caac newsletter - university of pretoria...prof shakila dada, dr alecia samuels: trauma experiences...

www.up.ac.za

Faculty of Humanities Fakulteit Geesteswetenskappe Lefapha la Bomotho

CAAC Newsletter

October 2016

Centre for Augmentative and Alternative Communication

(CAAC)

ISSN 1018-2071

Contents

Editorial…………………………...2

CAAC News ……………...……...3

Student news……………………..6

Interface Branch news…………..8

Pathways Enterprises………......8

School news………….………….9

User forum..……….……………12

AAC Suppliers ..………..………12

Advertisements ………………...14

For your diary…………………...14

INTERFACE NATIONAL NEWSLETTER— OCTOBER 2016

Centre for Augmentative and Alternative Communication University of Pretoria Tel: (012) 420 2001 Fax: (086) 510 0841 Email: [email protected] www.caac.up.ac.za Newsletter editor: Ensa Johnson ([email protected])

Interface promotes communication for people with little or no functional speech by sup-plementing existing communication with gestures, communication boards and assistive

technology (thus, augmentative and alternative communication)

AAC Awareness month: Access all areas

Centre for Augmentative and Alternative Communication

MOVING HORIZONS IN DISABILITIES

National Newsletter

In Pretoria, October does not only mean that the Jacarandas are in bloom. For us at the centre for AAC, October has another special meaning: it is AAC Awareness Month!

The International Society for AAC (ISAAC) has selected ―Access All Areas‖ as one of 2016‘s themes for International AAC Aware-ness Month. This theme was mainly chosen to introduce their focus for the ISAAC 2018 conference in Australia, namely AAC access all areas. ISAAC members were challenged by ISAAC to expand the concept of accessi-bility to include communication access in their own communities, regions, and coun-tries.

The general public is not knowledgeable about people with disabilities, especially those with communication challenges. For example, we‘ve heard of a young man with cerebral palsy who had intelligible speech and was chased out of a shop because the shop assistant was under the impression that he was drunk. If somebody‘s speech sounds different or if the person cannot talk, people often immediately make assumptions about that person‘s intelligence. The result is that these people are often being excluded from schooling, job opportunities or further educa-tion. Another issue is access to the law – people with communication difficulties, who are regarded as easy (silent) victims, often experience barriers to report crimes at the police (as police officers are not equipped on how to assist the person). The result is very often that people with disabilities do not have access to courts since their statements could not be properly taken and were regarded as insufficient evidence in courts.

Through our theme, ―Access to all areas‖, we want to raise public awareness in order to include people who use AAC in the commu-nities and ensure justice for all. It is therefore that the Centre for AAC launched numerous attempts to launch AAC awareness in our communities, provinces and countries:

Although this initiative continues through-

out the year, birthday cards (that include picture symbols) were send to all staff members within the Faculty of Humani-ties on their birthdays;

Video clips of the participants‘ speeches

during the FOFA event of 2016 were shared on YouTube. (Follow the links from our CAAC website);

Dr Kerstin Tonsing was interviewed by

PretoriaFM and Ms Constance Ntuli by TuksFM radio stations to spread the news on AAC awareness through a wider audiece (You can listen to the audio clips of the interviews via our CAAC website: http://www.universityofpretoria.co.za/en/centre-for-augmentative-alternative-communication/article/25826/media);

Mrs Robyn White did a TEDX Talk on

AAC;

The coffee table book, ―Write to life‖ with

poems of FOFA participants and other interested parties, was launched during the prestigious FOFA 2016 event (for more information on how to obtain a copy of this book, please email our secretary ([email protected]);

Furthermore, in this newsletter, you will also hear about the various research projects staff of the Centre for AAC are involved in. We would love to share with you information about the various conferences where the research have been presented—also to en-sure that people from all over the world learn about the good work that is being done at the centre, and to enable staff to secure new national and international collaborations.

Due to the large content in this issues, our last newsletter of the year (early December) will once again share news of Interface and schools where learners who use AAC are begin accommodated.

May the fun begin and the news spread that AAC is there to stay with the purple

Jacarandas of Pretoria!

