AER's Division Three Blog

Our Division Three Awards were given out on Friday July 23rd in Little Rock. The first award given out was The Samuel Gridley Howe Award for Outstanding Practice. It acknowledges exemplary service to individuals with visual impairments and multiple disabilities, including deafblindness.

-          The award went to the late Dawn Saunders. Julie Durando read the following nomination by Emily Taylor-Snell -

-          I nominate the late Dawn Saunders of the Florida Department of Education for the Samuel Gridley Howe Award for Outstanding Practice.  We lost Dawn in early June, 2010 after a courageous battle with breast cancer.  Even during her treatments, she continued to serve as the DOE consultant for Vision and Deaf/Hard-of-Hearing.  Dawn provided many years of leadership on the Vision National Agenda, helping to craft several position papers for the need of professional development and increasing the number of people to our field.  She was instrumental in the development of the Usher Screening materials to be rolled out later in 2011 in Florida.

–          Dawn was a collaborator who sought to bring people together to solve problems and never lose the focus of serving children and their families.  Dawn helped to lead a statewide workgroup for developing a series of training and supports for early intervention providers to serve families of children who are D/HH and Deaf-Blind.  Dawn was also part of a team to provide a series training on a modified QPVI (Quality Programs in Visual Impairments developed by Nancy Toelle).  This training initiative is called Building Local Capacity for Visual Impairment and has been conducted in the panhandle of FL and in south Fl in the Miami area.  The team, in Dawn’s spirit of get it done, will begin meeting this week to plan the next series of training in Central FL for 2010-2011.

–          Dawn represented children and youth with hearing loss, vision loss and deaf-blindness on many statewide and national committees.  Two such committees included the Governor appointed FL Coordinating Council for Deaf/Hard of Hearing(FCCDHH) and FL Network of Deaf-Blindness (FNDB).  Two accomplishments of FNDB is the outgrowth of a consumer –driven 5013c organization, FL Deaf-Blind Association.  That group now has gotten the Governor’s Proclamation for Helen Keller Deaf-Blind Awareness Week in 2009 and 2010, and a presenter who is deaf-blind at the Vision Summit 2010 in Tallahassee supporting the work of the Vision Caucus for legislative support.

–          These are but a few of the many contributions Dawn has made to the field.  Her greatest gift was herself; knowledgeable, supportive, leading and partnering and always brimming with energy, a love of life and for the people we serve.  Dawn will be deeply missed, but her spirit lives on!

As the conference opens today, we’d like to take one last opportunity to highlight a presentation that shouldn’t be missed – Three Deafblind adults will be presenting on their experiences as they advocated for the deafblind community and met the president in the process. It is sure to be an inspiring hour.

Title: The Five Day Experience: Deafblind Young Adults in Action

Presenters: Virginia Jordan, B.A., Athens, GA,  Kelvin Crosby, San Diego, CA,  Jason Corning, Beloit, WI

Date: Friday, July 23rd 11:00 am – 12:00 pm

In this presentation, three deafblind young adults will share their experiences while participating in a summer college course. The course took place at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C. and presented the students with opportunities to advocate for the deafblind community at Capitol Hill, including a special meeting with President Obama

A call for moderators went out last week, and many people have responded.  However, we still have sessions without moderators.  Moderators are still needed for sessions listed under the Multiple Disabilities/Deafblind division schedule, available at http://www.aerbvi.org/2010conference/MultipleDisabilitiesDeafblindDivisionSession.htm

We would like to enlist your help to find moderators for the multiple disabilities/deafblind division sessions. Follow the link above, look through the schedule,  find a session you wish to attend, click on link at the bottom of the description of the session to sign up to moderate.  It is quite simple!

We would appreciate any assistance you can provide in reaching out to the members of your division and other colleagues who will be attending.

Thank you very much in advance!

Division 3′s first session starts on Friday morning at 8am. Get up, get your coffee, and get to this great presentation and panel discussion.

Presenters: Kathleen Sheriff, M.Ed., Lubbock, TX, Christopher Sence, Lubbock, TX, Nora Griffin Shirley, Ph.D., Lubbock, TX

Title: Perspectives on Transitioning from Middle School to High School for a Student with CHARGE: A Case Study of a Successful Transition

Strategies for transitioning from middle school to high school for an adolescent with CHARGE will be presented. Panel members include a university senior with CHARGE, his mother, and a special education professional. Education and social issues will be addressed. Time for questions and comments from the audience will be included