance of the new partnership: “In order to facilitate effective personalised and person centred integrated care, we want to enable the straightforward, secure and efficient sharing of information for the growing number of citizens who hold their personal health and care data on their own digital devices. Alignment with the PRSB’s About Me information standard is essential for the long-term success of this programme.”

“It’s an absolute pleasure to welcome Andy and his team at Rix Media and Research as a PRSB Standards Partner. Their drive to improve care and empower the individual speaks volumes about the projects they are leading on, and I’m delighted to have formed an alliance with such an innovative team.” Lorraine Foley, PRSB CEO

PRSB About Me

Rix Wikis

The Me and Your Stories project looks at how we can support digital inclusion through the sharing of stories. Our final conference takes place in person and online on Thursday 17 March, 10am-1pm

We are excited to announce that the Me and Your Stories conference will feature Keynotes from

Professor the Baroness Sheila Hollins, Beyond Words
Shamima Akhtar, Policy Connect

We will also have presentations from Abingdon and Witney College, Charlton Park Academy and the Rix team here at UEL.

Delegates can attend in person or remotely – book online for more details

Book online

Agenda

Our Keynote speakers

Professor the Baroness Sheila Hollins, Beyond Words
Sheila is the Beyond Words Founder, Chair of trustees, and Editor of the Books Beyond Words series. She is Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry of Intellectual Disability at St George’s, University of London, and sits in the House of Lords as an independent crossbench peer.

Shamima Akhtar, Policy Connect
Shamima works on the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Assistive Technology.
She has experience in the Disabled People’s Organisation sector where she worked on policy and campaigns related to Covid-19. She also has a keen interest in accessible and assistive technology (ATech).

Special guest

We are very excited to announce that Abdi Omar will be closing our conference after the panel discussion. Abdi’s years of experience showing the world that cerebral palsy is his strength now see him travelling the world to motivate others. Abdi will share his story, How technology changed my life. You can find out more about Abdi’s inspiring work on his website.

Abdi Omar’s website

The Me and Your Stories (MYS) project is hosting an international, interactive, hands-on conference that brings together European leaders with practitioners and developers to share and explore the ways in which new digital tools can make inclusion exciting.

The MYS conference is aimed at practitioners working in places like schools, colleges, community centres and museums and there are still places available, both online and face-to-face.

The day will be packed with presentations, interactive workshops and discussions, all of which will provide you with creative ideas on how to use innovative digital tools to promote inclusion within your organisations and communities.

We encourage early bookings – there are still places available but experience shows that these go quickly!

Me and Your Stories Conference
Thursday 17 March
10am-3.30pm
Knowledge Dock Building, University of East London and online

Book your place now

Following the success of the purpleSTARS sensory exploration, London is the place for me, the Museum of London has offered to extend the show until 23 January 2022.

The purpleSTARS had been working on the project throughout lockdown, including attending 20 weekly Zoom meetings, so they’d been on quite a journey by the time London is the place for me opened in September 2021.

The Rix Centre invited people to the museum’s Talking Point gallery on Tuesday 30 November to celebrate the success and popularity of the sensory display.

This is a special display…specifically set up in a space in the museum where we can experiment and try things out for the first time and do things in a different way.

Vandana Patel, Museum of London

Over 800 visitors have already used Ultraleap’s unique touch-free technology to complete a Rix EasySurvey and give their feedback. 70% of visitors said that the display was interesting and prompted them to think about their own Londoner experience. Over 90% said that the display had increased their knowledge about the lives of Londoners in the past.

The project has been really fun and we should make museums fun. Allow people to learn, get up close and touch everything.

Samantha Walker, purpleSTARS

Find out more about the purpleSTARS and London is the place for me below

purpleSTARS website

purpleSTARS UEL article

Following the success of our recent MYS conference, we’d like to share some video highlights of the event.

Over 40 people attended on the day and the project will now move into a testing phase, trying out the MYS toolkit in different classrooms across Europe. We all look forward to meeting up again at the end of project conference on 17 March 2022.

Many thanks to Abby Hanby for compiling the video highlights.

Here are two more videos from the conference

Dr Nicola Grove, Keynote speaker

Ajay Choksi, My Covid Story

The purpleSTARS are a group of people with and without learning difficulties based at the Rix Centre who work together to make museums more inclusive.

