Digital technology holds the key to combating social isolation for disabled people, says Sarah Pickthall Director of SprungDigi Festival – the first digital arts festival with a programme entirely made up of work created by learning disabled people. 

Having worked with disabled people for many years, I’ve witnessed first hand the impact cuts to social care is having on their lives. Reduced disability living allowance has meant that some disabled people have less money to get out of their homes, socialise and get involved in their communities.

I began to notice that some of the learning disabled people I work with were becoming more withdrawn and socially isolated and their language and communication was suffering as a result. I wanted to do something about it.

publicity_Sprungdigi

By partnering up with digital culture agency, Lighthouse, and with generous support from Arts Council England, SprungDigi was born. It’s a project that pairs learning disabled people up with digital artists to help them explore creatively and get connected to the World. Training in social media has helped the learning disabled people we’re working with share what they’ve been learning and creating safely and with confidence, and use their new digital skills to develop a safe social life online.

Next month, we’re launching our first ever SprungDigi Festival – the first digital arts festival featuring an entire programme of work created by learning disabled people. Taking place in Horsham, West Sussex, during 10/11 July, the Festival is the culmination of months of creative workshops involving local groups of learning disabled people from a variety of settings, including schools, day centres and clubs.

Their work includes filmed living portraits of local learning disabled people projected onto buildings in central locations, digital street theatre featuring young learning disabled performers, a game of dares played around town using a festival mapping app on a mobile or tablet, and a workshop in which participants can create their own digitised dream Horsham open to all across the festival.

Designed as a showcase of the creative and developmental possibilities offered by digital, we hope more learning disabled people – and ultimately those who support them too – will be inspired to see the benefits digital technology could bring to their lives.

We’ve been lucky to have such great support from Horsham District Council, not only as a funder and a host, but also in terms of its desire to use the festival as a springboard for the scheme SprungDigi Safe, which is increasing awareness of learning disabled people’s needs and place within the community. We’ve been training local businesses to support learning disabled people and become safe havens where they know they will be welcome and understood.

This is about offering learning disabled people the same social and creative freedoms as everyone else, with an emphasis on positive integration and safe autonomy.

I hope SprungDigi will help offer a model whereby society can move towards greater integration and equality between disabled and non-disabled people.

Everyone has the right to a creative life, everyone has the right to be part of a community and no one should feel excluded from the digital revolution happening around us. Without support and encouragement to take part, learning disabled people risk being left behind and becoming even more socially isolated in this climate of austerity. 

For further information about SprungDigi visit www.sprungdigi.com, follow us on twitter @SprungDigi and find us at facebook at /SprungDigi.