….in another world….
I’ve been working on an Arts Council application supporting a friend in her quest to fund an amazing music project for young people with visual impairments. It is a stonker, and I hope it gets funded, because it will be great! The application form was testimony to her commitment to it, after weeks of preparation and dedication to its worthiness… she is focussed, connected and personally emotionally invested in it being a success. The ACE application portal is a bloody nightmare to me, with my full sight, my experience, fairly good level of IT literacy and a little bit of insight. To my friend (who is a force of nature, talent and intellect, perfectly able to express herself if given the appropriate “interface”) it would have been largely inaccessible. No doubt that ACE will have plenty of fall out to deal with over the changes they have made.
HOWEVER…
Where they have more than succeeded is in their handling of what could have been a disaster. I say this on the day we pressed the submit button… Firstly, they paid for me to help. We are exhausted by the process, but they have come up trumps. Their one-to one over the phone and email support of Nicki’s application has been speedy, full, unflinching, positive, encouraging. They have spent time hanging on the phone while we made adjustments, so they could check. They advised us of different ways to go about things, explained the differences and implications of each. They have done so with a high level of knowledge, experience and expertise, good grace and jokes.
Their portal is bloody rubbish, but their people are, in fact, brilliant.
Thanks folks!
