Podcasts

Newstalk interview with Siobhan Long for Freedomtech 2017

Freedomtech a passport to inclusion

Siobhan Long talks to Jess Kelly from Newstalk; “Accessing funding is a barrier as it is simply not there.  We want to see that funding is available for anyone at home, school, college or even in the workplace as well as accessible information on assistive technologies.  Everyone in the Government needs to get talking to one another, form departments of education, justice, employment and the HSE”

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Mefacilyta appVodafone symbol with person pointing to letter M Mefacilyta app

St. John of Gods in Spain along with Vodafone has developed an app to support individuals with intellectual disabilities or higher support needs learn skills by creating activities on smartphones or tablets.  Hilary Cotter finds out more.

SayIt!Owen McGirr in his wheelchair

SayIt is an AAC application for IOS.  It offers word prediction for faster typing, switch access for alternative use, and several other features.  The developer, Owen McGirr, has given us an interview to discuss his recent development work.

Download app

see video

 

Sharon’s shortcuts

Girl typing on computer keyboard

Sharon Lyons has over 10 years experience supporting people with a vision impairment. Sharon has recently set up an educational resource for people who primarily use keyboard shortcuts to access a computer. In this blogpost Sharon discusses her website http://sharons-shortcuts.ie/ and her tutoring services.

Enable Ireland Kerry’s Assistive Technology Service development plans

Enable Ireland Life with no limits
Siobhan Long speaks about Enable Ireland Kerry’s Assistive Technology Service development plans, as well as about the launch of a report entitled ‘Assistive Technology for People with Disabilities and Older People’, which was launched jointly by Enable Ireland and the Disability Federation of Ireland on November 7th 2016.

Launch of a report

Assistive technology for people with disabilities and older people paper

Siobhan Long speaks about the launch of a report entitled ‘Assistive Technology for People with Disabilities and Older People’, which was launched jointly by Enable Ireland and the Disability Federation of Ireland on November 7th 2016.

Assistive Technology for People with Disabilities and Older People

Details of a Discussion Paper: ‘Assistive Technology for People with Disabilities and Older People’, launched on Monday last in Dublin by Enable Ireland and the Disability Federation in Ireland. This paper represents the views of a cross-sectoral stakeholder group convened through CHAT (Community Hub for Assistive Technology:

https://www.linkedin.com/groups/8407996

It’s a very practical report with 7 key recommendations.

http://www.enableireland.ie/resources/news/enable-ireland-and-disability-federation-ireland-launch-discussion-paper-future

ESB’s work experience program

esb training ship program
Niall O’Hanlon, disability office within the ESB talks about the training ship program which the ESB provides for people with disabilities. The program provides paid employment within the ESB as well as valuable skills and experience for 10 people with disabilities every year.

Assistive Technology need not be expensive

National Learning Network provides a range of flexible training programmes and support services for people who need specialist support (job seekers, unemployed, people with an illness or disability) in 50 centres around the country.
Interview with Kieran Hanrahan at the Comunity Hub for Assitive Technology CHAT meeting. Kieran shows that exploring ideas to see what is available and collaboration with different organisations can help make assistive technology solutions. Kieran’s discussion was about Assistive Technology need not be expensive, as we can use technology that is already available to people and design assistive technologies with universal design in mind so it’s available for all user needs.

Stuart Lawler talking about the community of practice

NCBI working for people with sight loss

This is an interview with Stuart Lawler a service manager at NCBI talking about the Community of Practice and what it means to the NCBI. The Community of Practice group is organised by the Disability Federation of Ireland (DFI). This is the national support organisation for voluntary disability organisations in Ireland who provide services to people with disabilities and disabling conditions.

Community of Practice

This is an interview with Pierce Richardson talking about the Community of Practice. This group is organised by the Disability Federation of Ireland (DFI). This is the national support organisation for voluntary disability organisations in Ireland who provide services to people with disabilities and disabling conditions.

EmployAbility

This is an interview with Antony Murray from Employability. Employ Ability Limited is an employment support service for people who have a disability or health issue and live in southwest Dublin.
The company was set up in 2004 and since then have successfully worked with both job seekers and employers in facilitating employment.

Choosing Assistive Technology

Joint logo small

This is an interview with Juliann Bergin who is an experienced AT Resource Person within Enable Ireland’s National AT Training Service. Juliann discusses her role within the service and the AT assessment process. According to Juliann the key to choosing the best technology for someone is a good assessment. Various tools to help guide the assessment process are mentioned such as SETT (student, environment, tasks and tool), HAAT, (human, activity and assistive technology) and MPT (matching person and technology). Juliann also tells us what factors to take into account when choosing a tablet-based device.

Foundations in AT

AT Graduation

Enable Ireland’s National AT training Service deliver a Foundations in AT Course which is accredited by DIT.    We caught up with a number of graduates at the 2015 graduation in Microsoft and got their view of the course.

 

Community Design ChallengeCommunity Design Challenge 2014

Siobhan Long explains the Community Design Challenge (CDC).  The CDC competition runs in conjunction with Dublin Institute of Technology product design course.  Product design students and AT users come together to identify challenge that AT users experience in their daily live which might be addressed thought the development on new product design concepts.

 

Update on Community Design Challenge 2015

Elderly man presenting daily living challenge to students
Siobhan Long provides an update on the Community Design Challenge which now has grown to include other colleges and universities.  This years CDC saw the introduction of students from Purdue University in Indiana.  Seven AT users presented a range of daily living challenges to students for them to work on.

 

The Interactions between an AT and Custom Seating service AT user with infra red transmitter mounted on chair

Siobhan Long provides a few examples of technologies that can enhance a person independence.  She also describes the services that Enable Ireland provide to local services and users as well as her vision for the future.

 

 

AT Solutions For Teenager With An Acquired Brain Injury

Image of a magnifying glass over the word case study

Shirley Deakin undertook the Enable Ireland’s Foundations in AT course earlier in the year.  Shirley is the parent of a child with an acquired brain injury and her focus for her project was a case study around her son.  She describes the main challenges faced by her son at school and in completing his school homework.  Shirley describes the technologies and devices that were trialed and there outcome.

 

Digiplace4All

Digiplace4All logo showing a community of people in support

NCBI has launched, a new online peer support community for digital skills. The aim of DigiPlace4all is to help people with disabilities help each other in developing the digital literacy skills they need to transition from centre-based training to mainstream education & employment.  This podcast is an interview with Mark Magennis the coordinator of the project to explain it further.

 

 

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