Robert Happs
Senior Project Worker

I started my working life in the aerospace industry, using computers, helping develop systems, and training people who had no experience of computers and how to use them.

Later on I worked with people with a range of disabilities helping them to gain greater independence both at home and at work.

I have always believed that computers should be treated as tools to do a job, not as an end unto themselves. So many assumptions and jargon are expressed that it becomes daunting to the uninitiated, who may give up.

At Pathways I train the users in whatever package or hardware that they have found most useful during their initial assessment. We then work at the users pace, trying to encourage them to develop independence and confidence in both themselves and their computer ability.

I feel that computers are an important aid to people whose disability may limit them. Working at Pathways has given me a greater insight of the needs of disabled people with regard to computers.

With suitable adaptations, computers can allow disabled people to be treated as individuals, an e-mail message does not show the disabilities of a person. A computer can open new opportunities in work and training.

David Herbert
Project Worker

I began working in the computer industry in Cambridge in 1986, developing Computer Aided Design software for mechanical engineering applications. In 1997 I decided to go freelance to do more of the web development work that interested me. I worked with a start-up company on real-time public transport information systems (electronic signs at the bus-stop which tell you when the bus is actually coming!).

I have always been interested in small-scale more people-centred work, and it was because of this I became a volunteer at Pathways in March of 2000. Working one-to-one with Pathways clients was a different window on the world of computers that was so familiar to me, and it challenged (and continues to challenge!) many of the basic assumptions all of us make about how people and computers interact. I've been heartened to see how empowering IT can be to, for example, people with visual impairment.

Sue Hooper
Administrator

Pathways is managed by Cambridge Online City Development Officer Sally Keyworth.