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BRINGING A BETTER QUALITY OF LIFE TO DISABLED PEOPLE

IT–Can–Help (ITCH) has helped more than 700 people since its establishment in 1994 by solving their hardware and software problems, and helping them to gain confidence in using a computer.

The problems faced by ITCH Volunteers are many and varied. Clients may be blind or partially sighted, have suffered a stroke or have been disabled as the result of an accident. Or suffer from long-term debilitating conditions such as Motor Neurone Disease (MND) or Parkinson’s Disease. Problems can be complex or simple to fix. These are just a few examples of what an ITCH Volunteer can expect.

A blind novelist who relies upon her computer system to read incoming mail and to read out her manuscripts had trouble with her printer, scanner and voice output system. The Volunteer who visited her discovered that the wrong voice output software had been supplied by the manufacturer, and that the wrong drivers for the scanner had been loaded. Both problems were quickly eliminated.

In another case, the teenage victim of a road traffic accident had suffered brain damage, was deaf, unable to speak and was bed ridden. She badly wanted to use a computer to communicate with family and friends. An ITCH a volunteer obtained a laptop computer and

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got it repaired free of charge, with the result that the young woman now spends hours every day using her laptop to speak.

Not all cases involve technology, however. An elderly resident living in a care home in the Midlands suffering from Parkinson’s Disease, became wheelchair-bound following and accident and unable to use his computer, because he couldn’t get his legs under the table on which it sat. During the course of three visits an ITCH Volunteer made a wooden stand that raised the computer eight inches, enabling the client to drive straight in and operate it from his wheel chair. The Volunteer also upgraded the client’s e-mail software and gave him one-key access to the Internet. He also gave the client some extra tuition in the use of e-mail, and his digital camera.

A lady with MND needed help in up-grading her computer and adding a modem for e-mail. She also needed a new printer. ITCH Project Leader Ken Stoner, himself severely disabled by MND, arranged for North East Hants MND Branch to finance purchase of all equipment required so that ITCH Volunteers could install it for her. The work included setting up a new monitor, modem, one year’s ISP support, and fitting additional RAM to her PC. The Council also installed new power points for her.

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For more information visit www.itcanhelp.org.uk or contact: