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  • 30
    Nov 21
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Lets Go Centre are a member of GATE( Global Cooperation on Assistive Health Technology )

Category:Uncategorised

The Lets Go Centre are a member of GATE( Global Cooperation on Assistive Health Technology )

During the United Nations General Assembly on Disability and Development (HLMDD) on 23 September 2013, key stakeholders at the side event, Assistive Technology Opens Doors, requested that WHO develop and lead a global initiative to realize several articles of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) related to the provision of Assistive Technology; specifically article 32 – International cooperation on Assistive Technology.

To realize this mandate, WHO has agreed to develop a Flagship programme – Global Cooperation on Assistive Health Technology (GATE) in partnership with the Assistive Health Technology (AHT) stakeholders representing international organizations, donor agencies, professional organizations, academia and consumer groups.

GATE initiative has only one goal – to improve access to high-quality affordable Assistive Health Products, responding to the call to increase access to essential, high-quality, safe, effective and affordable medical products, one of the six WHO leadership priorities.

  • 30
    Nov 21
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World AntiBullying Forum Stockholm

Category:Forum

The team gave a workshop at the World Antibullying Forum in Stockholm, Novemeber 3rd 2021.

Research by Jenaro, Flores, Vega, Cruz, Pérez and Torres (2018) investigating cyberbullying among adults with intellectual disabilities, found that 15.2% of the participants have been cyberbullied. Zweers-Schrooten, Scholte, and Didden (2017) revealed that students with disabilities and/or autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are particularly vulnerable to bullying compared to their neurotypical peers.

The Erasmus + Disabuse programme was designed for adults (15 years+) with Special Educational Needs and/or Disabilities to learn how to recognise and cope with all forms of bullying. It provides an online course with six separate lessons, translated from English, into Italian, Spanish and Portuguese. All materials are available online via the website www.DisAbuse.eu.
The online course consists of training materials for an instructor, with each lesson being supplemented by the use of multimedia games/audio and video clips and the optional use of Lego Serious PlayTM, to explore all of the areas that affect someone who is experiencing disablist bullying.

The six lessons developed are: 1. What is bullying & is not?  2. Dealing with Cyberbullying, 3. Understanding Bystanders, Bullies and Victims, 4. What are empathy and respect? 5. What to do about bullying? 6. Keeping Strong against Bullying.

Expectations
The DisAbuse project was evaluated positively in all four countries, by both the participants and their key workers/families. These resources mean that any person working with people with SEN/D can use these resources to educate them about bullying and cyberbullying, while individuals with SEN/D can learn about being a bystander and how to protect themselves. It also informs the key workers/families to recognise when bullying situations arise and what steps can be taken to resolve the situation. This project focuses on young adults, mainly in relation to support services. However children with SEN/D both in support services and main stream school can also benefit from this program.

  • 28
    Sep 20
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Assistive Technology for People with Disabilities: Employment

Category:Challenges,Seminars

The team attended a session online on Assistive Technology at the Global Science Collaboration Conference at the 75th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA75) on Monday, 28th of September from 11am – 3pm (BST). The importance of AT is highlighted as a hugely transformative and enabling influence for people with disability in education and employment.

This session addressed specific issues and challenges related to employment for people with disabilities and the use of assistive technologies to promote diversity, inclusivity and workplace success.

Research has demonstrated that Assistive Technology (AT) are powerful tools to improve independence, employment and community participation among people with disabilities. AT, including both high-end and low-end devices, equipment and systems, apps and other products. While AT could be useful in improving the life of people with disabilities, the WHO identified that only 10% of the population in need of AT products had access to them. Although AT provision varies across countries, the intent to support people with disabilities should be a global priority with a focus to remove barriers and provide facilitators in independent living and employment.

Globally, the employment rates of people with disabilities is significantly lower than their peers without disabilities. In addition to the socio-economic implications, social exclusion impacts negatively on self-esteem, mental health and wellbeing. People with disabilities encounter many barriers as they try to obtain and sustain meaningful and gainful employment. Promoting employment and independence through the use of AT in collaboration among stakeholders will have significant impacts on the quality of life of people with disabilities. These will help address some of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), such as Goal 1 (No Poverty); Goal 2 (Good Health and Well Being); Goal 10 (Reduced Inequalities) and Goal 17 (Partnerships).

In this session, speakers focused  on SDG1, SDG2, SDG10, and SDG17. Specifically, we will draw together interdisciplinary and multi-sectoral stakeholders from research, industry, other stakeholder groups to exchange current technological, research and policy developments especially in the context of employment. Stakeholders with a vast range of expertise and experience identified the challenges of translating research and products into practice as well as discussing strategies and sharing best practices to support design and development of AT tools for use in employment context.

