Why isn't Makaton free?

by Margaret Walker, Chief Executive, The Makaton Charity

Why can't I have a Rolls Royce because I think I need one?

Come on - let's get real.

Just as a Rolls Royce costs money to design, develop, and produce, so does Makaton, though you may be surprised at the comparison.

This is not a hard luck story because we are extremely concerned to learn that some of you are finding it difficult to afford essential Makaton resources to use with your child or older family member.

The original core vocabulary, and the signs and symbols that are an essential part of the Makaton programme, took several years of research to provide a perfect match for the needs of children and adults with severe communication and learning disabilities.

The research which resulted in Makaton was carried out by me from 1968 to1973. This was a pioneering effort because no-one in the world at that time had realised the absolute breakthrough that signs and symbols would be to people who had difficulties communicating. Since then, Makaton has been the inspiration for others now in the field.

In 1976, I provided the very first Makaton training workshop with a few colleagues who recognised the value of my work. Soon, interest grew and a formal organisation was needed. I decided that it must not be a commercial organisation making profits out of disability. So we created a non-profit charitable trust - the Makaton Vocabulary Development Project, which on 1st December 2007 was re-established as The Makaton Charity.

Myself and two other colleagues - Professor Joan Bicknell and Colin Christmas - became the Trustees (unpaid, like all charitable trustees) with the specific objectives to disseminate information and training about Makaton, and to encourage research into Makaton and other associated communication systems for the benefit of those with identified or anticipated communication difficulties.

The Makaton Charity operates from my home, though we hope in a few years to move into offices, and although we run an efficient organisation with worldwide contacts and committed administrative and specialist personnel, in many ways it still operates as a cottage industry on a very tight budget.

Costs of resources and training reflect the quality of the research and design that goes into them. We are committed to providing resources and training of high quality, relevant to the needs of all Makaton users. We also try to offer them in as many varied presentations as possible. For example, as books, on video, on computer disks etc, and we try to cover the needs of Makaton users from the cradle to the grave. Quite a tall order!

So, how do we manage it?

We plough back into the charity all the income from sales of our resources and training after essential expenses have been deducted. And I work unpaid 6 days a week as a trustee and as the Director! We have been fortunate in receiving a few donations and grants, but, unlike a number of charities, The Makaton Charity is very self-sufficient. In fact, in 1998 The Makaton Charity received a national award for its business efficiency and independent stance.

Sometimes it is difficult to imagine just how much it costs to produce our resources, especially if you urgently need to obtain them. To give you some idea, the popular nursery rhymes video cost £45,000 in 1991, and Parent/ carer pack 1 cost £27,400 (1998). The new adult Bridge Makaton resource, which is currently in production, will need £22,500 to become a reality. In addition to this, we are currently working on other projects which users have been asking for, for example the development of Parent/ carer pack 3 and further selections of the Makaton Resource Vocabulary, including the topics of "People, Buildings and Places" and "Growth and Development, Emotions, Feelings and Relationships". We are excited to have received a few donations towards the Resource Vocabulary development which has enabled us to speed up the work, and hope to be able to make these new selections of symbols and signs available from 2002.

Copyright

The issue of copyright has always been a thorny one and it is often misunderstood. Copyright is simply a legal statement to the world that a unique piece of work, or a unique idea or concept, or a unique style of art or graphics is the property of the inventor or designer. In the case of Makaton, the inventor was me, and I assigned all my rights to the charitable trust - The Makaton Charity. So The Makaton Charity now owns the copyright in (a) the concept of the Makaton Core and Resource Vocabularies, (b) the name Makaton, (c) the various selections of signs and symbols, (d) the Makaton language programme, (e) the unique art style of the signs and symbols which are presented in books, on computer disks, in videos, on the internet etc.

Copyright also offers protection to the owner in that if anyone else wants to exploit it for commercial gain or use it in any way, they cannot do so without the owner's agreement. Having said that, The Makaton Charity tries hard to encourage collaboration with others to develop new resources and new facilities to make access to Makaton simpler and more widespread. Reference to our publications list will give you some of the successful collaborative ventures between The Makaton Charity and other Makaton users and organisations.

Juggling the different demands made on The Makaton Charity and trying to maintain a balance between meeting users' needs and keeping The Makaton Charity solvent and in a position to continue the development of new resources and training is an enormous challenge. We try our best to satisfy these demands but we are not magicians.

I hope this clarify things so that when you contact us with your ideas and express your needs and problems you will realise where we are coming from and why we just cannot give Makaton away.