EnableMart & AbilityNet Join Forces

EnableMart, supplier of assistive and adaptive technology to disabled people, is launching it’s service in the UK and has announced a collaborative agreement with national disability and computing charity, AbilityNet, the UK’s foremost authority on achieving computer and Internet access for people with disabling conditions of all kinds.

Based in Barking, Essex, EnableMart’s UK operation, TechReady, complements AbilityNet’s comprehensive range of services by providing a ‘one-stop-shop’ alternative for products, enabling AbilityNet to meet client needs more cost effectively and efficiently. In addition to including providing free information and advice, assessment of technology needs, awareness education and consultancy on both adaptive technology and web accessibility, AbilityNet has been providing fully adapted computer systems with full training and technical support through its network of regional offices nationwide since 1998.

There are literally hundreds of assistive and adaptive technology products designed to collectively meet the needs of individuals across a wide range of conditions. In the UK an estimated 2 million people have a visual impairment, some 1.5 million have cognitive difficulties and a further 3.4 million have a physical disability which prevents them using the standard keyboard, screen and mouse set-up with ease. Added to this around 6 million are dyslexic and many millions experience literacy difficulties, not to mention the increasing percentage of ‘silver surfers’ with failing eyesight or arthritis as our population ages.

By working together AbilityNet and TechReady can offer these potential end-users the solution they need to use a computer and the Internet comfortably, productively and perhaps most importantly, independently.

TechReady Managing Director, Dennis Moulton says: “By working with the country’s leading authority in the field of adaptive technology, we can ensure that we are reducing the barriers and costs associated with locating, supporting, and purchasing assistive technology for the widest audience possible.”

“AbilityNet’s extensive client base comprising individuals, private, public and voluntary sector organizations, as well as the education sector, will have the added advantage of a greater choice of product options at reduced prices while continuing to enjoy the high levels of service and support for which the Charity is well recognized,” adds David Banes, AbilityNet’s Director of Operations.

Through the TechReady website they offers a wide selection of over 650 assistive technology applications and devices ranging from amplified phones, communication devices, touch screens and alternative input devices to low vision equipment and learning assistance applications.

TechReady will donate 1% of its annual revenue to AbilityNet as a vehicle for supporting the charity’s free services to individual disabled people.

Source: EnableMart