Our Vision is to provide learning access and support for all people with special needs.
We're working with people with a variety of special needs requirements to enable the advancement of online educational resources for people with special learning needs, with an immediate focus on the deaf and hard of hearing population in the UK
We aim to advance the following:
Close the gap between those with special learning needs and those without.
Understand the educational gap between those with and without special needs.
Utilize Information Technology to address the gap in inclusive learning.
Provide support to those with special needs to enable and advance learning, inclusion.
GOALS4LIFE wants to build onto the success of its social & educational work which has been achieved by Deafax, Decibels, Specialkidz, Deaf Aspirations, Ability2Access, AACT, EASiTEC and DSFF for those with a variety of special needs & disabilities.
GOALS4LIFE wants to learn from the success of Future Learn which went live in October 2013 with 2.5 million registered users from more than 190 countries, studying more than 5 million courses between them has been achieved. Over 50 of the world's top universities and many other prestigious partners from the British Library and British Council to the European Space Agency are delivering courses on the FutureLearn platform. Research shows that none of the Online Courses provide what GOALS 4 LIFE wants to provide.
Launch an innovative online platform enhancing educational resources available to people with a variety of learning needs.
Identify and address, through research, further opportunities to close the educational and support requirements for those with special needs.
In the short-term, we aim to provide immediate online presence in the following resources:
The existing educational health resources for deaf and hard of hearing in the UK (Deafax)
Business support and entrepreneurial skills for deaf and hard of hearing in the UK (Deaf Aspirations)
Enabling opportunities for people with disabilities in the creative arts and technology areas (Decibels)
Autism support for children, parents, teachers and carers (Specialkidz)
Physical access for people with a variety of disabilities (Ability2Access)
Sharing ways IT overcomes communications disabilities (AACT)
Helping young people with disabilities, focused on deafness, to participate in sporting activities (DSFF)
Help people with disabilities to understand what technology is available to support them (EASiTEC)
Publish live progress and development of a research project designed to identify and address the learning gap between those with disabilities and those without.
Our Medium-Term Objectives are to provide the following educational resources for deaf and hard of hearing:
British Sign Language support
Subtitling and 'Emotional Subtitling' to education
English language lessons for deaf and hard of hearing
Lip reading support
Our longer-term objectives are as follows:
Train IT (Information Technology) focused volunteers, consultants and others so that they can understand, train and advise people with special educational needs about the aims and aspirations of GOALS4LIFE
Foster, promote, commission and undertake research and development in the areas of virtual reality interface teaching systems and interactive experiments allowing work to be visualised in an immersive 3D environment.
Foster, initiate and develop projects with manufacturers concerned with online inclusive and accessible technologies
Provide social opportunities for people with special needs, their families and peers to encourage co-operation and integration as a platform for training and education.
Hold workshops, exhibitions, meetings, lectures, classes, seminars and courses either alone or with others to improve the learning levels and quality of life for the persons whom the charity is intended to benefit
Co-operate and enter into arrangements with any authorities (local regional, national & international), so they become better suited for either understanding the needs of all users and learners and the need to provide funds to assist the charity in its online work