News

Talent and Technology: Building bridges to employment for disabled people

Policy Connect and the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Assistive Technology (APPGAT) launched their report Talent and Technology: building bridges to employment for disabled people on 15 July.

This report details the role of technology in the experiences of disabled people transitioning into the workforce and makes recommendations for how the UK, already a world-leader in the development of assistive technologies, can harness the power of these tools and inclusive practices to make the world of work accessible to all.

The research leading to this report was conducted by Policy Connect on behalf of the APPGAT, and its author Geena Vabulas is a Karten Network Nuvoic Project Technologist and a member of Policy Connect’s Health and Accessibility Team.  The inquiry was sponsored by City Bridge Trust and the Ian Karten Charitable Trust.

Read the report

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View the online version on the Policy Connect website

Karten Network supporting you during the Coronavirus (Covid-19) Pandemic

The Karten Network is treating the Covid-19 outbreak as a major incident.  Our highest priority is the health, safety and well-being of people across the services we support and within the Karten Network support team.

We’re closely following the latest advice and guidance issued by the UK Government, Public Health England and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.  We will continue to take appropriate and necessary steps in accordance with official advice to keep our community and network as safe as possible.

The best defence to prevent the spread of Covid-19 continues to be good hand hygiene practices and social distancing.

We are implementing the following precautionary measures with immediate effect:

  • No non-essential travel
  • Provider visits to be replaced with remote support
  • Face-to-face meetings to be replaced with remote meetings

These are unprecedented times and we will endeavour to provide ongoing support to organisations throughout the pandemic.  Digital tools will be key in keeping us working over the coming months.  We will issue information and guidance to Centres to support you with this.  We will use the Karten email group, website and Twitter account to communicate key information.

If any of our support team are required to self-isolate during the Covid-19 pandemic you will still be able to contact us by email, phone or video‑conference.

Dawn Green – Karten Network Development Co-ordinator
dawn@karten-network.org.uk
Tel: 07821 723941

Martin Pistorius – Mobile Technology Adviser
martin@karten-network.org.uk

Fil McIntyre – Assistive Technologist, TechAbility
fil.mcintyre@natspec.org.uk
Tel: 07516 726936

Finally, may I take the opportunity to wish you and your organisations well during these extraordinarily challenging times.

Dawn Green

Changes to the Karten Application process

In the Karten Session at yesterday’s TechAbility conference Dawn Green (Karten Network Development Co-ordinator) announced that an application form will now be required for funding applications. A link to the form that should be used by existing Karten Centres, along with the SpreadSheet template that forms part of your application can be accessed through the link below. The application deadline for the next Trustees meeting is 12 noon on 17 January 2020. The completed application form and associated documents should be emailed to dawn@karten-network.org.uk. Please advise Dawn at the earliest opportunity if you are thinking of developing an application for the next meeting.

https://kartennetworkorguk-my.sharepoint.com/:f:/g/personal/dawn_karten-network_org_uk/EtrQXMu3GtZDkz4rDs-EueEBC6W7N02CaWkZzwVxVjcung?e=GVJj4d

Blended Learning Consortium

The Blended Learning Consortium (http://blc-fe.org/) operates out of the Heart of Worcestershire College. It is a consortium of further education colleges that co-develop and build interactive e-learning content for various subjects that can range from literacy and numeracy to catering, animal care and plumbing. All the resources are dictated by a voting system amongst the member colleges.

The consortium usually charge an annual £5,000 subscription fee, which goes towards development costs, but they currently offer it for free to specialist colleges.

Whilst many of resources and courses are aimed at higher skilled students than we have at Young Epilepsy, we have had some success with adapting the consortium’s resources to suit our own needs – the consortium allows individual colleges to download and edit the content in this way. The consortium also offers discount deals on various software packages and learning platforms.

If there are any members of the network who are interested, I’m more than happy to make the necessary introductions.

Nick Tingley (ntingley@youngepilepsy.org.uk)

Information Learning Technologist

Young Epilepsy

Funding update – March 2018

Trustees of the Ian Karten Charitable Trust met in March and approved funding for additional equipment at the following Karten Centres:

  • Cambian Pengwern College
  • Care for Veterans
  • Fife College
  • FitzRoy Maltings Fakenham
  • Norwood Ravenswood
  • RNIB College Loughborough
  • Treloar’s Print

We wish the successful Karten Centres well in implementing their projects and look forward to case studies in due course.

The next Trustees meeting will be held in September 2018, applications need to be sent to dawn@karten-network.org.uk by 12 noon on 13 July 2018. Karten Centres intending to submit an application should notify Dawn at the earliest opportunity in order that relevant guidance and support can be given.