Ensa Johnson Editor

Centre for AAC

http://www.up.ac.za/academic/caac

http://web.up.ac.za/index.asp

INTERFACE NATIONAL NEWSLETTER— OCTOBER 2016 PAGE 3

The Fourth Conference of the International Association for Education in Ethics (IAEE) was hosted by the Center for Bio-medical Research of La Rioja (CIBIR) in Logroño, Spain from the 25-27 May, 2016. Approxi-mately 70 experts from 15 coun-tries participated and engaged in discussions and exchanges related to ethics, care and quali-ty in educational development of professionals. The theme of the conference was building bridges and bridging gaps and thus the focus of the conference was on addressing important social changes that our societies are facing and the challenges that these changes imply for ethics education in a variety of disciplines in order to help professionals and practitioners cope with ethical challenges. Prof. Bornman and Dr. Alida Naude represented the Centre for AAC by presenting two papers. Dr. Naude's presentation focused on the use of vignettes to advance and measure ethical sensitivity in therapists while Prof. Bornman discussed the link between ethical sensitivity and cultural competence. Both presentations were well received by international experts on the subject and elicit-ed interesting discussions. The Center for Ethics at Yenepoya University in Mangalore, Karnataka, India will host the Fifth IAEE Conference in November 2017. The Sixth International Conference on Ethics Education in 2018 will be proudly South African, hosted by The Univer-sity of Stellenbosch from 3-5 October 2018.

Robyn White Centre for AAC

Dr Alida Naude and Prof Juan Bornman were invited to do a special issue for the international Humanities and Social Sciences publication "Ethical Sensitivity: A mul-tidisciplinary approach". They were able to creatively put together a collection of great publications by leading researchers in the field representing seven different pro-fessions across three different continents that demon-strates the richness of the construct "ethics".

In the first paper, prof Benda Hofmeyr, a philosopher from the University of Pretoria provides a philosophical

perspective based on a Levinasian point of view on the enigma of ethical responsiveness.

The next three papers look at ethics in education - raising the critical question: Can Ethics be taught? See what Louise Wiles, Carolyn Murray, Amy Baker, Angela Berndt and Kobie Boshoff , occupational therapists from the International Centre for Allied Health Evidence at the University of South Australia found in their system-atic review.

Rose Sevcik and Julia Perilla from the Department of Psychology at Georgia State University then describe a post-graduate ethics course. Next Alida Naude and Juan Bornman from The Centre for AAC at the Universi-ty of Pretoria offer a model to measure the efforts of teaching ethics in audiology, speech-language pathology, occupational therapy and physiotherapy.

The third and final section is related to Ethics in Practice and brings together a collection of papers concerned with the real-life practicalities of ethical dilemmas and also contains three papers. Prof Erna Alant from Indiana Uni-

versity discusses ethical challenges that face health acre practitioners in relation to communication and interactions involving individuals with severe memory and communi-cation problems. This is followed by Brenda Louw from East Tennessee State University who addresses cultural competence and ethical decision-making by approaching the training and assessment of health care professionals, showing how cultural competence empower these profes-sionals. In the final paper of this special issue, Prof Emerita Diane Bryen from Temple University under-scores the concerns of conducting research that involves persons with disabilities, and the impact that communica-tion an information technology has had on researcher conduct. Ethics underpins who were are as practitioners, teachers and researchers, what we think, how we make decisions and ultimately how we act. Let's be remind what Einstein said: Relativity is related to physics - not to ethics.

For more information on any of these papers published in this special issue of the Humanities and

Social Sciences, please go to www.schiencepublishinggroup.com/

Conference News

International Association for Education in Ethics (IAEE)

Logroño, Spain

Humanities and Social Sciences Journal: Special edition on

Ethical Sensitivity


Prof. Juan Bornman, director of the Centre for AAC was invited to do one of the key-note addresses at the International Conference on Cer-ebral Palsy and oth-er Childhood-onset Disabilities in Stock-holm from the 1-4 June. Her plenary speech was on "Human rights of children with disabil-ity: Reality or Fanta-sy". She presented the six collaborative South African stud-ies by the CAAC and the CHILD group from Jön-köping University, funded by the Swedish Inter-national Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA). The aim of Prof. Bornman‘s speech was to discuss why human rights and particularly children‘s rights matter, to highlight the provi-sion, protection and participation components of children‘s rights and to finally, discuss a large scale South African study with children with intel-lectual disabilities and their primary caregivers regarding these children‘s human rights.

The conference was attended by 1500 dele-gates from 66 countries. The plenary sessions were held in the Aula Medica at The Karolinska Institutet - the same venue where the Nobel Prize for medicine is annually awarded.

Dr Alecia Samuels, who is currently doing her Postdoctoral Fellowship at Jönköping University, presented a paper titled, "Involving children with long term health conditions and disabilities as participants in longitudinal studies". Dr Ensa Johnson & Prof. Margareta Adolfsson from the Child Research group at Jonköping Universi-ty in Sweden also did a great job in presenting their research on pain in children with cerebral palsy. They explained why teachers should be made aware of pain management of chronic pain in this population.

