By NICOLE VALICEK
A TECHNICAL device is helping to close the gap between people with a disability in the Hobsons Bay community.
A group of people, all of whom have some degree of intellectual disability, are learning to reconnect through technology from the Williamstown Community Centre with great success.
Teacher Janine Cuthbert has worked with the small group aged from their early 30s to late 60s in a course specifically aimed to assist those with a disability since mid-2012.
Mrs Cuthbert said the course covered a whole range of software program topics ranging from how to use the internet and how to set up email using desktop computers and iPad technologies.
“The nice thing about technology is its inclusion in broader society, they are able to say my sister or my mum or my friend does this on a computer,” Mrs Cuthbert said.
“It’s a sense of belonging to computer technology user; it’s something they’ve got in common.”
This term, the group have been learning the iPad lingo.
“The exercises are aimed at building technological skills and relevant knowledge for computing and life,” Mrs Cuthbert said.
“I’m proud of what they are able to achieve, there’s nothing more rewarding than that especially when they are challenged in day-to-day life.”
She said the iPad had thousands of programs, but it was the educational ones that gave students a real-life benefit.
“We choose an activity where we can have an outcome by the end of the class.”
The students will also walk away with a Certificate 1 in General Education for Adults (Introductory) which is a nationally recognised qualification. Mrs Cuthbert said seeing the general confidence of the students when they learned something new was very rewarding, with more than half of the class working independently.
“It’s rewarding to see how far they’ve come, they look forward to class and have a sense of achievement when they can produce something to take away.”
