The Biennial Pittsburgh Employment Conference
for Augmented Communicators
Employment and Community Interaction
(August 5-7, 2005)
Plans for the Biennial Pittsburgh Employment Conference for Augmented Communicators (PEC@ ‘2005) are developed enough for us to provide you with details of our goals, objectives, and specific plans. PEC@ has become the world’s leading employment-focused AAC gathering. Each conference has had its own theme, but all have featured AAC device users taking major parts in the Conference.
The theme for this year’s conference is Employment and Community Interaction. This theme expresses a need to understand employment for augmented communicators in terms of their interactions with other members of the work world. People with significant communication impairment need to interact with many individuals in the broad community.
In terms of direct employment, these individuals include vocational counselors, potential employers, employers, colleagues, and human resource personnel, etc. In a more extended sense, community interaction for a job-seeking or an employed augmented communicator typically includes transportation workers, medical workers, public safety officers, -- police, paramedics, firemen – restaurants workers, and a host of others.
No conference has ever dealt specifically with the implications of the broad range of community interactions that employment entails for augmented communicators. PEC@ 2005 will focus on strategies for interacting with vocational counselors and strategies vocational counselors can use for interacting with augmented communicators. Such a public and interactive discussion of counselor/counselee communication is ground breaking. Scholarly papers will be presented about disparities in medical treatment in emergency rooms for people with complex communication needs. Local law officials will present strategies for dealing with police officers and augmented communicators will discuss their issues with public safety officials in general.
The benefits of such open dialogue and information sharing will affect not only the augmented communicators who participate but the therapeutic and educational community in attendance as well. Representatives of the emergency medical community, employers, human resource personnel, vocational rehabilitation counselors will be presenting papers. Augmented communicators will share their experiences, both good and bad and the strategies they used to overcome difficulties. The Town Meeting of augmented communicators, for the first time, will allow interaction from community representatives.
The list of scholars, community representatives, and augmented communicators presenting papers will include people from many walks of life and many different nations. Although the majority of people attending will be from Pennsylvania, a large number of attendees will be from the rest of the United States, Canada, Europe, Africa, Australia, and Asia. A strong delegation from Japan is planning to attend.
Presentations by Augmented Communicators:
The various employment venues and strategies used by PEC@ attendees who are augmented communicators have been catalogued and analyzed. Below is a list of 17 separate paths from which SHOUT plans to select 10 for panel discussions. The first 13 of these paths describe paid positions. The final four are strategies to obtain employment in the future. The 17 paths include:
1. Working for a non-profit agency
2. Starting your own business
3. Obtaining government funding for a major project
4. Working for local government
5. Working as an administrator for a residential center
6. Working for State government
7. Working for the Federal government
8. Working for a university
9. Working for a software company
10. Working as a programmer in the health care industry
11. Working for an AAC company
12. Working as an AAC teacher
13. Working as a consultant for a variety of AAC constituencies
14. Serving as a volunteer worker in politics
15. Preparing for work as a high school student
16. Preparing for work as an undergraduate university student
17. Preparing for work as a graduate student at a major university
The job preparation group will be condensed into one or two panels. Various employment positions involving computer skills will be condensed into one panel. Government work will also be combined into a single panel as will employment by non-profit agencies and universities. The resulting ten panels will discuss openly and frankly the benefits and problems of obtaining and holding work for augmented communicators.
Academic Presentations:
A unique feature of PEC@ has been its combination of practical and academic presentations. Research and scholarly papers include a study at the University of Dortmund, Germany. The Special Education Department of the University of Dortmund is replicating The Pittsburgh/Westinghouse Employment Project for Augmented Communicators sponsored by SHOUT and the Pennsylvania Office of Vocational Rehabilitation. This project was begun in 1988 and resulted in successful employment for augmented communicators in the corporate world.
Dr. Diane N. Bryen, founder of the Temple Institute on Disabilities and ACETS (Augmentative Communication Employment Training and Supports) will be reporting on Temple University’s Online Electronic Job Coaching for AAC Users. After 3 years of positive outcomes, ACETS Online was developed to apply lessons learned in previous years and to implement an electronic format and E-coaching.
Dr. Susan Balandin, immediate past president of ISAAC, will present an employment vocabulary derived from the conversations of six people who use AC in open employment. This major study by the University of Sydney, Australia, will include a survey of perceptions of communication competence at work, completed by both those who use AC and their natural speaking work colleagues.
Dr. Ovetta Harris, leading a team from Howard University will present a paper on dialect strategies in employment for African American augmented communicators.
Dr. Katya Hill and researchers from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania will show the relevance of evidence-based practice studies to employment for augmented communicators. Specific vocabularies derived from employed augmented communicators will be presented.
Cultural Change Rippling from PEC@
PEC@ has shown that augmented communicators and the other stakeholders in the field of augmentative communication can discuss serious issues together. The close interaction at PEC@ between augmented communicators and the stakeholders who serve them has resulted in a growing maturity and self-awareness among people who use AC. Education and engineering professionals, clinicians, and family members have come to a new appreciation of augmented communicators as self-directed human beings.
