By 
By Paul Moore
Recently I came across an intriguing article about an organisation called the Good Things Foundation.
Essentially it is a digital inclusion charity aimed at creating access for all to the kinds of technology we all need to be able to function fully in contemporary society.
They undertake research which shows how ensuring everyone has access to digital technologies would benefit both people and the economy.
One of their most startling finds is that if the government was to make access to online resources free to all it would add £24.1 billion annually to the economy and add £10.4 billion extra to the annual salary income for the UK. You do not need to look twice – you are reading the numbers correctly and yes they are staggering.
Seeing these figures coincided with a visit to Sweden to attend and speak at a conference about how digital instruments can allow performers with both intellectual and physical challenges to play and compose music with professional musicians who do not have such challenges.
I know little about the problems faced by those with disability but have been fortunate to have been introduced to this type of work by a colleague who has an orchestra called Acoustronic for which he writes music and organises concerts with professional orchestras.
The most recent was a performance called Zoomtime Over and Out which was performed with the Ulster Orchestra as part of the Belfast International Arts Festival, much of which was designed and composed by those with disability. Special instruments and softwares were designed by students to allow the disabled performers to engage fully in the performance according to their own capabilities.
Similarly, I was fortunate to be involved in evaluating a project the Enniskillen campus of the local college ran working with SEN young people. The scheme involved the rebuilding of a walled garden which had once been part of the Enniskillen workhouse which the College now uses as a creative and technology centre. The young people learned craft skills, project management, time management, heritage and sustainability skills and communication skills. When I discussed the work with the research officer at NI Disability Action she said this was an example of the kinds of work such young people should be offered, work where they were being given access to real skills and real learning which could allow them to enter a related profession. Crucially it was training which should mean these young people may not be exploited in unrewarding jobs they may not want to work in.
The local college has long been at the forefront of such work. When I worked there, a hundred years ago, we set up a scheme called STEP which was the first programme integrating SEN young people into the accreditation framework of further education and the general life of the college. I discovered recently that the scheme still operates and is highly successful in directing participants into work roles they want and can fulfil.
At the moment I am working with government to develop a definition of literacy for the 21st century, a definition which takes into consideration the skills and digital proficiency people might need to be able to negotiate modern living. Being in contact with the projects described above has led me to a conclusion that is so obvious I am more than a little ashamed I did not arrive at it before now. Quite simply, if we create access and systems which allow those with the most challenges in society to engage fully at all levels of social interaction then by definition these systems and access structures have to then work for everyone. So instead of being included after the fact those with the greatest need should be the starting point in any social planning. And perhaps the local college is far enough ahead to take the lead in this unfolding debate.
