Daya had been making strides in her learning with Adult and Community Education Hounslow when the pandemic struck. Living alone as a disabled person made the idea of lockdown particularly worrying, but getting to grips with technology transformed Daya’s experience.

I was approaching my eighties when I first got into learning as an adult to try and understand more about my own health and wellbeing. Before long, I discovered a passion for art through a Drawing and Painting course. I was developing my skills through various arts courses when the pandemic threatened to put a stop to all of this.

When one of the course Coordinators asked if I’d like to do a Digital Skills for Online learning course to enable me to do other digital learning, I was worried that my age and memory would make me a burden to the teacher and it would be a waste of everyone’s time. I’d been enjoying the art classes so much though and thought that learning digital skills might help me to stay independent.

With the help and encouragement of my family and tutors, I ordered an iPad and enrolled on the course. I now use Google Classroom to upload, download, save course content, share my screen and show my artwork to my teacher, classmates and son.

Being able to carry on with art classes through lockdown has made me feel less lonely and more like part of a community. I’ve been able to forget about the struggles of the past year and focus on something beautiful.