DAY Continue to Push Forward with AT

14/07/2017

By David Ashton-Jones

Just over a month has passed since we held our Market Place event at Cedar Court, which turned out to be a successful day. Not only did disabled people get the opportunity to see certain pieces of Assistive Technology available but exhibitors also got the chance to network, creating the potential to collaborate on joint ventures.

For Disability Action Yorkshire, it ticked a big box, and we are now in discussions to build this into something on a larger scale next year, covering some key areas of disability and how technology can provide support in achieving aspirations.

Over the past few months, we have continued to create awareness around assistive technology and were fortunate enough to set up an opportunity for our customers at Claro Road to visit an Innovation Centre, which is at the head office of Tunstall, and it not only showcases existing technologies but also provides an opportunity to see other innovation that is taking place within the Assistive Technology arena. As you can see from these photos, our customers were massively engaged, and having this opportunity as well as the Market Place created the awareness we were looking for.

We have some further ideas to build on that we hope to share with you in the coming months.

As well as seeing what is available, we wanted to give our customers the opportunity to be able to use technology for themselves in order to facilitate independence that is personal to them. We recently purchased an Amazon Echo to see how our customers could use it and it has proven a real hit! Now that everyone has the hang of it, we will be adding smart plugs to house lamps and also kettles, which will provide an easier route to making a cup of tea.

The Alexa has gone down so well that we have just purchased another one for the other half of Claro Road, who had been extremely keen to get one of their own after seeing how it was used. We hope that as further smart devices become available, we can pair them with the Alexa and continue our commitment to enhance the independence of those living with a disability, whatever their aspirations may be.

As well as developing the use of assistive technology in our organisation, we are encouraged by some of the technology that is used to assist those with other disabilities. We attended a conference in Manchester hosted by the National Autistic Society, and I had a particular interest in how they felt that technology could contribute to independent living. Dr. Shashi Hirani provided a talk on the matter, and it would seem that the work we have already done in the physical disability area is more advanced in terms of independent living than that used for autism. I appreciate this is because of the complexity of the spectrum, but what is encouraging to see is that disability researchers are working in ways that allow people to be as independent as possible with the use of technology.