Hi Everyone

It's been a busy year so far in Enable Ireland’s AT Training Service.  Our Foundations in AT Course took place during Feb, March and April, and was oversubscribed, with 25 participants completing the full course. Foundations in AT is delivered largely on-line with just three days of face-to-face training in Microsoft. If you’d like to know more about how to upskill yourself through future Foundations in AT courses, check inside for details. In addition our Community Design Challenge 2015, in partnership with Dublin Institute of Technology, Purdue University and Leckey was a resounding success and the winners were announced last week. A joint Graduation/Prizegiving ceremony for participants from both the course and the CDC will take place in Microsoft on 30th September.  

This issue includes two contributions from Expert AT  Users, Christina McCarthy and Padhraig Dormer.  Read too about our blog: www.atandme.com, where you’ll find regular AT updates. We are always looking for new contributors to our blog, so why not consider adding to the rich store of information there, for the benefit of AT users, families and professionals?

As we head into August, I hope you enjoy the rest of your summer and look forward to linking with many of you as we enter the busy autumn period.


Siobhan Long
Manager (slong@enableireland.ie)

My name is Christina, I’m twenty-five, and I’ve been blind since birth.  Being born three months early can mess with a person’s retinas. 

The piece below was written by Mairead Manton about 15 years ago, and is based on her real life experience. It highlights the need for communication systems that the user can be independent in using or training to assist with its use; in this instance, the system required that the communication partner also understood how the system worked, which leads to the breakdown in communication. Voice output devices can be helpful to safeguard, as much as possible, against such situations.

Enable Ireland, in partnership with DIT launched their Community Design Challenge in Microsoft in December. This year's competition was open to all students nationally and internationally and is sponsored by Leckey, a company which specialises in designing and manufacturing specialist seating and postural management devices for children with disabilities.

Leckey asked entrants to imagine how you could adapt, improve, integrate or augment their products to make them fun for the user, and as a consequence help remove the stigma of disability. Keeping in mind their mission and vision to create a design, picture, code, prototype or description of a new product Leckey could design..........

Are you interested in keeping up-to-date with new technologies that assist independent living, communication, literacy support, mobility or even leisure activities?