Charities aim to get learning-disabled children playing

BBC News | Ouch | Emma Tracey | 23 January 2015

Parents of disabled children say finding fun things for them to do is a full-time job. Could a new TripAdvisor-style site solve this?

“We went as a family to a water park which has a warning hooter which goes off to let you know the wave machine is about to start,” says Alexa Wilson. It wouldn’t cause problems for most families but her children, Ellie 13 and Toby ten, both have Fragile X syndrome – an inherited condition which comes with learning disabilities.

Ellie doesn’t like unexpected loud noises and, when the klaxon sounded she got up and ran out and refused to return. “This is just one more place we now can’t visit,” says Wilson. “Had we known about the klaxon, we could have warned her.”

It’s this sort of extra detail that SENDirect hopes to provide. It’s a new review website aimed at families with children who have Special Educational Needs or Disabilities (SEND). Article