1 Comments Posted by rich-edwards79

Casualties of the microchip revolution... strange to think that every office in the world was full of these not so long ago.

And maybe you're right Autumn Twin. Your comment made me think of a girl (I'll call her 'Amy') in the admin section of the office where I work, who has a moderate to severe learning impairment (she's in her early twenties but is very 'naive' and has the demeanour and many of the thought processes of a twelve year-old). Nevertheless Amy can understand and carry out many of the tasks in the office, occasionally needing help which co-workers are all too happy to provide. She's also a great person who never fails to brighten my day with her genuine, friendly conversation and witty observations. Amy is living proof that with the right training, a learning disability doesn't always have to mean a life half-lived in an institutional setting.

Some wonder why she's working with us rather than being 'looked after' (in other words, locked-up) somewhere but IMO working in a regular environment, no matter how seemingly menial the job, has granted her a degree of financial independence as well as no doubt boosting her confidence, whilst hopefully also challenging some of the myths and prejudices held by some 'normal' colleagues who would otherwise rarely come into contact with people like Amy through choice. It's awful that it wasn't always the case, but I'm just so glad that nowadays there are community based programmes and help available to make sure that people aren't merely written off before they have chance to realise their potential, whatever that may be.

So one can hope that maybe these innocuous-looking machines once represented much more - a way out of Pennhurts for some of its 'clients' ....