Starting the action research project, I have been focussing on technical spaces/workshops and how the spaces can promote/create a welcoming, inclusive and accessible environment for all. I have been thinking about physical and non physical accessibility, as well as dissemination of specialist knowledge that can effect how inclusive and welcoming an environment can be. These ideas are important to me and the workshop but I was initially struggling to find a specific research avenue to start with as they are large topics that involve many complexed areas within them. A key aspect of inclusivity and accessibility is having a good dialogue with students and staff that use or want to use the space and including them in developing new ways of working. By listening and involving students and staff into my research I am able to really benefit the workshop spaces by dismantling barriers that may be in place by developing the spaces in a multitude of ways to benefit a wide variety of people. Feedback is a way of taking into consideration a wide variety of students requests and needs by starting a conversation within the student body.

Inclusivity and accessibility are big areas to be thinking about in my project, but I want to try and dismantle any barriers that are in the way of students being able to enjoy technical spaces. These spaces might be seen as having barriers that don’t allow all people into them, so I am striving to dismantle and bring confidence to students to come into our spaces. I have been looking at the social model of disability that talks about the variety of disabling barriers that are in our society and how removing barriers can create equality. Feedback from all students will help us to identify areas that may be causing problems or barriers and work alongside students and staff to develop a solution to dismantle barriers.

In the Printmaking workshops, we currently don’t gain regular feedback from students about their experience of the workshop. At the end of an academic year students are asked to fill in an CSS/NSS form to gain feedback from students on their experience. This information usually puts the whole of technical into one basket and doesn’t allow students space to expand upon specific areas. This, as well as student complaints, are the main way we can gain feedback to help develop the workshops. These current forms of feedback are useful, but only focus on negative aspects of the spaces or technical. My research plan is to explore the best way of creating well rounded, frequent and consistent feedback from students and staff, enabling us to adapt many areas more frequently.