Access to Business (City Centre) have given 10 free spaces to volunteer centre clients on a basic intro to I.T. course

. The course will be on 14th and 15th of June and another on the 16th and 17th June from 10am -1pm.

The course covers the following:

• Internet

• Online basics

• E-mail

• Internet searching

• Job hunting online

• Social Networking

• Safety / Security online

• + More

For more information or to take a place, contact:

Jason Griffiths

Training Advisor

Wolverhampton Volunteers

Wolverhampton Voluntary Sector Council

.16 Temple Street, Wolverhampton, West Midlands, WV2 4AN

‘:  01902 773761 (mainline) ‘: 01902 328980 (direct line)

7:  01902 310270 ;:  jgriffiths@wolverhamptonvsc.org.uk

Activeyes is a group run by and for visually impaired people.
If you have a visual impairment and would you like to share your experiences with other people who have a visual impairment, join Activeyes support group – they meet at The Lock Works Cafe Bar at Light House, Chubb Buildings, Fryer Street, Wolverhampton.
Activeyes also have their own walks for health group. The walks take place on the 3rd Tuesday of every month. They meet outside the Tea Rooms at 11am in West Park, and the walk lasts for approx 45 minutes. It is suitable for all including wheelchair users. After the walk there is normally a break for light refreshments in the Tea Rooms.

We are at a period where there are likely to be lots of changes proposed or carried out by Governments that will have a big impact on disabled people’s lives: from getting a job, to benefits, to the care system, the impact of genetic research etc.
So it’s a good time to make sure your voice is being heard, and one of the easiest ways of doing this is to make sure you vote.
It is not to late to register for a vote – you have until April 20th, so call up the Council electoral services, and get registered to have a say!
When you are registered check back to ur website to find out how all the Wolverhampton candidates have answered the 10 questions we put to them from disabled citizens.
The answers we have received will be on this website from 22nd April, so make sure you come and have a look!

Co-op travel have broken ahead of the field of travel companys by being the first high street travel firm to provide a custom service for disabled people.

Co-op Travel have trained staff from 40 branches on the access needs of disabled people who want to go on holiday, so that they can give accurate and relevant access information. Their travelshops will have specialist guides on airport access and facilities also. The aim is to roll out this expertise to all their branches.

You can find out whether a branch near you has this new service by contacting Co-op Travel:

0845 266 9228 or visit online: www.co-operativetravel.co.uk/specialist-travel.

Which is best for disabled people, mainstream education or “special” schools?

I went to a mainstream school that had excellent academic standards, so I had access to a wide range of educational tools. There were also a few things that I was prevented from doing on the grounds of “Safety”. But my school seemed to take a somewhat quixotic approach to this: I was prevented from studying Chemistry (in case I had an eplieptic fit in the lab), but was permitted to do fencing as one of my games options. I was prevented from doing swimming, but allowed to throw the javelin – there’s a bit of a pattern here – chemicals bad, pointy objects okay.

Apart from these odd bannings, I am eternally grateful for the standard and range of education I was exposed to. I am certain that if I had gone to a special school (or a lesser mainstream school) at the time, my education, and my life would have been much poorer.
Things have changed now, and with part 4 of the Disability Discrimination Act providing rights to physical access around schools as well as access to the curriculum for disabled pupils, it’s reasonable to think we finally have an educational equality.
In Wolverhampton vast sums of money have quite rightly been spent in making school buildings and facilities accessible. But what of equal access to the curricuum, to the lessons themselves?
That doyen of education, philosopher, and architect of the 1981 Education Act (where statementing comes from) Baroness Warnock, says that the inclusive education system is failing to meet the needs of lots of statemented children – particularly those with autism.
In recent years reports have said that head teachers would prefer some disabled pupils out of mainstream education and back into special schools. And a recent opinion piece by a scottish journalist
has ignited a debate – his main arguement is that mainstream education does not serve visually impaired kids well because it relys too much on visual media for it’s teaching method.

So which is best – well resourced, well led special schools like Pen Hall, or mainstream schools where there is not enough support, where teaching methods are not sufficiently accesible, and where many head teacher may not want you anyway?

I think that any system that attempts to integrate us into the manistream is a good thing. The important point is that it is done properly, so that we really do have equal access to learning. It seems that at the moment this is not happening. The Government needs to address this if the Educational Equality project is not to be a failure.