IT service provider develops blogs for Cerebral Palsy community

Energetica’s Director, Lisa Harvey, said the IT consultancy specialist works in the not-for profit sector and launched the blogs to raise awareness and improve the understanding of cerebral palsy in the community.

“Energetica was engaged by The Spastic Centre to plan the structure and technology for the blogs along with constructing the CSS templates,” she said. “Energetica also tested the tools for accessibility with people who have cerebral palsy. This was an important part of the process as the management tools had to suit people who have some physical difficulty using computer technology.”

Harvey said the the technology used by Energetica for this project was open source and it uses the Joomla! Content Management System to build the four sites, with the Myblog and Jomcomment components. “This adds blog style content functionality so that they can be easily managed from the front end. RSS, social bookmarking and other tools are all supported as are the multiple bloggers,” she said.

Harvey claimed, the blogs provide a mechanism for people to share information and tell their stories. There are two blogs written by people with CP. One focuses on the web and technology, and the other shares very real social experiences of life with CP. The third blog, written by a father of a child with CP, offers a compelling, family perspective on living with a disability. Each of these people have different approaches to life and a different outlook to living with CP.

“I am hoping that the powerful stories of peoples’ lives told on the blogs will create a sense of community around the bloggers and provide an insight into the difficulties and joys of people living with a medical condition. The bloggers will be talking about their real lives and will provide an insight into how people live with CP,” said Harvey.

The final blog is written by staff at The Spastic Centre sharing news, activities, events, websites and classifieds for people with CP and their families, she said.

The project commenced in 2007 but was delayed due to the fire that devastated The Spastic Centre administration building before Christmas.