Dear Colleagues and Students:

Accessible University's first presentation of the semester will be about interacting with students and others with severe communication difficulties:

"It's not how we communicate that's important, but that we communicate!"
An Accessible University presentation by Dr. Erna Alant
Wednesday, September 15
12:00 noon to 1:00 pm
IMU Oak Room

The inability to express oneself through speech goes to the heart of human relationships; however, communication is a two-way process and partially depends on the ability of the communication partner to facilitate interaction with those who have severe speech difficulties. Students with severe speech and communication issues are enrolling in higher education more frequently these days and often use augmentative alternative communication. This presentation will discuss the different ways students with severe speech difficulties can supplement their communication. Different communication strategies will be identified and guidelines provided for how to interact with people who have little or no speech.

Guest presenter will be Dr. Erna Alant from IU's Department of Curriculum and Instruction in the School of Education. Originally from South Africa, Dr. Alant joined IU in 2009 as the Otting Endowed Chair in Special Education. With degrees in the field of Speech-Language Pathology, she was professor in Communication Psychology at the University of Pretoria prior to coming to IU. At Pretoria, she founded the Centre for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (CAAC), a unique graduate training and research facility in Africa. Her research endeavors over the past 18 years have focused largely on the development of relevant communication systems for people who have no or little speech within poverty contexts.

Bring your questions and join us for this timely and relevant discussion! Please also share this information with others who may be interested.

Requests for Accommodations
If you plan to attend this session and require a sign language interpreter, real time captioning, assistive listening system, another auxiliary aid ,or information in alternate format, please contact Alice Voigt, Accessibility Specialist, at the National Center on Accessibility, ajvoigt@indiana.edu, (812) 856-4422 (voice) or (812) 856-4421 (tty).

For More Information
Accessible University is a monthly series of presentations sponsored by the IU Bloomington Disability Roundtable. The purpose of the series is to educate the university community about accessibility issues and methodologies to create a more accessible university environment fully inclusive of students, faculty, staff, and visitors with disabilities.

The Accessible University series is a collaborative activity of IU Bloomington's Disability Roundtable, coordinated by Vicki Pappas of the Indiana Institute on Disability and Community and Alice Voigt of the National Center on Accessibility. For further information about the Accessible University series or the Disability Roundtable, please feel free to contact Vicki at cpps@indiana.edu or Alice at ajvoigt@indiana.edu.

Alice and Vicki, Co-Chairs
Disability Roundtable

Revised: September 13, 2010

Vice President for Diversity, Equity, and Multicultural Affairs
Bryan Hall 115, Bloomington, IN 47405-7000, USA
(812) 856-5700

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