Buckingham Palace today announced that Inclusive Technology has won the highest official UK award for British businesses — The Queen’s Award for Enterprise — for a second successive year.
Last year the company’s accessible online games and activities, HelpKidzLearn, earned the Award for International Trade, reflecting its runaway success in the United States and 140 other countries.
Kenzie enjoys an activity created for him and published as an app that can be used offline, anywhere
Award for Innovation
This year ChooseIt! Maker 3, which allows teachers or parents to create personalised choice-making activities for a child, has scooped the Award for Innovation.
Inclusive’s Chairman, Martin Littler, said: “I’m delighted that the Queen’s Awards are highlighting accessible software. Children with complex learning difficulties and disabilities deserve software that they can access easily and software their classmates can enjoy too.
“I’m particularly pleased that ChooseIt! Maker 3 has been honoured in this way. ChooseIt! Maker 3 enables kids to make choices — that’s fundamental to independence, communication, learning – everything.”
Create personalised activities that can be published as an app
Activities created using ChooseIt! Maker 3 can be used on classroom computers or, crucially, published as an app and used anywhere offline — at home or in the family car, for instance. To date 97,000 activities have been created in schools around the world. Each can be shared freely with classmates or even with other schools here or overseas.
To create a personalised activity teachers can add images, take photos, record sounds, draw or paint. In addition, there is a built-in searchable media library with 30,000 pictures and symbols, allowing the creation of activities in minutes.
Every ChooseIt! Maker 3 activity automatically records each learner’s progression. Results can be saved and shared with parents or teachers.
Bailey from Pendle View School uses eye gaze technology to access ChooseIt! Maker 3
Software designed to be accessible
Like all Inclusive’s software produced over the past 20 years, ChooseIt! Maker 3 and HelpKidzLearn are fully accessible — including for learners with a disability who may only be able to make a single voluntary movement.
Accessible software enables access through adapted keyboards or mice, joysticks, rollerballs, touch screen or touch panel technology, one or two switches and, most recently, eye gaze technology.
Eye gaze often the most efficient way
Eye gaze is often the most efficient way for those with very limited voluntary movement to access a computer and to communicate. The camera technology follows eye movement and effectively acts as a mouse. Inclusive has been at the forefront of introducing eye gaze to special education with a range of specialist early learning software.
The Awards for International Trade and for Innovation have been running since 1966.
Martin Littler said: “We were delighted to win the International Trade award on the Queen’s 90th birthday and the 50th Anniversary of the Queen’s Awards.
“To pick up the more sought after award for Innovation the following year is superb. It’s a recognition of the whole assistive technology industry as well as for our team who already get a huge kick out of helping kids with disabilities by making resources they can use and enjoy.”
