You are warmly invited to join a ground-breaking group of inclusive musicians as they embark on a transport-themed musical tour of York.

Inclusive Music – Get on Board! departs from the National Railway Museum on Saturday 16^th March at 1.00pm, and arrives at the York St John University Chapel on Wednesday 20^th March at 7.30pm.

The concerts showcase the talents and abilities of young musicians from Accessible Arts and Media projects in York and the East Riding of Yorkshire region, with disabled and non-disabled young people coming together to perform as equals.

The performances begin on Saturday with the Hands and Voices singing and signing choir joining forces with Inclusive Music Projects (IMPs) York and East Riding choirs, and music technology and instrumental performers from the IMPs composition groups.

On Wednesday, Hands and Voices are joined by student groups from the university’s BA Honours Music course, including Harmony Hands and Samba Band.

The Saturday concert at the National Railway Museum is FREE, while the Wednesday concert at the York St John University Chapel costs £5.00 (£3.00 concessions).  Tickets for the Wednesday show are available at the university’s online box office or you can pay at the door.

We look forward to seeing you there!

One of the organisations who have supported us in tuning in to the abilities of people with physical disabilities and learning difficulties is The Co-operative Membership Community Fund.

The money raised by the fund comes from The Co-operative members who donate part of their share of the organisation’s profits. Then, groups like our parent organisation, Accessible Arts and Media, can apply for up to £2,000 of funding.

However, to improve the chances of receiving money from this community fund, a group must prove they fit The Co-operative’s five values. This is how AbleWeb Radio meets them:

1. Self-help and self-responsibility (Helping yourself and taking  care of what you do)

AbleWeb Radio does this… by helping people with physical disabilities and learning difficulties gain job skills so they can work for themselves and help other people.

2. Democracy (Everyone can take part)

AbleWeb Radio does this… by letting our members make their own radio shows and making sure the voices of York’s disabled community are heard.

3. Equality (Everyone has the same rights)

AbleWeb Radio does this… by letting everyone in the team have a say in what we do and how we do it.

4. Equity (Being fair)

AbleWeb Radio does this…  by telling local disabled people about what they can do in York, where they can go for help and how they can get that help.

5. Solidarity (Working together to achieve a common goal)

AbleWeb Radio does this… by trying to make connections with other disabled people in York and give them a place to get involved in the community.

With thanks to the money AbleWeb Radio has received, we hope our team can carry on using our radio station to help people with physical disabilities and learning difficulties here in York.

You can read more information about The Co-operative Membership Community Fund by visiting its website.

It has been quite a while since we last wrote a blog about Ableweb Radio – but that does not mean we have not been busy.

The last time we wrote a blog, we had finished producing our podcast celebrating the 30th anniversary of Accessible Arts and Media, which you can listen to by clicking the orange “Play” button below.

We filmed the making of this show, we have edited the footage into a ten-minute film and it is now available to watch online.  You can press the “Play” button on the video below, or you can see it by clicking here to go to AAM’s YouTube page.

We must add that this show was made possible thanks to a Community Grant from Your Consortium.  In a future blog, we will tell you more about how their funding helped members of our group to maintain and develop their radio production skills.

Moving on since then, we have got involved with the York Stories 2012 project.  One of the many parts of the York 800 celebrations, it gathers people’s stories about York – whether they are written stories, video stories, audio stories, poems, photographs or works of art.

Already, over 250 stories have been added to the York Stories 2012 website, told by a wide variety of people from children at local primary schools to residents of care homes. You can visit the website by clicking here.

Each member of Ableweb Radio has recorded a story for the project, and you can hear all of them below.

For this term, our podcast will be about York Stories 2012. It’s going to be a collaboration with our good friends at KhaoZ Media (click on the link to visit their website) who some of us have worked with for a long time.

So far, as well as our own stories, we have recorded some interviews at a treasure hunt held at a local community garden close to our headquarters in Clifton. Even though it happened during the recent snowfall, we spoke to plenty of people who came along to follow the trail and collect their reward!

