Other Research Links

Here are some links to all the other parts of my research, there are links from things that are more scientific and there are also news articles, links to a clothing models instagram page who has DS and there is even a link to a YouTube Channel called Canadian Down Syndrome where people with DS answer any questions that you my have about their lives, as well as many other links. 

ALL of these links are relevant especially when it comes to specific facts and figures, they have the MOST important information to help you as viewers to understand Down Syndrome and there are also some links to different charities for people with learning disabilities such as DS:

The National Association for Down Syndrome:
https://www.nads.org/about-us/history-of-nads/

Preferred Language Guide:
https://www.ndss.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/NDSS-Preferred-Language-Guide-2015.pdf

Facts About Down Syndrome:
https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/birthdefects/downsyndrome.html
https://www.ndss.org/about-down-syndrome/down-syndrome/
https://www.ndss.org/resources/sexuality/
https://www.ndss.org/about-down-syndrome/down-syndrome-facts/
https://www.ndss.org/about-down-syndrome/down-syndrome-through-the-lifespan/

Kate Grant hailed as an inspiration on 'this morning' for landing two major campaigns, one of the UK's (more specifically Northern Ireland) first Down Syndrome Models and she's beautiful!:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-6682575/This-Morning-viewers-hail-Downs-Syndrome-model-Kate-Grant-inspiration.html?fbclid=IwAR3ip2ZERVZZ5YAuLINLGq_jjgKHsh7rsMO44pNRsdM5RrW4hFhSTmpWtjI

Kate Grant's Instagram page:
https://www.instagram.com/kategrantmodel/

Changing Focus: people with Down's Syndrome in a remarkable art project:
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/feb/17/radical-beauty-stunning-portraits-of-people-with-downs-syndrome?CMP=share_btn_fb&fbclid=IwAR1sJX-PpPL_7hRyI9ESubxIHBkYlZMuEPnPJuvYpdEQ5X2QMEZoQDzsxtg

Tate Modern Workshop - I Am: With A New Direction:
https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/tate-exchange/workshop/i-am

The Disabled Photographer Society:
https://www.the-dps.co.uk/

Mencap - The Voice of Learning Disability:
https://www.mencap.org.uk/

BBC News Article - Society 'more positive on Down's':
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7746747.stm

Down Syndrome International:
https://www.dseinternational.org/en-gb/

ITV News Article - 'It is just one aspect of him' The changing attitudes to people with Down's Syndrome:
https://www.itv.com/news/wales/2018-06-11/it-is-just-one-aspect-of-him-the-changing-attitudes-to-people-with-downs-syndrome/

Meadowfields School in Sittingbourne is one of the best (if not the best) schools for children with disabilities in the whole of Kent, it is a school for children who have severe learning disabilities:
https://www.meadowfield.kent.sch.uk/

Canadian Down syndrome is a YouTube Channel where people with DS answer any questions that you may have regarding their lives as well as Family Interviews and much more:
https://www.youtube.com/user/CdnDownSyndrome/videos

The Canadian Down Syndrome Society's website:
https://cdss.ca/

A beautiful documentary on YouTube called My Extra Chromosome and Me:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zCoEa5WRBs

Oliver Hellowell

Oliver Hellowell is a 22 year old photographer, to me he in himself is an inspiration. He is a wonderful young man who has Down Syndrome and through watching his stepfather Mike O'Carroll take photographs he too learned various skills of photography and he himself is now a photographer.

Oliver developed a love for the great outdoors and a love for the many types of wildlife that live in it. On his page his mum wrote, "When environments or individuals have failed Oliver we have surrounded him with belief, encouragement and optimism. Patience, guidance and targeted tuition enabled Oliver to utilise the world of photography as both a tool for him to record the world in the way he sees it and as something which beings him a great sense of achievement, pride and self esteem."

