David Turton

Giant plush panda sitting at a desk, head down and looking forlorn, waiting for somebody with love to give (and plenty of floor space)

Giant brown plush (rabbit??) in similar pose. A blank computer monitor stands on the desk in front, ignored, completing the scene of twenty-first century ennui.

Tragic scenes in Oxfam today. The trend for oversized soft toys appears to have ended. Spare a thought.

Beem to The British Library this morning for their art workshop for #blind & #partiallySighted people, discussing a 16th century image from The Book of Hours, then getting creative! More on it below #TactileArt #Disability https://tweesecake.social/@sarahmatthews/114745023815982667

Flowering potato plants

Longest day, hottest day—potato flower
Tuber, rhizome, solar power

Summer Activity Break promotional image for July 22nd-24th featuring a colourful header design. Residential summer camp for VI young people aged 11-17, priced at £88 for 2 nights including accommodation, activities entertainment and food. Four circular photos display camp activities: a young person on an obstacle course, archery practice indoors, paddle boarding on water and a large group photo of participants sitting on grass outside NCW.

🌞 Looking for an epic summer break for blind or vision impaired teens (11–16)?
Join us at NCW for 3 action-packed days of:
🥋 Karate | 🏊 Swimming | 🍳 Cooking
🎤 Talent Show | 🍕 Pizza Night & more!

📅 Book now 👉 loom.ly/175CtZY
#SightLoss #VisionImapired

Happy World Accessibility Day 2025!
Let's all work together to make the world a more inclusive, equitable and beautiful place - we can do it!

#Accessibility #InclusiveEducation #SensoryNeeds #InclusiveDesign

An illustration showing a ballerina demonstrating 12 different mime poses and the emotion they represent

Pictures that explain things.
‘Classical mime in ballet’

Artist: Martin Aitchison

Two pre-school children are shown ‘at work’ in the garden, hammering metal to wood and sawing boxes with small tools

“It is much more satisfactory to give a child real hammers, nails, pincers, screwdrivers, saws and gimlets” (1971)

Artist: Harry Wingfield

‘Finally, someone gets it!’ The TV invention that could revolutionise viewing for disabled people There’s been no innovation in accessible TV since the 90s. That’s why we created the personalised service Ultra Access, so everyone can tweak how they watch based on their own needs

Rebecca Atkinson writing about MixMups www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...

OpenFest logo

OpenFest call for papers text - the text can be found here: https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/openresearch/events/openfest-2025

🔊OpenFest is the annual open research event organised by Sheffield & Sheffield Hallam universities.

Our theme this year is Open Research & Equity, Equality, Diversity & Inclusion. The call for proposals is now open - details on the link below.

Please share!

www.sheffield.ac.uk/openresearch...

Close-up of conifer, with pink and black tips on the leaves, which produce clouds of pollen when brushed past

Look closely—the conifers are flowering!

Dear UK government, Let's be clear: our mental health is getting worse, and cutting benefits won’t help. You claim mental health is being “overdiagnosed”, but where’s the evidence? The reality is that our environment affects our wellbeing - pandemics, the cost of living crisis, political unrest and ongoing concerns around climate change are all taking their toll. But when people seek help, they face months, or even years, of waiting. Rhetoric like this is dangerous. It reinforces stigma and stops people getting support. If you’re serious about change, listen to those affected. We can turn this crisis around - but only if the government works with us, not against us. We look forward to hearing from you, Mind

Where's the evidence that mental health is being "overdiagnosed"?

Habilitation students sight-guiding one another on and off a red, fully electric bus

Marvin from Stagecoach answering questions from a group of habilitation students and explaining accessible bus travel from a driver’s perspective.

Exploring bus travel skills for children with vision impairments today, with help from the wonderful Marvin and Loretta at Stagecoach. Also learned that new buses don’t need mirrors!

SLC member Mary walking with a landscape architect in Piccadilly Gardens

Engagement manager Kelly walking with two participants one is guiding and one is wearing sim specs

Group of participants chatting during the walk

SLC Coordinatoe walking with one of the participants

Navigating parks, open spaces & urban areas can be challenging for #Blind and #PartiallySighted people.

Yesterday Greater Manchester @slcouncils.bsky.social delivered a guided walk (using sim specs) to members of the North West Landscape architects: the very people who design all of these area.

Photo of bright red slime mold in the shape of a pretzel. It is on a dead tree trunk that’s laying on the forest floor.

