Archives for Case Studies

Case Study: VisionBridge

Case Study: VisionBridge My name is Julian Jackson, and I lost my sight in 2010 to a retinal inherited disease. I am the Founder and Director of an independent social enterprise “VisionBridge”. We advocate for eye research, promote eye https://odellfamilychiro.com/cialis-tadalafil/ health, champion innovation and facilitate disabled user access to appropriate assistive technology (AT). We also like to think that we are the gatekeeper into the UK of only the most appropriate AT, an integral link in the feedback loop from AT user to tech developer and standard-bearer of best practice amongst AT developers worldwide seeking to gain exposure to disabled user groups and individuals.
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Case Study: NHSNear Me

Case Study: NHS Near Me About My name is Laura Cowan and I work for Sense Scotland. I have worked in the field of Deafblindness for 25 years. I support Bella age 77 who has a severe visual impairment, mental health difficulties, and increasingly deteriorating mobility due to arthritis.  She also struggles with social anxiety, and fear around NHS and Doctors.  Bella’s vision is deteriorating due to having poorly managed type 2 diabetes.  Bella also struggles with understanding spoken words she will misunderstand and misinterpret what people say and requires much of what people say to her to be clarified
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AAC Methods

Background People who participate in Sense Scotland support and services have communication support needs due to a combination of: learning and physical disabilities sensory impairment including deafblindness autism complex health care needs mental health needs The Sense Scotland Service Users Consultation Group began meeting in 2004 with a small group of people supported by Sense Scotland. In 2014 it celebrated its tenth year anniversary and re-launched with a new name “Our Voice”, new logo and website. Today there are several regional Our Voice meetings in Aberdeen, Dundee, and Glasgow and recently in North Ayrshire. Our Voice asks people who are
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Making written web content accessible using text readers

By Aurora Betony Following ‘Writing for a Dyslexic Audience’, I’ve written a couple of guides on text readers. Text readers are software programs that read written text out loud.  They are also known as ‘Text-to-speech technology’ or TTS.  Some of the programs can do other things too, like customise the appearance of the text or make audio recordings.  So they are very useful for anyone who finds reading difficult. Text readers can either be built into websites / blogs or downloaded onto a device or USB stick.  So if you want to make your website or blog more dyslexia-friendly, you
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Dyslexia Alert Cards by Aurora Betony

Dyslexia Alert Cards By Aurora Betony Dyslexia Scotland is piloting the Dyslexia Alert Card shown below I think it will: help dyslexic people to ask for the help they need help dyslexic people and others communicate successfully with each other raise dyslexia awareness What does the card say on it? that you have dyslexia some things you might need help with that the person reading it should ask you how to help you details of Dyslexia Scotland’s helpline and website. How I use the card The card is the size of a credit card so I carry it around with me
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We need to move forward from a negative medical model definition for dyslexia

The following blog is by Stephen McCue. Hi hope you are all feeling fab out there. We need to move past a medical model definition of dyslexia that tells us we are broken. A definition that tells us we as dyslexics are the problem.It’s a model that sees us being segregated, marginalized and denied access to an education together with non dyslexics in an inclusive learning environment. It’s our education system that fails dyslexics not being dyslexic itself. We need to nurture not remediate.  We need teachers in every classroom trained to enable us to learn. That’s why I support and
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Blog: Writing for a Dyslexic Audience

The following blog is by Aurora Betony.  I am a dyslexic adult.  I write self-help resources for dyslexic adults.  My newest resource is a guide on how to write dyslexia-inclusive material.  This guide is not about how to design a dyslexia-inclusive document e.g. size of font, typeface, line spacing.  There’s already plenty of good guidance available on that[1].  My guide is about how to make the language of a written document accessible for dyslexic people.  My guide is in 2 sections: Plain English e.g. sentence length, word length, choice of vocabulary. Other aspects of language and style such as figures
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Case Study: Rachael Monk – Inclusive Communication Advisory Group

Rachael with her senior PA – Michelle Rachael was born with Cerebral Palsy and this resulted in her being unable to control any of her limbs and that she has no speech. I have been supporting Rachael as both her advocate and less often as her adviser for almost 20 years.  I first began working both with and for Rachael when she had problems with appropriate support at Annan Academy. I know that to use the word “inspirational” when related to disabled people is frowned upon but the plain and simple fact is that she is just that – inspirational!!
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Case Study: Access for all – it’s all of our business!

In the 2011 census around 1 million people living in Scotland reported that their day-to-day activities were limited by a long-term health problem or disability. This means that the current ‘Access All Areas’ campaign being led by the Largs and Millport News affects a significant number of people. Then remember that this campaign is also aimed at older people and parents with push chairs. That adds a few more people who might benefit. If we then consider that communication access is just as important as physical access, adding people with communication support needs means even more people benefit from this
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Case Study: Social connections – the key to access

In my first column about the Access for All campaign, I asked a provocative question: ‘…what would be the point of gaining physical access to a restaurant if you can’t read any of the menus?’ Perhaps, I could have asked what would be the point of gaining physical access to any building, if the lack of accessible information meant you didn’t know anything about the services that were offered inside. Of course, this question can be answered in many ways and Zoe Mclean last week highlighted the valuable advice that Access Panels give in making sure any building or service
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