Meet Oliver and read his life story: https://www.oliverhellowell.com/meet_oliver.php

His Website: https://www.oliverhellowell.com/

An article where Oliver talks about his photography: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/magazine-29107894/photographer-with-down-s-syndrome-sees-the-world-differently

Meet Oliver and his mum YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lye99vCtKq0&app=desktop

Oliver Hellowell

Some of his work

Daniel Laurie and Liam Bairstow

Daniel Laurie and Liam Bairstow are two of the nations most loved actors, they both have Down Syndrome and they both play loveable characters on popular TV shows. Daniel Laurie plays the beautiful character or Reggie Jackson on Call The Midwife and Liam Bairstow plays the wonderful character of Alex Warner on Coronation Street. Both actors play their characters well and have definitely changed the worlds opinions on people with DS and in their own right they have proved that people with DS can grow up to get ordinary jobs and they truly are inspirations to the world.

Daniel Laurie's character is now a series regular on Call The Midwife and has been playing the role of Reggie since 2012.

Liam Bairstow's character is now a series regular on Coronation Street and has been playing the role of Alex since 2015.

Links to Information about Daniel Laurie and his role as Reggie: 

https://www.lynnnews.co.uk/news/call-the-midwife-star-daniel-speaks-to-kings-lynn-students-9049711/

http://www.pbs.org/call-the-midwife/characters/reggie-jackson/

https://www.entertainmentdaily.co.uk/drama-tv/call-the-midwife/call-the-midwife-star-daniel-laurie-praised-for-beautiful-and-important-performance/

https://www.ok.co.uk/tv/call-the-midwife/1325751/call-the-midwife-nurse-barbara-gilbert-dead-funeral-charlotte-ritchie-tom-reggie-carousel-wedding

https://www.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowbiz/6540577/leslie-grantham-children-age-how-old-ex-wife-jane-laurie/

Links to information about Liam Bairstow and his role as Alex:

https://www.digitalspy.com/soaps/coronation-street/a787677/coronation-streets-liam-bairstow-opens-up-on-being-the-shows-first-actor-with-downs-syndrome/

https://closeronline.co.uk/entertainment/soaps/coronation-street-casts-first-downs-syndrome-actor/

Daniel Laurie as Reggie Jackson on Call The Midwife

Liam Bairstow as Alex Warner on Coronation Street

Sally Phillips' 2016 BBC Documentary: A World Without Down's Syndrome

In 2016, Actress Sally Phillips produced a BBC Documentary called A World Without Down's Syndrome, her eldest son Olly was born with Down's Syndrome. When he was born she had been made to think that it was an ungodly thing by the doctor and nurse that helped deliver him, since then Sally grew to love him and decided to make a documentary to help us as viewers to understand what Down's Syndrome is, as well as her visiting a number of different professionals in different countries to find out their opinions on Down's Syndrome and to try to stop babies with DS from being eliminated. 

Notes I took from the documentary:

1) Around half a million women go to see their babies for the first time at their 12 week scan, mothers find out when babies are due and if they're growing normal. This is also the time where the baby gets tested for Down's Syndrome. For the test they measure the baby and test the hormone levels in the blood which give a probability of whether the baby has DS.

2) In the last 10 years the number of terminations have risen by 40% which equivalates to a 9/10 termination if there is a positive outcome to the test. (These numbers are from 2016).

3) In every cell there is meant to be 23 pairs of chromosomes, people with DS have an extra copy of chromosome 21, chromosomes are pieces of information that make us who we are. All the extra chromosome might mean is that you are smaller then average, you may have a smaller mouth so your tongue may stick out, you have almond shaped eyes and you may have some level of learning disability.

4) There are only 40,000 people in the UK with Down's Syndrome.

5) In 2016, people with DS had started to achieve more than ever before, such as Liam Bairstow joining the cast of Coronation Street to play the soaps first ever DS character of Alex Warner.

6) People with Down's Syndrome were not allowed to attend school until the 1970's and they were not allowed to attend mainstream school until 1981.

7) Professor Sue Buckley globally changed the lives of people with DS and she paved the way for them by developing speech and language classes. This meant that 80% so 4/5ths of people with DS could learn to read if taught in the right way which could lead them to live ordinary lives by going to school and getting jobs.

8) There was a new development in the scientific world so instead of having Amniocentesis which could potentially harm your baby they created a new non-evasive prenatal test with a 99% accuracy rate, however, this new test caused the termination of babies with Down's Syndrome to rise by a quarter.

