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Hello: To begin October’s Augmentative Communication World Network (ACWN) 2009 newsletter we celebrate a new web site: www.patientprovidercommunication.org,Sponsored by the Central Coast Children’s Foundation (CCCF) the website is designed to help keep the field updated on new research and promising practices in the application of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) in medical settings. Complementing Harvey’s (Pressman) initiative, Sarah (Blackstone) has dedicated her recent international newsletter, ACNews, to the subject of patient:provider communication. We are also celebrating conferences. Very best wishes to Luciana Wolff and all our friends in Brasil for their upcoming conference in San Paolo. And congratulations to Lia Kalinnikova and her colleagues for the very successful conference held during the past summer in Archangelsk, Russia. I hope you will enjoy all this reading and surfing. This month’s newsletter also gives us a glimpse of the way in which assistive technology is being used and developed in emerging countries; places where AAC is being developed to enhance the lives of people with complex communication needs.
Conference Report from Archangelsk.
VIIth
Eastern and Central European Regional Augmentative and Alternative
Communication Conference (ECER-AACC) June 29th – July 2, 2009,
Archangelsk, Russia. The 7th East European AAC-conference
was held in Archangelsk, Russia during the past summer. Organized by Pomor
State University, Archangelsk municipality and the Rehabilitation Centre of
Archangelsk and its Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) Centre, it
was the first AAC conference to be held in Russia.
The aim
of conference was to spread information about AAC research, practical
experience and assistive technologies in Russia and former Soviet Union
Countries. Over 100
participants representing 10 Universities, national research institutes,
institutions and NGO from Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Norway, Italy,
England, Eastern European countries and Sweden attended the conference. The
conference was supported by Archangelsk municipality; the Swedish Institute;
Stockholm University and its Department of Special Education; Ablenet, Inc;
Zygo, Inc; Attainment Co; the Central Coast Children’s Foundation’s
Augmentative Communication World Network and the Russian Fund of Fundamental
Research.
The conference programme covered many
aspects of AAC and included Professor Stephen von Tetzchner from Oslo
University, a well-known researcher in the international AAC-field and the
creator of the ECER-AAC-conferences, Dr Sophia Kalman, who participated at a
distance with a presentation from her centre in Budapest. Dr Margareta
Jennische from Uppsala University gave workshops on Bliss-Symbols and Ms. Judy
King from England, supported by Ablenet, Inc., presented workshops on basic
AAC-technology. Dr Lotta Andersson from Malmo University College gave lectures
on Social Networking. Professor Malofejev, head of the Vygotsky Special
Education Research Institute in Moscow, participated in the conference with the
‘instrumental’ approach to new reality of special education in Russia, and Dr. Magnus
Magnusson from Stockholm University described the need for good infrastructure
for successful AAC implementation. Conference participants from European and
former Soviet Union countries described their AAC research and programmes plus
their desire to spread knowledge of AAC throughout their homelands.
Rehabilitation Center for children with Special needs is a Municipal Institution of Archangelsk City Administration. The Center supports three hundred children and their families. Fifty children have communicative problems. Thanks to AbleNet Company, Zygo Industry, Global Network and Attainment Company Inc the Rehabilitation Center started to help children in developing their communicative abilities using low AAC technologies. The experience of specialists of the Rehabilitation Center has been represented on the conference in Archangelsk. Parents and youth were a great part of this event! So we are going on with AAC together!
The department of Special Education at Stockholm
University is planning to initiate further projects in the AAC field. More
partners from Russia, as well as partners from Moldova, Albania and Romania
will be included.
The next conference of the local Eastern
and Central-European network in AAC will be arranged in Poland, in AUTUMN-2011. For further information contact lia_kalinnikova@mail.ru or Magnus.Magnusson@specped.su.se
Conference Report from Brasil.
III BRASILIAN AAC CONGRESS - ISAAC 2009
Date: Oct 31st 2009 to Nov 2nd 2009.
Location: UNIVERSIDADE
PRESBITERIANA MACKENZIE – São Paulo - Brazil
Title: “Anyway
to Communicate is Worthy”
The 3rd
ISAAC Brasil Congress intends to continue the promotion and developing of AAC
in Brasil within research, clinic and educational areas. The conference
committee and participants are also planning to form a Brasilian Chapter of the
International Society of Augmentative and Alternative Communication (ISAAC.)
