Lisa’s California scholarship trip

On my way home Well what an adventure it’s been, had so many great opportunities, met so many lovely people and had exposure to great facilities in San Francisco and Huntsville, lots of new contacts and practice to bring back to Wales. Below are images from Huntsville Space and Rocket Center where they hold a space camp for CYPVI.

Second day at #GITWL2025 conference in Huntsville, AL. Another full day consisting of the following sessions: Session 1: Keynote speaker talking about access and how providing access gives a sense of belonging, when barriers are lifted and things are accessible. Session 2: Poster sessions: Changing the dynamics of instruction training the parents and paraprofessionals; one byte at a time; Supporting Educators who Teach and Empower Children with Vision Loss  Session 3: Building typing skills with Typio, Typio Pro and Braillio Session 4: Connecting the dots between Notetakers and braille displays.

First day of #GITWL2025 was great after the opening general session at 8.30am, we had a full day of workshops, mine comprised of the following: 10.00-11.00 round table discussion with four tables, table 1: supporting dual language development in students with VI: A systematic review; table 2: Harnessing AI to enhance braille instruction for students with VI; table 3: Breaking barriers music literacy for every learner; table 4: Promoting braille literacy in the classroom simple strategies and adaptations 11.15-12.15 Enabling people who are blind and vision impaired to independently access auditory and tactile graphics demonstration of Tactonom Reader Flex.   1.45-2.45 From Assessment to Action: Integrating functional vision, learning media, technology and ECC 3.15-4.15 Creating interactive and engaging literacy lessons for students with multiple disabilities and complex needs 4.30-5.30 Getting in touch with accessible coding: Finch 2.0, LEGO spike, and Blocks4all in K-12 computer sc...

Arrived and registered for conference  #GITWL2025 and managed to see the end of Blessing Offer’s keynote speech and performance with students from Alabama school for the blind. I also managed to briefly meet with my contact Ting Sui from the CATT Program at Washington School for the Blind. Full day tomorrow booked, excited to meet colleagues in the US and attend the presentations. Stay tuned for updates tomorrow with any new and exciting technology or other updates.

These past two days I have been working online for meetings and observations before heading off to the Getting in Touch with Literacy Conference in Huntsville, Alabama.