The interactions of PEC@ have produced significant cultural changes within the AC field. No AC conference is now considered complete without the substantial presence of AC users. This cultural change has affected the entire assistive communicative technology field including the Rehabilitation Engineering Society of North America (RESNA), ISAAC, USSAAC, rehabilitation schools at universities, and even the venerable American Speech-Language Hearing Association (ASHA) Annual Conference.
The PEC@ model was replicated in Toronto, May, 2002. The Canadian March of Dimes provided a grant of $50,000 to use the YMCA Campgrounds at Geneva, Ontario to host more than 50 augmented communicators and 70 professionals for a three-day conference, which gave full credit to SHOUT and PEC@ for its vision. The Toronto group will be sending many augmented communicators to PEC@ ‘03. They will be serving on panels to describe their successful employment strategies.
The Los Angeles Augmentative Communication Employment Group has plans for a PEC@ style conference in the spring of 2005. This LA group had a high profile PEC@ style Town Meeting at the USSAAC Biennial Conference in California on March 18, 2005. The group is obtaining grants to send five or more delegates to PEC@ ‘05.
SHOUT’s New Initiative - The AC Youth Mentor Adventure
An exciting innovation at this year’s PEC@ will be SHOUT’s city adventure for young augmented communicators. This three-day, youth mini-camp will allow families with young augmented communicators to participate in the PEC@ Conference. Young augmented communicators and their parents often experience a deep isolation – never seeing successful role models before they have achieved adulthood. This urban mini-camp will give elementary and high school students with complex communication needs the opportunity to meet successful role models, attend a few sessions of the conference, and visit educational, historic, and famous sports sites in Western Pennsylvania. At the same time, parents will be encouraged to attend all the regular conference sessions at PEC@ to learn about their child’s future potential for employment. Parents will see employed, married, adult augmented communicators discussing their lives. Volunteer faculty and students from the Pittsburgh Public Schools and the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences will staff the camp.
Social Life at PEC@
After all the work of the day-long conference, AC users truly appreciate the social gatherings in the evenings. Stakeholders of every sort in augmentative communication can be heard chatting over pretzels and soft drinks. This is a rare opportunity for augmented communicators and other AC stakeholders to mix socially and talk seriously about employment.
Summary
The Pittsburgh Employment Conference has grown from strength to strength. Its strategies are tested and have been successful for eight previous conferences. SHOUT’s focused efforts to fund the conference through a variety of sources beyond the Pennsylvania Office of Vocational Rehabilitation are well on their way. The conference’s visibility and field recognition is statewide, nationwide, and worldwide. Its influence on the lives of augmented communicators seeking employment has been profound. This year’s conference, with its innovative AAC Youth Adventure and its focus on strategies and partners, will mark a new stage in cultural change. Other stakeholders in augmentative communication are no longer viewing people with complex communication needs as dependent victims. At PEC@, augmented communicators are seen as potential productive employees.
For registration information contact:
shout@sciconics.com
Or
SHOUT
1000 Killarney Drive
Pittsburgh, PA 15234
Telephone 1-412-885-8541
 |
SYMPOSIUM
AAC EVIDENCE-BASED
PRACTICE:
HONORING THE VALUES OF FAMILIES
AND PEOPLE WHO RELY ON AAC
Thursday, August 4, 2005
Being
held immediately preceding 2005
School
of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA
| Symposium
introductory & keynote speakers |
|
|
Filip Loncke, Ph.D. |
Al Condeluci, Ph.D. |
Special
guest speakers |
|
 Robin Hurd Parent Corner Columnist and Parent of twins who rely on AAC |
 David Chapple AACI Trustee and Individual who uses AAC |
 Carolyn Wiles Higdon, Ph.D. University of Mississippi |
 Gail M. VanTatenhove, M.A. Private Practice |
Presenters will challenge assumptions attendees have about augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) evidence-based practice (EBP) and performance measurement. Are we moving together toward achieving more successful outcomes for persons who rely on AAC? How can families and persons who rely on AAC be more involved in applying the principles of EBP? Are professionals effectively identifying evidence that includes consumer values about communication and quality of life? Symposium attendees will learn about current tools and resources to support EBP, and steps influenced by COPES (client oriented practical evidence search). Families and professionals can work together to have a greater impact on how evidence is being used? Discussion panels will brainstorm on strengths, weaknesses, and improvements needed to more effectively ensure EBP leads to the most effective communication possible for persons who rely on AAC.
Stay to experience the Pittsburch Employment Conference for Augmented Communicators (PEC). This is considered by many to be the most important event in the field of AAC. PEC is the world's largest gathering of people who use AAC. For more information, go to: http://www.sciconics.com/index.html
| AAC Institute is approved by the Continuing Education Board of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) to provide continuing education activities in speech-language pathology and audiology. This program is offered for 0.6 CEUs (Intermediate level; Professional area). ASHA CE Provider approval does not imply endorsement of course content, specific products, or clinical procedures. |  |
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ASHA CEUs are being offered for this activity and are being organized by the AAC Institute.
Enjoy a Pittsburgh Baseball Game versus San Diego or Los Angeles
Page last modified on Tuesday March 04, 2008
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