November 2005
The Portland Partnership's work has now finished. Throughout the pages on this website you will find information about the project team's achievements and about the individual outputs that we have produced.
Specifically, there is a great deal of information on the project's Virtual Learning Environment, the learning materials, the transition framework and also the new piece of assistive technology.
We hope that this project exemplifies the case for accessible design. By designing for learners presenting some of the most severe barriers to learning, we are confident that we have produced outputs which are better for all and possess huge mainstreaming potential. Symbol and speech-supported text can open up the materials to young children or learners for whom English is not their first language. Simple, intuitive interfaces and switch accessibility also make the resources more appropriate for older learners with less dexterity and little or no prior computer use. We would therefore welcome any policy developments or incentives which promote inclusive and accessible design as both good ethical and business practice.
The project has served to highlight that attitudes towards technology can be equally as potent a barrier as inaccessible technology itself. Clearly, if ICT is to become firmly established as the ‘fourth basic skill’ public money will be needed to realise the full potential of enthusiastic practitioners and engage their less enthusiastic peers.
Given the often severe barriers experienced by our learners, we have sought to promote a broad and critical view of work and employment, which values all work-related activity, from one-day work tasters, through voluntary work, to sustainable, paid employment. This is supported by our Transition Framework which, in part, will help tutors locate learner progress and achievement within the context of developing employability skills.
We feel that more work needs to be undertaken to exploit and promote the relationship between technology, disability and employment. We have been fortunate to secure funding to produce bespoke solutions, but many potential jobseekers with disabilities could secure employment with only the minimum adaptation of existing technology and associated outlay. There is often funding available to support this, along with a host of other initiatives, of which employer awareness can be erratic. In addition, the use of technology such as the online authoring tool we have developed, provides a means of creating multimedia applications which highlight what a candidate with a disability can do, rather than focussing on the barriers. As a project, we have promoted all of these solutions. However, to effect widespread change requires policy initiatives.
Portland Partnership
November 14th, 2005.