London, UK – October 1, 2009. Becta has awarded a contract to Insight Direct (UK) Ltd to provide assistive technologies on all its Home Access packages when the scheme goes national later this year. Under the contract, Insight is responsible for installing and managing the distribution of licenses on behalf of software publishers and MatchWare’s MindView has been chosen as the leading mind mapping software solution to be included in the Home Access package.

By presenting material graphically, MindView is based on the concept of mind mapping and allows students to brainstorm and visualize their ideas, organize information, and expand on individual topics by making notes and attaching additional information.

Home Access is a government programme managed by Becta. It aims to ensure that more children in state-maintained education in England have access to technology at home to support learning. To ensure that all learners are catered for, regardless of their individual needs, all the packages available under the programme will come pre-loaded with a suite of assistive technology software. This has benefits not only for learners, but for their families too.

Alan York, Head of Accreditation at Becta says:

“Running this competition as part of the Home Access programme has allowed us to not only make significant savings on the software prices, but also secure access to the software suite for up to 250,000 learners. This provides all grant funded learners and their families with a range of tools to support them with their learning.

“It’s also important that the benefits of this software suite are available to all learners, whether eligible for a grant or not.  Therefore this software suite will also be available to those not currently covered under the Home Access grant scheme, providing access to the same packages at a significantly reduced price.”

Ulrik Merrild, CEO, MatchWare adds “MindView is an ideal fit with the Home Access initiative and we are looking forward to working closely with Becta and Insight to provide exceptional mind mapping software to thousands of home learners. MatchWare is committed to equipping education with innovative productivity software solutions to help students improve reading comprehension, critical thinking and retention, and boost overall student achievement.”