The Disabled Living Foundation (DLF) has launched a new section inits website‘Living made easy for children'

The new car seats and accessories category will help families with disabled children findindependent information and advice on specially designed car seats, belts and harnesses.

At the same time ‘Parents' corner' has also been launched to provide an online forum where parents of children with disabilities can share experiences, knowledge and useful tips with other parents regarding equipment and related issues.

Funded by the Department for Children, Schools and Families, ‘Living made easy for children' was launched in April 2009and makes freely available on the internet for the very first time the advice and information on children's equipment that DLF has built up over the last 40 years.

Christine Shaw, DLF's Chief Executive, comments “Parents of children and young people with disabilities find it extremely hard to get information that can help their child. A survey carried out by the DLF two years ago showed that only 13% of parents said that all equipment was supplied by Social Services, with 84% purchasing products. 73% said they didn't find it easy to get information on equipment”.

Shaw continues,“Researchby our occupational therapists on different equipment areasshowed there was a strong demand for information on equipment that enables children with disabilities to travel safely and comfortably. We made it a priority to introduce the car seats and accessories category to help satisfy this need. We also discovered that parents of children with disabilities want to get in touch with other parents who were making or had made similar choices about equipment for their children, and so we hope that our new Parents' corner will prove a popular addition to the website”.

‘Living made easy for children' contains a number of innovative features such as the DLF's star rating system, which rates products based on things like whether suppliers have provided prices for the product and whether they have signed up to certain industry Codes of Conduct. This helps people find products from reputable suppliers who are transparent about their pricing more easily. Users can also review products themselves, can discuss products with other parents or ask for specific advice from one of the DLF's occupational therapists in the website's forum.