With the growth of shopping, banking, travel and general information online rather than available over the telephone or via printed material, there is a great opportunity for blind and partially sighted people to have independent access to such facilities. But all of these require you to be able to confidently use a computer, tablet or mobile phone to access online information. Although many products claim to be intuitive or easy to master, we all need help to get started in how to use this kind of technology.
There are some excellent specialist IT trainers catering to people with sight loss, and funding is available for students and people in work to pay for one-to-one training. But one of the areas RNIB are trying to improve is the availability of IT training through mainstream providers, who can offer training locally and cheaply, as we feel this is the best way to ensure more blind and partially sighted people can confidently use ICT at home for leisure and other purposes.
As well as partnering with UK Online to provide resources to their 3,800 centres across the country, we're interested in hearing about your experience - good or bad - with any organisation providing IT training.
An example of a good practice organisation is the International Correspondence School. They offer a number of courses from GCSE to degree level, as well as professional and vocational courses, with a number under the heading of "PC Skills". All of their courses are online, using electronic materials, and thus have the potential to be 100% accessible. However, although they know they can cater for a partially sighted person, they have not been approached by any blind people and therefore can't be certain their courses would be accessible.
It would be great to hear from people who have studied with an organisation like the ICS, or have tried to take an IT training course and found it difficult or impossible, so that we can work to improve the situation.