Low cost broadband remote assessments are now available from AbilityNet

23/11/2006

AbilityNet has been successfully piloting a new remote assessment service for severely disabled clients in their own homes since January 2006, and is now offering it as a paid service to employers, schools, colleges as well as the public and voluntary sectors.

Today, public, work and educational facilities all have the broadband access needed for remote streaming (enabling a computer to be adjusted using internet technology), and with a low cost web camera, it’s possible for the assessor to identify physical access issues and recommend adaptive solutions. AbilityNet supports this service with a bank of assistive hardware and software available on short-term loan, which will hugely reduce the risk of buying the wrong solution.

Personal visits will still be needed where firewalls and stringent security prevents online streaming. However, for many organisations, where cost is a significant barrier, the remote assessment process offers a very flexible and cheaper option. It can be charged by the hour, saves travelling costs and time and without the need for travel, waiting times are shorter. Clients can also book several short sessions with their remote assessor - often a better solution than a single visit.

“By piloting this service with clients who have complex and severe disabilities, we were pushing it to the limit,’ says David Banes, AbilityNet’s Director of Operations, ‘It has been extremely well received, and we believe it could be the solution for most disabilities, and could and should be considered by organisations needing to support their disabled IT users.”

Over 100 people have been assessed in the pilot and it has been a very positive experience. Another significant benefit in non-home environments is that experienced AbilityNet staff can transfer skills and learning to support workers, wherever they are, as assessments are carried out. The pilot shows that when disabled clients are talked through new software with a note-taker, they have the confidence to get to know and use new applications in their own time after the assessment.

Matching the right technologies to the individual is vital – as without it people struggle and often give up.

As an AbilityNet remote assessment client with Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI), who has now returned to part-time work, confirms:

“I struggled for five years, I didn’t use a PC at all, or work. I couldn’t. I couldn’t see a way back into work either, it really got me down. I just couldn’t see a way back into normal life.”

A remote assessment usually takes a little under two hours, so in launching this new service AbilityNet hopes to treble the numbers of clients assessed whilst providing a more streamlined service.

About AbilityNet

In 2005 AbilityNet supplied free advice and information to some 280,000 enquiries through its national freephone and web-based services. In addition, the charity's consultants saw nearly 3,000 disabled children and adults face-to-face for individual assessments, equipment, training sessions and home support visits.

In the same year, AbilityNet's professional education courses and seminars attracted around 5,000 staff from public, private and voluntary sector organisations, seeking to develop their awareness of adaptive technology for those with disabling conditions and learn practical solutions to apply in the workplace, at home or in education.

AbilityNet is dependent both nationally and locally on grants and donations from charitable trusts and companies, to carry out its work on behalf of disabled people and those who support them.

If you are interested in using Remote Assessments for any employee, student or client who has difficulties accessing their ICT, including hand held and mobile devices, call AbilityNet’s freephone helpline on: 0800 269545, check www.abilitynet.org.uk or email enquiries@abilitynet.org.uk.

Issued by: Caroline Saint Freedman, AbilityNet Press Office
Tel: 01926 429595 E: press.office@abilitynet.org.uk

Client comments

What clients say about remote assessments

Source: independent qualitative research: October/November 2006

“I’m very impressed with the remote assistance, and would absolutely recommend it to others”

“AbilityNet really got me using my computer. I have very limited sight and MS. I could not, and now I can. I can do emails now, and it’s put me back in touch with life, put me in touch with the world. It’s a HUGE thing for me. Anyone else might say ‘so what?’, but it is really massive for me, I CAN!!”

“AbilityNet is ‘more knowledgeable about issues which concern people like me, ’finding the right solution has made a difference to this client’s optimism ‘absolutely, I was so depressed with the other keyboard going bananas every 5 – 6 months’, self-esteem ‘Yes, I couldn’t attempt most things and didn’t want to bother.’ and even on her carer‘My carer was very grumpy. It’s stopped that.’As for quality of life, she writes ‘The computer is like my best friend and the internet is my window to the world. It’s the most important thing after family and good health”

Compiled from an email questionnaire from a client with no speech and multiple disabilities following a brain-stem infarction.

“This year I got a new system, they upgraded everything for me. The really good point about the service is that they set up the whole thing for me as a unit, so the hardware, software, everything all functions together. And there is a helpline. Fantastic service.”

“I could not live MY life – that is the life that I live – without it. I am doing an NVQ in Advice and Guidance, and I wouldn’t be able to do that. I work part time now, and I wouldn’t have been able to work again without IT and AbilityNet.Would I recommend AbilityNet? Yes, yes, yes!!”

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