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For some time I have been aware of the big impact that the Disability Act has had on making schools, libraries, learning centres and other public places more accessible to people with disabilities. This is a good thing! However, I am interested to find out what support is provided for people with 'invisible' disabilities. I realise that universities are well along this route in making provision, but students may need to use public libraries near their homes, which are not so well resourced. Some relatively simple IT interventions can be very effective in making text accessible to people who have problems with reading. This may be physical - they need a clear font / coloured text or background / larger text. There may be problems with reading difficult words or retaining the information in a long sentence because of short term memory problems. The numbers of people with invisible disabilities who could be helped to become more independent users of public facilities are potentially far greater than those with physical or visual differences. I am interested in finding out what local provision is being made and am asking these questions: 1. Are screen reading programs and headphones provided on each computer? 2. Is it easy to change the colour of text/background on the screen? 3. Are there easy-to-use guidance sheets/tapes on how to use these facilities? 4. Is there a good selection of leisure talking books? - non-fiction as well as fiction? 5. Can a student access talking textbooks? (There are copyright implications here) 6. Are there classes that look at a person's individual literacy needs and help them to develop technology strategies to get round the problems? There is something of a chicken-and-egg situation here as libraries and learning centres need to know what provision ought to be made, but they are not asked for it until the potential users know what they should ask for! My local experience of approaching providers has been positive so far - they are interested to know what could help - so if you want to use my questions to check out your own area, please do - and I would be interested to hear what happens! Cheers Judith ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Judith Stansfield SEN ICT Consultant NASEN ICT Group BDACC Reviews and Literature Editor http://web.onyxnet.co.uk/Stass-onyxnet.co.uk ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~