A revolutionary teaching tool, the SMARTBoard, is an online, interactive white board that is attached to the wall, and enables learners with special needs to participate in lessons they would not normally have been able to.

Director of DionWired, Andrew Jackson, is determined to make a positive contribution to special needs education in South Africa through a structured social investment programme. "Our research has indicated that South African children with disabilities face barriers in the education system for several reasons, which has, according to the Department of Education, resulted in a massive exclusion of disabled children from education."

"DionWired’s philosophy - to simplify life through technology - underpins our CSI programme. The SMARTBoard donation project aims to make lessons more accessible to children with special needs. Special needs classes often face extra challenges to learning -particularly when a class contains learners with three or four different disabilities. Using SMARTBoards, lessons gain new dimensions that are 'fun' and interesting."

Jackson believes that giving learners increased exposure to the high-tech teaching interface further boosts their learning. "A single SMARTBoard usually provides roughly 200 learners with 200 hours of special learning time per week, which is roughly 800 hours per month."

The current donation of 16 SMARTBoards brings the total number donated by DionWired to 46 - an investment of R2.3-million since launching the SMARTBoard project in 2010. To date, the boards have been donated to special needs schools in KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng, Mpumalanga and the Western Cape.