There are really two parts to my question.
First, we were recently asked to provide an intermediary between a person
with moderate learning difficulties and use of the PN, i.e. to access the
internet and e-mails on their behalf. The argument was this would offer the
same level of service as required by the DDA.
Personally I think this is a tricky area raising issues around training
PN users and confidentiality and irrespective of us not having staffing
levels which would allow this level of service.
While we offer support if someone gets stuck, or has minor difficulties
when using the PN, we do not train people in computer use. We refer users
to local providers of PC, and Microsoft Office training. Our staff are not
tutors and we would not like to get training/teaching wrong and put someone
off. Our staff are certainly not qualified to teach computer use to people
with leariing difficulties which is a very specialized area.
I think we should refer users with learning difficulties to local colleges
for PC training, or we should provide information required as we would with
any library query for information, but this would involve staff using the
internet and other resources to answer a query rather than supervising an
individual researching for themselves.
This gives rise to the second part of my question, what do we do if we find
information for a user but the format or level of language use is not
suitable? Who should provide the conversion of this material into a format
accessible by our user? Should the organisation providing the source
information or should we be doing this?
I am really keen to know what you think
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