Robyn White; Ensa Johnson Centre for AAC

During June 2016 several staff members and students from the Centre for AAC had the privi-lege to attend the International Society on Ear-ly Intervention Conference in Sweden. The conference was hosted at the Stockholm Univer-sity and attendees were treated to insightful presentations by established and young re-searchers. Here are students and staff who presented their work and received positive feedback from the international audience: Students: Dr Thilen Kyarkanyane: Team Collabora-

tion in Early Childhood Intervention in South Africa: Parent Perspectives

Mrs Karin van Niekerk: Systematic Re-view of the Factors Influencing Health Care Professionals Providing Assistive Technology to Children With Disabilities

Dr Liezl Schlebusch: South African Fami-lies Raising Children With Autism Spec-trum Disorder: Relationship Between Fam-ily Routines, Cognitive Appraisal, and Family Quality of Life

Staff: Prof Juan Bornman, Prof Shakila Dada:

Rights of Expression for Children With Dis-abilities

Dr Ensa Johnson: The Rights of Children With Cerebral Palsy to use Alternative Means When Communicating Pain;

Dr Sadna Bolton: Early Childhood Inter-vention in South Africa: The Gauteng Jour-ney

Prof Shakila Dada, Dr Alecia Samuels: Trauma Experiences of Young Children in South Africa

Karin van Niekerk Centre for AAC

Conference News (cont.)

International Society on Early Intervention Conference,

Stockholm, Sweden

International Conference on CP and other Childhood-onset Dis-

abilities, Stockholm, Sweden


A group of doctoral students and a post-doctoral fel-low from the Centre for Augmentative and Alternative Communication attended a week long research semi-nar at Jönköping University in Sweden. The collabora-tive project was awarded to Associate Professors Shakila Dada (University of Pretoria) and Karina Huus (CHILD group, Jönköping University) from the NRF/Swedish Foundation for International Coopera-tion in Research and Higher Education (STINT) Sci-ence and Technology Research Collaboration. The aim of the project is to explore the exchange of ideas through post graduate student and researcher interac-tion.

The participants shared their thoughts. ―This wonderful experience opened my eyes about the benefits of collaborative research and how effective it can be in impacting lives of people across the world. I learnt about similarities and differences between the South African and Swedish practice for children living with disabilities. The opportunities to collaborate with other researchers for my own study revived excite-ment for my topic and inspired new ways of thinking. Health practice all over the world experiences similar problems; although countries might vary in stages of their development. This allowed me to look at my re-search as not being limited to applicability for the South African setting only. I am inspired by the pro-spect of doing research that cuts across continents “

Njabulo Mbanda, Doctoral student

“The week was exceptional and eye opening. Present-ing my PhD study to other students was rewarding as I received critical feedback and valuable suggestions. The experience gained with working with international students broadened my knowledgeable and inspired me to improve on my research projects. It was also wonderful to learn how big collaborative research pro-jects are planned and developed.”

Refilwe Morwane, Doctoral Student "First and foremost, I want to acknowledge Prof Shaki-la Dada, for selecting me for this unsurpassed aca-demic opportunity and for her unwavering dedication towards supporting young academics. The experience in Sweden and collaborating with academics from the Jönköping University, was productive and stimulating. Their expertise, dedication and enthusiasm for re-search was both contagious and motivational for me. This collaboration served and continues to serve as a source of guidance for me especially at this stage of my PhD journey and for future academic undertak-ings. Lastly, I appreciated the inputs and camaraderie of my fellow South African colleagues who were a part

of this collaboration. Thank You. Tack så myck-et!"

Maria Ramaahlo, Doctoral Student “The week we spent at Jonkoping University with Professor Karina Huus and her colleagues was beneficial in so many ways. Not only did the dis-cussions and debates stimulated our critical thinking and clarified our ideas, but it also fos-tered social and academic relationships that go well beyond the scope of this project. The week-long collaboration created an environment of ac-tive, involved and exploratory learning that en-couraged diverse perspectives and we were able to create ideas that were more complete and comprehensive.”

Liezl Schlebusch, Post-Doctoral Fellow

Shakila Dada Centre for AAC

Doctoral students attends Research seminar in Sweden

CAAC staff and students who attended the IECI Conference in Stockholm, Sweden


From 6 to 13 August 2016 staff from the Centre for AAC attended the 17th Biennial Conference of ISAAC (International Society for Augmentative and Alternative Communication) in Toronto, Canada. The CAAC made its presence known with over 15 presentations being presented by CAAC staff and students.

The highlight of the conference was Prof. Bornman‘s receipt of the ISAAC fellowship award for her out-standing and distinguished achievement in the field of AAC. (See more later in this issue on this achievement by Prof Bornman.)

Furthermore, Dr. Tonsing from the CAAC was chosen to be the Chair for the ISAAC Research Committee. This committee monitors the development of research activities within the ISAAC organization.

The conference offered an excellent forum for the presentation of research focused on AAC and it was most valuable to network with other AAC professionals from over 40 countries.

