Health and Safety

There are a number of important points you should be aware of when using the IT Centre.

Fire Safety

When attending college you should always make yourself aware of the evacuation procedure for wherever you are. Look for the fore exit signs and Fire Action signs on the wall.

Here is a reminder of the fire drill:

Any person discovering a fire:

• Activate the alarm, and attack the fire if safe to do so using the appliance provided.

On hearing the evacuate alarm (continuous tone):

• Leave the building by the nearest exit
• Ensure all doors are closed
• Report to the evacuation area
• Teaching staff will take register at assembly point

On hearing the alert alarm (pulsed tone):

• Remain in location unless alarm changes
• Do not use lifts
• Do not re-enter the building for any reason until authorised to do so.

Electrical equipment

To ensure that there are no electrical problems, students cannot plug in laptops which are older than 3 years old.

Food/Drink

Since there is a lot of electrical equipment in use in the IT Centre, food and drink are not allowed in the centre or on the computer tables. This is to avoid liquids being split onto expensive electrical equipment, and to avoid crumbs going into the mice/keyboards. This not only damages the equipment, it is also unhygienic. Any person with food or drink in the IT Centre may be asked to put it away or leave the IT Centre. There is a student coffee shop just along the corridor.

Comfort

Working with computers for long periods of time can affect your health. Your eyes may get tired. You may get sore hands or wrists. To avoid/minimise these you should take regular breaks from the computer screen. You should focus on something in the distance to exercise your eyes, and exercise your hands/wrists and back every now and again.

In the IT Centre we have wrist/foot rests, tracker balls, anti-glare filters etc which you can borrow to increase your comfort.

For more information on what you can borrow, see the Enabling Technologies section.