9) In Iceland 100% (in 2016) of the population terminated babies that were tested positive for DS in the last 5 years.

The documentary can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhmIeSxXcxE

Link to the blog mentioned in the documentary: http://www.downssideup.com/

Details about the documentary can be found at: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/family/parenting/sally-phillips-my-son-has-downs-syndrome---but-i-wouldnt-want-to/ and https://dontscreenusout.org/sally-phillips-really-want-world-without-downs-syndrome/ and https://creation.com/down-syndrome-abortion

Sigga Ella

Sigga Ella made a small appearance in Sally Phillips 2016 BBC Documentary A World Without Down's Syndrome. Her series First and Foremost I am comprises of 21 portraits of people who all have Down Syndrome and the reason for that number is because the trisomy of the 21st chromosome causes Down Syndrome.

She chose to photograph people of all ages and both genders and wanted to show that each of these individuals is a person like anybody else and should not be judged by one extra chromosome. 

The title of her photographic series comes from an article she found on the internet written by Halldóra Jónsdóttir, (also featured in Sally Phillips' documentary) a 24 year old woman with Down Syndrome who then became one of the models for Ella's series. In the article, Halldóra wrote, "I have Down Syndrome but FIRST AND FOREMOST I am Halldóra. I choose to enjoy the life I was given, to be happy with what I have, and make the best of what I've got." Jónsdóttir's upbeat outlook is what Ella wanted to showcase in her series.

Sigga Ella said that the idea for the project came to her when listening to a radio program where these issues were discussed. "The reason I did this project was because of this radio interview I heard, where they were discussing the ethical questions we now face, that we can choose who gets to live and who doesn't, as the aim with prenatal diagnosis is to detect birth defects such as Down Syndrome and more. Where are we headed? Will People choose not to keep ad embryo if they know it has Down Syndrome? I had a lovely aunt with Down Syndrome, aunt Begga. It is very difficult for me to think about the elimination of Down Syndrome and her at the same time."

Information about the series can be found at: http://siggaella.com/projects/first-and-foremost-i-am/ and https://fstoppers.com/opinion/first-and-foremost-i-am-sigga-ellas-thought-provoking-photography-series-people-59115

Images can be found at: http://siggaella.com/projects/first-and-foremost-i-am/

David Moore

The Lisa and John Project by David Moore was based on a couple in the 1980's, it was called Pictures from the Real World. The project of work itself has no bearings on my research, however, during this project Moore created an installation of scale theatrical maquettes which showed the presence of the photographer within the scenes, this part of the project was called Oh My Days!.

This made a big influence on my project, although I have not made maquettes showing the presence of the photographer. Whilst my uncle took the instax mini polaroid photographs, I then photographed him taking those photographs so that is my interpretation of showing the presence of the photographer within the scene which, in this case, is my uncle.

Information of the series can be found at: https://davidmoore.uk.com/words/the-lisa-and-john-slideshow

Images can be found at: https://davidmoore.uk.com/projects/pictures-from-the-real-world?imagenum=18 and https://davidmoore.uk.com/projects/lisa-and-john-oh-my-days-installation

Christopher Capozziello

I have chosen to study Christopher Capozziello's series The Distance Between Us as much like my own project he has photographed a relative with disability. The difference between our work is that he is carefully photographing his brother who suffers with cerebral palsy where as I am carefully photographing my uncle who has Down Syndrome.

In the description of this series he writes:

"The Distance Between Us is a book where I turn the camera on my own life and that of my twin brother Nick. The pictures and text confront our differences and the anger and shame I have felt for being the healthy twin. Nick has cerebral palsy..."

"...Sharing the pictures was not something I ever set out to do; over the years, one image led to another, and a story emerged. The time I have spent with my brother, looking through my camera, has forced me to ask questions about suffering and faith and why anyone is born with disability."

Where Capozziello's series had lead him to question why people are born with disability, my project widely differs. My project is not only about creating a strong bond through my collaboration with my uncle but it is also about gaining further knowledge so that I have a better understanding of Down Syndrome and how the different severities affect each person differently.

Information on the work can be found at: http://www.chriscappy.com/the-distance-between-us-book

Images can be found at: http://www.chriscappy.com/part-1#