As an independent IT recruiter, Clarkewood Consulting are passionate about three things
Personal development
Pioneering technologies
Professional, local, relationships
Over the past 6 months we have been working with the above organisations to begin what we hope will be the start of an annually running project.
The aim of our project is to help local visually impaired people to reconnect with technology and help improve their lifestyle. The idea of the project came from working with Sight Concern and realizing the overwhelming number of users at Sight Concern’s Bradbury Centre, who have an interest in using a computer but a distinct lack of trainers who are able to help them learn.
We recruited a group of 7 volunteers who span the West Midlands. Our volunteers are aged from 18 – 60 and consist of IT students, unemployed people and people looking to build on their skills.
By December all of our volunteers began learning their way around Dolphins’ pioneering GUIDE system. Our volunteers spent two days at Dolphin Computer Access’ HQ in Worcester to master their new skills and to create their own lesson plans.
This is the first year for a local project of its kind and we are all very excited about what is still yet to come.
"66 per cent of registered blind and partially sighted people of working age are not in employment" (Douglas et al, 2006)
Our ‘Eye T Champions’ are ready to start improving quality of life for local visually impaired people; from increasing employability to being able to Skype or e mail loved ones and doing an online shop.
You can follow our volunteers on twitter @eyeTchampions and also check back on our blog to follow updates on how the project progresses, hearing from both trainer and user.