Here is a list of the presentations given by the CAAC staff and students:

Jocelyn Mngomezulu, Kerstin Tönsing & Shakila Dada: Core vocabulary for Zulu speaking preschoolers in need of AAC

Martilze Gropp, Juan Bornman & Ensa John-

son: Nurses‘ perspectives toward patient communi-cation using a low technology communication board in an ICU

Ensa Johnson, Stefan Nilsson and Margare-ta Adolfsson: Pain communication of children with cerebral palsy in South African school settings: AAC implications

Kerstin Tönsing, Shakila Dada & Kim-Caleigh Brewis: Comparative effects of two AAC systems on vocal productions of children with Motor Speech Disorders

Ensa Johnson, Juan Bornman & Kerstin Tönsing: Model for vocabulary selection of sensitive topics: An example from pain-related vocabulary

Kirsty Bastable, Shakila Dada & Kitty Uys: The effect of non-powered mobility on the engage-ment of young children with severe mobility impair-ment

Kerstin Tönsing & Shakila Dada: Implementa-

tion of AAC aids in schools for students with special educational needs: teachers‘ perceptions

Juan Bornman, Maryann Romski, Rose Sevcik & Vuledzani Madima: AAC services via mobile health technology applications: SLP and care-giver perceptions in rural South Africa

Robyn White, Juan Bornman & Ensa John-son: Testifying in court: Vocabulary required by illit-erate individuals with complex communication needs

Imke Oosthuizen, Shakila Dada & Juan Born-man: Message banking: comparing perceptions of people with MND, significant others and speech lan-guage pathologists

Yvonne Murphy, Shakila Dada & Kerstin Tönsing. : Current augmentative and alternative communication practices: South African speech lan-guage pathologists‘ perceptions

Karin van Niekerk, Shakila Dada & Kerstin Tönsing: Systematic review of factors influencing health care professionals in provision of assistive technology to children

Erna Nel, Juan Bornman, Kerstin Tönsing: Fight, flight, fright: police officers; perceptions inter-viewing individuals with CCN reporting being victims of crime

Kerstin Tönsing, Gal Kaldes, MaryAnn Romski, Rose Sevcik & Marika Kind: Emer-gence of graphic symbols combinations by toddles in parent coached AAC language intervention

Kerstin Tönsing, Georg Schlunz & Karin van Niekerk: Communication practices and needs of multilingual pesrons in need of/using AAC

Diane Nelson Bryen, Juan Bornman and Robyn White: Training police to obtain en effective statement from crime victims with CCN who use AAC

If you would like more information on the above presentations please do not hesitate to contact us at

[email protected]


17th Biennial Conference of ISAAC (International Society

for Augmentative and Alterna-tive Communication, Toronto,

Canada



Prof. Juan Bornman, Director of the Centre for AAC was recently awarded the ISAAC Fellowship Award at the 17th Bien-nial Conference of ISAAC. The purpose of the award is to honour publicly an ISAAC mem-ber who has earned distinction within the ISAAC community. Prof. Bornman was acknowl-edged for her outstand-ing contributions to ISAAC through her sci-entific and practical con-tributions, her leader-ship within the field of augmentative and alter-

native communication, and her dedication to the af-fairs of ISAAC. Prof. Rose Sevcik, a Distinguished University Profes-sor and an ISAAC fellow at Georgia State University, USA, wrote, “Dr. Bornman’s research has focused on individuals who use AAC to communicate. Her research has explored a range of topics; such as issues surrounding related health professionals and the legal rights of individuals have been underscored. Her work has spanned the developmental age range from toddlers to adults. She has presented the results of her research studies widely at invited lectures, at conferences, and meetings. To date, Dr. Bornman has pub-lished more than 48 articles and chapters. She is the au-thor of three books; she has secured funding for her re-search. Her work has drawn substantial attention both with-in South Africa as well as from international audiences around the world. Dr. Bornman has contributed significantly to multiple graduate programs at the University of Pretoria. She is an innovative speech-language pathologist who has developed and taught courses that span a wide range of content areas. She is a dynamic teacher who actively shares her knowledge with students. She has the rare abil-ity to establish the critical links between research findings and clinical practice. Dr. Bornman has taught and mentored a cadre of highly impressive clinicians in practice as well as doctoral students. I personally have had the opportunity to see some of her students in action both during their univer-sity training and later as practitioners. Many have taken on innovative leaderships roles in their respective work set-tings. Dr. Bornman is a highly regarded clinician who has served her local, regional, and national community in work-ing to ensure that AAC services are made available to those individuals that need them. Whether seeing clients as part of the Centre for Augmentative and Alternative Com-munication or testifying on their behalf in court proceedings,

her focus is always on the needs of the individual who uses AAC. Over the course of her career, Dr. Bornman also has taken on significant service responsibilities in a range of areas. She has served as member of the Executive Board for ISAAC, has been a member of the board of South Afri-ca’s Interface, and a consultant to several advocacy groups.” We here at the Centre for AAC would like to send our most heartfelt congratulations to Prof. Bornman, we are so proud of her and all her achievements.


