Bob Ward is 82 and lives in a Torus owned sheltered accommodation scheme in Liverpool. He has a passion for ceramics and has been buying from auction for many years. However, due to Covid and as he is getting older, he found he couldn’t attend auctions in person.
Bob decided that he wanted to get online and watch some auctions live on the screen as the next best thing.
Bob was gifted a tablet by the digital inclusion team at Torus Foundation to help him gain access to the internet. He also started to attend some digital skills sessions run in his sheltered accommodation scheme by digital champion Liz Stainsby. She helped him to gain some basic skills such as how to use his tablet device and how to send emails.
On finding out Bob’s main aim and interest, she worked closely with him to find an appropriate auction house that streamed their online auctions. Finally, in February, they found a live auction which was happening on the day of the session. Liz helped support Bob to work out which links to press to access the event and where to find these on the page for future occasions. There was also a link to the catalogue so that he could view upcoming lots. Bob was delighted to be able to watch the auction and we even saw a few Lowry paintings sold for several thousand pounds each!
Bob said ‘Liz has been very helpful in guiding me through the process and I am very appreciative.’
As well as achieving his goal of watching online auctions, Bob has enjoyed the social side of the sessions and encouraging other residents to develop their digital skills too.
