Information empowers parents of disabled

Parents of adults with learning disabilities have taken part in a scheme which could lead to the setting up of a website dedicated to their needs.

A total of 24 parents from the Dublin and Wicklow area came together in Trinity College Dublin last week for a three-day course to introduce them to information technology and, specifically, the wonders of the World Wide Web.

Course co-ordinator Siobhan MacCobb, from TCD's school of occupational therapy, said the initiative came about as a result of earlier schemes aimed at empowering parents through knowledge. "The conclusion that came out was that the parents had a huge need for information," she said.

"The principal way they got information was from each other and then the service providers they were attached to."

MacCobb said because they use the same service throughout the child's life parents often feel awkward about asking too much of it. "Parents can be dependent on the service but if they speak to others using different services they get a broad perspective. It helps people not to feel so vulnerable and restricted," she said.

Mary Egan said that at the start of the course, she had pointed the mouse at the computer screen like a remote control, now she wants to learn more and realises the possibilities are limitless. "If there is someone coming to speak to one particular group we would never have heard about it. Now we could publicise it, send a representative, even put the speech itself on the web," she said.

Another parent, Margaret Vaizie, said that though most Irish agencies providing services for the disabled did not have websites, they could be contacted by e-mail. Meanwhile, she could now confidently go looking for foreign sites, whereas before she would have "turned back at the `do you want to work online?' warning on the computer".

Carolyn Foley's daughter Lisa has Down's Syndrome and attends a course in TCD two days a week. "She had begged me to sit down and help her with her computer homework," she said.

As well as being a parent, Foley works in the sector and says that sometimes people involved in service provision can feel threatened by requests for more information.

"Now, we can get information ourselves about conditions we had only heard about but knew nothing of," she said.

The course was run by the Interaction network of agencies working with learning disabled adults. Contact Siobhan MacCobb (tel: (01) 285 2677).