Accentuate

Museums, Libraries and Archives and Buckinghamshire County Council have lead the way on this large-scale project.

Accentuate has been inspired by the values and achievements of the Paralympics, and Buckinghamshire is very proud to be the birthplace of the movement. The pioneering work of Sir Ludwig Guttmann at Stoke Mandeville Hospital revolutionised the treatment and life chances for paraplegics, and brought hope and a whole new outlook on life for thousands of injured soldiers and disabled people. Dr Guttman’s dream was of a worldwide sports competition for people with disabilities to be held every four years as 'the equivalent of the Olympic Games', and he organised the first ‘Stoke Mandeville Games’ to coincide with the start of the London Olympics in 1948..

The Mandeville Legacy project aimed to ensure that the South East’s role as the birthplace of the Paralympic movement at Stoke Mandeville is recognised by the world. It has recorded the histories of many Paralympic athletes, past and present, and improved access to Stoke Mandeville’s historic archives in order to foster public understanding of the story of disability in the region. Working with a range of disabled artists and school and community groups, the impact of the Paralympic movement has been explored and brought to light for all to see.

• Listing and investigating the archive collections held at Stoke Mandeville, using the Revisiting Archive Collections methodology.
• Exploring nine other regional collections related to disability and rehabilitation.
• Driving Inspiration: using the pioneering story of Stoke Mandeville with schools in Buckinghamshire and beyond, and working with disabled artists and Paralympians to enable children to identify their own inspiration.
• Young Cultural Creators: a local short-stay school worked with archive collections from Stoke Mandeville and a poet to create their own work through the stimulating Stoke Mandeville story.
• People’s Record: a short series of roadshows that encouraged members of the public to add their own memorabilia and reminiscences to the Paralympic collection.
• Film: using archive footage alongside newly-recorded interviews with Paralympians, an hour-long documentary film has been produced celebrating the story of Dr. Ludwig Guttmann and the Paralympic movement.
• Oral history: an extensive series of interviews with Paralympians, past and present, recorded to enhance the story of Stoke Mandeville and the Paralympics.
• Touring exhibition: using the collections, both at Stoke Mandeville and regionally, an exhibition has been created about the story of disability and rehabilitation in the South-East, to be exhibited at regional and national spaces as well as throughout 2012 training camps and host venues.

Find out how all this has been achieved at the Mandeville Legacy website:

http://www.mandevillelegacy.org.uk/

Accentuate projects have been collecting examples of how their work is having an impact.  Whether this is the personal experience of an individual, or the influence Accentuate projects have had on organisations. Click the link to view the case studies.