These pages are about special needs, education, and Down’s syndrome. They owe much to the educative experiences my family has had with Matthew, who has Down’s syndrome, and to the agencies who have helped or claimed to want to help him.
I started working in HTML in 1995, because I found the printed material from the Centre for Studies on Inclusive Education inspirational in thinking about Matthew’s education, thought it should be on the web, and volunteered to do some pages for them (coded by hand, naturally).
In 1996 I started a page of my own, UK resources for Down’s syndrome, having contributed to the UK information on Tracey Finch’s site in the US, the Down Syndrome WWW pages.
Since then, after cuts in Matthew’s support which lead to a Special Educational Needs Tribunal hearing and a joint Ombudsman complaint with three other families, I’ve become a volunteer for the Independent Panel for Special Education Advice (IPSEA) and now do their site as well.
I also started writing articles about the issues involved, using knowledge gained from the IPSEA training and working on the advice line as well our own family’s experiences.