Now, we are in the process of editing these interviews which will feature on the York Stories 2012 podcast.  After that, we will be writing and recording links for the show and helping to put the whole thing together. We hope to complete the show with the KhaoZ team by March and bring it to you here as soon as it goes online.

Last of all, we would like to make you aware of our Facebook fan page if you didn’t know about it already.  It’s something we’ve recently set up to help spread the word about Ableweb Radio through posting updates on what we’re doing and adding photos from our sessions.  You can visit our Facebook page by clicking here – and if you want to “Like” us, we’d love that!

We’ll be back with another blog soon. Take care and best wishes,

The Ableweb Radio Team

This is our first blog for a while, but as you will see, we are still very active and busy.

This term, we have been working on a podcast for our Thirtieth Anniversary celebrations of Accessible Arts and Media.  We have been listening to clips from the sound archives of AAM, we chose the ones we wanted to use and edited them for the broadcast.

For the show, we also spoke to AAM staff past and present to find out their memories of working with the organization. The podcast is nearly ready to go live and we will share it when it goes on the website.

As well as making a new radio broadcast, we have been filming our sessions to capture what goes on in them.  We hope to have a look at our footage soon and may be show some of it with to you in the future.

Ableweb Radio is having a break for the summer.  We will be back in September.

All of us here wish you an enjoyable Summer…

                        The Ableweb Radio Team

We  have come to the end of our first term of 2012 for Ableweb Radio, and we are pleased to tell you that we have succeeded in creating and publishing a video and a podcast about the Music and Inclusivity Conference.

The one-day event, which took place at York St John University last November, looked at bringing people together within music and the arts.

Some people, particularly those with physical disabilities and learning difficulties, are often excluded from activities. Through a series of workshops, speeches and discussions, the day looked at how people can be fully included into music and the arts.

You can watch a film, recorded and edited by members of the Ableweb Radio group on the day of the conference, by clicking on the play button below.

You can also listen to our podcast about the conference by clicking on the orange play button below.

Ableweb Radio are now taking a short break over the Easter period. Our sessions will start again on Monday 16th April.

With best wishes,

The Ableweb Radio Team

We are pleased to announced our podcast about the Music and Inclusivity Conference held last November at York St John University is now finally online and ready to listen to and download!

To hear our show, which is 15 minutes long, please visit the “Our Shows” page, and it’s the show which is nearest the top of the page.

We have also re-uploaded our Launch Show which we first shared with you last year.  It’s now split into two parts on the “Our Shows” page.

Also, we have grouped together all of our recordings so far into one playlist, if you would prefer to hear everything we’ve produced one after the other.  You can find Our Podcast playlist at the bottom of the “Our Shows” page.

Our video with further footage from the Music and Inclusivity Conference will be available here on our website next Wednesday.

Best wishes,

The AbleWeb Radio Team

This is just a quick update from the Ableweb Radio Team to let you know the podcast and accompanying video about the Music and Inclusivity Conference are in the last stages of post-production.

We hope to share them both with you here on our website next week.

With best wishes,

The Ableweb Radio Team

As you may know by now, we provide a platform for people with learning and physical disabilities, as well as groups and organisations who work with them, to talk about what they do and how it makes an impact on their lives.

Soon, we are going to plan some new features for Ableweb Radio, and we are interested in hearing from you if you would like to be involved  in them.  Please get in touch with us at info@ablewebyork.org and let us know what you are getting up to.

This is AbleWeb Radio starting a new year of broadcasting.  We hope you had a good time over the holiday season.

Our group has started to meet up again each Monday morning as before.  At the moment, we are finishing editing our podcast about the Music and Inclusivity Conference, which we will put on our website when it is complete.

Some members of our group have made a film of this conference to put on our website. On the day, Patrick and John went around the different talks and workshops with a video camera to record the activities. In our sessions, we are also editing this to put online.  Like the podcast, this will give a good flavour of what happened on the day.

When these are ready, they will be able to be listened to and watched here  on our website.  In the meantime, we will let you know how they are coming along.

With best wishes,

The AbleWeb Radio Team

Our Monday morning sessions will begin again on 16th January.  In the meantime, we would like to wish you a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year.

With best wishes for the season,

The AbleWeb Radio team