Meeting Day
Today I had two meetings: the first at the Wellcome Trust offices, home to the fourth-largest charity in the world, and the second at the Friends House just down the road. That’s where I am now, charging up my phone a bit (and discharging my laptop at the same time), and sending you this message.
My first meeting was with Georgia Monk, a Senior Project Manager in the Exhibitions department at Wellcome. She worked extensively on the 1880 THAT and Finger Talk exhibitions that are part of my research, and we had an outstanding conversation about her experiences on those projects as well as my experience and research. She told me that the Wellcome had a lot of learning to do when they started these projects, and they are integrating what they’ve learned into their standard practices. Being such a large charity, they have a lot of freedom to innovate - they don’t have unlimited funds, but their budget is “very generous” and they seem to really take disability inclusion seriously. I took notes for my dissertation; it was a really wonderful meeting and I’m so glad I got to connect with her. She’s also planning to connect me with some of the people she’s worked with; I’ve already gotten an email from one of them!
My second meeting was with my PhD supervisors, Suzanne MacLeod and Richard Sandell. After five years of online meetings we finally got to see each other in 3-D! We talked about my work and they really impressed on me how vital it is - that even museums like the Wellcome, which are doing outstanding things with accessibility, still need more information about making deaf visitors feel welcome in their spaces. (Yes, the museum’s name trips me up sometimes.)
I talked a lot about the theory behind my work and how it feels innate to me, and they said I really have to write it into my thesis because what comes natural to me does not come natural to hearing people, and that’s what makes my work so valuable.
It was an outstanding day; I was a little nervous going into it but it turned out so well! Tomorrow I’ll be meeting with a couple of deaf folks at the Wellcome Collection to do the accompanied visit and focus group - and then I think on Wednesday I’ll pop down to Brighton. I’d really like to visit The Queery and see the famous beach.
The Friends House is closing, so that’s it from me for now!