For the attention of: News EditorsPR4531

Tuesday, November 13, 2001

£100,000 ACCESS BUS FOR DISABLED STUDENTS HITS THE ROAD

The Open University is launching a hi-tech mobile assessment unit designed to help hundreds of disabled students, and prospective students, each year. The £100,000 Access Bus will visit students at their own homes to assess what specialist technology and support they will need to enable them to study with the OU.

The bus has been funded with £50,000 from Halifax plc through its community relations programme and a grant from the Higher Education Funding Council for England (Hefce) to support the university's learning and teaching strategies. It will be officially launched at the Open University’s headquarters in Milton Keynes on Tuesday, November 20 by Maria Eagle MP, Minister for Disabled People and Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Department for Work and Pensions.

Until now students, and prospective students, have had to travel to conventional assessment centres scattered throughout the UK to be assessed, but poor public transport systems often makes this difficult, particularly for disabled people living in more geographically remote areas such as Scotland, Wales and the South-West. The new wheelchair-accessible bus will help to overcome that obstacle and allow disabled people to be assessed at home.

Staff at the Open University’s new Centre for Assistive Technology and Enabling Research (CATER) will manage the vehicle. Phil Satchell, who was responsible for the specification and design of the bus, says: "The Access Bus is an innovative concept because it takes the access centre to the student. The bus will be equipped with a wide range of information and assistive technology – so we can ensure disabled students get the right technological and practical support they need to enable them to study with us. The range of assistive technology includes an adjustable workstation, voice recognition software for students unable to use a conventional keyboard and a scanner system for converting printed study material into an electronic form that can be stored and manipulated on a PC. m/f

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"It will also include a CCTV system for magnifying document images and a PC with synthetic speech and screen enlargement software."

The Access Bus forms part of the facilities of CATER, which has been set up to enhance and expand the services that the university offers to its disabled students. Head of CATER Ralph Keats says: "The Access Bus is the first tangible contribution of CATER to what we hope will be a major programme of development designed to keep the Open University at the forefront of innovation and support for disabled students."

Chris Sonne, community relations officer at the Halifax, said the company was delighted to support the project. He added: "This is a leading-edge project that delivers a tangible benefit to disabled students and would-be students participating in Open University courses. We are delighted that our funding has been able to make the Access Bus a reality and hope it will encourage more students to take up Open University courses."

Following the launch on November 20, the Access Bus will travel throughout the UK and Ireland assessing disabled students, as well as being on display at selected disability and higher education events.

The Access Bus will be launched at the Open University's Walton Hall campus in Milton Keynes at 1pm on Tuesday, November 20. Disabled students will be available for interview, along with OU and Halifax representatives. Journalists or photographers who wish to attend are asked to contact Neil Coaten on 01908 652580 or Diane Balch on 01908 858734.

EDITOR'S NOTES
The Open University currently has 7,600 disabled students, around 2,500 of whom live in geographically remote locations.Among the facilities the university offers to disabled students are alternative media course materials; specialist technology and human support; and a wide range of facilities at tutorials and residential schools. About 1,200 disabled Open University students receive audio versions of printed course materials, for example.
Halifax's community programme was set up in 1989 to help locally-based charities and has donated more than £12million to more than 10,000 organisations and good causes in that time. The current Halifax community programme focuses on education, debt counselling and money advice, online support for charities and community support.

MEDIA CONTACTS
Neil CoatenOpen University media relations01908 652580
Chris SonneHalifax community relations officer01422 334695