Consumer's Corner
By Sarah Lever
International AAC Awareness Month October 2009: A Report from the Task Force
Awareness happens when you share a story with someone . . .
The third annual International Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) Awareness Month celebration in October 2009 was a great success. The International AAC Month Task Force is pleased to report that the awareness activities in 2009 continued to build on the foundation laid in the first two years of this project. In 2007 there were worldwide school and classroom events celebrating AAC. Then in 2008 the task force focused on AAC and literacy with the theme Many Stories, One Voice (the voice of AAC). Activities included setting up a website with resources for writing and for event planning, conducting a writing contest for people who use AAC, and establishing an online writing collection. This website at www.aacawareness.org has since then become an ongoing and extremely valuable internet resource. International AAC Month is on facebook here.
Continuing forward with AAC Awareness Month October 2009, the task force chose a theme that focused on ways to communicate using AAC. This theme was “Many Methods, One Goal: To Communicate”. The task force conducted a writing contest again this year. Through the contest, they encouraged people who use AAC to work on their writing skills. They also pointed out that learning literacy skills helps people communicate better using AAC. They expanded the collection to include videos and other entries in addition to written stories, poems, and essays. The contest invited people to use any format to describe and demonstrate the wide range of methods and devices that they may use to communicate depending on the setting and situation. The overall goal was to give people who use AAC the chance to educate the world about the many ways that a person may communicate in addition to speech. They succeeded quite well in this.
The task force was pleased last year to receive stories from Argentina, Australia, Canada, China, Cyprus, Dubai-United Arab Emirates, France, India, Italy, United Kingdom and the United States. All the stories taken together in many formats provide a rich and extremely valuable demonstration of many ways to communicate in addition to speech. The 2009 Collection provides a remarkable resource to educate people around the world about AAC. Many individual stories were outstanding in explaining the importance of communication, in describing or showing the many ways people communicate using AAC, and in telling about the understanding that comes from communication. The following three entries were selected for recognition. (For more information on the contest, see the announcement of winners report.)
Multimedia Winner: “AAC Around the World” by Beth Moulam from the United Kingdom, Emma Green from Australia, and Morgan Liddle-Webb from the United Kingdom, a joint entry by three friends across the globe who tell about their friendship and their many methods of communicating in different situations and with different people. Their PowerPoint movie features their writing and poetry, photos, their own voices and their voice output devices.
Youth Writing Winner: “A Girl and A Boy Get Hope” by Jacklyn Irwin from Australia, a story about misunderstanding, communication, and hope.
Adult Writing Winner: “The Voice” by Elsie Hudak from Canada, an essay about the voice that an AAC device can provide.
For celebrating AAC Awareness Month in October, the task force encouraged people around the world to share the story collection in their AAC Awareness events. The website provided downloadable posters to use when publicizing events. It also provided bookmarks with the theme and website information.
October 2009 was a busy month for AAC activities, and many exciting events were conducted around the world. We received reports from Australia (Victoria), Brazil, Canada, Egypt, France, Malta, United Kingdom, and the United States. The detailed reports are available on the website at www.aacawareness.org. Here are some highlights.
In Ontario, an AAC fair was held at Bloorview where participants used various AAC devices to interact at each booth. In Brazil, the III Congress ISAAC Brazil met October 31, and an estimated 500 participants shared creative approaches and research. In France, the AFP (Association des paralysés de France) started an AAC blog to support communication by people who use AAC.
In Malta, events and activities were conducted as part of the national AAC initiative. The Assistive Communication and Technology Unit (ACTU) held an open house which drew hundreds of people. The Speech-Language Department sponsored an AAC creative competition and launched an AAC Club to support AAC users in communicating locally and internationally on using Skype.
In Australia, Scope held Silent Morning Teas with Bingo played using AAC devices or texting on cell phones. They also used an AAC quiz with a prize. In Egypt there were workshops for making AAC materials, planning for an AAC network to share ideas and help each other, a journal, and possibly an AAC center.
ISAAC members in the United Kingdom were very active in an AAC Campaign which included advocating for AAC and for access to core vocabulary, producing films promoting AAC, developing an AAC Role Models program, and starting an organization called FaCE (Facilitating Communication for Everybody) which worked on making communication boards and tutorial movies for using audio files with PowerPoint.
In the United States, AHRC Adult Day Services in New York City held an Assistive Technology Awareness Day with films, an “open mic” for AAC users to introduce themselves, awards, and an Assistive Technology Expo. Elsewhere, members of the TASH Communications Committee partnered with Snoopi Botten and friends to produce an AAC advocacy song and video released on YouTube in honor of AAC Month: “If I Had a VOCA” (Voice Output Communication Aid).
An international AAC event was held on October 21: “The First Annual 24 Hour AAC Read-a-Thon”. Terry Gibson of FaCE in the UK and Judy Bailey of Everyone Communicates in the US stayed up for twenty four hours to moderate a chat with people around the world on Skype and Facebook. People from several countries around the world participated in conversations and shared stories and resources.
The October 2009 International AAC Month celebration was successful on many levels. People who use AAC around the world worked to improve their literacy skills through writing stories. People learned about the importance of literacy instruction for improving communication. People who use AAC produced the 2009 Online Collection which provides a valuable resource to educate the world about AAC. Celebrations, events, and activities were held in many locations around the world. The AAC Awareness Task Force expresses its deep and sincere thanks to everyone around the world who supported its efforts this year by contributing to the writing collection, providing resources, working on committees, promoting AAC and AAC Month, sharing the stories, and publicizing, conducting and participating in events. Together we can make a difference.