The conference was held in Bloomington, Minnesota from October 17th through the 22nd. I attended from the 19th to the 22nd.
The conference was great because it gave me a chance to see what technology is available to help make our lives better. The technology that was displayed ranged from equipment for the blind and visually impaired, to the deaf and hearing impaired, to the physically handicapped as well as the mentally handicapped.
The main event for me was the meeting Thursday afternoon in which we spoke about the DO-IT program. Sheryl Burgstahler, Dan Comden and I gave a talk telling why DO-IT is important to us, how it operates and how it gives us a chance to see a wide variety of opportunities for a variety of disabilities.
My main part was to tell what it is like to be a student in DO-IT. I talked about what activities we took part in, like computer labs, projects in science, math, and engineering, as well as dorm living, and the skills we learned enabling us to use the Internet to communicate with others all over the world. I also talked about how it gives us a chance to keep in touch with each other until we meet next year and beyond that.
In all, it was a great conference and opened my eyes to the kinds of technologies that are available to us. I am ready to go back next year.
Closing The Gap (CTG) hosts a conference on adaptive technologies in Minneapolis, Minnesota, each October. CTG also publishes a newspaper by the same name; a resource directory is included in one issue each year. For more information about CTG, contact:
Closing The Gap
P.O. Box 68
Henderson, Minnesota 65044
Telephone: (612)248-3294
Fax: (612)248-3810