Date: Monday, January 26, 2015
Category: Conference News
On-line registration for RESNA 2015, June 10-14 in Denver, Colorado, is now available on
www.resna.org.
The annual RESNA conference is a unique, multi-disciplinary gathering of assistive technology professionals from around the world. Conference attendees include clinicians, engineers, assistive technologists, researchers, educators, suppliers, manufacturers and students, among others. Conference workshops, instructional courses, and presentations cover almost every aspect of technology for people with disabilities, including seating and mobility, robotics, 3D printing, AAC, wearables, K-12 education, and more.
The Early Bird registration fees are:
• $410 for members
• $550 for non-members
• $300 for students
Early bird registration ends April 29. Conference attendees are also urged to book the hotel early to receive the negotiated discount rate. Registration includes all plenary sessions, workshops, platform and poster sessions, as well as special events and receptions during the general conference, which is June 12-14. Registration also includes free CEUs.
The pre-conference session, June 10 – 11, will feature the popular two-day course, “Fundamentals in Assistive Technology.” The member and student registration fee is $345; non-member fee is $460. RESNA is authorized by IACET to provide 1.4 CEUs for this course.
Seven instructional courses, three full-day and four half-day courses, will be offered on Thursday, June 11. The member and student registration fee is $195 for a full-day course, and $135 for a half-day course; the non-member fee is $260 for a full-day and $180 for a half-day. Some courses have additional fees. Participants may take two half-day courses, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, for the same cost as one full-day course. RESNA is authorized by IACET to provide 0.7 CEUs for a full-day course and 0.35 CEUs for a half-day course. The instructional courses are:
• Creating Assistive Technology Solutions in Minutes: A Make and Take Workshop (Full Day) – This Make and Take workshop involves participants in the fabrication of 10 assistive technology solutions using new fabrication tools and materials, and is taught by Dr. Therese Willkomm, the “MacGyver” of Assistive Technology. There is an additional $50 materials fee charge for this course.
• Challenges and Opportunities of Delivering Early Powered Mobility (Full Day) - This course will review the impact of mobility on child development, share experiences of successful provision from different centres around the world, examine practical issues around provision / customisation and look at ways of securing funding. The presenters include Canadian and American experts from Designability, Cleveland Clinic Childrens Hospital for Rehab; the “Go Baby Go” project at the University of Delaware; St. Joseph's Childrens Hospital of Tampa; and CP Tech.
• Improving Outcomes with Custom Contoured Seating: Theory and Practice (Full Day) - In this hands-on course, participants will learn and practice the 7 critical determinants of a successful outcome with custom contoured seating. The course includes completing participants a mat exam, seating simulation and shape capture of an individual with complex seating needs, using objective measurements of seated posture to assess outcomes. The course presenter is Kelly Waugh of Assistive Technology Partners.
• Introduction to NaturallySpeaking Voice Automation (Half Day – Morning) - During this lecture/demonstration, learn to automate tasks via NaturallySpeaking custom commands. Custom commands save time, energy, and frustration by automating tasks that are difficult, time-consuming, or impossible to perform with built-in commands. The presenter is Alan Cantor from the University of Toronto.
• Introduction to Desktop 3D Printing (Half Day – Morning) - A basic course on Desktop 3D Printing for those in Assistive Technology who may have thought of turning an idea/solution into a physical prototype, or for those who just want to learn the basics of Desktop 3D Printing. The instructor is John Wardzala of Assistive Interface Designs.
• Getting Hands-On with Microcontrollers (Half Day – Afternoon) - You’ve heard about microcontrollers as possible AT devices, converting light, audio, timing, or tactile input into other actions. Participants will also go hands-on with the Arduino microcontroller, learning about its components and building and coding some projects that demonstrate its capacity. There is an additional $60 Arduino kit fee, which the participants are able to take home.
• Switch Assessment (Half Day – Afternoon) – If the optimal access method for an individual is switch(es), how does the professional choose from the myriad of available mechanical and electronic switches, figure out where to place the switch for optimal control and then secure it in that location? This course will present assessment strategies, a hierarchy of switch locations and systematically explore various switches by product features. The instructor is Michelle Lange of Access to Independence.
RESNA thanks following sponsors for their support of RESNA 2015: Ride Designs (Gold sponsor), Quantum Rehab (Silver Sponsor), and Innovations Health (Silver Sponsor). Other sponsors include Paralyzed Veterans of America for the Student Scientific Paper Competition, and the Student Design Competition sponsor, the Center for the Translation of Rehabilitation Engineering & Advances in Technology (TREAT).