THE strapline for the campaign has been well chosen, because the phrase “Eye T Champions” is a clever play on words. The aim is to link the subjects of vision and technology and in doing so give a nod to the modern usage of the initials IT.

Which today everyone knows refers to “information technology”, but which 50 years ago would have brought puzzled expressions from a good two thirds of the population.

Eye T Champions are a group of people you’re going to hear a lot more about in Worcestershire over the next few years. They are specialists who are being trained to help blind and visually impaired people use computers with ease.

With so much of today’s communication increasingly screen-based, whether via a computer or mobile phone, there’s a real danger anyone with vision problems is going to miss out.

So an innovative project has been launched by Worcester company ClarkeWood Consulting, which recruits personnel for the IT sector, in conjunction with Sight Concern and Worcester Technical College.

The aim is to create the small team of volunteers, train them up and provide them with the skills to go out into the community and assist visually impaired people with computer usage.

The volunteers will be as diverse a group as possible with an age range from 18 to 60, comprising IT students, the otherwise unemployed or others just looking to build on their computer skills.

“The intention initially is to recruit seven, probably from students on first or second year HND courses at Worcester Tech,”

said Victoria Taylor, recruitment consultant with ClarkeWood, which is based in Marmion House on Worcester’s High Street.

“They will have a two-day course with Dolphin Computer Access at Blackpole to train them in computer usage and then a further three days instruction on working with the blind and visually impaired.

“The potential for the team working in the community is great, because computers are so much part of our lives these days and to be able to use them will improve almost anyone’s lifestyle, whether it is a young person going online to look for a job or do research or an elderly person just wanting to send an email or keep in touch with a Skype conversation to a relative.”

There are various innovative bits of kit that can be installed to make computers easier to use for those with sight problems – zoom facilities which increase the font size, keyboards with black on yellow with bumpons (small adhesive rubber locators to aid navigation around the keyboards), headphones that allow speech programmes to be heard more easily and magnifiers for instruction sheets. All help to improve the quality of life and the service through Sight Concern is free.

As often happens when initiatives like this are launched, there is a link down the chain.In this instance it involves Lee Clarke, managing director of Clarkewood Consulting.

Lee’s grandfather Ewart Clarke, who lived in Redditch, did much to assist the blind and visually impaired and received the British Empire Medal for his work and support for talking newspapers across the Midlands. Now his grandson is picking up the baton.

Although Lee was educated in Worcester – at Bishop Perowne High School – his career took him away from the area and for 13 years he was European director for IT firm Computer Futures.

However, with a growing family he decided to move back to the city and set up Clarkewood in 2009.

“Putting a social responsibility strategy in place for ClarkeWood and ensuring the company works with local suppliers and supports local businesses was a high importance for all of us,” he said.

“We have worked with St Richard’s Hospice and now Sight Concern as our chosen charities to date.

“t’s not about simply donating or fund-raising as much money as possible that we can for a charity, but offering support for them as well, whether it’s helping to organise fund-raising days, helping with social media and promotion, organising projects such as Eye T Champions and much more.

“I think Eye T Champions is a really fantastic program and we have every intention of repeating it if it turns out to be the positive experience we hope it will be.

“It’s a chance to have a real impact on real local people who otherwise would not have the opportunity to access and use a computer for themselves.It’s bringing a free service to a very under-funded area.

“This program has been very intense, from finding and recruiting the right individuals who are willing to volunteer their time through to ensuring they all complete the Dolphin-accredited ‘train a trainer’ course.

“All the trainee recruits will have learnt how to use the GUIDE software, as well as how to deliver training sessions to the visually impaired users.Then they can go out and make a difference.”