At Access: technology north we work with disabled children in their home and school environments to provide technology solutions that support and enable communication, entertainment, learning and independence.
At Access: technology north we work with disabled children in their home and school environments to provide technology solutions that support and enable communication, entertainment, learning and independence.
We work with parents, carers and siblings alongside our clients, to identify ways that technology might make life a little easier. This might be through the use of environmental controls or access to IT equipment for entertainment. Our ultimate aim is to help our clients, through the use of technology, to make choices for themselves, become more independent in their own home and to make life more fun!
We work with class teachers, learning support and school coordinators to establish barriers to our client’s learning and independence. We make recommendations for equipment, devices and software to reduce the impact of these barriers, to promote inclusion within the classroom and to increase independence in, and access to learning.
We operate in a very similar way to a therapy team, because we've found that providing the best service requires more than a few recommendations and a delivery of some new tech.
We personalise our approach, offering training for schools, parents and carers alongside specially planned intervention sessions for our clients. We're also on hand for any technical or troubleshooting enquiries.
We want assistive technology to have a long term, positive impact on our clients so we work hard, alongside parents, carers, teachers, learning support and other therapists to ensure that our clients unlock their potential; getting the very best from their technology solutions, at home, in school and for their future.
Mike has over ten years experience working with adults and children with learning difficulties and disabilities using Assistive Technologies.
Mike has led several funded projects including sharing best practice using Assistive Technologies to educational institutions, developing accessible web resources for users of assistive technologies and reviewing the accessibility of open educational resources.
Mike presents regularly at conferences on best practice using Assistive Technologies and is experienced with developing hi-tech communications aids including systems manufactured by SmartBox, Liberator, Tobii Dynavox, Toby Churchill and AAC applications created for the iPad.
Mike is a qualified teacher and father to a 6 year old son with Autism who uses Assistive Technology to support his speech.
Mike has a PGCert in Technology Enhanced Learning and is also Makaton trained.
Andrew is a qualified primary teacher with a professional focus in additional educational needs.
Andrew has over 10 years experience in working with children of all abilities, beginning his career as a special educational needs teaching assistant before completing his studies at university.
Prior to joining us at Access Technology North, Andrew was KS1 lead and ICT Coordinator in a mainstream primary school. Andrew was responsible for all teaching and learning within Key Stage 1 as well as managing the ICT provision across his entire school; ensuring all children had access to the devices and software they needed in order to allow them to best access their education.
Andrew has undertaken the National Primary Qualification for Middle Leaders (NPQML) as well as the OLEVI Outstanding Teacher Programme. Andrew has also recently undertaken a foundation course in Makaton.
Kelly has over ten years experience working with and teaching children and young adults between the ages of 5 and 25; including delivering national curriculum subjects in a range of primary settings and the management and delivery of bespoke learning programmes as Programme Leader for the Employability department at a specialist further education college.
In addition to several years experience teaching and co-ordinating a staff team, Kelly also has significant experience within a more pastoral role, managing timetables, monitoring achievement and accreditation and co-ordinating support for young adults with a broad range of learning difficulties and disabilities. Kelly is also very familiar with the EHCP conversion and review processes.
Kelly is a qualified primary teacher with an advanced professional focus in additional educational needs. Kelly has a British Sign Language Level 1 qualification and is also Makaton trained.
