Accessible IT for all

When faced with new challenges or opportunities we get our heads together and think of innovative ways to make the most of what we have. When we applied for and received refurbished tablets from Essex County Council we were determined to make the most of them to help our HeadsUp participants.

IT Skill Pods

As well as loaning tablets to participants we’ve also delivered workshops to several people at once using the tablets. These sessions have pulled together 3 of the “Skill Pods” that our DSOs deliver: Job Searching, Online Applications and practical IT.

Learning how to use a tablet

We start with an introduction to the tablet itself. As it runs on the same operating system as most smartphones it is reassuringly familiar. This also means that lessons learned are directly transferrable to equipment participants may already own, and we build this into the latter stages of our session.

Using the tablet to jobsearch

Moving on, we continue to use the tablets alongside a projector as well as open discussion to learn about different methods of job searching. We draw on some of our YouTube videos, using these to explore what has worked- and what hasn’t- when seeking employment. The same approach is used to look at the art of online applications, specifically when applying directly through an employer’s website. We aim to squeeze in as much practical and real-world knowledge as we can to these sessions, based on experience gathered over several years of delivering the project.

Using documents and links

Finally, we return to the IT component. We show attendees how to attach the various documents and links they have been using to an email, which they then send to their own email accounts. This gives them more practical knowledge as well as a copy of the resources they have been learning from. We’ll show them how to save these attachments to their own devices and accounts.

Feedback from our first session, held at SignPost Greenstead, Colchester was incredibly positive. And we’ll be delivering more sessions like this throughout Essex, including Southend and Thurrock. We’ll continue to embrace every new challenge and opportunity.