The following issue of The Bulletin was prepared by Deb Lewis (Co-ordinator, Statewide Vision Resource Centre).
For the complete list of activities for 2005 go to: http://www.visiontech.svrc.vic.edu.au/pd.htm and *** NEW*** you can now download many of the programs for upcoming events from this page too! On your own white paper for your photocopying convenience!!!
All activities are open to subject teachers, integration teachers and aides, careers teachers, therapists, parents VTs, students etc. Please remember to register: tel (03) 9841 0242, fax (03) 9841 0878 or email svrc@svrc.vic.edu.au
Two of our BIG days – “Educational Support for VCE Students with Vision Impairments” and “Educational Support for Vision Impaired Students with Additional Impairments” – are coming up soon. Both days are always well attended and exciting events – so register soon!
The Statewide Vision Resource Centre is organising an open day activity for Education Week. It’s:
When: Wednesday 18th May 2005, 10.00am – 2.00pm
Where: Statewide Vision Resource Centre, 370-380 Springvale
Road, Donvale
Activities include:
Cost: Free
Please register: if you are a bringing a group
For further details: contact Deb Lewis (03) 9841 0242 or email
deblewis@svrc.vic.edu.au
The flier can be downloaded from: http://www.visiontech.svrc.vic.edu.au/pd.htm
When: 14th to 17th May 2005
Theme: The Vision for Accessible Information – Celebrating
Achievement, Seeking Fulfilment
Where: Carlton Crest Hotel, 169-179 Thomas Street, Sydney,
NSW
The aim of Round Table is to facilitate and influence the production and use of quality alternative formats for people with print disabilities. The Round Table Conference will highlight and celebrate achievements in improving information access for people with a print disability and pave the way for the future to ensure continued momentum is maintained in a changing and innovative environment.
All producers and users of alternative formats are encouraged to attend this important Conference. Participants will share information about the latest developments in the provision of accessible information, exchange ideas, showcase best practice and enhance peer support networks. The Conference will be inclusive and provide benefits to all sectors, including libraries, educators, service providers, community groups and agencies.
Some highlights of the Conference are:
All enquiries should be directed to: Tammy Axelsen, Round Table Administration
Assistant
Phone: (03) 6265 1519 or email: RoundtableAdmn@bigpond.com
Round Table Website: http://e-bility.com/roundtable
The following articles appear in the March edition of JVIB:
When: Saturday 30th April
Where: Statewide Vision Resource, 370 Springvale Road Donvale
Time: 2.00pm - till stumps
Speaker: Kim Hazeldene, Occupational Therapist for the Guide
Dogs Victoria, will talk about daily living skills for low vision and blind
children. Cutting toe nails, organizing clothes, personal hygiene, managing
correspondence, and general issues of concern when mum and dad are not longer
available. Come with your questions and Kim will give us her informed solutions.
Baby sitters and afternoon tea will be provided.
For further details contact Judy and John Bowen 9842 5103, Leigh Heaven 9857
0152 or Annette Godfrey-Magee 9841 0807.
At the recent bi-annual conference for teachers of vision impaired children (SPEVI) conference held January 2005 at the Rydges Hotel in Melbourne, the following announcement was made by the chairperson;
“It is with pleasure I announce the safe and long awaited arrival of the Australian Association of Parents of Vision Impaired (AAPVI). With the assistance of the North American parents group, NAPVI, the inaugural body was formed on Thursday 13th January 2005. Just as all parents support and nurture their growing and developing child, this fledgling association also requires the support and assistance of the wider community to help it grow and develop towards its maximum potential.”
Keynote speaker, Susan LaVenture (Executive Director of NAPVI ), spoke to parents, educators and blindness agency staff about the experiences of parents in North America raising their vision impaired children, and reinforced the benefits of parents linking with each other for mutual support. “Advances in technology, and parent advocacy can help overcome the isolation and fear that a new parent of a vision impaired child often feels” she said. “Information is power, and Australia, with its vast distances and small population can seem a daunting place for parents to find the right information that will affect their child’s life, development and education”.
So just what does happen in Australia when your child is born with a vision impairment? In telling their own stories at the SPEVI conference, parents talked about the lack of information on what their child would need, but also the feelings of isolation resulting from not having other parents to talk to and share experiences. And added to that is the physical isolation of many families who live in rural or outback Australia and have just had a child diagnosed with a vision impairment.
Services are available but “who, where, when and how” they are accessed are all questions the stressed family asks. Family relationships within their own communities change as they become the ‘family with the blind child’, and they often take on the additional role of ‘educator and advocate’ for their child when all the family really wants is to be ‘normal’, and accepted as so. In a world that promotes perfection in all things, it is not easy to have a child that the rest of society sees as being less than perfect.
