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Ashley Kendall
Flashing Lights
Assistant Producer
Ashley Kendall found himself drawn to performing while attending the Royal School for the Deaf in Derby. An expressive talent for British Sign Language (BSL) landed him a job at Flashing Lights (formerly Remark! Media), the UK’s largest Deaf run media production company, where he is now an assistant producer. Ashley is known for his work presenting CBeebies’ ground-breaking programme ‘Magic Hands’ which translates poetry into BSL for the first time and aims to break down barriers between hearing and non-hearing children.
The Creative Edge?
Diversity in the workplace should not be about boring quotas and ticking boxes: it’s about what fresh perspectives different types of people can bring to the table. Either through disrupting thought processes, challenging assumptions or simply by being their brilliant selves, this panel know first-hand what being different and including different perspectives can mean in terms of fuelling creativity. The children’s media industry misses out creatively if we overlook differently-abled and neurodiverse people. Creativity is the lifeblood of what we do, after all! This lively panel brings together some amazing and diverse talent to discuss how inclusion in working teams…
Representation
Does the Children's industry across both TV and toys represent diversity? Should global television and toy brands with cultural sway have any moral duty to do so? We debate how disability is viewed across the sector, how we can move away from stereotyping and what key brands are doing in this area.