More Information
can be obtained from www.csabra.fnd.br
Assistive Technology in Malta.
Augmentative Communication World Network
has a great friend in Marica Gatt. Marica has shared her work with us for the
past year, is mentoring a network colleague in Romania, is promoting an AAC
Awareness Month in Malta and offers reports and free downloads from her centre
in Malta (ACTU) via http://actu.inclusivecurriculum.com/ plus a video showing the devices offered by
her centre at http://public.dive.com/streaming/on_demand_media_streamer.aspx?id=2369&encoding=8&backUrl=streaming%2fon_demand_event_encoding.aspx%3fid%3d2369 Go
into di-ve.com, then go into TV and live event,
then click education 22 stream, then click on demand
library and finally click LURA FIL-KLASSI 20th April 2009. Thank you Marta for your
contribution.
Access to Communication and Technology Unit (ACTU: Fra
Gaetano Pace Forno, Hamrun, HMR1100, Malta, Tel: (+356) 2122 8350, 2122 8349,
Fax: (+356) 2123 3513, Website: http://actu.inclusivecurriculum.com Email: marica.s.gatt@gov.mt
ACTU within Student Services Department, Directorate for
Educational Services is the leading unit in Malta and Gozo which provides
access to communication and technology through use of unaided means of
communication such as key-word signing, gestures and/or aided means of
communication such as graphic symbols and electronic devices.
Mission statement: ACTU is committed to improve the quality of life of persons with
learning disabilities and /or Complex Communication Needs (CCN) by providing
Access to Communication and Learning through the use of Assistive Technology
and to ensure that ALL students are Active Participants in the learning
process.
Our services: The
unit provides support in mainstream and resource centres through the use of
assistive technologies (AT). ACTU provides AT
assessments related to seating and positioning, motoric capabilities related to
access issues, cognitive and linguistic capabilities, literacy, sensory and
perceptual skills. ACTU works in the spirit
of collaborative teamwork with the support of various professionals. ACTU gives
utmost importance to the student and his/her family/guardians. ACTU meets the continuing needs of parents, individual
schools/teaching teams, professionals and undergraduate/postgraduate students
by providing ongoing in-service training. ACTU
implements AAC programmes and strategies in schools by assisting the school
teams in identifying additional adaptations that may be required by the student
to actively participate in a meaningful way.
Our team:
Our team is made up of specialist staff in the area of augmentative and
alternative communication. The core team is made up of two speech therapists,
occupational therapists and a learning support assistant. The team is managed
by Marica Gatt, an Education Officer for Inclusive and Special Education, who
is responsible for the day to day running of the unit including assessments,
implementation, research, training and funding proposals.
Referrals for an
AAC assessment: ACTU maintains an
open referral policy and direct approaches are welcome from anyone associated
with students with communication and/or physical difficulties. All referrals
must have the signed approval of the parents/guardians. A referral form is also
downloadable from ACTU website. http://www.actu.inclusivecurriculum.com
Device
Funding: Following the assessment,
realistic recommendations are submitted by the team to families who in turn
apply for assistance through government schemes and charity organizations.
Families can also apply for assistive technology solutions for AAC users in
schools through their inclusion coordinators.
Device
availability: Devices are usually
purchased from the United Kingdom, although parents and therapists seem to
prefer paper based communication aids since high tech aids are still very
expensive. In fact ACTU is currently assessing the use of ultra mobile PCs
which are compatible with The Grid 2 from Sensory Software International.
Training and Support: ACTU
ensures that proper training and support is given to parents and professionals
in the use of Assistive Technology (AT). ACTU provides accredited training in
Augmentative & Alternative Communication (AAC) and Augmentative and
Alternative Communication strategies. ACTU
promotes the use of AAC intervention techniques as well as specialized training
in the use of manual sign systems, low tech aids, the latest adaptive computer
technologies and high tech communication aids.
Research and Development: ACTU is embarking in continuous research in the area of AAC. This
includes the development of Policy and Practice Procedures documents,
assessment checklists, literature review as well of trialing of new software,
hardware and devices related to assistive technologies. ACTU is also a partner
in R&D projects in collaboration with government and non-governmental
entities.
Raising Awareness: ACTU
is committed to raising awareness of the importance of early intervention in
AAC and recommends multimodal approaches through the use of manual signing,
graphic signs, lite and high tech aids. ACTU believes in the educational
inclusion of AAC users and suggests natural instruction and interaction
arrangements, expectations and support for all subject areas of the curriculum.
