CHILDREN and adults with physical disabilities and special needs have the same right to be fascinated by creativity as anyone else.

That is where Mark Hildred and his Apollo Creative company, based in Knaresborough, come in.

Mark has been working on interactive technology for 13 years and the company grew out of his interest in helping people with physical disabilities to access music and sounds.

They are fascinating creations, often consisting of sensors and switches translating detection of movement into sprays of fibre optic light, sound, music, image and video. For instance… You are in a relaxing room softly washed with green light. Around you are the sounds of the jungle. In the corner a column of water slowly changes colour. Rising air bubbles in a tube calm and balm.

You reach for a brightly coloured switch and press it, triggering a thunderstorm – a short flash of light followed by the rumble of thunder. The lights dim and a fan cools the air as the sound of rain fills the room.

The technology has uses beyond sensory stimulation – in the theatre, in interactive museum displays or even the classroom.

Mark is passionate about passing on the excitement of total creation to school pupils and college and university students who visit his factory, part of GSPK Design on the Knaresborough Technology Park in Manse Lane.

It is why he has entered Apollo Creative in both the Best Employer And Education Link and Best link With Higher Education categories in The Press Business Awards 2010.

Since last September Mark has been working as a business mentor on the new Creative and Media and IT diplomas at both Manor School, York, and Wilberforce College, Hull. It followed an Inside The Workplace event for teachers held with parent company GDPK Design last July.

It meant visits by year ten Manor School students to Apollo Creative’s factory where they could apply some of the skills they were learning.

Apollo also sought the help of students taking an A-level Design Technology course at York College to develop future ideas, some of them using 3-D computer-aided drawings.

Meanwhile, Mark regularly lectures at the University of Hull, Scarborough campus, as part of the BA Creative Music Technology course.

An Innovation in Student Learning grant led to 15 students creating an interactive display for Scarborough’s Rotunda Museum, with Apollo giving a series of lectures, providing a mentoring role and helping to judge the results.

From October Apollo begins work with the Department of Electronics at the University of York as part of the BSc Music Technology course.

Mark said: “We have a unique role in the creative industries. Many students are interested in working in music, sound or video and Apollo integrates all that in an interesting outlet.”