Disabled Living

Month: September 2017

A Rare Find: The Christmas Card Folio

Heather Roberts (HerArchivist, archive consultant), has put together this wonderful blog which discovers the meaning and significance of Disabled Living’s collection of heritage Christmas cards.

The archive

Disabled Living have a fascinating history stretching 120 years. It’s a vital but little-know part of Manchester’s amazing past and present. On the Donkeys to Innovators project, we are hoping to organise the evidence of their history into an archive and share their journey.

Explore the timeline for some of the key points of the history.

There are some gorgeous archive items in their collection. Hundreds of photographs, decades of annual reports, files of letters, ye old property deeds. Nice, core archive material through which you can learn so much.

Disabled Living also has something else. It’s an absolute treat and so unique. Not only does it say so much about the organisation but it’s also aesthetically delightful.

Christmas card folio

It’s the kind of thing that when you look at it, it makes you sigh and wish for childhood and Christmas markets. It’s colourful, full of beautiful vintage designs and interesting stories to tell.

The folio is an old crumbling hardback volume. Within it are pasted the Christmas cards that the society (back then called The Crippled Children’s Help Society) used to send to children at Christmas who were either disabled or otherwise housebound for the season (recovering from illness etc.).

Each card is gorgeously designed and very of its time, charting the way through a good chunk of the first half of the 20^th century. There’s hints of classic Arts and Crafts style borders, flowing into Art Nouveau lines all the way through to the vintage bright bold colours of Santas gone by.

They must have been an absolute treat to receive in the post. Many were accompanied by Christmas hampers for the children as a small gift of added kindness for the season.

How this helps research and understanding

This folio is important not only for its beauty and rarity (much of the original archive was lost in a fire). It is also key in understanding what the society really did.

Much of any organisation’s is written down, in minutes and letters and reports. These are all highly valuable. They chart the progress of an organisation, what it had to think about, how it managed challenges, what was planned etc.

However, this only tells one side of the story. It can tell us on the top-level of the organisation what went on. This is the material that is therefore most likely to be kept. It’s rare that much of the ground-level activity is kept. It’s everyday stuff. It’s not discussed by the Board or debated over at Annual General Meetings.

These simple heritage Christmas cards on the other hand, tell a story about the ground-level kindness and activism of the society. You can see it in front of your face. You can hold it in your hands. It’s a beautiful piece of Manchester’s history and we are so looking forward to sharing it with you.

Take care of the pennies

The adage, “Take care of the pennies, the pounds will take care of themselves” might apply here. Important records, top-level records and core activities are usually kept because they shout of inherent value.

The grass-roots, ground-level, every day activities and initiatives are what the organisation actually does, though. So spare a little effort in making sure that this is evidenced, remembered and celebrated.

Heather’s free “Create your own archive” toolkit can be downloaded here.

September 29, 2017
Greta McMillan Exhibits Artwork at Porty Art Wall

For September, we would like to dedicate our Story of the Month to Greta McMillan. Greta is a 13-year-old girl who, earlier this month stunned members of the public with her artistic skills. As a wheelchair user with cerebral palsy who can’t use her hands or arms like other artists, Greta had her artwork exhibited at Porty Art Wall. This project is run by volunteers and ‘celebrates the public space and creativity of Portobello, Edinburgh’s Seaside.’

When talking about the Porty Art Wall, Greta’s mum, Thea says:

It has been quite wonderful. She didn’t have a way of expressing herself before – she’s always been good at doing yes blinks but that is dependent on us asking her the right question. So it’s still a learning curve. – Source: The London Economic (TLE).

Portobello, Edinburgh

Greta communicates by blinking with her eyes. And now her parents are very pleased that she finally has an ‘eye tracker’ computer to assist with her communication. The computer was funded by people in Edinburgh through a fundraising campaign. The money raised has given Greta a life-changing opportunity to do what she loves the most.

Both mum and dad are very proud to see Greta be able to do something which she enjoys. Read more about how the computer helps Greta to create her art here.

Did you see our guest post on art therapy about a man named Patrick Samuel with Asperger’s Syndrome?

If you would like to feature your story on Disabled Living’s blog please send an email to: info@disabledliving.co.uk.

September 29, 2017
What Have We Learnt from Our Community Curation Training?
As many of you will already know, Disabled Living are celebrating 120 years of providing services. As part of our Heritage Lottery Funded project, Disabled Living has received training in different areas. An interesting section has included two community curation sessions delivered by Catherine O’Donnell from the People’s History Museum.