ACTU has an
online social network - “Friends of ACTU”
through Facebook - that connects parents, AAC users and
allied professions both locally and internationally. ACTU
joins the world to celebrate 2009
International AAC Awareness Month with various activities to raise awareness of the benefits of AAC.
Thank you to Swati Chakraborty, Co-ordinator NRC-AAC, IICP Kolkata, for this report from Kolkata.
“I always envied my friend, Sayomdeb, who uses fancy software called EZkeys.
I dream of having something like that in Bengali”. Barsha Bhattacharya (AAC
advocate, 19…)
ITCP is a software
programme that allows writing with IPSC symbols. Digitized speech is attached
with the picture icons for auditory feedback. Switches and hardware interface
have been indigenously developed to facilitate indirect access.
Shikshak is a software that
auto-generates programmed learning. It has text to speech output in Indian
languages. Adaptive hardware interface with indigenous switches is also being
developed.
picture icons with word-inflections, and auto-generates syntactically
and semantically correct messages while producing synthesized speech output in
vernaculars. This visual soft keyboard, with text to speech and intelligent
word prediction provided with the software, is the first of its kind in India.
It has an easily accessible opening menu and hardware interface to facilitate
access. A visual mouse emulator to access the entire desktop area and
facilitate web accessibility has also been developed.
Voice Output Devices: Low cost moulded
access switches have been designed which can be widely used. Entry-point digitized VOCAs have been
developed over the last couple of years. These are being widely used for
participation in classroom activities; giving lectures, delivering a speech or
for chatting in different contexts.
Kathamala is a widely used VOCA. This bright yellow coloured
device has 8 mins of speech; can be stored in 1, 2, 4 or 16 message locations;
has easy recording with clear auditory output; tactile access switches and a
rechargeable battery. A four-layer version with 16 messages at each layer is
also available. This will help to store theme-based pre-planned layouts
(conversational / educational) for instant use. External speakers and
microphone can be attached if needed to be used in a public place to deliver a
speech (a hall, lecture room, etc.) A scan-able version is in the pipeline.
Gupshup Book is a 16 leaf, attractive album to use with
photographs/picture symbols or word messages for instant communication.
Photographs/picture symbol cards (4x6 ins) can be used with 8 mins of speech.
Thirty seconds of speech can be recorded in each page. Easy to record, photos,
message cards, picture cards can be used. It is rechargeable pencil battery
operated. Gupshup Book is a handy,
attractive, easy to carry around aid for AAC users at different cognitive
levels to express themselves.
All these
resources have been developed by an interdisciplinary team at NRC-AAC. The team is made up of
‘Advocates for AAC’ (people with complex communication needs) and professional
staff. IICP works closely with
reputed technology training institutes when developing technical resources.
Vidyasagar at Chennai in south
India has also undertaken AT projects that have delivered the
software/hardware products and prototypes listed below,
Hope is a synthetic speech enabled software
(English) that can be uploaded in a tablet or laptop and works as a voice
output device. It has word prediction facility with
alternative access
Aditi – A Non-touch sensor based alternative access switch for persons with severe physical problems
The usefulness of these AAC
‘tools’ are reflected in comments by people using AAC:
“I
use a switch to do my class work on the computer. The best thing is, I can
write in Hindi now… I want to learn more computer skills”- Soumya, a child in
school
“Now I am working for the research projects taken up by IICP and with indigenous technologies. I can now write poems, can take lectures, can participate in community awareness programmes and can communicate with strangers…. AAC is a special gift in my life.” Barsha, an AAC activist.
As you can read, assistive
technology in IICP has followed an appropriate route for India. Thank you Swati
Chakraborty, Co-ordinator NRC-AAC, IICP Kolkata, swati.c28@gmail.com & Sudha Kaul , Director,
IICP, Kolkata for this article. Sudha.kaul@gmail.com
Assistive
Technology Resources.
There are many organisations that provide
information about assistive technology. Thanks to Rowley Waisman and
colleagues, Linda Burkhart and Paul Hamilton. Their references might result us
all searching the web until our next newsletter!
