Making your access rider: Access, Intimacy and Arriving
With Alexandrina Yewande Hemsley and Rudzani Moleya, Yewande 103
Click here for the Easy Read version of this page
* NEW DATE: WEDNESDAY 1st JULY 11:30am - 1:30pm *
This workshop is for people who have never written an access rider or who would like to revisit their existing access rider. Simply put, an access rider is a tool for sharing your access needs to ensure you have equal access.
In the workshop we will explore access with a focus on evolving needs. Through conversation, our shared and unique experience, and embodied reflection, we’ll explore:
- how to write an access rider
- what it means to work with access riders as living documents
- how access riders can be tools for communication, negotiation, and change
The session acknowledges the vulnerability of this work, particularly in creative practice, and aims to create a welcoming space where participants can bring their whole selves, while maintaining agency and privacy.
We will be using the framework of access intimacy (coined by Mia Mingus) to consider how creative workers can use access riders to communicate and advocate for their needs at work.
Access and Event Info
The event will have:
✔ BSL interpreting on request
✔ Captions
✔ Comfort breaks
✔ Easy Read info
✔ An info pack sent out before the workshop, so you know what to expect
You can tell us if you need BSL interpreting, or share any other access needs, when you book your spot.
A little bit more info...
- Everyone who identifies as neurodivergent is welcome (formally or self diagnosed)
- The workshop will be on Zoom
- The main workshop will be around 1 hour 40 mins, with a break halfway through.
- There will then be an optional, informal social time after the session for about 20 minutes, if you’d like to stay and meet other network members (with optional conversation prompts!)
- Come as you are - with camera on or off, for as long or short a time as you feel
- We encourage you to bring or do anything that will help you feel comfortable
If you have any questions, please get in touch at hello@mainspringarts.org.uk
About Yewande 103
This workshop will be co-facilitated by Alexandrina Yewande Hemsley and Rudzani Moleya of Yewande 103
Alexandrina Yewande Hemsley (she/they) is a dance artist and writer whose interdisciplinary practice deep dives into the sensorial and bodily—seeking breath and voice, and amidst injustice and inequity. Her work has been commissioned by Sadler’s Wells, DaDaFest, Disability Arts Online, Somerset House, South East Dance, TheaterForman, Dance City and others, spanning live performance, film, and text.
In 2020, Alexandrina founded Yewande 103, a Black, disabled-led dance company that connects dance with mental health by holding care-centred spaces for repair, joy and transformation. Y103 work across performance, poetry, film, and racial justice and disability justice consultancy. Yewande means “mother has returned”—a name that roots the company in cyclical, intergenerational patterns of expression, care, and nurturing. Our stories live in our bodies.
Rudzani Moleya (they/them) is a South African-born, London-based multidisciplinary performing artist, movement director and dramaturg who graduated with a distinction from The Cape Academy of Performing Arts. Their practice is rooted in somatic improvised movement, they explore the body as a living, active archive and a portal for repair and connection.
As a performer their credits include The Grahamstown National Arts Festival (South Africa), Brixton House (UK), The Roundhouse (UK), Sadler's Wells (UK), and ArtsCross (China).
They began running a series of workshops titled Bodily Archives in 2023 and have since facilitated these workshops at RichMix (UK), Queer Circle (UK), Summerhall (Edinburgh), and The Nest Space (South Africa).
About Springboard Neurodivergent Arts Network
Launched by Mainspring Arts in February 2026, Springboard Neurodivergent Arts Network is our new national network designed by and for neurodivergent creatives. The Springboard network aims to build a supportive, neurodivergent creative community and offer a programme of activity shaped and led by its members. Follow us to keep up to date with more events and opportunities.