Gavin Woods, Business Development Manager at Aurion Learning presents the latest E-Learning project launched by the Sensory Engagement Programme (SEP), developed in partnership with Aurion Learning. The resource was created to raise awareness among service providers throughout N. Ireland and Ireland of what it is like to be blind, partially sighted, deaf or hard of hearing and using every day services. In this presentation, Gavin discusses the objectives and design features achieved in the partnership between Aurion Learning and the SEP. The resource can be visited here: www.sensoryengagement.com

1. SEP – Online Training Toolkit
www.sensoryengagement.com

2. •
•
What is
sensoryengagement.com?
www.sensoryengagement.com is a
new online training toolkit, launched
by the Sensory Engagement
Programme (SEP) and developed in
partnership with Aurion Learning.
The resource was created to raise
awareness among service providers
throughout N. Ireland and Ireland of
what it is like to be blind, partially
sighted, deaf or hard of hearing and
using every day services.

3. What are the
objectives of the SEP
online training toolkit?

4. Improve service provision
amongst a general range of
every day services but with
specific reference to
banks, colleges and libraries.
Raise awareness
Offer practical, easy
to remember ways
for staff to make
services more
inclusive.
of the issues
experienced by
customers with
sensory (hearing or
visual) loss.
sensoryengagement.com
Objectives

5. Provide a tangible
legacy for the project.
Empower project
participants with sensory
To be a localised resource
that looks, feels and sounds
Northern Irish / Irish.
loss to be pro active in
contributing to a resource.
sensoryengagement.com
Objectives

6. The project team
agreed on a fully
hosted online solution
that could be updated
over time.
Encouraging use of the
resource was key to the
success of the project.
Providing a
legacy for the
SEP Project
Designed using
the Expression
Engine CMS.
Built in response HTML5
for use with tablets and
mobile devices.

7. Making a
‘Real World’
resource
It was key to involve SEP participants
throughout the planning phase and in
the resource itself.
Assets include:
•
•
•
Myths and misconceptions
discussion group
3 x Personal Impact Stories for
each strand
In practice scenario for each
strand

8. Design Features
The home page features two
distinct strands on visual and
deaf awareness and well as
an introductory message and
the logos of the organisations
participating in the project.
There is also the ability
to resize the text and
to access further
information on
accessibility options.

9. Design Features
The Sensory Engagement
Resource is
responsive, making it easy to
access through a variety of
platforms.

10. Design Features
On this page called Myths
there is a video included
of a group discussion with
SEP participants discussing
the myths concerning
visual awareness that they
often encounter.
Within each strand of the resource we offer a range of content.
All videos offer the
ability to download a
text transcript.

11. Design Features
We are going to
select visiting the
Bank to take a
closer look.
In this section called Personal Stories the resource
offers the ability to select between three sections
related to Visiting the Library, Going to College and
Visiting the Bank.

12. Design Features
In each of the personal
stories sections we have
used a head to camera
piece of a real person
talking about their positive
and negative experiences
of using the service in
question.
In the visiting the bank section
we can access Sean’s story as
well as key points for the user
to consider and associated
resources such as documents
and links that they can
access for more information.

13. Design Features
In this case we recorded
the scenario showing
John’s visit to the library
and the assistance that
Mary the librarian provides
to him. It was important to
use real people in the
scenarios.
In the In Practice section we can access a practical
scenario that demonstrates some of the best practices
when accessing a service.

14. Design Features
In the resources section we
can access contact details
for the partner organisations
as well as links to other
resources and documents
that would be relevant for
further study and information
for our target audience.

15. Design Features
The options provide
access to relevant
Key
points, Associated
Resources and
relevant Quicksigns.
The video is
showing Richard
talking about his
experiences in
using the library
This is the Personal Stories page for the Deaf
Awareness section.

16. Design Features
This is the Resources page for
the Deaf Awareness section
which also provides access to
videos of quick signs for key
words in British Sign Language
and Irish Sign Language.

17. Gavin Woods
Business Development Manager
gavin.woods@aurionlearning.com
@aurionlearning.com
What is
sensoryengagement.com?