Digital Champions

Margaret received a device, internet connection and Digital Champion support from Fife Council housing support. Margaret is 79 and lives in Very Sheltered Housing in North East Fife. She joined Connecting Scotland to keep in contact with her friends and family using technology.

At first, Margaret didn’t have a lot of knowledge or confidence using her iPad. She finds it helpful to receive tailored one-to-one assistance from her Digital Champion, Lorraine Ward. Being able to video call, message or call her Digital Champion for help has boosted Margaret’s confidence. She now feels much more at ease using her iPad and has built up a great friendship with Lorraine.

Messaging and video calling friends and family is most important to Margaret. She enjoys connecting with her family here in Scotland and across the globe! Margaret now feels closer to her family during lockdown and keeps in contact with old and new friends alike.

Margaret uses YouTube to follow her grandson, his partner and their dog on their adventures all over the world. Her grandson lives in Canada and they have their own YouTube channel where they record their travels and Margaret enjoys learning about the places they visit.

Leading up to Christmas, Margaret wanted to learn about online shopping. After a few lessons Margaret was buying Christmas presents online for her family - and a few treats for herself too!

Margaret recently visited hospital for surgery. Margaret took part in a virtual consultation appointment with her specialist. After being discharged, Margaret did not feeling up to cooking so she ordered food online through an app which she found easy and convenient.

Margaret loves to read books, write letters and watch television and films. When she was told she could read e-books, write emails and watch television and movies on her iPad she wasted no time in downloading apps to enjoy her favourite hobbies.

Margaret loves being part of a large group of friends at the Very Sheltered Housing complex but socialising has changed a great deal since lockdown. However, other residents are also participating in Connecting Scotland. Margaret says the project has brought them together by sharing their new skills, knowledge and experiences.

Margaret continues to learn new skills. She has an amazing can-do attitude and her Digital Champion is extremely proud of how far she has come in her journey.

John is a 75 year old with Ushers Syndrome, a congenital condition that causes both hearing and sight loss. John received a device, internet connection and Digital Champion support from the Sensory Impairment service at East Ayrshire Council, who sent us this story:

John is registered Severely Sight Impaired and has moderate to severe hearing loss which led him to engage with the Sensory Impairment service over the last 20 years in order to learn long cane skills and to explore aids and adaptations in the home. Over time John said his hearing and sight has declined further and he is no longer able to read correspondence, newspapers or access his emails at the local library even with the support of his electronic magnifiers.

This has resulted in John feeling cut off and a loss of independence. Due to the decline in independence, high cost of optical character recognition devices and inability to use current electronic magnification devices John was a perfect candidate for support via the Connecting Scotland scheme.

The Sensory Impairment Team began by delivering training to John on the early level foundation skills of how to activate and navigate the device and slowly built up to teach him how to use Voiceover (Apple’s screen reader) to read the content of the screen and access information using voice commands. John can now use the device to read his mail, access sighted support on demand, email using voice commands and access local talking newspapers.

Although John was able to navigate through the device screens using audio output it was apparent that he was missing words due to his hearing impairment. To address this, the team provided a Bluetooth Streaming device which allowed the sound from the iPad to be transmitted directly to his hearing aids, allowing John to listen to audio and access onscreen content with ease.

From a starting point of no experience with any smart devices, John is now able to access his iPad independently and use the device to interact with objects and people around him. He intends to link with community groups of other visually impaired technology users to keep learning, sharing a few of his own tips along the way