  • 02
    Apr 20
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CHAT forum

Category:Forum

Let’s Go Skills will join ​CHAT’s (Community Hub for Assistive Technology) next meeting Tuesday April 7th. The call will offer everyone involved in Assistive Technology in Ireland a chance to come together and discuss the following three opening questions: 

1. What is the greatest unmet need that you are coming across/experiencing regarding access to technology and assistive technology for people with disabilities?

2. How can we work together to meet some of those needs? To share innovations and solutions?

3. What innovations and opportunities have you developed or identified that you can share? 

The intention is to gather issues from the ground and create an open self-organising space to work on some of these issues, avoid duplication of effort and support shared learning. We want to ensure that people with disabilities are not left behind or further disadvantaged during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Prof Mac MacLachlan, National Clinical Lead for Disability Services, HSE, and Co-Director of the ALL Institute, Maynooth University has agreed to say a few words at the opening of the meeting.

  • 21
    Jan 20
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Visionary thinking

Category:Vision

The Applied Psychology programme was visionary when started in IADT over 20 years ago, particularly with its emphasis on human centered design.
This visionary thinking has led to the foundation of the Lets Go Skills center at Iadt to lead in tackling issues of digital accessibility and inclusion.

  • 11
    Oct 19
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Disabuse project in Rome

What a wonderful group of people in Rome!

Category:Seminars

What a wonderful group of people tackling bullying and cyberbullying in Rome as part of our IADT erasmus + project called Stop Disabuse, which runs in Ireland, Italy, Spain and Portugal .Hearing stories of how the materials we developed at IADT with the Antibullying Centre in DCU helped these young people in their lives moved me a lot. See www.disabuse.eu for more details. The news tab is the best!

  • 14
    Jun 19
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European Parliament Coordinator for Children’s Rights

Category:Seminars

Marian McDonnell from Lets go Skills  and Lian McGuire (ABC, DCU) continue to represent DisAbuse at the World Anti-Bullying Forum in Dublin, Ireland, including speaking with the new , Anna Maria Corazza Bildt . Anna Maria is the European Parliament Coordinator for children’s rights. She is the spokesperson for the entire European Parliament, ensuring the promotion, respect and safeguarding of children´s rights in all European Parliament policies and legislation and that the best interests of children are always fully respected in EU legislation and non-legislative initiatives of the Parliament

  • 14
    Jun 19
  • 2

WORLD ANTIBULLYING FORUM PRESENTATION

Category:Seminars

The partners from Lets go Skills  were joined ABC for their Workshop on DisAbuse and Disablist Bullying at the World Anti Bullying Forum. Prof. Mona O’Moore, Lian McGuire, Fiona Weldon, Irene Connolly & Marian McDonnell delivered a workshop presentation Tuesday June 4th at 10.30 in the Helix theatre at Dublin City University, Dublin.

The workshop showed that DisAbuse aims to empower young people (15+) and adults with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEN/D) and their support services / care workers and teachers to educate about and take charge around the issue of disablist bullying to help prevent and intervene in it’s happening.

By drawing on the direct input and experiences of people with SEN/D, alongside international research and best practice for educating about disablist bullying and utilising techniques such as
•eLearning
•partnered learning
•peer learning
•Lego Serious Play

  • 09
    Mar 19
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Multimedia materials developed by the Let’s go Skills team at IADT and DCU being tested in Rome

Category:Workshops

The first meeting of the DisAbuse project took place today at Fondazione Mondo Digital in Rome using the multimedia materials developed by the Let’s go Skills team at IADT and DCU. 13 young people with special educational needs and 12 teachers, trainers, and psychologists, talked about their bullying experiences today. They were able to learn from each other to recognize the phenomenon and to understand how they can cope and tackle bullying. Fondazione Mondo Digitale facilitators guided the reflection using the materials developed together with the project partners as well as Lego® Serious Play® Learning tools.

  • 09
    Mar 19
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Irish Service Users and Support Workers/Instructors/Teachers began the pilot course

Category:Pilot testing

The Irish Partners, IADT and DCU in conjunction with Irish Service Users and Support Workers/Instructors/Teachers began the piloting and evaluation of the modules of the DisAbuse Training Project this week.  With great interaction, participation and feedback thus far, these sessions will run twice weekly in two cohorts over the next three weeks on the campuses of St. Patricks & All Hallows, DCU in Drumcondra.

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