Guide HandsFree Case Study: Camden UKOnline widen their accessibility

Dolphin Guide has taken resource centres in Camden by storm. First introduced in 2006, Dolphin Guide has proved to be extremely popular with both its partially-sighted and blind users, as well as the resource centre staff. Already available in nine of their UKOnline Centres, the Council has been so impressed; it next plans to roll Dolphin Guide out to libraries within the borough.

"We have received very positive feedback about Dolphin Guide from all our customers and think that the package is an excellent solution for resource centres"summarises Lenka Wymer, UKOnline Project Support Officer.

"The success of Dolphin Guide lies in its simplicity" explains one of Camden's UKOnline trainers. This comes from Dolphin Guide's unique design. As a menu-driven package with in-built speech and magnification, Dolphin Guide is designed to be easy-to-use and to learn, which is especially helpful for the resource centres' staff, who don't need to spend hours on specialised training.

"Dolphin Guide is very easy-to-use and after just a day of training, I gained a solid understanding of its features, which enabled me to offer training on using Dolphin Guide to all customers with limited vision or who are blind" commented one of the trainers from the Millman Street Resource Centre.

The centres' service-users have also been impressed by Dolphin Guide. Raj, a user from the Charlie Ratchford Resource Centre, decided to buy a copy of the software after only three lessons. He has previously used alternative screen reading and magnifying software, but found it too complicated and difficult to operate. "Dolphin Guide is so clear that I don't have problems understanding" he commented.

The introduction of Dolphin Guide in Camden Resource Centres has been part of a wider strategy to eliminate accessibility barriers for disabled people within the Camden Council region. By choosing Dolphin Guide, Camden Council has provided their partially-sighted users with a simple to use software solution, which helps them to independently use a computer and thereby improve the quality of their lives.

The benefits of Dolphin Guide have recently been recognised by other organisations including Middlesex Association for the Blind, Action for Blind People and Eastbourne Library.

Mary McMahon from Dolphin adds "widening accessibility for our blind and partially-sighted users has been one of our priorities, and we are happy to hear that we are a step closer to achieving our goal. We are delighted that Dolphin Guide has been so enthusiastically received by Camden Council and other resource centres".

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