The plan's mission statement is to address the inequity in educational achievement. Although the draft plan is to be commended for its vision and timeline, it fails to note ‘disability’ as a minority group in a commitment to ensure that students are ready to graduate from high school to go on to further study or careers “regardless of race, income, or neighborhood”.
MAA CEO Alex Varley said, “Ai-Media deserves all of the accolades for its in-school solution. It has been carefully thought through, properly tested and is an affordable, robust solution for Australia’s ten thousand Deaf and hearing impaired students. MAA has been involved in a steering group and is developing its Classroom Access Project with some input and crossover with Ai-Live.
This exciting concept for the classroom opens up access to teacher instruction for students who are deaf or hearing impaired in mainstream schools. Students will no longer miss what the teacher has said and they will have the necessary context to take meaning from the lesson.
Tune into the New Inventors to see this exciting initiative come to life on the screen.
The report notes that, as in Australia, there is a demographic shift occurring in Britain as the population ages. The costs of providing social and health care will rise dramatically as this occurs, whilst the capacity for the state and carers to provide these services was not likely to increase on current levels. Therefore, the needs of disabled and older people for alternative sources of care and inclusion is viewed as a paramount concern.
