Amanda Jones and Caoimhe Mc Evoy from the Now Group with their new JAM Card app. The social innovation allows people with learning difficulties, autism and Asperger’s to ask for Just a Minute in customer-service situation's Picture: Bill Smyth

A NEW app has been released which allows people with communication barriers such as learning disabilities, autism, Asperger's or a brain injury to alert staff in retail outlets, public transport and other areas of public life that they needs just a minute of patience when interacting with them.

Whether it's hesitation over their speech or needing time to search for a bus pass or the correct change in a shop, the JAM (Just a Minute) app is a discreet way of letting people know that they needed a little extra time.

The JAM Card app is a digital innovation from social enterprise NOW Group which supports people with learning difficulties going into training and employment. It began as a plastic credit-card-sized card in 2012 in response to the idea of service users of the organisation who said they often felt under pressure when they were out and about in everyday life

I met Amanda Jones (22) and Caoimhe Mc Evoy (24), both of whom have learning disabilities at their transition II activity group ran by Now Group.

The girls had travelled independently by bus from their north Belfast homes into the city centre, showing the driver their JAM Card app card.

"We don't need it every day, but other times it really helps" said Amanda, who uses her JAM card mainly on the bus, as well as in coffee shops and her favourite shop, Primark."

While hundreds of people are already using the plastic card throughout Northern Ireland which says ‘Just a Minute' on one side and ‘Please be patient, I have a learning difficulty' on the other, NOW Group wanted a way to reach more people and it was their younger service users who suggested a digital app.

"Sometimes we forget our cards, but we always have our phones with us and we can use the jam app as our screensaver," Amanda added.

The clear potential of the app led to successful funding applications, with both Big Lottery Fund and Nominet Trust totalling £100,000. While a prototype of the app is now available to download for free for Apple and Android phones, as the app develops additional features will be added including the ability for users to rate the experience they had when using it which will allow businesses and services the opportunity improve the customer service they provide to people with disabilities.

Feedback from users has demonstrated they feel more confident in public when they use the JAM Card and some who previously relied on their parents or taxis to travel now feel able to take public transport by themselves as they can show the bus driver their JAM Card and get the extra time they need to buy their ticket.

Caoimhe, who would love to work in a clothes shop herself one day, uses the JAM Card when she goes to the bank and shopping and has been delighted by the positive reaction of those who have served her.

The Now Group have been working in collaboration with Translink since the launch of the card and are currently developing an online training platform which we hope to go live in March to give businesses a quick and easy overview of the JAM Card.

Already the card and app has attracted a lot of interest UK-wide and enquiries have even been made from Spain.

"Our hope is that the card and the app will make daily life just a little easier for people with learning difficulties, autism and Asperger's," says artnership and Innovation Manager of NOW Group Jayne McStay.

"We believe that it will also be beneficial for businesses. It saves embarrassment on both sides if someone is having difficulty in a customer service situation and allows the member of staff the opportunity to be patient and kind when caught up in the hustle and bustle of their job."

:: The JAM Card app is available to download for free from both the Google Play store and the Apple App Store. Credit card sized plastic JAM Cards are also available by getting in touch with the NOW Group on 028 9043 6400 or emailing admin@nowgroup.org. Find out more at www.nowgroup.org/jamcard.