In the September 2021 Community Chat, and with members of the Caribbean tech community, Carolyn Ferguson and Liselle Yorke, the panel discusses: Using technology to enhance accessibility to online education for persons with learning impairments, for discussion; and Expanding horizons: how technology is building new connections and opportunities for Caribbean youth.

 

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Across the Caribbean region, and even worldwide, a country’s internet connectivity is measured by the number of people who have internet access, have access to suitable devices, and are online.  These metrics, although useful, have spurred the conversation to the concept of meaningful connectivity. The term, meaningful connectivity, was made popular by the World Wide Web Foundation and the Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI), and resulted in the following guidelines being developed as a minimum for meaningful connectivity:

  • Daily access to the internet
  • Via a smartphone
  • With access to an unlimited broadband connection at home, or place of work or study, and
  • Via a 4G mobile connection (Source: A4AI).

The above all speaks to digital inclusion, and ensuring that everyone can not only access the internet, but can do so in a manner that can support their participation in a broad range of activities. However, and to a considerable degree, when one speaks about digital inclusion the focus tends to be individuals who at the bottom of the socio-economic pyramid, who are also the focus when one speaks about the digital divide. Unfortunately, there is a segment of the population, particularly in the Caribbean region, which are continually overlooked: persons with disabilities and/or with learning impairments.

In many instances, persons with disabilities or with learning impairments may also belong to the bottom of the pyramid, but frequently their unique needs are not considered either generally, or within the context of online education, which has become increasingly important over the past 18 months.

In our September 2021 Community Chat, our first guest, Carolyn Ferguson, a university lecturer in Jamaica, submitted the topic, Using technology to enhance accessibility to online education for persons with learning impairments. As a lecturer, and when online classes were becoming the norm, Carolyn began to learn more about the ways in which individuals with learning impairments could be better included in the online learning space. For in-person lectures or classes, the tools and approach for persons with learning impairments tend to be more known, but with regard to digital education, it does not appear that the matter has received much attention or consideration.

In a different vein, the inclusion of children and youth in the digital space, including in relation to online learning, has been in the fore over the past several years. However, although children and youth are more connected than they have ever been, it could be argued that their horizons had not necessarily  broadened, cognisant of the wealth of information available online, along with the opportunities that internet access affords.

Liselle Yorke, our second guest and a communications specialist from Tobago, has been keen to give back to her high school back home. She has been of the view that people’s horizons broaden – along with their perception of what they can do and what is possible – when they can see themselves in the experiences of others. She was thus eager for us to discuss, Expanding horizons: how technology is building new connections and opportunities for Caribbean youth, because of her first-hand experience on the impact technology can make on students to help them become more rounded individuals.

 

Introducing our guests

Carolyn Ferguson

Carolyn Ferguson is a registered Professional Engineer, a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and a Certified Project Manager. She is a member of the Jamaica Institution of Engineers (JIE) and the Project Management Institute (PMI) and serves as a volunteer member of the Consumer Advisory Committee on Utilities. She is a STEM Educator, and is a Lecturer in the Electrical Engineering Department, at the University of Technology, in Jamaica.

Carolyn has a wealth of expertise in the telecommunications industry, having begun her career at Cable & Wireless (now FLOW), as Transmission Engineer. Thereafter, she joined the newly established Mossel Jamaica Limited, now Digicel, as a member of the Radio Frequency team that designed and launched the mobile network in 2001, and was subsequently promoted to Radio Network Manager then Project Manager. After 12 years at Digicel, Carolyn transitioned to Ericsson, as uts Customer Project Manager, with responsibility for network rollout and customer system integration projects for the Digicel Group. Through remote supervision of international virtual teams, she successfully executed projects in Jamaica, Barbados, Turks and Caicos, Trinidad and Tobago and Panama.

Carolyn is passionately involved in the growth and development of STEM in Jamaica’s educational institutions. In 2015, she launched a STEM programme with summer camps and clubs in schools.

Liselle Yorke

Liselle Yorke is a mission-driven communications strategist with a deep commitment to social causes that benefit underserved communities. Based in the U.S., she has written about harnessing ICT for innovation in developing economies and also works with researchers to communicate their findings to broad audiences.

Liselle has 20 years of experience developing and executing communication strategies for non-profit organizations, with a particular focus on policy communications, financial inclusion, economic development and political participation. She has also consulted with and provided pro bono communications support to various organizations in the Washington, D.C. area, including the Institute of Caribbean Studies and the University of the West Indies Alumni Association. She earned her master’s degree in communications at Howard University and holds an undergraduate degree from the University of the West Indies.

 

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Select links

Below are links to some of the organisations and resources that either were mentioned during the episode, or otherwise, might be useful:

 

 

Image credits: C Ferguson; L Yorke; Newtoxton Anthony (Pxhere); Wikimedia Commons

Music credit: Ray Holman