Slow internet connections are frustrating for everyone but when your child’s education depends on them, then it is serious.
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Kelly and Ian Hazzard live at Meadow Flat with their son William, 11, who is autistic and undertakes his schooling through the Dubbo School of Distance Education.
The family has encountered plenty of problems though. They can’t get broadband where they live and the satellite connection they had proved to be so slow and unreliable it wasn’t worth keeping.
They now use USB modems that connect them to the 3G phone network, which does allow William to participate in some, but not all, of the school activities.
“It’s extremely frustrating for us. We moved out of town to provide William with a lovely farm environment. He loves being out here,” Kelly said.
“He can’t understand why we can’t have internet. Autistic kids are very literal and logical so he just thinks everyone should have the internet.
“He asked if we could move back into town but he can’t live in town, it just wouldn’t work.”
William does six hours of schooling a day, working his way through the year six curriculum, and Kelly said he would often spend a day on a single subject because he learns best that way.
Recently he has been joined by another autistic boy, who is the same age, and they do classes together, including art.
“We would love for him to be able to participate in a virtual classroom but we just can’t do it because of the internet,” she said.
“His teacher said she would love to have a class with him. He misses out on a lot like that because he can’t get access to the same sort of internet they have in town.
“Now we have another boy coming too, and the pair of them are good together, but they would benefit so much from being able to do the online classes.”
The Hazzards aren’t eligible for any financial assistance but they also don’t have access to any cost-effective, fast internet.
“We’ve talked to the telephone companies. The cables required for broadband don’t come out here so that isn’t an option. We did have satellite but it was so bad that it wasn’t worth keeping,”
“The sticks are okay but the speed isn’t really good enough and the worst part is the data charges. It’s costing us hundreds of dollars a month.
“One of the problems is that Will has found online gaming. It’s a fantastic outlet for him because he doesn’t handle social situations, but when he is talking to people while playing online games his tone of voice changes and you can hear the excitement. He gets very frustrated, though, because it lags and because he goes through internet data so quickly, we have to try and limit it.
The situation may not improve in the near future, with the National Broadband Network unlikely to provide any relief in the short term.
“They said we wouldn’t be getting it. It will go along the [Great Western] highway but it won’t come up our road,” Kelly said. “They did say we might get towers [for wireless] but that’s a long way off.”
Kelly said she would just like to see a viable solution for their dilemma.
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