Assistive Technology Day 12 July 20, 2010

Well I know it is hard to believe that we are finished but we are, and the day was wonderful. We had a wonderful lunch together with both professors and then headed to our AT class. We watched a video that was moving, especially the football player, for me a personal connection because I have two children that play football, and that was an amazing sight for me to see.

I do realize that we had to find an inspirational video and talk about the AT involved but the first one was just inspirational, the man has no arms or legs and he is a motivational speaker, you have to see his presence, it is awesome. So then we started looking for others and came across this golfing video and again it totally surprised us, this man has a modified golf cart, with hydraulics to stand him up to shoot his ball. He can be self sufficient and also enjoy the game of golf with the adaptations in his chair/cart that allow him to stand upright.

Like you said, YouTube can be addictive, and so can blogging, but the reality is that there is so much about technology and how it supports people with disabilities. We have been exposed to so much over the past couple of months that it has been an eye opener. The biggest gift was to have an instructor that lives the life, and is passionate and caring about her profession. It helps us going into new positions to feel supported and connected to someone who will always lend us an ear, not to mention we have some knowledge of what is out there, so we can be better prepared for our jobs in the fall.

This has been a wonderful journey and the cohort has served us well, in each class we get to see more and more of what are colleagues are made of; this class was no exception. It was wonderful to see the projects and enthusiasm during this time, especially since we just finished a course that seemed to have been over before we knew it. The hands on experience and opportunities were the best learning for us to be exposed to, it gives us some knowledge and understanding of the types of assistive technology that is available, and that it does not all have a big price tag.

It was nice to see Eva do an appreciation video for Barb, who is committed and dedicated to her profession and certainly continues to support and work within the field to share her knowledge to other professionals in the business; thank you Barb.

Have a wonderful summer and look forward to working with you in the near future.