Welcome to the Fall newsletter of the WI AAC Network. Like most years, I am writing this on my way home from Closing The Gap, an assistive technology and special education conference. Boy, the past couple of days were filled with amazing workshops, talking to friends that I have made, and trying to find time to eat between workshops.
My awesome friends like to try to eat at least one meal together to find out what happened in the past year and tell some stories. When we were doing this, I thought about how many people who use AAC can get together to chat and eat with their friends. When I was in school, I ate lunch with two to five of them. I bet everyone did that too when you were in school, maybe some of you still eat lunch with your friends or coworkers. This is a normal social opportunity to eat and chat with your friends, but does the AAC Communicator or Communicators get to do that? If yes, that is awesome. But if not why not, what is getting in the way from having someone eat lunch with them and how can you possibly go around that obstacle?
Another normal social opportunity is going to a friend’s house for a birthday or a play date. I have phenomenal memories from going to one of my friend’s houses. How about you? Does your child go over to one of their friend’s houses? If yes you are rocking it. But if not, what are the obstacles to this one? If their house isn’t accessible then if your child is in a power chair, you might like to take them out of their wheelchair but please bring a low tech AAC system. AAC Communicators do not live a normal life, but we can try to make their life as normal as we can. I always enjoy eating meals with my friends :).
In this newsletter you will find information about what happened at Closing The Gap and why you should consider attending this conference, information about the ECHO and AT Forward projects, we have a family AAC journey, and more.
Newsletter Table of Contents
- Welcome by Mike Hipple
- What Happened at CTG
- Additional AAC & AT Events
- Wisconsin AT Happenings
- From the Desk of USSAAC
What happened at CTG by Mike Hipple & Kelly Fonner
Closing The Gap is an annual conference on assistive technology and special education. It was started by parents who were looking for support and technologies to help their son who is deaf. That was in 1982, their son, their daughter, and their daughter-in-law run the conference now. It is well worth going to see the newest assistive technology tools, learning from your fellow assistive technology professionals, meeting new friends, and seeing friends. They have a huge hall that is filled up with different companies in the industry of assistive technology and special education. You can play around with the tools, communication systems, and talk with people from the companies about their tools, workbooks, or communication devices. They had a variety of topics for the workshop to choose to go to and learn from the leaders in the field. They had events going on in the evening to socialize with other professionals. All and all it was a pretty phenomenal week and I can’t wait until next year and I hope you will join me in Minnesota!
The Exhibit Hall is a free portion to the conference. Many families, AT users, therapists, teachers and those in college to become therapists take advantage of the time to meet vendor representatives and see examples of the newest technologies. There are often free giveaways and options to sign up to get free access to products that are in development. One of the free options that we can share with everyone is the Free Subscription through 2023 to the new BuildAblity product, Newstopia. Go to https://www.buildingwings.com/newstopia/ and sign up before 2024!
In addition to the exhibits and networking, there were almost 150 sessions that occurred throughout the 3 days of the event, and 12 preconferences that were a full day or half day that occurred before the main event. These intensive sessions cover the topics of literacy, access, augmentative communication, curriculum, leisure, leadership, AT services and much, much more. They are taught by some of the largest names in the field as well as in classroom, in home, in work, in university service providers and their students. Some sessions are lead by parents of AT users. There was great representation from Wisconsin, some mentions include people from the school districts of Menomonee Falls, GreenBay, Stevens Point, Lakeland Schools, and more.
Information for the next Closing The Gap was shared. 42ND ANNUAL CONFERENCE OCTOBER 23-25, 2024, Pre Conference Workshops: Monday & Tuesday, October 21-22 NEW LOCATION! DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Bloomington, 7800 Normandale Blvd., Minneapolis, Minnesota
Some Additional Assistive Technology & AAC Events this 2023-24 School Year:
InPerson/OnLine Conferences
- November – OCALICON – hosted online by Ohio Autism and Low Incidence Network 11/15-17/23 https://conference.ocali.org/
- November – ASHA – hosted in person by American Speech/Hearing Assoc – Boston, MA
- 11/16-18/2023 https://convention.asha.org/
- November-December – Tennessee AT Conference – hosted in person by TAAT 11/30-12/1/2023 https://www.taat.org/
- December – TobiiDynavox – Free Winter Conference – 12/5/2023
- https://us.tobiidynavox.com/blogs/live-training/tagged/virtual+winter-conference
- January – ATIA Conference – in person and online – Orlando, FL – 1/23-27/2024
- February –Wisconsin speech and hearing association convention – 2/1&2/2024
- in Pewaukee. Please see their website https://www.wisha.org/events
- February – Early Intervention Early Starts Conference – hosted online by AACcessbile
- 2/16&17/24 https://www.aaccessible.org/
- March – Council For Exceptional Children – hosted in person by CEC – SanAntonix, TX
- 3/13-16/2024 https://exceptionalchildren.org/convention/2024
- March – Wisconsin Council for Exceptional Children state conference in the spring or late winter check out their Facebook page for more details https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100057601653589
- March – CSUN – Technology & Persons with Disabilities Conference – 3/18-22/2024 –
