Programs in
Assistive Technology Education
for End-Users in Europe

Name of the organisation
    BLOORVIEW MACMILLAN CENTRE
    Communication and Writing Aids
Address
    350 Rumsey Road
    Toronto, Ontario
    CANADA
    Telephone: +416 425 6220
    Fax: +416 425 1634
Key Person of the organisation
    Lynne Balfloor, director

This department of the Bloorview MacMillan Centre is an organisation of persons with disabilities, but also a provider of health and social services (an AT service) mainly involved in rehabilitation. Training activities are also organised, and these are addressed to persons with disabilities, families, helpers or personal assistants, and professionals. These activities, related to independent living and for coping better with disability, began more than 10 years ago and AT is considered a strong support for independent living,

The educational activities carried out over the past 5 years can be classified as follows:

  • non-residential training courses, addressed to a target of users (persons with disabilities, families, personal assistants), and professionals (education and rehabilitation, technologists);
  • 30 seminars, in the sole form of topical workshops, mostly addressed to a target of professionals;
  • more than 40 information activities, represented mainly by conferences, addressed to a wide target of participants;
  • activities addressed to the individual, information services assessment and prescription of communication devices offered to more than 1.000 clients, who are exclusively persons with disabilities.

AT plays a very important role in these activities, while the most widely represented areas related to AT are: communication, of course, service delivery issues, cognition, reading/writing, recreation, self-care, employment and household activities.

TRAINING COURSES AND SEMINARS

A group of topical workshops organised in 1996 have been listed, as outlined below.
Title of the initiative
Typology
Year
Duration

(in hrs.)
Number partic.
Target
Number teachers
Introduction to Augmentative Communication top. work.
1996
3
8
pers. disab., fam., rehab. prof., ed. prof., pers. ass.
Where do I start communicating top. work.
1996
5
15
pers. disab., fam., rehab. prof., ed. prof., pers. ass.
Beginning to use pictures & symbols top. work.
1996
5
15
pers. disab., fam., rehab. prof., ed. prof., pers. ass.
Communication displays everywhere top. work.
1996
6
15
pers. disab., fam., rehab. prof., ed. prof., pers. ass.
An introduction to voice output communication aids top. work.
1996
5
15
pers. disab., fam., rehab. prof., ed. prof., pers. ass.
Understanding children with unclear speech top. work.
1996
5
15
pers. disab., fam., rehab. prof., ed. prof., pers. ass.
Effective advocacy - you can make a difference top. work.
1996
5
10
pers. disab., fam., rehab. prof., ed. prof., pers. ass.
Policies & funding for AAC devices in Ontario top. work.
1996
3
15
pers. disab., fam., rehab. prof., ed. prof., pers. ass.

Selection

All these initiatives were publicised by means of leaflets, sent out to the organisation's address database, rehabilitation centres, other organisations in the field and voluntary services. Participants were chosen on the basis of territoriality and professional experience, but also for their motor impairment and age (children and teenagers). Teachers and tutors were experts belonging to the organisation itself; no preference for teachers with disability was expressed.

Organisation

The activities were held in different places, defined and found each time as required; these venues were chosen for their comfort, with particular attention paid to seating arrangements for the participants and to overall accessibility. Persons with disabilities participated free of charge in the workshops, while professionals paid $25-50 per day. Preparatory meetings were held for the teachers during the organisation phase.

Implementation

The methods used for delivering contents were lectures and group discussions, supported by a wide variety of educational aids (overhead projection, slides, video, software for content presentation, handouts for the participants) and accompanied by hands-on sessions, mainly in the form of individual use of products. The two most important aspects of the workshop (the lesson and the practice session) were also described in terms of the two pedagogical key -words chosen, namely learning by doing and good presentation. No information on participants was collected. Teachers meet together to plan contents, though these meetings were not exactly progress meetings. A final questionnaire was distributed to collect feedback from participants, and this information was used to readjust contents and methods for the next edition of the same course.

Further remarks

Over the years, some aspects in the implementation phase have changed, since there was a change to more community-based activities.