Slime mold, Willkommlangea reticulata.
When fully mature, this one will be brown in colour. Northwest Territories, Canada. #slimemould #fungifriends

I am excited to announce that the WHO ICF Core Sets for #deafblindness are now complete and available free online: www.icf-research-branch.org?view=article...

We are massively adaptive in our perception. Hammer manufacturers support real immersive engagement with woodworking. That isn't improved by removing mediation of a designed artefact, taking your bloodied fist to the nail directly. Touch via hammer is what it means to feel a nail's fixing.

I like this one . Thank you to @adrianblack for today's #FoxOfTheDay

A remnant
of your last belief system
departing the world

Graduate Open Events: Special and Inclusive Education | IOE - Faculty of Education and Society Join us online on 5 and 11 February 2025 to learn more about graduate taught programmes in Special and Inclusive Education at UCL, meet our programme leaders, and ask any questions you might have.

If you want to know more about UCL's graduate taught programmes on #InclusiveEducation, including the stellar Special and Inclusive Education MA that I lead, book your place for our next online Graduate Open Events on 5 and 11 Feb 2025! @ucl-ioe-phd.bsky.social
www.ucl.ac.uk/ioe/open-day...

Move with care. And make things.

Interested in getting a specialist qualification in habilitation and disabilities of sight?

Find out more about our graduate diploma here: www.ucl.ac.uk/prospective-...

Hawk(?) perched high up in Marylebone Station, just beneath a CCTV camera.

Cultures of Surveillance (at Marylebone this morning)

"This set of paintings on the five senses was one of the most successful collaborations of Peter Paul Rubens and Jan Brueghel “the Elder”. Rubens placed his figures in the magnificent courtly scenes created by Brueghel as settings for these allegories of the senses, resulting in a series of enormous quality and esthetic appeal. The subject was widely employed in Flemish painting. Sight was considered the most important of the senses since the time of Aristotle. Here, Cupid shows Venus a painting on a Christian theme. The Healing of the Blind Man, which alludes to the recovery of sight through one of Christ´s miracles and thus touches on both physical and spiritual vision. The presence of a canvas with "Saint Cecilia", a copy of Raphael´s original, alongside some Roman busts, recalls the soul´s introspective vision, an image of chastity and virtue. Jan Brueghel was a protégé of the Archdukes Alberto and Isabel Clara Eugenia, and in this work he includes their portraits and a view of their Palace at Mariemont. This work is signed on a paper close to the goddess´s seat." -Museo del Prado

A detail of a painting showing a monkey holding spectacles looking at a painting of ships. Another monkey, halfway hidden behind the painting, holds a telescope and peers out at Cupid's bum(?). A bag of coins spills out on the floor

Jan Breughel the Elder and Peter Paul Rubens, The Sense of Sight, 1618, Oil on panel, 65 x 109 cm (Museo del Prado, Madrid) www.museodelprado.es/en/the-colle...

Blind Writing Before Braille - Cultures of Disability Through the letters of Charles Cook, Tilly Guthrie explores what early forms of braille can tell us about the experience of blindness in the Victorian era.

That moment when you find exactly what you were hoping for in the archive...
Here's a blog post I wrote on The Most Exciting letter in Liverpool Record Office (I'm not at all biased). Thanks to Cultures of Disability for hosting this. culturesofdisability.mmu.ac.uk/blind-writin... #DisabilityHistory

Sheffield braille teacher wants method taught more widely A Sheffield braille teacher wants to see the six-dot tactile reading system used more widely.

Fancy learning more about the workings of the iconic Perkins Brailler? Alan needs an apprentice:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Pretty sunrise—trees and houses silhouetted, textured orange clouds, wisps, clear skies above

A promising start…

A girl near me on a bench in a shopping mall rocks back and forth. Her mum says to me: She’s autistic.
The girl’s hands flutter, making beautiful, delicate, butterfly shapes in the air. She gives me a brilliant, broad grin. I give one back.

Image of Tower Bridge in London and the river Thames in the late afternoon sun. This graphic is advertising the call for papers for the first London International Conference on Inclusive Education.

The call for papers for the London International Conference on Inclusive Education (LICIE) 2025 is now open. For more info and to submit an abstract: licie.co.uk #SEND #Inclusion

Excellent review by @walterwittich.bsky.social of Inclusive Education for Learners with Multisensory Impairment by @kamenopoulou.bsky.social, demonstrating the broader relevance of this important contribution to the field of deafblindness education.