The National Paralympic Heritage Trust (NPHT) has become the first ever Symbol-Friendly Museum.
Partnering with Widgit, a symbol-based language and software, aimed at supporting those with communication, language and/or learning disabilities, NPHT has created resources to ensure that Paralympic history is accessible to everyone, both in person and online.
"We want all our visitors to feel confident and empowered and we understand that it can be daunting to visit unfamiliar places and learn new things,” said NPHT Learning Manager Fiona Darling-Glinski.
“With this in mind and knowing that many schools use this fun and visual communication aid, we introduced Widgit into our learning offer so that visitors would recognise it and feel welcome.
“We now use it in all our project work in schools to help everyone engage and communicate with us.
“We have learnt a lot about how to use the software to create carefully considered and relevant resources and we believe that by offering something practical, friendly and familiar, our visitors will feel confident that we take their learning journey with us seriously.”
The National Paralympic Heritage Trust was established in 2015 at a dedicated Heritage Centre inside Stoke Mandeville Stadium, the birthplace of the Games, with a mission to preserve and share the history of the British Paralympic movement.
By creating educational resources, exhibitions, and now a virtual museum, the NPHT aims to inspire and educate people around the world about the legacy and ongoing impact of the Paralympic Games.
“Our public learning resources include Widgit trails for our Global Virtual Museum, and for our Heritage Centre, as well as free-to-download learning activity packs for Key stages 1-3,” added Fiona.
NPHT is supporting other museums in Buckinghamshire and Hampshire with the creation of Widgit resources, to ensure that anyone and everyone can access heritage organisations.
For further information visit https://www.paralympicheritage.org.uk/
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