Helen Melhuish

Online Manager, Inclusive Technology

Having trained as a musician Helen initially followed a career as a peripatetic music teacher. After qualifying and working as a primary teacher her keen interest in IT further developed as she created classroom resources and provided INSET training in IT.

Helen spent three years as a freelance software developer creating popular My World resource packs and developed the first commercially available My World 2 CD-ROM, pioneering the use of video and sound in My World. During this time Helen wrote many practical articles for magazines such as Educational Computing and Technology, and worked as a part-time teacher and IT advisor at a primary school.

Helen joined the development team at Northwest SEMERC in 1995 and continued to develop classroom resources, branching out into project management and writing documentation. During this time Helen provided the technical expertise behind the SENSOR online special needs information service created for BT. She was also jointly responsible for managing the company-wide email distribution system.

In September 1996 Helen joined Inclusive Technology as Project Manager and began building the skills to write a broad range of software including products with switch access. Since joining Inclusive Technology Helen has been involved in developing key products such as the SwitchIt! series, and is the author of the Spider series, SwitchIt! Maker and ChooseIt! Maker, amongst others. She jointly developed the Octopus web site which included unique, online, switch-accessible activities for early learners. She has also used her DTP skills to help produce marketing materials.

In 2001 Helen spent a short time running Inclusive's Development Department. The department is responsible for developing and programming new products, liaising with overseas developers regarding product development, translation and publication, writing documentation, managing the content, research and development behind ten web sites, producing marketing materials and providing customer support and company-wide Systems Administration. In early 2002 Helen moved to Cardiff and continues to 'telework' for Inclusive full time, managing the company web sites and developing special needs software.

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