JANE ALDOUS head of partnerships at the national disability charity Scope, on how a corporate partnership helped its campaign to improve communication equipment provision for disabled people
There are approximately 1.5 million people with a communication impairment in the UK, and up to 600,000 of them cannot communicate verbally at all without specialist equipment. This means they cannot communicate everyday choices – such as “yes” or “no”. Without access to equipment, they are being denied a basic human right. We started a campaign on this issue when we found out that the government-funded Communication Aids Project was ending last year. This scheme provided communication equipment to more than 4,000 children. Our No Voice, No Choice campaign was devised to lobby government to provide communication aids and lifelong support for adults and children who have impairments.
We needed financial support to get our message heard. We had worked with BT before and knew they had an interest.
We took their head of corporate social responsibility (CSR), Adam Oliver, to see a small project we had recently started at our further education college. The Wheeltop Project was set up to design a communication device for Natalie – a student at Beaumont College who has a communication impairment.
Natalie gave a presentation to the BT team using her communication aid, which allows her to speak via voice-automated technology through moving just one knee. She made them see the need for the Wheeltop device, which works like a laptop mounted on a wheelchair and allows much greater communication through text and e-mail. BT was working on a new data card for communications devices. They gave us the technology to develop the prototype further.
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We presented them with a business plan to develop more devices for students at Beaumont College. They wrote the final business case with our input – the proposal reflected our joint vision. BT has agreed to give us £265,000 over three years for the Wheeltop Project and the wider-reaching campaign. They also have two apprentices with cerebral palsy who are contributing to the project. It’s not the norm for corporate partnerships to work so closely together. The project is still very developmental – we want to keep them involved every step of the way.
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