Added to the emotional costs are the significant financial costs for parents often involving a loss of or restricted employment, high medical and transportation costs, as well as fighting a never-ending paper war with the bureaucracy.
In order to help these families AAPVI requires support from the Australian community to get established and build the foundations of an organisation that potentially can enhance the lives of many thousands of Australians.
Please help us spread the word!
The board consists of parents from around Australia and below are introductions from the President, Vice President, and Secretary. Introduction of other board members and state reps will be in following media articles.
President is Gayle Skinner of Victoria, who is also president of VAPVI (Victorian Association for Parents of Vision Impaired). She is a full time working mother of three children. Her eldest is Shae, a 21 year old uni student who has a congenital vision disability. Shae is very active, having many achievements under her belt such as her Queen’s Guide and overseas travel. Gayle sees Shae as an independent young woman getting on with her life. Support for Gayle and her family on a parent-to-parent level has been a hit‘n’miss over the years. Gayle has a passion towards being involved with other parents, and because education is a big part of her life and a big issue for other parents, she feels very comfortable in this field and readily identifies with other parents.
Vice President is Sarah Bethune of Victoria. Sarah is a ‘young’ mum of 15 month old Kyle who has a severe cortical vision impairment along with epilepsy and cerebral palsy. She looks after Kyle full time with the support of her wonderful husband, Daniel. Sarah has taken on her role in order to interact and help support other parents to prevent isolation, and also to better educate herself as to what resources are available. She has a child care background, but Kyle’s needs are different to his sighted peers and she aims to be better educated to support him.
Secretary is Pam Hyden, a single parent from Bendigo in central Victoria. Her son Sam, is 15 and due to retinoblastoma has been blind since 27 months. Until she moved to Bendigo some two years ago, she experienced isolation in regards parent contact and other resources available. In the past two years she has met many more families and recognised the need for helping and supporting each other. Sam is involved in many activities and camps that he attends where he interacts with lots of his other mates with vision impairments and has a great time. Recently, as a single voice, she won a major victory when taking on the Victorian Education Department in allowing Sam, who is in an Independent school to access vital braille resources from SVRC. So, if one mum can initiate this sort of action, imagine what a national body may achieve??
For further information, please contact Pam through aapvi2005@hotmail.com
News from Australian Braille Authority NSW Subcommittee: Considering the future of braille codes in Australia
Article by Frances Gentle, Lecturer in Vision Impairment, Renwick College &
Vision Services Coordinator, St Edmund’s School for Students with Vision
Impairments and Other Special Needs, NSW
The NSW Subcommittee of the Australian Braille Authority (ABA) consists of braille readers, educators, organisation representatives and individuals who share a common interest in promoting braille as the primary literary medium and communication tool for people who are blind. Meetings take place four times a year, and provide the opportunity for members to share braille-related information and ideas, and to contribute to the status of braille in Australia.
The International Council on English Braille (ICEB) accepted the Unified English Braille (UEB) code as an international standard in 2004, following over a decade of work on its development. The ABA has facilitated the dissemination of information on UEB to people working in braille-related areas, and promoted discussion on whether UEB should be adopted in Australia. Member organisations of the Round Table on Information Access for People with Print Disabilities will formally vote on the adoption of UEB at the ABA Annual Meeting to be held at Carlton Crest Hotel Sydney in May 2005. If UEB is endorsed at this meeting, it will herald the most significant change in braille usage in Australia since our initial inheritance of the British system of braille in the early years of colonial settlement.
Australia uses a hybrid system of American, British and Australian braille codes and formatting methods. UEB adoption will result in the replacement of this system with one “unified” system, comprising literary, mathematics and computer science braille notations (Jolley, 2005).
In order to prepare for the vote on UEB in May 2005, ABA subcommittees in some states have been providing workshops on UEB for braille readers, educators and producers. The workshops have enabled “hands-on” opportunities to explore UEB and to discuss its variations from the current codes used in Australia.
The NSW Subcommittee of ABA held its UEB workshop at the Ryde Eastwood Leagues Club, Rydalmere Sydney, on 10 March. The Braille Authority of North America (BANA) UEB Sampler 1 was used at the workshop. This sampler presents UEB literary materials, with new and changed symbols itemised and demonstrated through a series of sample texts. This format proved an excellent medium for working systematically through the UEB code, with the opportunity for questions to be addressed after each sample text.
