Happy first day of Spring! I'm excited to share more information about what has been going on with WATRN.
The WATRN founding leaders (Mike, Sharon, Kelsey, and myself) recorded an episode of Talking with Tech, one of our favorite podcasts! We chatted with Chris Bugaj, a host and leader in Assistive Technology and AAC, all about WATRN. Talking with Tech is a FANTASTIC resource that I would highly recommend to anyone who is reading this and wants to learn more about Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC). Check them out @ https://xceptionaled.com/podcasts/talking-with-tech-podcast/, and make sure to listen to our episode to learn more about how and why WATRN was started.
In addition to recording the TWT podcast we have been busy planning for the regional Spring meetings. These meetings will focus on switches and access. We are excited to have AbleNet video conferencing into all of the meetings. We have all ordered AT kits from AbleNet to have a variety of switches and AAC devices on hand for you to look at and try out. As with all of the vendors we invite you will learn more about their loan program, their products, and their funding resources. We are looking to make the Spring meetings our most interactive yet. Please bring an iPad, if you have one, to learn more about "iPad Recipes" as you will be able to create your own recipe for access using built-in accessibility features on your iDevice. Also bring your favorite AbleNet product and how you use it, and/or any switches from the depths of your loaner closets that you need assistance using or help figuring out what the heck they are! We will be sharing a link to a collective online resource called a "Padlet." Everyone will be able to access the Padlet to share switch related resources with each other and implementation ideas. We will be crowdsourcing this information from everyone who attends the meetings throughout the state, so we are hoping to make this a collective resource that we can all use and update regularly!
Want to attend the Spring Wisconsin Assistive Technology Regional Network meeting in your area?
Check out the Community Events tab on www.buildingaac.com or find the Spring Invitation @ http://bit.ly/WATRNinfo. Please register (http://bit.ly/SpringWATRN) so that we have an accurate count to ensure space and handouts. This meeting will, again, be FREE thank you to our regional facilitators who take time out of their busy schedules to help organize the meetings and facilitate the GREAT conversation. Also, a HUGE thank you to all of the facilities that host our events. It is because of all of this that we are able to make these events FREE, so make sure you thank your regional facilitator for all the work they do!