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Boring summers?

By Jennifer Lowe

The summer usually is a little boring for some individuals. Young people who attend school may complain that they are bored. For those college students, it may be just a little different but kind of the same. These individuals may have summer jobs during the day and may be bored in the evening. For augmented communicators, the same kind of scenario may occur. They may not be bored this summer or the summer of 2012! Because they will be busy at the Pittsburgh Employment Conference this summer 2011. Then, the ISAAC conference in the summer of 2012!

The theme of the 2011 Pittsburgh Employment Conference will be: Focus on Jobs. The dates will be August 5^-7. This conference will be held at the Sheraton hotel in Station Square. Focus on Jobs will be going back to the original theme, after years of having different themes.

In 1990, the initial Pittsburgh Employment Conference was created by the organization SHOUT for Augmented Communicators. The acronym SHOUT is the acronym for Sharing Helps Others Use Technology. John Bernard, who worked for Westinghouse created SHOUT to help Jim Prentice, who was employed there and who relied on augmentative communication to speak. John thought of having a conference for this population, people who relied on augmentative communication to speak and he called it the Pittsburgh Employment Conference.

 The first Pittsburgh Employment Conference had the theme of employment. People quickly thought of using an acronym, PEC. The years that followed various themes were under PEC. These themes were thought provoking and were never done at a conference for augmented communicators. Some of the passed themes were: Sexuality, Retirement, Loneliness and Depression. The fact that PEC tackled these difficult issues was one reason for its popularity. 

Another reason for its popularity was the Town Hall meeting which only augmented communicators spoke. As you may know, augmented communicators don’t always get the privilege to speak what they wish.  We live in a society where faster equals better. This doesn’t exclude talking. Augmented communicators just don’t talk as fast as their able-bodied partners: parents, siblings, attendants etc. so this forum has served as an outlet for many.   Pittsburgh Employment Conference has been the first conference of this nature that wouldn’t have a display of various technology companies, unlike the conference that it was patterned after.

The conference that the Pittsburgh Employment Conference was patterned after was International Society of Alternative and, Augmentative Communicators (ISSAC). In 1983, it was established to improve lives of adults and, children with difficulties. It served individuals from all fifty states. They were divided into fourteen parts called chapters.   Unlike PEC, this international conference for non-speaking people who rely on augmentative communication did have a display of various companies that showed their equipment. The manufacturing companies are: Prentke Romich Company, Dynavox, Don Johnnson, Tobi, and others. These companies of AC frequently provided their financial support to a conference.

To qualify to attend ISAAC, people were required to write a paper. There were certain guidelines that people were required to follow. Committees have decided the topics for papers. The papers have to be a certain length. Papers had to have certain elements too. The topics didn’t necessarily revolve around augmentative communication. Qualifying to go to an ISAAC conference was always challenging! The incentive to write a paper for ISAAC has been the places that the conferences were held.

PEC never had as strict guidelines for their submissions. The individuals’ voice and messages were seen to be more significant than following strict guidelines. . SHOUT decided on their themes and publicized them.

Since ISAAC was International, the locations proved to be a nice to getaway for participants. Sweden, Spain and Germany were among the locations that host this conference. Next summer, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania will host ISAAC! It will take place at the Convention center. July 27 - August 3.

There may be not a reason for individuals who are home from school or college to be bored for two summers. There will be two conferences that they may attend. PEC from August 5-7, and ISAAC from July 27-August 3, 2012. If you’re an augmented communicator, a parent of an augmented communicator, a speech therapist, or a person involved with an augmented communicator in any way, please take advantage of these two conferences. 

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