- hosted in person by California State University – Northridge – Anaheim, CA https://www.csun.edu/cod/conference/sessions/
- April – Wisconsin Physical Therapy Association Spring Conference is 4/19/2024
- at UW Milwaukee
- April – Annual Autism Society of Wisconsin conference in The Wisconsin Dells 4/25-27/24
- please see this website for more information. https://www.autismgreaterwi.org/event-cal/35th-annual-conference/
- May – Circles Of Life conference is the longest running conference for families 5/16-17/2024
- in Stevens Point at the Holiday Inn. You can bring your whole family to this one as well. https://familyvoiceswi.org/circles-of-life-conference/
- June – CATE – Colorado Assistive Technology and Education – hosted online 6/6&7/24 https://www.swaaac.org/conference-for-assistive-technology-and-education-cate
FREE OnGoing Events Online
- Weekly Mondays 11amCT – AT Town Hall Community of Practice – supported by NJ AT Act Project – Richard West Assistive Technology Advocacy Center
- Weekly Tuesdays – via website/email – AAC Link Up – hosted by prAACtical AAC
- Weekly Wednesdays 7pmCT – #ATChat on X (Twitter) https://wakelet.com/@MikeMarotta566
- Monthly, sometimes twice monthly – AT Forward – hosted by WI DPI
- Monthly – UDL Community of Practice Gathering – hosted by WI UDLForward
- Monthly – USSAAC Events – free or cost based upon membership to ISAAC/USSAAC
- Monthly 1st Thursdays 3pmCT – AEM Cafe – hosted by CAST
- Monthly – ECHO AAC – hosted by UWMadison Waisman Center
- Monthly – 1st and 3rd Wednesdays – ECHO Voices online hosted by Oregon OTAP
- https://www.smore.com/nvwcf (this year’s focus in on AAC devices/apps)
- Monthly – Wyoming AT Act ECHO Project (this year’s focus is on leisure/recreational AT)They also have ECHOs for parents, for Early Intervention, and for Positive Behavior Supports (https://www.uwyo.edu/wind/echo/)
- Monthly – AbleU – supported by Ablenet (Former Ablenet University)
- Quarterly – Community of Practice for autism and other developmental disabilities. Meet quarterly to learn about a variety of topics. If you are interested please email this email address and say I want to be added to the email list. tmarkle@wisc.edu
Information on the Wisconsin Projects
An opportunity to celebrate students who have a disability – The Wisconsin Council of Exceptional Children is our state chapter and they have an award called Yes I Can award. This award is given to a group of students with a disability or one student who did or is doing amazing things in their school community or community. They want to celebrate all students, this is one of their opportunities to do it. If you are interested to learn more about it please contact Gena Santharam at gena.santaram@mypathcompany.com.
Here’s information on the National CEC Yes I Can Awards!
https://exceptionalchildren.org/awards/yes-i-can-awards-cec-national
The Forward Assistive Technology Project Update
The Assistive Technology (AT) Forward Project works with self-advocates, educators, practitioners, caregivers, and families to increase student autonomy in utilizing Assistive Technology tools to support access, engagement, and progress in learning. The AT Forward Project provides a variety of free resources and learning opportunities, including Community of Practice (CoP) meetings, micro-credentialing, and monthly email updates. Upcoming Community of Practice Meetings include sessions on team building, UDL (Universal Design for Learning) and AT, Instructional Technology and Assistive technology, Augmentative Communication and the school connection more. See all past recorded CoP meetings on the AT Forward CoP Video Resource Library. We are a growing community of over 1200 ! Our Micro Credential project is also growing. We have now awarded over 300 Micro Credential badges. Please help us grow our AT community in Wisconsin and refer others to the AT Forward CoP, by visiting the AT Forward Registration page. From AT beginner to expert, the AT Forward CoP welcomes all knowledge level backgrounds!
ECHO AAC – Waisman Center
Project ECHO ® is a lifelong learning and guided practice model that is designed to build capacity of individuals around the state to provide evidence-based services. The Waisman Center AAC Program hosts the ECHO AAC series which focuses on content and shared learning about Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC). All are welcome to attend including users of AAC, family members, speech language pathologists, occupational therapists, and other providers and stakeholders. To register for our upcoming sessions or get into our mailing list please visit: https://www.waisman.wisc.edu/echo/echo-aac/.
We have two upcoming session scheduled for this fall:
ECHO AAC 8.2: What a successful team looks like: collaborators, who they are, and their roles – November 8, 2023 @ 3:30 pm – 5:00 pm
Success with AAC is just beginning once you have completed an evaluation. Come learn what successful teams do when supporting individuals who use AAC and their families. Learn tips and tricks and strategies for supporting symbolic communication development that can support individual language development.
ECHO AAC 8.3: Collaborating with Families to Support Children with AAC Needs-A Pre-service Clinician Online Training Module- December 13, 2023 @ 3:30 pm – 5:00 pm
This session’s presenters will be our partners from Penn State: Karla Armendariz (Communication Sciences & Disorders PhD Candidate), Dr. Lydia Ocasio-Stoutenburg (Special Education faculty), and Dr. David McNaughton (Special Education faculty).
This presentation introduces an online training module for pre-service speech-language pathologists (SLPs). It focuses on enhancing their ability to work effectively with families in developing and using AAC systems. The module emphasizes five key principles for building positive relationships with the families of the children they serve.
From The Desk Of USSAAC
It is time to renew your membership to the United States Society of AAC {USSAAC} or join the only society for the first time! We hope you will consider joining yourself and if you are a professional please tell families about the society.
Please read the following blogs that USSAAC posted this quarter.