Extreme clowning: July 2014

Who are we?

We are the 1^st Sensory Legion

http://www.1stsensorylegion.com/

Which is??

A small charitable organization

What do you do ?

We enable access to the world of film and television and popular culture for people for visually impaired and disabled people

How do you do that?

We do that by running events throughout the year that are as accessible as possible.

All costumers that attend must be ok with being touched/handled.

We have a prop and toy area all of which is tactile and can be touched

Masks by Chris Stephens creations

https://www.facebook.com/Chrisstephenscreations

We also had donations from etsy sellers

items such as these made such a fantastic impact for the visually impaired

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/117825396/star-wars-tie-interceptor-wooden?ref=sr_gallery_6&ga_search_query=star+wars+wood++decorations&ga_ship_to=GB&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery

we also use smell jars – which contain various smells from films

we have various interpreters available on the day

we have any print items produced in large print and braille where applicable

2014 we will be introducing multi media nfc chips which will link to audio descriptive/B.S.L signed/ close captioned videos of various characters

we have a small group of professionals who volunteer on the day who are experienced in working with disabled people and adults with learning disabilities.

Carers always go free

How many people was expected at your last event?

How many turned up?

Over 400

( this was due to the attendance and support of actor Warwick Davis)

how many are you planning for this year?

Our venue holds 10,000 but we are only letting in 2,000

http://www.kingsgate-uk.org/

Why do you do this?

For whatever reason it is not always practical for a disabled people to attend conventions, crowds, costs, travel etc etc.

Through our own experiences with friends and relatives it is a mission!

After the last event – the need for such a day has been made very clear

Chewy was a tactile hit!

Ava Loved the real wookie fur.

so we decided to hold our own event

As far as we know we are the only people in the world doing this, and its a honor to be able to introduce all of these different worlds to people who may not have experienced them before

it also allows us to unlock memories through touch and feel.

It becomes so much more than dressing up and going out.

Imagine not knowing anything about Dr Who?

Or even knowing a character but having no idea of its appearance – Slimer for instance.

All of these missing links can be found at feel the force day.

Do you use costumers?

Yes – Costumers are the life and soul of our convention, we have some celebs but due to the nature of the day our guests tend to be drawn towards Darth Vader and a stormtroopers.

We keep the celebs involved as it is an important part of a convention.

But costumers are real to a lot of our guys.

So costumers are free at our events, as they are like staff and without them we have no event.

The same goes with droids.

(we are also the only convention in the world to have a tactile slave Leia -

only for the visually impaired)

We also have a mascott who came dressed as an ewok on the day

meet Mugly - the worlds ugliest dog 2013

Do you go to other conventions?

Yes – we attend collectormania, em-con, and LFCC , we use our stall as a base for any disabled people who need a rest or a break, we also use it to fund raise and create awareness about what we do