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Deafax Trust

Since 1997, the Deafax Trust has been delivering a training course called TITLED (Towards IT, Literacy, Employment for Deaf people) to prelingually, unemployed deaf adults in ICT (Information & Communications Technology) and motivation. This was only undertaken at our Technology Centre in Reading but when in 1998 we were given 3 laptops the road’ and our training programme became peripatetic, reaching clients all around the country.

When the deaf clients are first given access to the laptops, they tend to be a little nervous, some will not even try to touch them! But they get excited when they discover they can accomplish something easily, such as open a Word document or change the font colour. After only the first day of training, they are already growing in confidence and looking forward to attending the rest of the course.

Deaf people enjoy visual work, which is why IT training is so useful to our clients. It also helps them gain experience in on-line communication. MS PowerPoint is one of the most popular software we use on TITLED because of the simplicity of its designing technique which results in a powerful presentation tool.

The advantage of deaf clients joining a Deafax course is that the training is delivered in a safe and supportive environment. All our training is delivered in sign language or total communication. Deafax also produced training materials, which are British Sign Language accessible, and the English is simplified to aid better understanding and expedite the learning process.

The course also recognises the importance of clients achieving job readiness after completing the training. Using laptops and printers from the DfES/Basic Skills Agency initiative has certainly helped a great deal by giving our clients more independence and an opportunity, which boosts their confidence. The deaf trainer often finds herself bemused when the students ask if they can buy the laptops from us and take them away for home use! It is fascinating to see this happening because these clients had shown little or no interest in ICT when they first attended the course!

The 3 laptops assigned to us have been used nationwide, such places as Birmingham, Sheffield, Glasgow, London and Cardiff and over 50 deaf adults have directly benefited from their use. It comes under 3 days training. Approximately 20 of them have achieved placements. It is anticipated that a further 50 will use the laptops this year. All our clients are encouraged to contribute their word processing, database and design skills by preparing presentations using PowerPoint slides that they have produced themselves and they always do brilliantly.

In addition, Internet and E-mail training modules are also delivered, provided the training site has access to an external telephone line. Many clients particularly enjoy this part, and they become enthralled when they discover the wonders of the Web and start surfing the Net.

The Deafax Trust feels most proud to have been involved in this initiative and very fortunate to have been equipped to expand our ‘catchment’ area, reaching many deaf people who would not otherwise have been able to access our custom-made training packages. Deafax are thankful to NIACE and the Basic Skills Agency. If it were not for these organisations, we wouldn’t be able to meet the training needs of all kinds of deaf people in all corners of the UK.

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