"My New Media Life" press release
Government encourages pioneering work at Rix Centre to transform the lives of people with learning disabilities
The Government has called for more new media developed by the Rix Centre to be used to support the struggle for equality for people with learning disabilities
Lord McKenzie, Parliamentary Under Secretary at the department of Work and Pensions, said this week: "I am very impressed by the way the Rix Centre and others are using multimedia to help people with learning disabilities to communicate more effectively.
"It is clear that the young people taking part in these projects have become more confident and feel really liberated at being able to express themselves in their own way."
Speaking at the Rix Centre’s My New Media Life conference this week Lord McKenzie said: "New media can play a vital role: by empowering those who find it difficult to get their view heard; empowering them to be truly involved in shaping their care and support; and empowering them to play an active part in the community."
The director of the Rix centre, Andy Minnion, said the concept of using multimedia to transform the lives of people with learning disabilities is proven. "We need to gear up so that the technology is embedded in standard practice in care for people with learning disabilities."
There are 1.5 million people in the UK with learning disabilities. They find it hard to organise their thoughts, to remember things and often find communication and socialising difficult. Multimedia technology can radically improve their lives as long as it is designed so that people with learning disabilities can use it.
Lord McKenzie praised The London Borough of Newham, which is working closely with the Rix Centre on using multimedia for the learning disabled community. "This is one example of the great work local authorities are doing in this area and the significant impact they can have."
The government’s advocate for the best practice in social care, the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE), called at the conference for the wholesale adoption of this technology developed by the Rix Centre.
Allan Bowman, chair of SCIE, said he did not want the diffusion of this approach from one authority to another to be a “leakage”. “We need a deluge from one Borough to another,” he said.
My New Media Life presented the state-of-the-art of new media to support the learning disabilities community to 170 delegates from local authorities, directors and mangers of social care. Its focus was on the experiences of people with learning disabilities, their carers and families.
The conference was opened by Lord Rix, after whom the Rix centre is named.
The Rix Centre is a research and development centre and charity committed to realising the benefits of new media technology to transform the lives of people with learning disabilities. The 1.5 million people with learning disabilities in the UK, their families and carers can have their quality of live radically improved by the appropriate use of new technology.
The Rix Centre is based at the Dockland’s campus of the University of east London. It was formed in 2004.
Photos of Lord McKenzie, Andy Minnion, Lord Rix and a group photo of the people with learning disabilities involved at the conference is available from the Rix Centre Web site www.rixcentre.org.
For more details contact Andy Minnion, Rix Centre, 020 8223 7561.
