In 2011 JISC TechDis entered into a formal partnership with the Department for Business Innovation & Skills (BIS) to ‘improve take up and understanding of assistive and mainstream technologies for the benefit of disabled and disadvantaged learners.’
JISC TechDis were commissioned to carry out three new project strands specifically to provide these learners with tools to understand and address their own access needs thereby becoming more independent.
Project outputs tools and resources will:
- Significantly improve opportunities to learn
- Improve employability skills
- Provide increased independence and self advocacy
- Facilitate more confident inclusion in society.
Strand 1 - Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI)
SBRI encourages technology solutions to specific public sector needs by inviting a broad range of companies to bid for funding. JISC TechDis promoted and managed two competitions specifically aimed at exploring and developing new assistive technologies to support independent learning working and living.
Strand 2 - Toolbox
A collection of JISC TechDis resources and tools specifically aimed at helping disabled or disadvantaged learners to understand gain and improve those skills that are most valued by employers. Designed for users to access and explore themselves but tutors and support staff may also find the toolbox valuable.
Strand 3 - The Voice
Text-to-speech can benefit many disabled learners but in many educational institutions it is perceived as a niche disability tool only available on certain machines to certain people. This project is to develop a synthetic voice to support a wide range of learners who would benefit from high quality synthetic speech voice to help bring text to speech (TTS) to the mainstream of educational practice.