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Summits Melbourne

 

Read about the Melbourne Assistive Technology Summit

Tracey Bode from Zygo Australia opens the Melbourne Summit

Melbourne November 8-10 2000

Edmund Barton Centre, Moorabin

Our second Spectronics and Zygo Australia Assistive Technology Summit 2000 has just ended in Melbourne. Both Zygo and Spectronics sponsored the keynote speakers Pati King deBaun and Caroline Musselwhite. They provided practical and Inclusive strategies that were embraced by over 80 delegates. Caroline’s rule of “30 second preparation” was well received! The Summit was conducted over three days at the Edmund Barton Centre in Moorabbin and has proved to be a great success!

The plenary sessions each day set the scene for a series of exciting and thoroughly enjoyable presentations. International and local presenters demonstrated a large number of software as well as communication resources, overlays, displays and devices. Pati King deBaun demonstrated a suite of public domain software that can be downloaded from the web for students with communication and learning needs. Many of these are switch capable or will work with switch(es), IntelliKeys or Discover series of access and learning products.

As per Brisbane in the previous week, delegates were furiously jotting down ideas and notes. There were participants from every state in Australia, with a large contingent from Tasmania. It was great to see such a diverse audience, who had travelled from all parts of Australia!

Three streams were offered each day after a power-packed plenary. Tina and Mike Detheridge from Widgit demonstrated the updated version of Writing With Symbols 2000 Version 1.6. They showed how to use and create environments and onscreen grids. Their new program, Inter_Comm was also presented. It is an email program that can send and receive PCS, Rebus symbols as well as photographs and other digital images. An exciting new music package Music Factory captured the imagination and interest of delegates and other presenters alike, as it is so simple to use, yet offers powerful music composition in a program that is switch accessible. Another recently released desktop publishing program, Book Spinner, was keenly sought after and requested for trial on our Spectronics display stand.

Bob Keller (Don Johnston) presented throughout the Summit and gave insights into more effectively using Co:Writer with Write:OutLoud. Teamed with Inspiration (a brain storming and project/writing planner visual organiser), these applications work seamlessly together. They are extremely useful tools for writing and language in primary and especially secondary schools. If used in conjunction with a scanner using OCR (Optical Character Recognition) these packages accommodate student needs in all Key Learning Areas as well as catering to adult users.

Bob also demonstrated a number of recently released new Start-To-Finish titles including MacBeth, Romeo and Juliet, the Sherlock Holmes Mysteries and A Christmas Carol. There are now 24 titles in this talking CD-ROM/paperback book/cassette based reading series. Bob also offered some introductory sessions to Discover access tools in the mornings as well as formal sessions on the Discover range (including Discover:Screen, Discover:Board and the popular Discover:Switch) (formerly known as the Ke:nx series) to support literacy success.

Kelly Fonner (an independent Assistive Technology consultant and trainer from the USA) provided insights into the new IntelliTools Reading scheme in a lively joint presentation with Pati. She presented the soon-to-be released IntelliTalk II software for MS Windows and Macintosh OS. Kelly demonstrated how to customise toolbars and palettes to tailor IntelliTalk II to meet individual needs and showed a few of the Inclusive and powerful features of this voiced word processor.

Jane Farrall (Zygo Australia) provided a session focussing on literacy learning issues for people with a severe communication impairment that was very well received and appreciated by delegates. The session brought together many diverse elements into a cohesive framework.

Michael O’Leary and Barbara Landsberg (Spectronics Queensland) presented overviews of the IntelliTools suite as well as introducing IntelliTalk II. Michael offered lunch-time sessions on Access Options and IntelliTools Overlay Maker. An insight into ClickIt! (a program that provides switch access to any software application on Windows or Macintosh PC’s) was also demonstrated.

As some delegates required a “catch-up” or introduction to the Macaw, Tracey Bode, the Manager of Zygo Australia, conducted some introductory sessions during lunch breaks.

We once again thank our energetic and entertaining keynotes as they infused the proceedings with enthusiasm and a zest for doing things that are practical and take little preparation time. The 30-second rule applies!

We are all eagerly looking forward to Sydney! After a short break and a bit of sight seeing by our wonderful presenters Pati, Caroline, Bob and Kelly, they will be ‘back on deck’ at the Masonic Centre ready to lead, enthuse and promote leading practice in assistive technology implementation. Mike and Tina will be returning to the UK after a holiday in Brisbane and unfortunately will not be present in Sydney. We wish them a safe passage home.

Additional Web Resource Reference Sites

Throughout the Summit, numerous web sites were mentioned, shared and published in papers. These were suggested by a number of presenters as well as delegates over the 3 days. As they increased in number, they have been posted to our web site. It has proved to be advantageous not only to the Brisbane delegates, but also to other interested people who could not attend!

Note: These are additional handy resource sites that were mentioned by speakers and delegates. The non-stop generation and promotion of useful and practical ideas, strategies and leading practice offered throughout the week included many web sites for IT resources. Pati and Caroline both have sites that were continuously referred to that have wonderful resources for Speech Pathologists, therapists, teachers, carers, parents and other para-professionals. If you navigate to these sites, you will find a wealth of information, resources, templates, activity ideas, book references, web links, overlays and practical ideas that you can implement in your setting. If more web sites are mentioned, they will be listed as well.

Please share these resource sites with colleagues, other practitioners and parents. PowerPoint presentations on IntelliTalk II, IntelliTools Suite presented during the Summits will be made available soon, to be downloaded as WinZip files. Some other files will also be made – so please come back and visit our Spectronics Web Home Page soon…

Note all sites start with http://www, unless stated otherwise.

Many of the activities, resources, overlay files, templates for Macaw’sand Overlay Maker, references and links to numerous other sites and as well as resources/literature can be found on our Keynote presenter’s sites… and plenty more!

Additional sites (see the Brisbane Summit Update for a more complete and comprehensive list of activity and resource sites)

Happy surfing …