We understand the importance of the planning process in our Donkeys To Innovators project. We have learnt many things including the Ekarv text style for an exhibition along with guidelines for handling objects. We had the opportunity to fill out a document for our archive material, which lists key information such as: object name, type, condition, creator etc. Learning about Ekarv writing was very interesting. It sounds easy enough to do but there’s more to it than you think.

Ekarv writing style

Imagine you’re writing a paragraph of text – with Ekarv you need to ensure that the lines of the sentences aren’t too long. It’s important to get your sentences straight to the point and include the key points.

I was advised that I took quite a journalistic approach to my wording at first. But once I repeated the writing with Catherine’s advice, she said that I created a good example. It actually felt like I was writing a piece of poetry due to the strict amount of points per line. – Natasha, Marketing Coordinator & Content Writer for Disabled Living

The People’s History Museum advises the following:
- One idea expressed per line
- Line breaks placed at natural pauses in a sentence
- No more than 3 lines per sentence
- Simple sentence structures, no complex clauses
- Use active forms of the verb where possible
- Conversational rhythms, easily spoken out loud
- Maximum 52 characters per line (including spaces)
- Maximum 8 lines per paragraph
Themes and timelines

We also created several mind maps in order to have an insight of the possible themes that could run through our project. With Catherine’s training techniques we were able to see the many ideas that can stem out from one theme alone. It was also useful to put these into a timeline of dates as well as arranging them thematically. This put us to the test of remembering key dates in our heritage!

Catherine’s main message to us:

Less is more and editing is key! Clarity and consistency is also key. Think about how you’re going to write dates and numbers.

It’s essential for us to pick out the events and memories that people will be able to reflect on the most. We would like people to identify and perhaps familiarise themselves with our services.

We now know the importance of getting people to try out the exhibition before it’s live. For example, having people of different heights look at the area where our exhibition will be presented. And of course, thinking about different disabilities and the best positioning to accommodate this. Seeing examples of other exhibitions has made us realise that we need to consider colours, fonts, and sizes to ensure these are readable by all of our audience. Relating to our key audience throughout the exhibiting is what it’s all about.

Thank you to Catherine O’Donnell for your wonderful training. It’s been very insightful and we can’t wait to move things further.

Would you like to be part of our Donkeys To Innovators project? See more information here.
September 18, 2017
Were You Involved with One of Manchester’s Oldest Charities?

Disabled Living, one of Manchester’s oldest charities, is calling for people to get in touch who have memories, materials and/or photographs about their links with the charity. Hundreds of thousands of people across the North West have been involved with the organisation in its 120 year history as service users, volunteers, staff and trustees.

Alan Norton

For example, Alan Norton, one of Disabled Living’s current Trustees, went on a three week holiday as a child to Disabled Living’s White Heather holiday accommodation in North Wales and received one of the Christmas hampers that were donated to disabled children across Manchester and Salford.

At the age of 7 I vaguely remember my mum sending me to a holiday home run by the ‘Cripples Help Society’ now known as Disabled Living Manchester, it was the first time I had been away from home and I had to dress myself which I had never done before. I remembered I had a fantastic time going on walks, playing various games especially enjoyed the swings at the local park. It was my first taste of independence and gave me the inspiration to do more for myself, which has led to me having a full and complete life,” states Alan.

Since losing the majority of its records in 2009 due to a fire, the charity has been working towards rebuilding its heritage. As part of its birthday celebrations Disabled Living is delivering a project, From Donkeys to Innovators, supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, that recognises the many services the charity provided and the people involved with the organisation.

Most importantly, the voices of disabled people will be recognised, preserved and celebrated, documenting unique stories about disability heritage. People’s contributions to the history of Disabled Living may be included in a permanent exhibition in the charity’s Redbank House in Cheetham Hill that launches in 2018, and all will be preserved in its new archive that will be safely maintained in Manchester Central Library’s Archives+.

Many people remain unaware that the activities they were involved with were part of the present day charity. These activities included the first wheelchair loans service in Greater Manchester; the establishment of the Children’s Orthopaedic Hospital in Marple; the provision of holidays for thousands of disabled children and adults to Blackpool, North Wales and overseas; a residential provision for disabled adults at Tan Y Bryn in Abergele, North Wales; advice and support about the use of innovative equipment to enable disabled people to live more independently; and a Style Centre providing advice and training for disabled teenagers and adults.

Over the years, a myriad of organisations have also been involved with the charity from The Guardian and Manchester Evening News, the Disabled Drivers’ Association, Manchester Art Gallery, the Jewish Ex-Servicemen, Derbyshire Miners, Manchester United Football Club, the British Red Cross Society, and Greater Manchester Police, indicating the charity’s important place in the social history of Greater Manchester.

