Transcript: Go ON Gold video, Karen Darke.

Karen Darke, Handcyclist in the British Paralympic Team for London 2012, takes a break from her training to talk to Go ON Gold.

“Everywhere I go I have my laptop and my iPhone with me, and I spend a lot of my time on them.

“Technology can offer so much, an ability to stay in touch with people, to know what’s going on, to find out information at the press of a button. It’s just so fantastic that you can wonder something, whether it’s a historical fact, or something you need to know, and at one click of a button just find it all out.

“So it opens up a whole new world to you, but at the same time there are times when it can be frustrating and I feel like throwing all the technology into the river and never seeing it again!

“I suppose when you live in a world where you use technology so much, and it’s so important that it pretty much drives everything I do, or a lot of the things I do – I can’t imagine not using technology, and all the ways of communicating with people – but actually there are a lot of people out there who don’t use it, and it’s not part of their everyday life.

“I guess in some ways it’s making me think that in some ways I am a bit of a digital champion for my Dad, who really wanted to get online and really wanted to do things that way, but he’s so unused to it, he just finds it frustrating, and then I find it frustrating sometimes when I’m working with him, helping him. And now he books tickets, and he books all sorts of things online. And it’s really great to see because a few years ago he was like hang on, let me write this down: “turn – computer – on, press...” you know, he wrote down every single instruction, but now he just goes and does stuff.

“It’s a great thing to help someone access all that information and technology.”

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Go ON Gold is a campaign to help disabled people get online and access digital technologies that are essential to modern life. Whether you are an individual or an organisation, we can help you and we need your help.

To find out more about how to get online; help others get online; or ensure your own digital services are accessible, please visit our website:
www.go-on-gold.co.uk

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CREDITS:
Film by Catch21 Productions.
The campaign is supported by Nominet Trust - making change happen.