Removing barriers and having fun

At WAC Performing Arts and Media College we use the media and arts in creative and cutting edge ways to bring out talent and to enable young people to achieve their full capabilities. This is equally true of our Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) projects, which are designed to cater for young people who have special requirements and learning disabilities, and our projects for young people with mild to moderate Autism or Asperger syndrome and issues with social communication development. All our projects are designed to be fully inclusive and encourage young people to work together, regardless of their abilities. They also offer work experience and volunteering opportunities for all our young people, leading to a range of accreditation and youth work qualifications.

State-of-the-art facilities at WAC include sensory equipment that helps young people to communicate and develop creative ideas, which builds their confidence and raises their self esteem. Our sensory pod and inclusive technology suite enable all our students to participate and several pieces of equipment are crucial to this, including the SoundBeam, a device that turns motion into sound so allowing ‘one touch’ devices such as switches and pads to trigger sounds and music. We also use ‘Painting with Sound’, a bespoke system that uses sound to create visualisations via computers, and utilise wii-motes and other technologies to allow more movement-based interactions with our art and media classes.

State-of-the-art facilities include sensory equipment that helps young people to communicate and develop creative ideas

The young people can access a plethora of other devices and assistive technology that allow anybody, regardless of ability, to engage at WAC. We have camera tripods for wheelchairs, large text keyboards, rollerballs, the Eyegaze mouse control system, dyslexia software and plenty more. Alongside this transportable equipment, in the sensory pod itself we have bubble machines, optic fibres, a lightwall and Vibrabed that enable hearing impaired individuals to experience music through vibrations, and plenty of other sensory stimulating light and sound technologies. The sensory pod can therefore provide a relaxing and/or engaging space, depending on how the young people wish to use this area at any time. Another innovation includes a Videobooth system that we use to track all of our young people’s progression. A video diary log is created for each young person to evaluate their progress during their time at the College.

Finally, we are very proud of our WAC Wonder Web multi-media social networking project for young people with learning disabilities. It centres around the website at wacwonderweb.co.uk and isrun by and for young people. The site provides a place for young people to blog, share ideas, discuss topics and display their creative work. Wonder Web includes a streaming radio station where young people create radio shows that are streamed 24 hours a day. The young people who run the project have been given awards by the Royal Society of Arts Innovation Award and Kids Count – and this summer WAC Wonder Web is branching out into online TV.