The Digital 2021 Dr Gavin Wallace Fellowship - by Helen Sedgwick

A white woman with shoulder-length blonde, wavy hair, and a grey scarf, looks to the side. She is dappled with sunlight against a background of greenery. (Photograph by Michael Gallacher).

Helen Sedgwick is is an author of literary fiction, science fiction and crime. Her novels include The Comet Seekers, The Growing Season and The Burrowhead Mysteries trilogy, and she was awarded the Dr Gavin Wallace Fellowship in 2021.

The digital Dr Gavin Wallace Fellowship 2021 was a fully online fellowship with Creative Scotland. It was made digital in response to the pandemic and the ongoing lockdowns, but the fact of it being digital made it accessible to me in a way that other fellowships had not been. My application for the fellowship was a combination of four science-fiction books that I wanted to write, and how I would use the digital and professional development aspects of the fellowship for accessibility. There were three main components to that accessibility that I’ll talk about: being based from home entirely online made the fellowship accessible to me in the first place; the support the fellowship offered could be used for accessibility in practical and financial ways; and the training provided through the fellowship could help with increased accessibility (particularly online accessibility) going forwards. 

The fellowship is usually based in a physical place and is designed around in-person interaction between the fellow and the arts venue, whatever that is. For me, a combination of being chronically ill and living in the highlands (and having childcare responsibilities) meant that any in-person fellowship that required regular travel would be inaccessible.

“Part of accessibility is understanding that people might need to operate at different times of day, for example, or that a schedule might be inaccessible.”

There are several reasons for that. Travel itself is exhausting for me, and leads to increased physical pain, so I need to build in recovery time after travel which means any trip ends up taking twice or three times as long as it might seem from the actual travel itself. Then there’s the difficulties of being away from home. I have a set-up at home that allows me to rest when I need, and to manage pain with specific furniture and equipment. So the inaccessibility of in-person fellowships and residencies is not only coming from travel itself, but also from needing to stay overnight somewhere less accessible or appropriate, and needing to be present during particular hours that are difficult, or for lengths of time that I can’t sustain. So there is the time management issue as well. Part of accessibility is understanding that people might need to operate at different times of day, for example, or that a schedule might be inaccessible.

The fact that I could do the fellowship with Creative Scotland online without leaving home, in the hours and with the structure that allows me to manage my pain levels and balance my work with my healthcare needs, made it accessible where other fellowships are not. 

The digital fellowship involved specific things like:

·       Monthly meetings / discussions online with Creative Scotland about the books I was writing for the fellowship and how they were progressing, about other science fiction novels and the genre in general, about literature in general, about accessibility, and about how they could support me

·       Being funded to write from home without having to fit it around other work

·       Online meetings and interviews with other industry professionals about digital events, new approaches to online events, and accessibility

·       Online voice coaching

·       Online career coaching

“Because the fellowship was digital and the emphasis of that was on accessibility for me, I was able to use part of that professional development funding to make my own home and digital set-up more accessible.”

 The purpose of the fellowship was to write a series of science fiction books, so the bulk of the work was essentially writing those novels, but crucially the fellowship also came with professional development funding. Because the fellowship was digital and the emphasis of that was on accessibility for me, I was able to use part of that professional development funding to make my own home and digital set-up more accessible.

I have chronic pain including back pain, joint pain and collapsing joints, migraines, and issues with my vision, and a lot of that can be made worse by working on a computer. It’s one of the tricky issues with people assuming ‘online’ automatically means accessible, I think – when being online can also be inaccessible and lead to increased pain.

“It’s worth saying that any ‘accessible’ fellowship or residency online isn’t just about letting it be online – it’s about making the online set-up and equipment needed for that accessible as well. And, frankly, providing a budget for that.”

Creative Scotland were open to discussing those kinds of issues, and I was able to use part of the professional development funding for things like a new keyboard with wrist support to help with wrist and shoulder pain. So I think it’s worth saying that any ‘accessible’ fellowship or residency online isn’t just about letting it be online – it’s about making the online set-up and equipment needed for that accessible as well. And, frankly, providing a budget for that.

I think it would be amazing if, instead of a ring-fenced budget for travel and accommodation, that money was offered to people so they could make being online more accessible through equipment and training. That money could go to providing someone with dictation software, for example. Creative Scotland telling me that the professional development budget could be used for practical equipment to help me manage my chronic pain has been important. I feel like what I need to make writing accessible – writing at home, at my computer, on my own terms – has been recognised and provided by the fellowship.

 Another side to online accessibility that I’d like to mention is that I think online events and recordings can be difficult for a lot of people. I have anxiety around being recorded and videoed, and around videos of me then being online, potentially forever. The idea of just making an event online (and this applies to live-streaming in-person events as well) to make it accessible is an incomplete solution. It comes with its own array of issues.

So for me, the third hugely helpful aspect of the fellowship was that I was able to have coaching and training specifically to help with online events and digital performance, which included online voice coaching, confidence building for online speaking, practice online interviews, even breathing exercises and discussions around how to manage and communicate accessibility needs for online events. Again, Creative Scotland listened, which is so vital, rather than thinking that moving online was an easy accessibility fix. For me, addressing those challenges around how to make an online, digital space accessible, was what the fellowship offered.

“Regular breaks for people to move or stretch or just take a moment are essential and should be built into every kind of online course, meeting, or workshop as standard.”

There are many things to consider when running accessible fellowships or residencies online, such as what time of day is most accessible for the author, what length or format is best suited – and there are many choices around platform, participants, live or pre-recorded, Q&A sessions and so on. Ideally all these decisions should be made with the author, as part of a discussion around how their accessibility needs can be met. And I think regular breaks for people to move or stretch or just take a moment are essential and should be built into every kind of online course, meeting, or workshop as standard.

 Overall, I would say having a fellowship focussed on accessibility has been life-changing for me. The fellowship being digital was what made it viable for me in the first place, but the practical and financial support with both equipment and training will have the long-term benefit of making online events of all kinds, and my own writing career, more accessible to me. There’s an acknowledgment, too, or perhaps a sense of validity that comes with a fellowship focussed on accessibility – what I needed to make my own career accessible to me was both legitimised and provided by the fellowship in a way that has transformed my work and my own thinking.