Category Archives: learning difficulties

Technology firm helps people with learning difficulties

Making life easier

by Trevor Sturgess
Holly Lodge, Hildenborough
Holly Lodge, Hildenborough
A hi-tech firm has helped adults with learning difficulties by providing specialist technology.

Icom, based in Aylesford, specialises in telecommunications, CCTV, security systems, cabling and data centre services.

It was asked to help equip Holly Lodge, a building with five self-contained flats in Hildenborough, with the latest assistive technology.

This included movement sensors, flood sensors, infra-red beams, water management kits and tele-healthcare connectivity.

Students with learning difficulties and disabilities excited about new building

Barnet and Southgate College seeks permission to build new teaching facility for disabled students

A two-storey classroom block for students with learning difficulties and disabilities could be built at Barnet and Southgate College.

The Enfield campus of the college, in High Street, Southgate, has applied for planning consent to build the new facility, which would cater for up to 150 students and 26 full-time carers and staff.

Planning officers have recommended the proposals, which include car parking and landscaping, be approved.

Enfield Council’s planning committee will meet on Tuesday to assess the application.

http://www.thisislocallondon.co.uk/news/

 

“It is a human right to be empowered to communicate”

Thousands of people in the UK may be living without access to a powered communication aid that would enable them to have a voice, according to research.

News, 3rd May 2013.

The research, Shining a Light on Augmentative and Alternative Communication, by augmentative and alternative communication (ACC) charity Communication Matters, found that 316,000 people in the UK are benefiting or may benefit from AAC support. Of those, 31,600 could be using powered communication aids yet only around 9,000 are.

The findings, which found great variation in service provision across the UK, stem from research carried out by the University of Sheffield. It highlights there is little consistency in identifying, assessing and providing AAC devices and many local areas are failing to make effective provision.