The early years of a child's life are very important for the child's health, education, mental development and well being. However, some families find the early years a difficult time, and they need help with childcare, health issues, finance and family support related concerns. Sure Start was created to help babies, children under five and their families with health, educational and social development, so that the child got a 'Sure Start' in life before entering into full time education. The information and help covered by Sure Start encompasses a few government departments - health, social services and early education. This is a vast amount of information that each Sure Start centre needs to make available to the families that it is trying to help. Touch screen information kiosks can offer a solution to enable Sure Start centres to make this information accessible and always up to date. Using Kiosks to deliver information to the public is not a new innovation, local governments have been using touch screen kiosks for years in different departments, and they have been found to be a very useful tool. Kiosks are a great way to present and deliver information because they can hold multitudes of information that is easy to access with a few touches of the screen. What could be simpler, you see on the screen the information you want to know more about, so you touch what you want to read and the kiosk shows you the information; Simple but brilliant. However, not all kiosks are also multilingual. In today's diverse society, English is not always a person's first language. Kiosks that are primarily English 'speaking' are not user friendly for all users, and language barriers mean that the user will either have to find someone to translate the information for them, or run the risk of confusing the information shown to them because of language issues. Of course the obvious solution is a multilingual kiosk that can display information in the users preferred language. Kiosks also need to be DDA compatible, which means no only do they have to be accessible by wheelchair users but also have hearing loops for the hard of hearing and integrated text readers for users who are visually impaired. The ability to have high contrast modes can also be beneficial to those with sight difficulties. Furthermore in today's society, we are all aware of global warming and everyone is aware that where we can, we must be green. Sure Start kiosks are green, instead of government departments printing lots of leaflets to deliver vital information to families, the kiosks displays the information electronically. Families are also able to email themselves information, so that they can view it at home. Telephone numbers and addresses can also be sent via an SMS text message directly from the kiosk to the users mobile phone, cutting down on paper usage. At night Kiosks are programmed to turn themselves off, saving electric during the night. Kiosks that switch themselves off have been found to save a lot of electric, because staff members don't always remember to switch kiosks off. In the morning the kiosk can switch itself on when the centre is due to open. The opening hours for the kiosk can be set as needed. You are probably wondering how much such a Kiosk would cost. Well surprising less as you might imagine, and a lot less then employing another member of staff who could translate into multiple languages. Kiosks already in use by local council departments have found kiosks to be of great benefit because, so much so that some councils are buying more information kiosks to assist and help more young families and children.
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