Thursday, 26 October 2006 | Levent OZLER
New ICT Learning Centre Opens for Disabled Students
Portland College, a national residential specialist college for physically disabled students, recently unveiled the UK's first purpose-built ICT facility designed to cater specifically for the needs of disabled students.
Around 300 students attend the college, ranging in age from 16-60 and all have some form of physical disability, either congenital or acquired through accident or illness. The new ICT Centre will facilitate their learning progression and career development, benefiting as it does from high-standard equipment and furniture throughout, from the IT facilities to the seating.
Such levels of specification were secured thanks to more than six years of dedicated fundraising effort by the college. With help from a number of gratefully-received charitable donations and corporate sponsorships, the required sum of £3.6million was raised and the centre was opened to students earlier this year.
High-quality seating throughout was sourced via GetBack Supplies, who provided 132 chairs from RH Form's "Extend" range. These chairs were considered the most appropriate to address the needs of the students and staff that occupy the building.
National Appeal Manager for the college, Lois Edmonds, commented: "We were always determined to provide the best equipment and furniture we could afford, as this centre is state-of-the-art in technological terms. Fortunately, we raised enough money through charitable donations to be able to give every student and staff member in the new building one of the RH chairs. These were the chairs recommended by our own physiotherapy department."
The reasons for the endorsement weren't coincidental, with the Extend range noted for its detailed design and ease of adjustment, making it an ideal choice for use in an IT environment, such as the new centre, where chairs are expected to cater for multiple users. Being fully height-adjustable, with three articulation points at the knee, hip and lower back, the chairs were sourced to enable the centre's users to access their learning in comfort and safety.
The construction of the new ICT Centre highlights Portland College's continuing ethos based on sustained investment in learning and technology in order to minimise any restrictions that arise from students' disabilities. With a focus on addressing the needs of each individual student rather than their disability, the college's reputation for providing the training and skills required for employment beyond the period of study is excellent. Over 70 per cent of its students go on to secure employment upon leaving Portland, and this figure should continue to rise with the completion of the new centre and its state-of-the-art facilities.
Jorgen Josefsson, MD of RH Form, commented: "Portland College is a fantastic establishment with a reputation for providing the highest standards of training for its students. The new ICT Centre can only add to this, and we are glad to have been able to contribute in this way to what is an unrivalled facility."
http://www.portland.org.uk
http://www.rhform.com
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