Today is National Autusm Day, a chance to spread awareness and increase acceptance of Autism. Here at Amgueddfa Cymru National Museums of Wales, we believe passionately in making our museums and galleries accessible to everyone, and more than that to creating welcoming, comfortable spaces for all. To that end, a couple of years ago, with the support of autistic volunteers and family members, the National Waterfront Museum created a 'chill-out-room', and began offering 'quiet hours' each month. Here, Ian Smith Senior Curator of Modern & Contemporary Industry at the Waterfront Museum explains how this special space came about.

“In October 2016 we had a staff training day in ‘Autism Awareness’. It opened our eyes to how they see the world and how we can support their needs. It showed us how even the simplest of environmental changes can affect a person with autism. Things like light and sound levels, the colour of walls and floors. In fact the general layout of a space which might be deliberately made stimulating and flashy might cause many autistic people to retreat within themselves.

It was around this time that we welcomed a new volunteer at the museum. Rhys, 17, has autism. His mother contacted us and asked if he could volunteer with us to help his confidence when meeting people and in a real work environment. Rhys helps to run an object handling session, usually with another volunteer or a member of staff, and he has taken to it really well. We have all noticed that he’s become more outgoing and will now hold conversations with total strangers.

With the growing awareness of autism the Museum decided to create an Autism Champion. Our staff member Suzanne, who has an autistic son, readily agreed to take up the challenge. She now attends meetings with our sister museums where issues and solutions around autism are discussed.

During our training session we discovered that some organisations have created ‘chill-out’ rooms. These are for anyone who is feeling stressed or disturbed to go to and relax and gather themselves together. These rooms are especially useful for autistic people. We put a small group together to look at creating a safe, quiet space somewhere in the Waterfront Museum. After considering options, we decided that a little used first aid room on the ground floor offered the best place.

Rhys came into his own. He offered us a number of suggestions on how we could change the space to make it autism friendly. These included making the light levels controllable and sound proofing the room so that gentle music or relaxing sounds could be played. Suzanne too came up with a number of ideas from her own experience of looking after her son. Additionally, a local special school, Pen-y-Bryn, with whom we had an established relationship also offered us their valuable expertise.

The room we’ve created is a very soothing space and we find it gets regular use by people with a range of needs, and is clearly much appreciated as shown by the comments in the visitor’s book:

“Fantastic resource! My daughter really needed this today – thank you!”

“Lovely place to get away from the hustle and bustle for a little one.”

“Lovely idea for people on the spectrum to come for quiet.”

“Really helped my son to have some time out.”

This has been a very big learning curve for most of us, but it has been made much easier by talking to people who have direct experience of autism. Their input as part of our team has been invaluable.”

The Museum is of course, closed right now, but for those of you interested, the times for our 'quiet hours' are posted on our events pages each month. We look forward to welcoming you all back in the coming months. 

Ym mis Mehefin 2019 daeth cyfle i’r Adran Addysg yn Sain Ffagan i weithio mewn partneriaeth gydag Access Base Cantonian High School, Caerdydd. Mae’r Access Base ar gyfer disgyblion rhwng 11 a 19 mlwydd oed sydd ag Awtistiaeth. Fel Hwylusydd Addysg dwi wedi ffeindio bod gweithio gyda grwpiau ag Awtistiaeth yn werth chweil, felly roedd y cyfle i raglennu gweithgareddau ar eu cyfer yn gyffrous. Roeddwn yn edrych ymlaen at ddod i nabod y grŵp wrth iddynt ymweld â’r Amgueddfa yn rheolaidd.

Yn ystod mis Mehefin a Gorffennaf daeth y grŵp i Sain Ffagan ar 3 ymweliad. Cyfle i ni brofi gweithgareddau gwahanol ac i ddod i nabod ein gilydd oedd y rhain. Aethom ni ar daith dywys o gwmpas y safle, buom yn gwneud potiau clai, a hefyd plannu planhigion gyda’r tîm Gerddi. Ar ôl y sesiynau profi, dyma ni’n penderfynu i’r grŵp ymweld bob pythefnos gyda phrosiect gwahanol bob tymor.

Y prosiect cyntaf i ni oedd crefftau Nadolig. Dechreuon ni trwy greu baubles a goleuadau Nadolig allan o wlân trwy ffeltio. Roedd y gweithgaredd cyffyrddol yma yn boblogaidd iawn gyda’r disgyblion wnaeth greu nifer o gyfuniadau lliw diddorol! Yn yr ymweliadau i ddilyn, bu’r disgyblion yn creu mwy o baubles yn ogystal â chardiau Nadolig trwy ddefnyddio inc a stampiau. Yn y sesiwn olaf cyn Nadolig, bu pawb yn addurno potiau planhigion a phlannu bylbiau cennin Pedr a chrocws i fynd adref.

Ar ôl Nadolig, y bwriad oedd i’r grŵp helpu ni i greu adnodd ar gyfer ymwelwyr gydag Awtistiaeth, i roi cyfle i’r ymwelwyr yma ddod yn gyfarwydd â’r safle cyn cyrraedd. Mae creu adnodd fel hyn yn rhywbeth dwi wedi bod eisiau neud ers sbel hir. Dyma’r grŵp yn ymweld â’r adeiladau a’r orielau yn Sain Ffagan cyn cymryd rhan mewn nifer o weithdai addysgol. Rydym wedi casglu llawer o adborth gan y grŵp fydd yn gallu cael ei ddefnyddio yn yr adnodd yn y dyfodol. Er enghraifft, mae llawer o eco yn yr Atriwm, ac mae golau yn gallu bod yn isel iawn yn rhai o’r adeiladau hanesyddol.

Yn anffodus, mae ein hamser yn gweithio gyda’n gilydd wedi dod i ben am nawr, ond mae nifer o adeiladau ar ôl i’r grŵp weld, a nifer o weithdai i gymryd rhan ynddynt. Rydym yn edrych ymlaen yn fawr at groesawu’r grŵp yn ôl i Sain Ffagan cyn gynted â phosib!

Miss Aimee Phillips – Cantonian High School - “Having a partnership with the St Fagans Learning team has given our pupils some amazing opportunities to learn outside of the classroom. Multisensory, hands on learning is vital to our pupils who are on the Autistic Spectrum. When working with the learning team, our pupils have been able to develop and refine their social skills which is a key area of learning. Some of our most memorable moments at St Fagans over the past year include, working in the Italian Garden, learning how to be a miller, the warrior workshop and most recently, watching lambs being born on the farm. As a teacher I would highly recommend the Learning team and their resources to anyone wanting a unique learning experience.”