I was registered to attend the ISAAC 2016 conference in Toronto but then decided I want to volun-teer. There are some job descrip-tions that volunteers are expected to do such as:

Registration Desk (assisting with conference attendee registrations/program questions)

Conference Room Facilitators (assisting with room counts, facilitating entering/exiting con-ference rooms (scanning tags))

Information Support/ Way Finders like they called it (directions between conference loca-tions, runners, greeters, and ‗go-to‘ for ques-tions)

Blender Bar (supporting blending of foods)

Town Hall Meeting (communication assis-tants, microphone holders, dicta-typing)

Language Assistance (assisting with sharing of information/answering questions in non-English delegate languages)

I thoroughly enjoyed being a room moderator and conference room facilitator because I got to attend the sessions that were taking place in the rooms I moderated. Fortunately for me, they were some of the talks I wanted to go to. I wouldn‘t survive a day doing ―way finding‖ which I named the talking GPS. This was a great experience nonetheless. If you have money for flights and accommodation, join volunteer teams at international conferences, it‘s a great experience where you learn and meet people from other countries and continents. It‘s a great net-

working tool. ISAAC gives you free regis-tration for one full day if you volunteer for 3 shifts or more.

Vuledzani Madima

Centre for AAC

ISAAC cont….

Volunteering for ISAAC 2016

Vule with Prof Lyle Lloyd

Prof. Bornman awarded prestig-ious ISAAC Fellowship Award


Dr Kerstin Tönsing was invited to give a plenary ad-dress at the ‗Enabling rural children and youth with disabilities‘ conference co-hosted by the Parents Guid-ance Centre REAKGONA (Gelukspan District Hospi-tal), the Ngaka Modiri Molema District and the Depart-ment of Health, North West Province.

Her address was entitled ‗Finding a voice – shattering the silence: AAC as an enabler for children and youth with severe disabilities.‘ The conference brought together people with disa-bilities, caregiv-ers of children

with disabilities, NGOs working in the field of disability, service providers from the education and health sec-tors as well as representatives from the Department of Health, North West. Topics focussed on various posi-tive developments for people with disabilities and their families regarding policy, service delivery and empow-erment, but also on the many challenges that people with disabilities and their families living in rural areas still experience. Delegates engaged in lively debate and discussion as to how these challenges can be collaboratively addressed going forward.

Kerstin Tönsing Centre for AAC

Dr Ensa Johnson together with Prof Shakila Dada, Ms Refilwe Morwane from the Centre for AAC and Mrs Marena Lotriet and Mrs Gaby Pretorius from the Department Education Innovation, received a Scholar-ship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) Grant.

The researchers investigated the perspectives of adult learners on their engagement in a hybrid learning hon-ours programme. Focus groups were held with BA Hons (AAC) students who completed or were enrolled

in the new hybrid learning hon-ours programme. The outcomes of the study was presented by Dr Johnson at the 10th Annual Uni-versity Teaching and Learning Higher Education Conference in September 2016 in Durban.

Another SoTL grant was awarded to the researchers to conduct a follow-up study on implementing the results in the hybrid learning programme.

Ensa Johnson Centre for AAC

Ms Refilwe Morwane from the Centre for AAC at-tended the Communication Matters National AAC Conference at the University of Leeds in England from the 11-13th September. She was awarded a your ca-reer grant by the Association of commonwealth univer-sities (ACU) to travel to the UK to attend this confer-ence. She presented on "Constructing hephapreneuri-al careers in the FOFA project for people with complex communication needs". Hephapreneurship was coined from Hephaestus (the Greek God of craftsman) and entrepreneurship by taking the prefix – Hepha from Hephapreneurship and the suffix - preneurship from entrepreneurship. This research looked at how per-sons with severe disabilities can be supported within the Fofa programme to start constructing their own career path. The paper will be submitted for publica-tion this year at an open journal. The conference was a national confer-ence on AAC and covered research and clinical experi-ences in AAC around the UK and beyond. Gayle Por-ter who developed PODD (Pragmatic Organisation Dy-namic Displays), Dr Joan Murphy who developed Talking Mat as well Mar-tin Pistorius, author of the book, Ghost Boy were also at the conference as speakers.

