On Tuesday 12 May, I travelled to Warwick Arts Centre to deliver Alternative Accessibility Training Session 5. It was a warm day, and it made such a difference compared with travelling to Warwick in the cold and rain, like I had been doing for previous sessions. It was nice to see the students out and about and sitting together on the grassy areas outside the university campus.
I arrived at Warwick Arts Centre at around 11 am, and I could not sit in my usual spot on the ground floor by the bookcase corner because there was a mother and baby group happening, which I found very noisy. Instead, I went to the top floor to be above the noise, and I found another quiet space near the learning space. I was able to have my lunch as usual, and Liz arrived.
As soon as she arrived, my clinical team called to announce the date of my hiatus hernia removal operation. I had been waiting for this date for two years. Two years of anxiety, not knowing, and not being able to plan my life vanished just like that when they told me the date was 19 June 2026. I was relieved to find that it only affected the delivery of one session, which was amazing news. We had worried previously that we may have to call off or re-arrange part of the project, but we knew now that wasn’t going to be the case.
Session 5 is all about creating impactful and meaningful change within your setting or organisation. The group got very emotional discussing why they want to commit to access and inclusion work. We discovered that there is a big difference between a professional why and a personal why. Those of us with personal motivations seemed to be much more emotional when discussing the topic.
The Warwick Arts Centre team made pledge jars and pledged to take action to improve access and inclusion in their workplace and in their workplace culture. Pledge jars were created by Claire Marshall of Arts Council England, and they encourage individuals to take accountability and take action. The jars serve as a reminder of their pledges when they see them at home, and they can check themselves against their objectives to see what work still needs to be done.
It was a lovely session, and it was nice to see the Warwick team bonding over a game of football at lunchtime. They very kindly allowed me to host the second of Alternative Voices’ online sessions on psychological safety in their dressing room space. Once the session ended at 4 pm, I had a celebratory cheesy garlic bread for dinner, and then I went to set up in the dressing room space to deliver our online session from 6 pm–8 pm. For that session, we had nine people log in, and it went very well (you can read more about our online sessions in our online sessions blog). However, I was extremely tired when I got home at 10 pm, so I unpacked my bags and went straight to bed.
Session 6
On Tuesday 16 June, we hosted the final Alternative Accessibility Training session for Warwick Arts Centre. This session focused on learning distress tolerance skills and understanding how to implement an access culture within your workspace.
I was very tired because we had delivered a spoken word poetry session online the night before, which went incredibly well and was well attended. As good as it was, it did mean that I had to pack my bags and have a bath the night before so that I could arrive at Warwick Arts Centre on time to have a meeting with one of my mentors prior to delivering the session.
The foyer space was noisy again due to the mother and baby group, but luckily it finished before my mentor arrived. We had a good session, as always, and I always learn a lot from her. She had only been back from Senegal for three weeks, so she was a little flustered by the number of people in the Arts Centre foyer. She’s used to much quieter spaces, but we had lunch, and I was glad to see her despite the noise.
Liz had already very kindly set up the space for us, so I just had to set up my laptop and PowerPoint presentation when I arrived in the room. I was so pleased to find that Bethany had ordered such wonderful, colourful comfort boxes, and the learners had brought their own comfort materials from home. It was lovely to bond with them and find out more about them, and everyone had brought such a diverse range of items.
At the end of the session, it was lovely to see everyone walking out with their boxes because I wish to normalise the use of such items in cultural and event spaces so that nobody has to feel as if they have to fill out lengthy forms or ask specifically if they can use their calming strategy in the space. I want everyone to be able to use comfort boxes, autistic or not, because how nice would the world be if everyone had a way to calm themselves and to self-regulate when in distress?
At the end of the session, I felt a little sad that I wouldn’t see the Warwick Arts Centre group again. We scheduled a follow-up session in a year’s time to ensure that actions are being put in place and to ask if any more support is needed to implement them. I really enjoyed working with the Warwick Arts Centre staff, and I feel as if I made new friends along the learning journey. I hope that they enjoyed the sessions as much as I enjoyed teaching them. Also, that they feel they can reach out to me whenever they need information or want to know how to do something.
I left the training session once it finished at 4 pm feeling a mixture of sadness and joy. Sadness that everything was over with Warwick, but joy that the training sessions have made such an impact along the way, as evidenced by the pre- and post-training surveys and the wonderful feedback we were getting throughout the delivery of the learning.
I got in a taxi and headed over to my friend’s house as I was going to spend the night in Coventry. I was definitely ready for my dinner, a game of Scrabble, and then my bed.