Back To Blog
Awareness, Child Centered Practices

Technology for empowering young people with learning disabilities

Barry Lavis | June 22 2023
2 min read

By acknowledging the challenges young people with learning disabilities face in communicating with others, we can consider tools that better translate their lived experience to those around them.

Learning Disability Week (19th– 25th June) is underway and offers the chance to celebrate the action and progress that has led to better support and opportunities while acknowledging the many challenges individuals continue to face in modern society.

The lowdown

A learning disability is a defining factor in a person’s entire lived experience, making it hard for a person to understand information, develop new skills, and interact with other people. Estimates suggest approximately 1.5 million people are currently living with a learning disability in the UK, with 353,000 of those being aged 17 and under.

What this means

Communication is a fundamental challenge for people with such a disability, making it difficult for one to express feelings and needs to those around them. As individuals are likely to spend their lives with full-time support from others, it is critical to find effective ways to uncover and address threats to wellbeing, as research shows people with a learning disability are more likely to be discriminated against, experience loneliness, and be twice as likely to suffer mental health problems.

Tools for empowerment in children with learning disabilities

Simple considerations like accessible language that is easy to understand, large text fonts, less overwhelming visuals, a slower cadence of speaking tone, and giving a choice in communication tools, can offer a more engaging experience that empowers the person to communicate in ways that work best to share their perspective, and help them take ownership in their learning journey.

At Mind Of My Own, we build our apps to capture rich accounts of a young person’s thoughts and feelings. Through considering the specific needs of young people with disabilities and feedback from our partners across educational and care settings, we provide a fully accessible platform that allows the individual to share their voice and advocate to their support network what is most important to them.

For more information on learning disabilities, please visit Mencap’s website at www.mencap.org.uk