Tel/Fax: +44 (0) 1686 623733 |
e-mail: [email protected] |
The Castell-y-Dail Telecentre is part of the Castell-y-Dail Smallholding Project situated just outside the Town of Newtown in Powys, Mid Wales. The project was set up to enable adults with special needs to explore their potential, expand their horizons, receive work related training with the aim of eventually finding suitable work placements. The Telecentre follows all the aims of the project as a whole but is also open to the general public and local businesses.
Hire of workstations: we have a network of six computers four of which are full multimedia spec and a good representation of the mainstream software. We have a laser and a colour inkjet printer.
Photocopying: colour and B&W photocopying, laminating up to A3 size.
Internet & E-mail: we have a 128k 'kilostream' internet link to four computers, and so offer access to the internet and offer the service of supplying individual e-mail addresses and collecting e-mail for customers. We also offer a fax service.
Scanning: we have a 36 bit 1200dpi (optical) Devcom Black Widow scanner which is brilliant and scans flat artwork and transparencies. This gets quite a bit of business and public use.
Design services: we are a graphics orientated telecentre and offer the service of design and print anything from business cards, posters and leaflets to full colour brochures, catalogues and price lists. We also design and publish web pages. For examples of our web page design click.... Barlings Barn - Welsh Holiday Lets, or Taoist Arts Organization - T'ai Chi and Kung Fu teaching, or Heart of Wales Riding School. We have extensive experience of Electronic Commerce - on-line shopping with secure credit card payment. For examples of this try: Sweet Ithon Lamb, Succulent Welsh Hill reared Lamb sold direct from the internet or Ian Snow Interiors, Crafts and Clothing, selling a wide variety of crafts, rugs and clothing off the internet with instant on-line credit card clearance.
Multimedia Workshop: We now have a full multimedia authoring facility including videotape editing computer. This very high spec machine has 64Mb ram, 45Gb AV rated hard disk complete with AV Movie Master Editing card and a C.D. ROM writer. The idea was to enable us to produce full multimedia CD ROMs both for ourselves and for businesses as a presentation tool. The facility has been used most for its video tape editing facilities, taking stills off tape, and making small video clips for web sites.We would also like to produce interactive multi media software for Adults with Special Needs, a project for enabling people with severe multiple disabilities to make more choices has been started.
Specialised adaptions for disabilities: we have a computer with a 21"monitor for those with a visual disability. We also have a concept keyboard (Intellikeys) whose large letters help with this as well. The Intellikeys keyboard is supplied with different overlays but one can design and programme in any kind of overlay oneself. For example one can use symbols or graphics instead of alphanumeric keys. This has applications for adults with learning difficulties enabling them to make more use of the computer and to interact more easily than with a standard keyboard. Specialised pointing devices include a SEMERC roller and also a SEMERC joy stick. The latter has proved a great success with people with problems of manual dexterity. We are going to try out a touch screen on the 17" monitor to help with the same problems. We all use and appreciate the Wacom Artpad for graphic work.
Software: There doesn't seem to be a lot on offer for Adults with learning difficulties, especially software that is age-appropriate. However we have had success with GAMZ, a series of word games for adults with special needs. Also from Crick Software we have bought Clicker Switch Plus a remarkable program to help people input into programs such as word processors. It produces a grid on screen which contains text and graphics which when clicked on are sent to the wordprocessor and spoken as well. We bought this, along with some very funny but useful touchscreen software from SEMERC who seem to be very good on software and some hardware for special needs. We are evaluating several other forms of enabling software for dyslexia and other learning difficulties, as well as starting to produce some of our own multimedia software for very specific problems. (Watch this space for further news!) If you have news or views on software for adults with special needs I would be most grateful for any information. Please e-mail me, Richard Singleton, [email protected]
Training: In conjunction with Coleg Powys we have run certificated training, and a number of students have passed R.S.A. exams. On a much more informal basis we are devising individual training packages specific to peoples needs and abilities.
Information: we are subscribing to HANDYNET , the European Catalogue of Disability Equipment, a database on CD ROM.
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