Envision the Possibilities
Assistive Technology Awareness 2008

Empower, Educate, Include

Afternoon Preconference Sessions for Envision the Possibilities - 1:00 - 4:00, May 1, 2008!

Home..........Morning Sessions

To register for a session, click on the title. Seating is limited. There are morning and afternoon sessions. Remember to register for only one morning and/or one afternoon session. Session numbers that begin with "A" are morning and sessions that begin with "B" are afternoon.

Electronic switches require no force. This allows the switch to become transparent to the task. For children with tone, electronic switches can support accuracy and consistency. For lengthy tasks, electronic switches can support endurance. For children who use two switch self-controlled scanning, more energy is available. For initial mouse use, with a mouse emulator, predictable mouse control is available. These switches include: 1)proximity (activated by skin touch), 2) fiber optic (light beam), 3) Infra-red (light), 4) ultra-sound (radio frequency) and 5) photo-electric (light) switches. We will demonstrate the use of the switch in all combinations of use.

A recent AARP study confirmed what families who care for someone with special needs already knew, that we are incredibly valuable because of all the unpaid care we provided everyday! Join Tom Nurse and Kevin Manning, with MetLifes Division of Estate Planning for Special Kids, as they explain the economic value of family care giving and how families can help secure future care funding through a special needs planning process. They will help explain how special needs trusts can be used to coordinate funding provided by families, both now and in the future, while continuing to access publicly funded programs like Medicaid, SSI and Mediwavier. This is an excellent workshop for parents, grandparents, siblings and self advocates because were all in it together.

This is an excellent workshop for parents, grandparents, siblings and self advocates.

Learn the essential components of creating an effective learning environment for young children with profound physical and cognitive disabilities including room arrangement, accessing adaptive toys and low-tech devices, and mounting/stabilizing learning materials. Through a digital photo presentation, participants will view a prekindergarten classroom that makes it possible for profoundly handicapped students to "connect" with sensory experiences, voice-output devices, and switch toys. Using PVC, participants will make an adaptive switch stand, book stand, and sensory toy.

This session is for Special Education teachers working with young children with multiple disabilities and severe-profound handicaps; Occupational and Physical Therapists.

Part One of this session will allow participants to take a guided tour through the powers of the ECO 14 integrated communication device. An overview of the language offered in the device will be given and device features and tools will be looked at. We will also look at some of the integrated features that separate the ECO from some of the other communication devices in the PRC family.

Part Two of the session will introduce the new Springboard Lite to particpants and give a brief overview of its exciting portability and language combined in one.

Do you have students who are falling behind due to reading and writing difficulties? Are they spending too much time decoding every word and then losing the meaning of the sentence? Do their writing assignments meet the minimum words required? Do they stop and struggle with misspelled words causing them to lose their thought and become frustrated? Are they using the web for research, but are unable to organize what they find? Are their struggles with reading and writing lowering their self-esteem?

Please come to this session to learn how Read&Write GOLD will help your struggling students become better independent students who enjoy reading and writing and; improve their self-esteem in the process. This preconference session will take a more in-depth look at how to use Read&Write GOLD to help your students improve reading, writing and research outcomes and how teachers can prepare assignments and tests using Microsoft Word with struggling students in mind.