Their aim is for everyone to make personal connections and really enjoy their visits, whatever their background or abilities.

This new free display in the Museum of London’s Talking Point gallery, features sensory elements from sounds to images and even smells, explores the lives of Londoners past and present and invites visitors to reflect on their own experiences of the capital.

During lockdown, as part of this project, the purpleSTARS listened to recordings made over the past 80 years from the Museum of London’s oral history collection.

They recorded their thoughts about these stories during video meetings and made connections to their own experiences as Londoners, using a Rix Wiki to capture this journey of exploration.

We picked out themes that are important and interesting to us, Equality, Cinema, Style and Travel. Listening to some oral histories inspired us to come up with our own messages about equality as Londoners.

The purpleSTARS then looked for images and objects from the museum that matched these themes and incorporated touch and smell into their displays to give people a multisensory experience of the stories that were emerging.

Visitors to the Talking Point gallery will be able to explore these stories using new touchless technology from project partners, Ultraleap.

The display opens on 3 September and runs until 17 December
Pre-book your tickets here

London is the Place for me

Find out more about how purpleSTARS recorded their journey into the past by visiting their Rix Wiki

purpleSTARS Wiki

purpleSTARS website

 

If you own a car, you’ll be familiar with the MOT, an annual health check for your vehicle that gives you pointers and advice about any repairs needed to keep your car running smoothly.

Rix have developed an MOT for your school or organisation. Our MOT checks your readiness to use new digital tools that could transform practice and improve outcomes for the people you teach and support.

Whether you feel your organisation is already using person centred, inclusive technology or has a little way to go, our audit will benchmark your current status and give you ideas to help you take the next steps towards digital inclusion.

We understand how busy people are, so our quick MOT is designed to be completed within a few minutes. Respond by selecting the statements which best describe your school or social care organisation.

Rix will use your responses to generate a unique report of your current status in the following areas:

• Person centred practice and processes
• Culture and confidence
• ICT equipment and software
• Connectivity

In addition to the report, we will include a set of corresponding actions to help you take the next step on your inclusive digital journey. These actions can form the basis of your organisation’s action plan.

If you are a school, multi academy trust or college, start here

MOT for schools 

If you are a social care provider, start here

MOT for social care

To find out more about our software, visit the Rix Software website

rixsoftware.org

MYS – Me and Your Stories – is a pan-European project that puts the learner at the heart of the community and the classroom by providing powerful storytelling tools on a digital platform.

Sharing stories helps people understand and celebrate difference. The MYS toolbox enables young people to share their own stories, as well as reflect on each other’s, by capturing their voices, thoughts and experiences using photos and videos.

This project supports inclusion by making it easier for everyone to have a voice and for all those voices to be heard as part of a bigger conversation about diversity and difference.

The MYS conference on Thursday 14 October is an opportunity for educators and people who support people with learning disabilities to come together, be inspired, and share ideas about the different ways in which we can use digital to open up the world to people who are more likely to be excluded from it.

Dr Nicola Grove, an expert in the field of storytelling, will be the keynote speaker at the conference.

I believe passionately in the value of the lives of all individuals, linked to each other through our shared stories.

Through stories we find out about new experiences and ideas, develop empathy and imagination, and learn how to face challenges and solve problems.

Nicola Grove

Book your free place for the MYS conference now – limited places available

Book now for MYS event 14 October 2021

Dr Nicola Grove

14-20 June is Learning Disability week and Mencap are celebrating the art and creativity that has helped many people with a learning disability stay connected and positive through the challenges of last year.

We already know from our NHSx Stay Connected project how important creative expression has been for people as they faced increased isolation through having to stay at home for so long. So we were excited to hear that the Digital Lifeline project has distributed over 5,500 devices to adults with learning disabilities, along with the data and digital skills support to use these devices safely and with confidence.

Digital Lifeline is an emergency response project funded by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and delivered by Good Things Foundation in partnership with AbilityNet and Digital Unite. The project is supported by Learning Disability England, the Voluntary Organisations Disability Group, self-advocates and other disability and digital inclusion organisations.

Almost three quarters of people with a learning disability said their wellbeing was affected by the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic and those without digital skills faced a huge additional barrier to accessing essential services and staying connected with loved ones.