Refilwe Morwane Centre for AAC


„Enabling rural children and youth with disabilities‟

conference , Gelukspan, SA

10th Annual University Teach-ing and Learning Higher Edu-

cation Conference, Durban, SA

Communication Matters Con-ference Leeds, UK

Joanna and Martin Pistorius with Refilwe

Dr Johnson and Mrs Lotriet


Are we relevant? This searching question arose time and time again as practitioners, researchers and academics in the field of speech-language pathology and audiology exchanged perspec-tives, research results and practices during the 2016 ENT/SAAA/SASLHA conference. How do we, as speech-language pathologists/audiologists (SLP/As), best serve the South African communi-ty in the context of multilingualism, multicultural-ism and unequal access and provision of ser-vices? While there is no easy answer to this question,

the conference gave everyone a platform to re-flect, interrogate themselves, ask critical ques-tions, debate and engage, in order to gain a bet-ter understanding of our individual and collabora-tive roles in this context. A stringent programme including weekend sessions from 08h00 – 17h30 packed with plenaries, presentations and oppor-tunities for think tanks and discussions ensured that nobody could complain of boredom! The con-ference, held at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg, was well-attended by repre-sentatives from a variety of provinces and set-tings. Staff from the Centre for AAC gave three presen-tations:

Prof Shakila Dada presented an engaging paper on message banking for persons with motor neuron disease (MND), challenging clinicians and researchers to always active-ly seek out client perspectives and create platforms for clients to share these – re-gardless of the level of communication diffi-culties clients experience.

Ms Refilwe Morwane presented a poster about the challenges South African children with limited speech experience in acquiring literacy, and what SLPs can do to address this.

Dr Kerstin Tönsing presented the results of a focus group aimed at understanding the practices of therapists providing AAC services to multilingual persons, and alert-ed to the need to develop evidence for AAC intervention and AAC system design for this population.

Ms Refilwe Morwane also acted as a panellist during a discussion on transformation over the professions. The consensus reached was that our profession needs to transform in order to best serve the South African population. This begins with developing and using intervention approach-es relevant to our context. A big thank you to the SASLHA committee for a well-organised and thought-provoking confer-ence.


Conference News cont.

SASLHA conference, Johannesburg, SA

SASHLA conference delegates (from left to right): Dr Kerstin Tönsing (CAAC), Prof Mershen Pillay (UKZN), Prof Shakila Dada (CAAC), Mrs Munyane Mophosho (Wits) Eazy, one of the FOFA participants

enjoying his favourite gospel song (see p13 for FOFA news)


Addis Ababa is sometimes referred to as the capital of Africa and after a recent visit (4 – 7 September) , I understand why. This vibrant capital of Ethiopia is a buzzing hub of economic and political activity and home to such notable offices as the African Union and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. I had the privilege of attend two events namely the

Regional Work-shop towards rati-fication of and reporting under the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Dis-ability (CRPD) in Commemoration of its 10th anni-versary (5 Sep-tember) which was hosted by

the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights East African Regional Office as well as the re-gional expert meeting on support services for persons with disabilities (6 – 7 September ), which was hosted by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (United Nationals Human Rights) East African Regional Office, and facilitated by Catalina Devandas Aquilar, the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities, at the United Nations Confer-ence Centre (UNECA). During both events insightful discussion on the im-portance of ratifying the Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) were held, empha-sising that it is a progressive and strong tool that pro-vides many persons with disability with opportunities. Our continent has a strong normative framework for Protection, Prevention and Preservation of Human Rights – and thus the CRDP is of particular interest in this region to ensure an Africa that is integrated, peaceful and pros-perous. I did a presentation with Ms Dianah Msi-

pa, a Disability and Human Rights Law and Policy consultant from Zimbabwe on Communication and Access to Justice. We used a specif-ic case study of ―Marama‖ (a fictional name but a real case) as the example. In my session I commenced by discussing that Aug-mentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) is a field that focuses on minimising communication barri-ers in persons with severe communication problems. A team approach for the successful use of AAC to obtain justice is needed. It is therefore important to provide all stakeholders with the necessary knowledge and skills to understand the needs of the-se vulnerable individuals as well as the various com-munications options that are available. All participants were provided with a letter-based communication board, a symbol-based board as well as a phrase-based board. Practicing to use these boards proved to be quite challenging but also a lot of fun!!

Prof. Juan Bornman Centre for AAC

Dr Alecia Samuels, from the Centre for AAC at the Uni-versity of Pretoria, was re-cently awarded the HEL-TASA TAU Fellowship for

2015–2016. The HELTASA (Higher Education Learning and Teaching Association of Southern Africa) TAU (Teaching Advancement at University) Fellowship Programme is a programme for experienced academ-ics who have been acknowledged for their teaching excellence and who wish to expand their knowledge about teaching and learning within a supportive and collegial environment. Dr Samuels is currently doing her postdoctoral fellow-ship at Jönköping University in Sweden and will return to the Centre for AAC in January 2017


Other CAAC news

Prof Bornman attends the Re-gional Workshop and Regional

Expert Meeting on support services for persons with

disability, Addis Ababa

Dr Alecia Samuels receives prestigious HEL-

TASA TAU Fellow-ship, 2015—2016


Robyn White from the Centre for AAC was recently chosen as a Fel-low for the Tuks Young Research Leader Programme(TYRLP).