Debra Evans, Disabled Living’s Chief Executive said:

The history of Disabled Living are the stories of the people who were involved with the charity from the disabled people who used its services to the volunteers who packed the Christmas hampers and the nurses who worked at the Marple hospital. People’s memories are what bring the charity to life and we want to have a chance to celebrate and thank the individuals who helped to create the charity that we have today.

People who are prepared to share their stories, or any photographs or materials they might have about Disabled Living’s heritage, are asked to contact Natasha Bolger at Disabled Living on 0161 214 5959 or email Natasha.bolger@disabledliving.co.uk. No stories or images will be included in any of the public materials without the express permission of the individual involved.

September 13, 2017
Understanding Parenting with a Disability
Thank you to Chris, our Disability Trainer and Advisor for writing this post about understanding parenting with a disability.

I’m a wheelchair user who can’t walk at all and have been since I was 7-years-old when I caught polio. But very early on in adulthood I knew I wanted kids. I hadn’t thought it all through then but the thought was always there.

I graduated and started to work (as a school teacher), and eventually got married.

By this time I was very confident of what I could and couldn’t do in work, at home, around town, on holiday and so on. But the prospect of bringing up children was something else entirely.

I had concerns in 3 areas:
- Could I physically manage? Stairs, transport, carrying baby etc
- What would other people think? “Is he able to manage?”
- What came later – how would my growing kids view me? “All my friends Dads are playing football with them…”
Well I can report that it all worked – not all plain sailing but an incredible journey. Looking back now over the last thirty five years I’m now at the grandparent stage – nine so far with every prospect of many more!

Of course one short article can’t give you every practical piece of advice you might want. And the advice is very specific to your disability anyway. I can give you everything you need to know if you’re a wheelchair user and I can give you my general observations on attitudes. This includes ideas for further research (see below). If you are worried there is a tremendous amount of top-quality, specific information out there.

I think you’ll discover particular solutions that work for you. Disabled people are a very diverse group indeed – the variation across wheelchair users for instance is vast. What’s common though is problem solving and determination.

Okay, so, I can’t walk at all. How do I carry a baby up and down the stairs?

Why don’t I live in a bungalow you might ask? Well, when I became disabled I already lived in a house and I liked sleeping upstairs so I carried on. Sixty years later nothing has changed!

I found that if you tightly wrapped up baby in a shawl you could carry him/her in your teeth. Good enough for lions and tigers so good enough for me. I did what I needed to do.

How do I keep baby safe when I’m out and about if I’ve got my hands on the wheelchair most of the time?

The standard child harness went over shoulders and clipped to my belt which worked perfectly, just the same as for everyone else.

What if they run away, you can’t catch them?

Well, they just didn’t. It’s as if they know you can’t chase so they don’t go running off too far. As they grew I would be trying to give them independence but always telling them not to go too far/too fast. They seemed to take this on board.

Sometimes you see parents frantically running after their little loved ones and obviously getting really worried that they won’t catch up. But I’d say the child hasn’t been properly primed and that the child absolutely knows the parent will chase. So it’s all a bit of fun to them!

What did other adults think?

I’ve always said – most people, most of the time, do the right thing – and that applied here in abundance. There were lots of offers of help and total acceptance of the situation.

I mentioned I was a schoolteacher. There were some initial reservations about whether I could command a class, deal with emergencies and exert discipline. But the children always responded. They might mess other teachers around but not me!

I’d often transfer to sit on a higher bench so I could see the class easier leaving the wheelchair empty. The pupils would then argue about whose turn it was to sit in it for the lesson!

So, my lads turned out to be very sporty but there were no issues at all around me being unable to participate. They watched me play wheelchair basketball and I watched them swimming, playing rugby and the rest. It all worked so well I found myself running the junior rugby club for years. Interestingly not a single questioning/negative comment ever from players, parents, visiting parents etc I was just decent at the job so they let me carry on.

There’s lots of hard work but also so much to smile about.

What’s still happening?

I park up with one of my lads in the car. He gets out and gets my chair set up. If I’m fiddling with keys, gloves or bags he’ll sit in the wheelchair and scoot off round the car park for a minute. Lots of admiring faces because he’s very skilled (poor lad but doesn’t he do well?).

He then races back and promptly stands up! Admiring faces change – they’ve been duped. But then I transfer into the chair. Oh, it’s dad and he really is disabled! Conflicted or what?

Or this – I’m at home in my comfy armchair, wheelchair alongside. Grandchild asks if they can use the wheelchair and zooms off outside. “This is great; can I have one for Christmas?” “None of my friends has got one of these”. “Can I take it to school for “Show and tell?”