We are already working in partnership with Digital Unite on their Zoom training resource and are, therefore, well-placed to help evaluate the success of the Digital Lifeline project by talking to people with learning disabilities about their experience with their new internet-ready tablets. Ajay Choksi, Rix team member and Wiki Master put it like this:

“We’re going to work on the Digital Lifeline evaluation…it feels good!”

As part of this work, Ajay has showcased his Multi Me to show others how helpful it has been to connect people up on the platform. Ajay continues to develop his advocacy leadership skills through projects like these and is recording this journey of development in his new Advocacy Leadership Wiki.

The Digital Lifeline project has shown us all how important it is for us all to work together to find solutions to the social isolation of vulnerable groups, especially during the pandemic and the support and partnership of the wider learning disability sector has been essential to the project’s swift roll-out and success.

You can find out more about Learning Disability week and get involved here

Learning Disability week 2021

 

Rix EasySurvey is our groundbreaking accessible survey tool, fun and easy to use for both survey creators and survey voters.

We have made some exciting improvements to Rix EasySurvey and want to share these with you. The improvements are designed to make our software easier to use and are in direct response to suggestions from our community of users.

Most recent survey first

We’ve changed the way we present your surveys. The survey that was edited most recently is now at the top of your survey list.

More detailed activity information

When a voter responds to a Text entry question, you’ll notice that the results are displayed in the word cloud. We’ve now added the last 10 responses too, directly under the word cloud.

Survey complete message

We’ve listened to you and updated our standard survey completion message to voters. The new messaging simply thanks voters for their participation.

Rix branding

We’ve updated the Rix EasySurvey branding to reflect the Rix and University of East London’s smart new logo.

Save question also saves survey

We listened to our user community on this one. You said that clicking Save question, then Save survey, was a click too many! We’ve changed the Save question action to also save the survey from now on.

We’ll be updating our training resources to reflect these changes.

Try EasySurvey Lite today for free

MEDICI’s final conference, Digital Inclusion For All, took place on 26-28 January 2021. MEDICI is a pan-European EU-funded project that maps digital inclusion and hosts the MEDICI Knowledge Community.

The primary goal of the conference was to address the challenges of digital exclusion and discuss emerging good practices in the field of digital inclusion in Europe. The conference consisted of three days of presentations and discussions on the theme of better digital inclusion for vulnerable groups in Europe and beyond.

With 34 speakers and over 800 participants from 33 countries, participants had the opportunity to meet practitioners and experts, be inspired by keynote speeches, and learn about different approaches in a series of workshops. Rix co-director Gosia was invited to give a keynote presentation to a parallel session, Integrating older people and people with disabilities in the digital world. This session also included a presentation by Ineke Schuurman, from Belgium, about the Able to Include project.

Gosia took the conference on a brief history tour of Rix and talked about the Living Lab concept and the Participatory Action Research model. She described the digital journey from early digital cameras all the way through to the development of multimedia tools like the Rix Wiki and Multi Me software. She spoke passionately about Multimedia Advocacy and the guiding principle of keeping the person at the centre of everything we do when working with and supporting people with learning disabilities.

In the discussion that followed, Gosia was able to promote the idea of peer-to-peer learning, citing the shining example of Rix team member Ajay Choksi who has continued to develop his excellent peer-to-peer training skills over the past year. When another delegate was inclined to put significant limits on people’s potential to learn by continually referring to their notional ‘mental age’, Gosia was quick to remind everyone that constantly equating a person’s ‘mental age’ with the inability to learn new things overlooks the fact that this adult person will have the life experience of an adult.

“When people are excluded, they lose out and we lose out…this group of people can really contribute to society and they need to be visible”

Gosia also touched on the theme of digital exclusion when asked about the onboarding process of the recent TechForce19 Stay Connected project. Project partners and their respective services found that in many cases people with learning disabilities did not have access to the technology that the rest of us take for granted – smart devices, internet access and a familiarity with the digital environment. As a consequence, people were often excluded from taking part in the project, missing out on the opportunity to connect with others during these challenging times.

Digital inclusion for all, therefore, starts with tangible, practical steps and includes not only the provision of technology and support but also the commitment not to underestimate people’s ability to learn.

MEDICI YouTube channel

Conference presentations

Able to Include