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The children and youth with disabilities involved in this project were carefully chosen---they had mainly physical disabilities--but were cognitively intact. Most of them were recent immigrants, whose families spoke only Chinese. The belief was that computers would most benefit this subset of the disability population.
The overall goals included:
Volunteers were recruited and assigned to teams of 2-3 volunteers. Each team was assigned to one child/youth with a disability. The teams helped build a computer and installed it in the home of the child/youth. Team members would make periodic visits (sometimes weekly) to the individual’s home for socialization, instructions on use of software, use of email and the internet, troubleshooting computer problems, etc.
Team members met monthly with the Project Coordinators to discuss and share information relating to the work they did with the child/youth. Email was used extensively to keep volunteers and Project Coordinators in contact with each other.
Most of the volunteers themselves have had their own lives enriched; one volunteer has learned to use sign language quite proficiently. Even though these volunteers helped to build the computers and have learned various computer skills, these experiences have been secondary to the enriching experiences of human/social contact in working with children/youth with disabilities and their families, working and collaboration among themselves, and knowing they make a difference.
It was extremely fortunate that such quality and dedicated volunteers (who included students, post-graduates, and employed technicians) were found to help with this project.
Teams Project | Chinese-English-ASL Dictionary | Toy Testing Project | Parent Computering Project