The TYRLP programme aims to grow early career ac-ademics at the University of Pretoria (UP) in the areas of thought leadership, team development, engage-ment and collaboration, with the intention of enabling them to solve the complex issues that face society. The programme aims to form a community within the University of the like-minded young researchers who possess qualities that will contribute to UP becoming and leading as a research intensive University.

Congratulations Robyn! Ensa Johnson

Centre for AAC

"Disabled children are equally entitled to an excit-ing and brilliant future."

~ Nelson Mandela during the opening of the First An-nual South African Junior Wheelchair Sports Camp,

Johannesburg, South Africa on the 4 December 1994 In honour of Mandela Day on the 18th July 2016, the CAAC staff and their MECI (Masters in Early Child-hood Intervention) students gave their 67 minutes and adapted children‘s book for children with disabilities to keeping with one of the Mandela Day theme‘s, Educa-tion and Literacy. ―In a world where knowledge truly is power, education and literacy are the basic building blocks that unlock the gates of opportunity and suc-cess. We all have a responsibility as parents, as care-givers, as educators, as leaders and as citizens, to instill in individuals, children and communities the criti-cal drive for literacy and learning so that we can give them the chance to fulfill their dreams.‖ (Nelson Man-dela Foundation, 2015). Books are educational and powerful tools to introduce young children with disabilities to literacy. The MECI students added page fluffers (which are used to en-large the space between pages for children with disa-bilities who struggle to turn pages), textures and pic-ture communication symbols to the children‘s books. The books were donated to Chrysalis Preschool for young learners with special needs in Pretoria. The preschool provides adapted schooling and intensive therapy to children with a variety of disabilities (including both physical and psychosocial disabilities)

from ages 3 – 6 years. Chrysalis Preschool has as an ultimate goal to enhance the quality of life of children with disabilities, and that of their families, through various interven-tions, a supportive environment, car-ing and commit-ted staff, and an attitude of perse-verance and grati-tude. All our staff and students here at the Centre for AAC are inspired daily by Nelson Mandela‘s legacy and we hope this small contribution to Chrysalis Preschool will change the lives of these young children with disabili-ties.

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” Nelson Mandela

Robyn White

Centre for AAC

The Centre for AAC hosted a ―mini-Olympics‖ in line with this year‘s Casual Day theme ―Up your game‖ on the 2nd September 2016. ―Casual Day is South Africa‘s foremost fund-raising campaign for per-

sons with disabilities and is the flagship project of the National Council for Persons with Physical Disabilities in SA (NCPPDSA)‖ Casual Day for persons with disa-bilities website, 2016.

The Centre for AAC was joined by the third year UP & KMP speech-language and audiology students who joined in on the fun and games in aid of raising aware-ness for people with disabilities. It was a great day where fun was had by all and awareness of people with disabilities was raised.


Mrs Robyn White chosen as Fellow for Tuks

Young Research Leader Programme

(TYRLP)

Mandela Day 2016

Casual Day 2016


On the 15th October, TEDx Cape Town hosted their annual event under the theme, Hear to Listen. In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TED has created a program called TEDx. TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that brings people together to share a TED-like experience, where x = independently orga-nized TED event.

Mrs. Robyn White from the Centre for AAC, was one

of the speakers and her talk was titled, "Giving a voice to the voiceless". Mrs.White spoke about AAC and how it can help end the silence for those who have no voice, who are not lit-erate and who have been victims of crime by identifying context specific vocabulary (for example testifying in court) and using graph-ic symbols. The talk will be edited and shared in a few weeks. What a

great talk to give during AAC Awareness month!

Ensa Johnson Centre for AAC

On Friday, 23 September, the Centre for AAC launched a book of poetry, text and imag-es entitled „Write to Life‟.

The book is a compilation of creative expressions pri-marily from people who use augmentative and alterna-tive communication. Through poetry and images they shared their thoughts, impressions and perceptions in a way that speech does not allow them to. The book particularly profiles the seven young adults with se-vere communication disabilities who participated in the 2015 Fofa Programme project week entitled „Words and Beyond‟, which focussed on creative writing, self-expression through photography and a formal photo shoot. Through these avenues, the young adults, who are so often side-lined, kept silent or disregarded by society found a voice to share themselves. The book also contains poems by other younger and older writ-

ers with disabilities and stakeholders in the field of AAC, including alumni of the Fofa Programme, par-ents of persons with disabilities and service providers. The book production was supported by many individu-als who freely gave their time and talents to ensure that this publication saw the light. The CAAC staff are extremely grateful to each person who contributed towards the book. For more information on the book, please contact Liza at (012) 420 2001 or [email protected].


