Oh no! ANOTHER Zoom meeting!!

A lot of people with learning disabilities do not have access to technology.

The coronavirus has made it hard for lots of people to access their usual activities like day services, self-advocacy groups and social events.

At My Life My Choice we have been working hard to get our members online so that they can access our services.

This blog tells you how we did this.

We asked technology experts for their advice.

We looked for funding for technology. 

We asked organisations if they were interested in donating laptops and tablets to us.

We found a few funders and organisations that were willing to help us.

Once we had the technology, our staff set the tablets and laptops up.

For the laptops, our staff downloaded Zoom.

For the tablets, our staff downloaded Zoom, YouTube and Facebook.

We asked our members which device they preferred.

Laptops seemed to be the top choice for our members.

We made some easy read guides, so our members could learn how to use their device and its apps.

We delivered the tablet or laptop and the easy read guides to our members’ homes.

The laptops and tablets then became the members responsibility.

This means we encouraged them to protect their devices by…

1. Buying a cover,

2. Using strong passwords (passwords with number (123), capital letters (ABC) and symbols (@#!) are best),

3. Buying insurance.

Our staff, support workers, and family carers supported our members to get online and access our services.

All of our services are on Zoom because we have found it to be the most accessible video chat.

We told our members that if they had problems with their laptop or tablet, they should get in touch with a member of staff at My Life My Choice.

If they had harder to fix problems, we pointed them towards the company that made the device.

So far, four of our 13 self-advocacy groups and our Champion group are meeting online.

Our Jobs and Money team of trustees are meeting online.

In late June, we had our first full trustee meeting which had 13 attendees.

Some of our paid work like research, consultancy and training is online too.

We have also enjoyed our Stingray nightclub on-line.

Soon we hope to run our first online Quality Check for the County Council.

We expect to get the rest of our self-advocacy groups online by the end of October.

We think that our online work will make a big difference to how the charity is run even when the pandemic is over.