College strikes right chord to make a positive change for disabled people

THE majestic sound of soprano Denise Leigh in full voice fills the room.

It is a joy to behold and when she finishes her impromptu performance the place erupts in cheers and applause. Many of the people in the audience here are blind, or disabled, but it doesn’t dim their appreciation of the music.

Leigh, who gained worldwide acclaim following her performance at the opening ceremony of the Paralympics last year and who is herself blind, was a surprise special guest at the opening of Henshaws College new media and IT centre in Harrogate. She wasn’t the only recognisable face at the launch, with the Kaiser Chiefs’ bass player Simon Rix and Coronation Street’s Paula Lane among the VIPs lending their support.

The college, which opened in 1971, is part of Henshaws Society for Blind People – a specialist charity that provides expert support, advice and training to anyone affected by sight loss and other disabilities. It caters for both residential and day students aged between 16 and 25 with a variety learning difficulties and disabilities.

Nicki Eyre, Henshaws College managing director, says the new media centre, which includes an IT suite, two recording studios and a print centre, will give students the chance to improve their communication skills. “What’s important for all young people in this day and age is being able to access things like social media and this will help with that and, at the same time, give them skills they can use in the future, either in jobs or volunteering work when they leave the college.”

Some of the students have worked at the nearby Harrogate Hospital Radio, which fits in with the college’s ethos of giving those who pass through its doors meaningful vocational skills they can use in the outside world.

Eyre says the media centre, which will be available for local community groups to hire, was something the students themselves wanted. “We asked them what they wanted and the recording studio was top of the list.”

The students, as you might expect, are particularly pleased with the new centre. Luke Demaine is a second year resident from Bingley, near Bradford. The 18 year-old, who is virtually blind, has already worked on a hospital radio show and is eager to learn more. “Having this recording studio will help people like me learn new skills, it encourages you to get more involved so it’s a great opportunity for the students.”

Simon Rix, who has a friend that works at the college, is impressed by the new facilities. “As a musician I know how important a good studio is and a centre like this will help the people who come here to find a new interest or develop new skills.”

He believes music can also break down barriers between people. “You don’t have to be able to see anything to play music, it’s more about feeling and hearing. Music is something that can inspire you, or make you happy, help you get though things. It doesn’t matter what you’re background is anyone can make music.”

Eyre believes attitudes towards disabled people have changed in this country. “There’s much more awareness now than there ever used to be. There are still incredible challenges for people to overcome and it will always be difficult for some of them, especially going into a working environment.

“But what we can do is enable them to have a much more level playing field by using things like assistive technology to give them access to the internet and the chance to start their own business, which they would never have been able to do previously,” she says.

“Not everyone can work in the longer term, but there are different ways of fulfilling your life and people can now get to do volunteer work which opens up new opportunities than they had previously. Just by improving their communication skills you really improve the quality of their lives in terms of them being able to speak for themselves and say what they need.”

The new media centre was built thanks to the generosity of the college’s supporters including trusts and businesses, with the biggest donation coming from the Audrey and Stanley Burton Charitable Settlement. Even so it’s a tough time for independent specialist colleges like this and although Henshaws does receive some public funding it’s likely to become more reliant on donations and legacies as local authority budgets get increasingly stretched.

“It’s a really challenging time because it’s becoming increasingly difficult and we don’t know what the funding future holds,” explains Eyre. “You need the space and you need the facilities to be able to give the people here the best chance in life and that doesn’t come cheap.”

Henshaws work across the North with centres in Manchester, Merseyside, Newcastle as well as North Yorkshire, with the college in Harrogate taking in around 20 day students and up to 65 residential students. “Quite often people with a visual impairment have more than one disability and this has given us scope to increase our expertise in other areas. It’s a much broader issue and we now work with people who have all sorts of disabilities and learning difficulties, sometimes with very complex needs,” she says.

“It’s really important that people who have disabilities have a source of information and advice and that we can actually help them to learn skills and achieve their aspirations in the same way as anyone else.

“Not only that but we also help them find their voice and to speak up for themselves, because that improves their confidence and it’s a key part of what we do to ensure they can be independent.”

Denise Leigh, who was born with a condition that led to her going blind, is full of praise for the work that Henshaws does. “It’s essential that in spite of being born blind or with disabilities that you have the best chances you can possibly have and this place is wonderful,” she says. “A centre like this means the students get access to some of the most modern equipment available and it gives them skills they might not have had the chance to develop, skills they can take into the outside world.”

She says society has come a long way from in the past few decades. “I think it started in the late 1970s, but before then ‘integration’ was a bit of a dirty word. There were schools for the blind and schools for the deaf and they tended to be ghettos. The children were given a form of education but it was nothing like the standard their non-disabled peers were getting,” she says.

“I fell into that trap myself. I went away to school when I was six and it wasn’t a happy time and I don’t remember being taught anything,” she says. “But my husband [blind musician Stefan Andrusyschyn] went through a mainstream school with the help of Henshaws and other organisations and he benefitted from that.”

The important thing now, she says, is that parents and children have choices. “Residential education is wonderful for families and now they have the opportunity to choose. It’s not just decided for them by a judge in a court somewhere which is what happened to my family and families like ours.”

She thinks society has 
changed for the better and believes the London 2012 
Games was a landmark 
moment. “There was this expectation that the Paralympics would be a bit of an afterthought following the Olympics. I don’t think people realised that they would get into it quite so much, but they did.”

People were inspired by what they saw and Leigh believes this will have a lasting impact on the way we treat those with disabilities.

“I think disability is now seen as something more positive, more inspirational, rather than something that turns you into a victim. People think more about what disabled people can do rather than what they can’t do. They’re open and ready to be amazed by what disabled people can do.”

A brief history of Henshaws...

Henshaws Society for Blind People is a specialist charity providing expert support, advice and training to anyone affected by sight loss and other disabilities.

The charity was founded in 1837 after Oldham businessman Thomas Henshaw left £20,000 in his will for the development of a “blind asylum”. Today, Henshaws employs over 400 people and has helped thousands of individuals and their families across the UK.

The charity works throughout the North of England, with centres and communities in Harrogate, Knaresborough, Manchester, Merseyside and Newcastle.

Henshaws College in Harrogate caters for students with disabilities aged between 16 and 25.