Back in October 2023 I wrote about relaxed performance practice and the importance of developing tools and approaches that support audiences to access art, theatre and live performance. This is particularly relevant to how we communicate the sensory elements of shows – sound, and lighting, etc. We’re working on some exciting new projects in this area, so I’m handing over to our Director of Research, Dr Will Renel to tell you more.

Touretteshero creates research projects that are disabled-led and practically applied. This means that disabled people are always in control of our research and that we use it to make positive changes in the world. Since 2010, our research projects have taken us to all kinds of places, from presenting at the Royal Albert Hall to celebrating positive and rebellious play experiences at Oasis Play.

Back in 2015, through a four-year Inclusive Design research project with The Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design, we created a new access tool called a Sonic Story. A Sonic Story is an infographic that shows how the sound levels of an event change over time. Touretteshero now works with theatres and other organisations, nationally and internationally, to design and deliver Sonic Stories. In 2023 alone, our Sonic Stories were used by more than 2000 people.

Matilda The Musical Sonic Story, Act 2. Touretteshero CIC, 2023

Along with our Sonic Story work, we’ve also been thinking about how light can be a barrier for disabled and neurodivergent people in the theatre. In 2020, we launched a new research project called Light Maps and began working at Shakespeare’s Globe to experiment with different technology and methods of capturing information about light. We developed some prototype Light Map graphics, thinking about how to share information about it in an accessible way.

In 2023, we ran a Knowledge Exchange event at the National Theatre (NT), bringing together a group of disabled and neurodivergent critical friends with staff from the NT to experiment with our prototype light maps and discuss light and accessibility.

Light Maps Knowledge Exchange, National Theatre, June 2023

The Knowledge Exchange event was fantastic, and we captured lots of useful information about how light can create a barrier for disabled people in the theatre through elements like colour, flashing light, brightness, darkness and the placement of lights.

We still have lots of questions to answer which is why we’re now launching the next phase of our Light Maps research.

To get this started, we’re looking for people to take part in a short survey about light in theatres. If you’re someone who has experienced issues with light in the theatre, please fill out this short survey. There are 8 questions shown as text and pictures.

If the survey isn’t accessible to you, or if you would like to answer the questions in a different way, please contact will@touretteshero.com.

The deadline for completing the survey is Monday 31st March 2025.

We will be running Light Maps workshops and other research activity over the next 6 months. We hope that by the end of the year we’ll have a new and accessible process for creating Light Maps that we can share with other organisations.

Let there be light (maps)!

Thanks Will, I can’t wait to see how Light Maps develop. Watch this space for more on our research programmes and support for disabled thinkers in the months to come.