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 Over 3 days in November 2005, the SET-BC team on Vancouver Island hosted workshops presented by Steve Barclay and Elaine Holtham from Aroga. Based in Vancouver, Aroga provides SET-BC with assistive technology equipment, training and support for students who have low, or no vision and voice output communication aids for students who are unable to speak.
 Steve presented a full-day of training on MAGic software, which provides adjustable screen magnification and synthesized speech for screen reading for computers users with low vision. Steve’s presentation was attended by vision resource teachers, Braillists / teaching assistants and students from Nanaimo, Sooke, Saanich and Victoria school districts. In addition to MAGic, participants took a walk outside with Trekker, a system that uses GPS and digital maps to help blind persons find their way in urban and rural areas. Steve also demonstrated the PACmate, a personal notetaker for students who are blind. A lot of interest was generated by the VoiSec, a small button for recording, storing and playing short spoken messages.
 Elaine presented 2 days of training on a variety of augmentative communication (AAC) products. Participants received hands-on training for the Pathfinder, Springboard, Vantage and Vanguard voice-output devices. The workshops were held in Nanaimo, drawing school teams from a variety of mid- and north-Vancouver Island school districts, including Cowichan Valley, Campbell River and Comox Valley. Team participants included parents, speech-language pathologists, teachers and educational assistants. Participants learned how to make optimum use of all features of the devices including Minspeak, customization, user areas, backing-up, importing graphics and interfacing with the computer.
 Elaine reminded workshop participants that additional AAC information can be obtained at Aroga’s upcoming Technology Daze. Aroga is hosting this open house featuring AAC and physical access products at 3 locations across Canada; Vancouver, Edmonton, and Montreal on January 30, 31, and February 2, 2006 respectively. Technology Daze will give you the opportunity to attend presentations and visit exhibits from different manufacturers and developers to learn more about their products.
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