The workshop was attended by 35 people, including people with vision impairment, hearing impairment and deafblindness. Given the unique communication needs of those attending, workshop preparation included installation of an audio hearing aid loop and microphones, provision of deafblind interpreters and telebraille typist, as well as production of braille and print copies of the UEB sample materials.
Workshop members explored differences between UEB and the current Australian literary code, including new and changed symbols, for example, the system of indicators for bold, italics, block capitals and grade one braille notation. Discussion included the debate on the simplification of rules and reduction of braille contraction ambiguities in the UEB code, including the removal of sequencing, the abolition of the contractions ble, ation, by, to, com, ally, into, dd and o’clock and restrictions in the use of some shortform extensions (NILS, 2004).
The UEB workshop held by the NSW Subcommittee of ABA provided an opportunity to explore the Unified English Braille (UEB) code. The ABA NSW Executive publicised the workshop widely and made extensive efforts to meet the communication needs of braille users. It was disappointing that the attendance level of people who are deafblind was low. This resulted in a missed opportunity to inform deafblind braille users of the changes implicit in UEB.
In general, those attending the workshop on 10 March were positive about the new code. This view was reflected in the subsequent discussion and vote on UEB that took place at the NSW Subcommittee Meeting on 22nd March. At that meeting, ABA NSW members endorsed a motion to support the intent of the ABA National Executive resolution on UEB that will be tabled at the ABA AGM on May 14, 2005.
Thanks are extended to the many individuals and organisations who assisted with the organisation and operation of the workshop. In particular, thanks are extended to Nicola Stowe, ABA NSW Secretary, and to workshop presenters, Bruce Maguire of Brailleways and Josie Howse of DET NSW State Braille and Large Print Service.
Jolly, W. (2005). Unified English Braille: The road to the code in Australia.
Melbourne: SPEVI 2005 Biennial Conference Presentation Paper.
Jolly, W. (2005). UEB in a Nutshell. Australian Braille Authority: Unpublished
paper.
National Information & Library Service (2004). Braille Authority of North
America (BANA) UEBC Sampler 1, April 2001: Adjusted for use in Australia by
National Information Library Service. Melbourne: Author.
Keyboard Access Tips Version 2 is a resource for people who want to operate Windows more efficiently by using the keyboard more effectively. This is not a list of hotkeys. Instead, it is a series of techniques that enable the operation of Windows-based software without a mouse and to discover specific hotkeys as you need them.
Here is an Excerpt from Keyboard Access Tips Version 2:
The myth: You must memorize hundreds of hotkeys to operate
Windows without the mouse.
The reality: To master the keyboard interface, you must internalize
15 to 25 techniques.
To drive Windows from the keyboard, it is more important to know techniques than to memorize hotkeys. Once these techniques are mastered, it is possible to perform almost all tasks in Windows – perhaps 98% – without a mouse.
By learning basic techniques, the need to memorize specific keystrokes is reduced. The techniques enable you to perform most tasks without memorizing hotkeys, and to discover shortcuts as you need them.
Access Tips has eight chapters:
Keyboard Access Tips is available in a choice of three formats: a saddle-stitched booklet, a Word file, or in PDF for US$22.00. For additional information or to order a copy, go to: http://www.cantoraccess.com/keyaccess/keyaccesstips.htm
Here is a discussion list that focuses mostly on mathematics access for blind students and welcomes teachers, students, access technology providers and other interested persons, though discussions of particular maths problems or theory is not allowed.
To subscribe, send blank email to maths-b-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Source: RT Newsletter, March 2005
Hear A Book Service has developed a completely new website.
From the home page which contains loads of great information about Hear A Book, its history and its products, you can follow the link to the search page to get access to our complete database of over 11,000 audio book titles.
If you cannot find the title you want using our quick and basic search facility, a link from the search page will take you to an advanced search area that has an even greater number of search options available.
Each title record details the author information, genre, ISBN, number of cassettes per book, catalogue number and a précis.
A downloadable order form is also available.
Go to: http://www.hearabook.org.au
The Midyear Exams will be held from Monday 6th June to Wednesday 8th June [GAT].
The End of Year Exams will be held between the 28th October and the 18th November.
You can view the VCE Timetable for 2005 on the VCAA website: http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/vce/exams/timetable.html
Over 20 of the students who have travelled to Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama since 1998 gathered at Maysa’s family restaurant on Sunday for a bit of a catchup! Two long tables saw the kid’s table buzzing loudly with chatter, and later when students stood to tell us a little about themselves and their Space Camp highlights, it was very clear that they are a very fine bunch of young people.