The Family Village is a global community that integrates information, resources, and
communication opportunities on the Internet for persons with cognitive and
other disabilities, for their families, and for those that provide services and
support. http://www.familyvillage.wisc.edu/education/at.html
Selected Links to Assistive Technology and Augmentative Communication Resources for Children with Disabilities. This web site provides a table that is sorted by topic then listed alphabetically below within the table. http://www.lburkhart.com/links.htm
Educational and Assistive Technology to support
Universal Access and Universal Design for Learning: This site is a result of a collaboration between Center for Literacy and Disability
Studies and the department of Computer
Science at the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill. Tar Heel Reader, provides a collection of free,
easy-to-read, and accessible books on a wide range of topics. The books may be
downloaded as slide shows in PowerPoint, Impress, or Flash format. Each book
can be speech enabled and accessed using multiple interfaces, including touch
screens, the IntelliKeys with custom overlays, and 1 to 3 switches. Great fun
demonstrations (Reading with Franz) using puppets to describe various access
methods. http://www.paulhami.edublogs.org/
Harvey’s FreeDownloads:
A great place for downloads is SWAAAC: Supporting Learning Through Assistive Technology http://www.swaaac.com/ Select the Resources menu for hosts of
useful information on Assistive Technology and free software downloads at http://www.uchsc.edu/atp/resources_FreeATSoftware.html
There are also PowerPoint
presentations on the following topics and much more
· AAC Assessment http://www.swaaac.com/files/PPTs/1AAC_Assessment.ppt
· Making Toy Adaptations http://www.swaaac.com/files/PPTs/3MakingToyAdapations.ppt
· An Overview of Assistive Technology. http://www.swaaac.com/files/PPTs/6Overview_ofAT.PPT
· http://www.swaaac.com/files/PPTs/6Overview_ofAT.PPT
· Picture Exchange Communication System http://www.swaaac.com/files/PPTs/11PECS.ppt
· Reading and Writing: Assistive Tech for Learning Disability http://www.swaaac.com/files/PPTs/12TrainingTrainers0405.ppt
· Assistive Technology in the Schools http://www.swaaac.com/files/PPTs/14ATpresentation.ppt
The WATI: Wisconsin Assistive Technology Initiative
http://www.wati.org is
also a great source of free
downloads. From the main page, pull down the Supports Menu and click on Free
Publications or Classroom materials. The following is a list of just some of
the materials available:
· Resource
Guide for Teachers and Administrators about Assistive Technology http://wati.org/content/supports/free/pdf/ATResourceGuideDec08.pdf
· Hey! Can I Try That? A Student Handbook for Choosing and Using AT http://www.wati.org/content/supports/free/pdf/HeyCanITryThat08.pdf
Recursos en español
· Oye!
Puedo yo intentar eso? http://www.wati.org/content/supports/free/pdf/oye!puedo.pdf
· Lista
Comprobante de Asistencia Technolgica http://wati.org/content/supports/free/pdf/atlist_sp.pdf
· Guia
de Consideracin para Asistencia Technolgica http://wati.org/content/supports/free/pdf/at_conderation_sp.pdf
Free and Low Cost Head and Eye Tracking Software
Videos:
http://www.intellitools.com/videos/ Shows the many applications of Intellitools.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rz2HpGC9vbw
Shows the remarkable achievements of someone with complex communication needs
with the use of assistive technology.
Please note that our past ACWN newsletters from February, April, June and August. 2009, are
now available on the web site of the Central Coast Children’s Foundation www.centralcoastchildrensfoundation.org.
I end by describing an amazing dedication and passion for
AAC. In well over one hundred separate newsletters, Sarah (Blackstone) put
together AAC information that was and still is immediately useful and organized
in meaningful, easy-to-read categories. How we waited impatiently for those
first copies of Augmentative Communication
News to arrive in the mail! Who had new ideas to share? Where were the people
to whom we could write with our questions? And how were we doing ourselves in
this new field called AAC? All the issues of Augmentative Communication News
from 1989 through 2008 are now available on the web site of Augmentative
Communication Incorporated (augcominc.com). The last year’s issues (2009) will
become available sometime in 2010. Thank you Sarah for such a wonderful gift –
over the years and now. Likewise, Michael B. Williams (since the mid -1990s)
has brilliantly articulated the views of people with complex communication
needs in his newsletter Alternatively
Speaking. So thank you Sarah and Michael for making your work available and free
to us all at www.augcominc.com
Until our
December issue of ACWN. Best wishes.
Anne. awarrick@rogers.com