Mrs Robyn White does TEDx Talk on AAC

Other CAAC news cont.

Book launch: “Write to Life”

―If you think a room full of eight young people who are unable to speak is a quiet place, you would be sorely mistaken. The eight 2016 Fofa participants conclusive-ly proved that when a spontaneous music and dance session evolved from one of the workshop activities conducted during this year‘s Fofa Communication Em-powerment Programme. Young adults each took a turn to take centre stage and express themselves through dance and voice to their favourite song.

The Fofa Programme, the first of its kind in Africa, commenced in September 2005, and is based on the Augmentative Communication and Empowerment Supports (ACES) program developed by Professor Emerita Diane Nelson Bryen at Temple University, Philadelphia, as a method to teach participants about AAC and disability rights (Bryen, Sleseransky & Baker, 1995). Fofa is the Se-sotho word for ‗to fly‘ or ‗to soar.‘ Young adults with severe communi-cation disabilities aged between 19 and 35 years attend a yearly training week aimed at communication compe-tence and empower-ment at the University of Pretoria.

This year‘s Fofa participants came from five provinces and included four new participants, two returning ones

and two alumni of the pro-gramme who acted as men-tors. All the participants have severe communication disabil-ities. Many come from disad-vantaged backgrounds and have experienced a lack of agency and self-determination. Together with the personal assistants, they were hosted at the University from 18-24 September, and engaged daily in workshops, presentations and social activ-

ities aimed at encouraging them to optimize their use of augmentative and alternative forms of communica-tion (AAC) and to start voicing their own dreams and hopes for the future.

The week started off with AAC systems checks and optimiza-tion. Much of the week was then spent on a series of workshops by CAAC staff under the banner ‗Daring to Dream‘, whereby par-ticipants were encouraged to express and visualize their Big

Dream – the one life goal most important to them at the moment. This ranged from professional training, employment and career choices to entrepreneurial business ventures. Participants were then also en-couraged to put action plans in place that will assist them in working towards the fulfillment of their dreams, and to complete at least one first step during the week. Daring to Dream: Turning Dreams into Future

Realities was developed by Professor Emerita Diane Nel-son Bryen (Bryen, 2012).

Mr Ramaari Booi from Khano consulting gave an engaging presentation on how to navi-gate the job market and alert-ed participants to various forms of employment and in-come-generating opportuni-ties. On Wednesday we hit the streets of Hatfield to have lunch at the Wimpy – a learn-

ing experience for some of the participants who or-dered their own meals for the first time and certainly a learning experience form many of the Wimpy staff who had to take orders being placed through AAC.

On Friday, the 23rd of September, participants shared their dreams, goals and insights gained with an open audience, using their AAC devices. They convinced their audience that, although they may have difficulty speaking, they have many ambitious dreams and goals for their life and are fully determined to reach

them. In spite of the challenges that many of them have ex-perienced, they are determined to spread their wings and fly.

The CAAC staff are very grateful to Momentum, whose generous

support has made it possible for us to present the pro-ject again this year.

References: Bryen, D. N. (2012). Daring to Dream: Turning Dreams into Future Realities. Amazon, Kindle Edition, http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008O5BKHU Bryen, D.N., Sleseransky, G. & Baker, D. (1995). Aug-mentative Communication and Empowerment Sup-ports: A Look at Outcomes. Augmentative and Alter-native Communication, 11 (2).

Kerstin Tönsing Fofa Programme Co-ordinator


FOFA 2016: Daring to Dream

INTERFACE NATIONAL NEWSLETTER — OCTOBER 2016 PAGE 14

The second edition of the AAC Resource Manual is now available

If you are working with people with complex com-munication needs (CCN), then this manual is just for you. More than a hundred useful, practical topics are covered, all written by South Africans who are involved with AAC provision.

Orders for the AAC Resource Manual (available on CD only) can be made from the Centre for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (CAAC) at the University of Pretoria.

Please contact Liza at (012) 420 2001 or [email protected] to order the CD.

Do you want to study in the field of AAC?

If you are interested to do an Honours, Master‘s or PhD in AAC or Master‘s in ECI, follow the link to find out more about these

programmes:

http://www.up.ac.za/centre-for-augmentative-alternative-communication/

article/56213/postgraduate-degree-programmes

NBNBNB:

For future contributions to this newsletter, please contact the editor,

Ensa Johnson at [email protected] Next edition: Desember 2016

Due date for submissions: 15 November 2016

AAC Resoure Manual

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AAC Consultation services by CAAC?

The CAAC offers AAC consultations for potential candidates in need of AAC as well as for Medico Legal purposes. Please contact Liza Rosetti-Siefe at (012) 420 2001 or li-

[email protected] for more information.

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