So what are our Space Campers, those who have travelled with the DE&T group and those who have travelled with RVIB, up to these days??? We surveyed many of them to find out!!! (but apologies for any errors – let us know if you’d like something amended/added/subtracted…)
Alice (RVIB 2004) – enrolled in year 10
Ben G (RVIB 2000) – completed VCE and is seeking an apprenticeship as a motor mechanic in Gippsland (can anyone help him out???)
Ben R (DE&T 2003) – enrolled in year 11
Ben VP (RVIB 1999) – enrolled in a post graduate Diploma of Education at Monash Clayton again after completing an Arts degree (Languages) last year
Bernie (DE&T 2001) – enrolled in final year of Psychology at Monash University
Bry (DE&T 2001) – enrolled in second year of Performing Arts (Drama and Theatre Studies) at Monash University
Cherie (DE&T 1998) – enrolled in a General Education course through TAFE and has just taken up tennis
Chris (RVIB 1998, 2000) – enrolled in his final year of a Computer Science course at Swinburne University
Felmore (DE&T 1998, 1999) – has taken a year off from his Bachelor of Science at Melbourne University to play drums in a jazz band
Glen (DE&T 2002) – enrolled in third year of a Bachelor of Business at Swinburne University
Jake (DE&T 2001) – enrolled in Equestrian Studies at Glen Ormiston
James (RVIB 2004) – enrolled in year 11
Jarrod (RVIB 2004) – proudly working for a cheese company in Gippsland making world famous cheese and this year was awarded the Young Australian Citizen of the Year in his local shire – congratulations to him!!!
Jimmy (DE&T 1999) – completed his Bachelor of Psychology at Melbourne University
Jon (RVIB 1999) – completed his VCE in 2004 and is training with the Australian men’s goalball team
Kathryn (Kat) (DE&T 2002) – has completed a Diploma of Disability Studies and is currently living in Canada
Kate (DE&T 1998, 1999, 2001) – recently married!
Katie (RVIB 2002) – enrolled in year 12 and works part time as a waitress at La Porchetta
Kristen (DE&T 1998, 1999) – currently looking for work
Kushbu (RVIB 2000, 2002) – is in her final year of a Bachelor of Arts at Monash University Clayton
Kyle (DE&T 2002) – enrolled in year 11 with a part time job at McDonald’s
Lachlan (DE&T 2003) – enrolled in year 9
Laurel (DE&T 2004) – enrolled in year 9
Lauren (RVIB 2002) – worked at a school for the blind in England as a Gap Student after completing VCE and is now enrolled in a Bachelor of Music at Melbourne University
Lindsay (DE&T 2004) – enrolled in year 11
Matt (DE&T 2003) – studying Information Technology at Chisholm Institute
Maysa (RVIB 2002, 2004) – enrolled in year 12 and works part time at the family restaurant
Melinda (DE&T 2004) – enrolled in year 10
Michael H (DE&T 2004) – enrolled in year 11
Michael K (DE&T 2001) – enrolled in a Diploma of Audio Production at Box Hill TAFE and works as a volunteer at the Statewide Vision Resource Centre and at Radio for the Print Handicapped
Mick (RVIB 2000) – is studying Arts at Monash University
Natasha (DE&T 2002, 2004) – enrolled in year 12
Nathan (DE&T 2003) – enrolled in year 11
Nic (DE&T 1999, RVIB 2000) – has completed a Bachelor of Astronomy at Monash University and is currently enrolled in an honours year at Australian National University, Canberra
Nicole (DE&T 2004) – studying Myotherapy at RMIT University
Orhan (DE&T 1999) – final year of Bachelor of Arts at Melbourne University
Peggy (DE&T 2001) – enrolled in year 11 and works part time at a restaurant
Richard (RVIB 1999) – enrolled in Bachelor of Architecture at RMIT and is about to go to Mexico for 6 months as an exchange student
Samantha (RVIB 2002) – enrolled in year 12
Tim (DE&T 2001, 2002) – working in landscaping
Tracey (DE&T 2002) – completed one year of a hospitality course and is working part time
Pam Hyden has a preloved but recently serviced MB Writer with upgraded software and a new battery for sale for the reduced price of $1900 – please contact her after hours on (03) 5447 4259.
Thanks to Nadia Mattiazzo (Blind Citizens Australia), Annette Godfrey-Magee (SVRC) Sherry Cunningham (RVIB) and Ramona Mandy (HumanWare) for contributing to this edition of The Bulletin. Thanks also to my most excellent proof-readers Dianne Skillern and Lea Nagel.
Deb Lewis (who can be emailed at deblewis@svrc.vic.edu.au).