Incidentally, when grandchildren stay over they all copy me on the stairs. If I sit on the top step and start to bump down then so do they!

Of course I had to sort a lot of these things out as I went along – no computers, no mobiles at the beginning, but now there is a wealth of information out there. If you’d feel safer with more information, then there’s a lot to research relevant to your own specific issues. Just try to approach the situation with some confidence. People have been there before. Disability didn’t just start with the Paralympics. Parenthood will be so rewarding, and you’ll find there are lots of people in the same boat.

Try these sources of information:
- NHS Choices – discusses entitlement to support and your needs will be properly assessed.
- You can also get in touch with other disabled parents via Netmums
- Scope – where you will find all sorts of useful links
- Disability Horizons – this website has hundreds of relevant articles and a blog
- DPN (Disabled Parents Network) – again, endless links here.
- Super Nanny – lots of useful links
- Many relevant self-help groups, including specific to your disability
- Many relevant chat-rooms
- Lots of online support
If you would like to share your experience on Disabled Living’s blog about parenting with a disability, send an email to: info@disabledliving.co.uk
September 5, 2017
Debra’s Visit To Facts & Fun Day in Marple
On Sunday 3 September Debra, Chief Executive of Disabled Living, went along to The Roman Lakes and Mellor Mill for a Facts & Fun Day.

This was a fundraising and awareness day for the Mellor Archaeological Trust and Friends of Our Valley. Marple Local History Society displayed photographs and archive material from the Children’s Orthopaedic Hospital and later the Hospital School.

Debra spent around an hour and half exploring the location, displays, and meeting with other people. Debra was particularly happy to see that there were a lot of people coming to the stand who remembered the hospital. Ann Hearle and Hilary Atkinson were there, with Ann being in the immediate area of the display to interact with interested people.

Debra would like to give a big thank you to Ann and Hilary:

I want to thank Ann and Hilary and the rest of the members of Marple Local History Society for supporting Disabled Living (formerly The Cripples Help Society) to raise awareness of the work the charity undertook from the beginning of the 1900’s until well into the 1970’s. It was interesting listening to the local people who remembered the building as Treetops Child Development Centre but did not realise the history.

The event took place from 11.00am until 5.00pm. There were a variety of activities taking place throughout the day including: Mellor Mill tours, historical lectures, guest talks, and workshops.

Other attractions included:
- A pop-up museum with a 3D model of Mellor Mill and its mechanics
- Visual timeline of Our Valley through the centuries
- Vintage finds and salvage stalls
- Wet plate collodion photographer
- Rural craft & opportunities to get involved
- Plant sales & locally grown produce
- Beer tent with locally crafted produce
- Interactive display of Yoruba women’s headgear
…and many more!

We look forward to discovering more about Manchester’s heritage and learning more about any links to Disabled Living’s heritage too.
September 4, 2017
Raising Awareness for Alzheimer’s and Dementia

Dementia and Alzheimer’s are affecting more people each year which is why more awareness needs to be made. The confusion of mental processes causes memory disorders and changes in personality.

Disabled Living’s Dementia Tea Dance

We organised our very own 1940’s Dementia Tea Dance to kick-start our celebrations for providing 120 years of service. The day made us realise how important your memory is. All of the precious memories that our brains can store is amazing.

However, it’s heartbreaking to see some of these taken away from dementia and Alzheimer’s. We are looking forward to welcoming more guests to our next tea dance in December. We hope to raise further awareness and give them a day full of happiness and joy.

How research and awareness helps

Raising awareness of dementia and Alzheimer’s can help people recognise the early signs. Without the research from organisations such as Dementia UK and Alzheimer’s Society developments with helping the conditions wouldn’t be able to move forward. Awareness also helps to educate families and carers to understand the different stages and medication procedures to expect.

Dementia is usually diagnosed by health specialists such as: psychiatrists, geriatricians, and neurologists. Assessments are made and patients will be made aware of the next steps if necessary. There are several research strategies and projects that are implemented within dementia and Alzheimer’s related organisations.

Take a look at the video below by Alzheimer’s Society.

The more awareness you raise, the more attention there is to how you can help someone with these conditions. Diagnosis can be challenging and without the awareness there would be less dementia friendly communities. We are proud to see so many wonderful ones in Manchester.

Memory Walks are taking place across the UK

Many cities across the UK are participating in the Memory Walk. You can see where your nearest Memory Walk is taking place by visiting: www.memorywalk.org.uk/find-a-walk/

September 1, 2017