adept 2015 conference
We attended the adept 2015 conference in East Langley, Berkshire. adept is the Association of Deaf Education Professionals and Trainees. This conference was well attended by several key figures in deaf education, teachers, learners, communication support workers, and service providers.
We were silver sponsors, we provided live captioning for the conference, and delivered two workshops on technology for deaf learners in education. You can view all the adept 2015 conference photos on Facebook.
Keynote speakers on deaf education
The first keynote speaker was Catherine Drew, who teaches Deaf Studies and BSL at the Frank Barnes School for Deaf Children. In 2013 she was the winner of Signature’s Teacher of the Year award. She explained the Deaf Studies curriculum and shared her own memories of her personal education experience.
Excellent (and moving) presentation on deaf studies curriculum #adeptcon15. Vital importance of CSW at HE and need for human factors too!
The second keynote presenter was Rachel O’Neill, a teacher of the deaf and a college tutor 1981 – 2006. She improved access to further education for deaf students, teaching English through the medium of BSL and training Communication Support Workers. She now teaches on the postgraduate diploma in deaf education course at the University of Edinburgh. Rachel highlighted the impact of her research project on adept members, “Achievements and Opportunities for Deaf Students” in Scotland.
Workshops: Issues for deaf learners in education
There were five workshops.
1: Jill Henshaw and Andy Owen: “Voice over: Interpreting from BSL into English”
This workshop challenged some of the pre-conceived ideas around what you should and should not do when interpreting from BSL into English.
2: Sarah Vann Brooke: “Ethical Dilemmas: I’m just the CSW….”
Sarah gave workshop attendees an opportunity to gain extra skills for the CSW in the classroom, how to deal with dilemmas and assumed parts of the job!
3: Nicki Harris and Pam Richardson: “ De-Mystifying funding for deaf learners”
Nicki and Pam, an adept assessor, spoke about funding in deaf education and how to manage the many barriers faced.
4: Richard Carter: “BSL Poetry”
Richard, a BSL poet, demonstrated some of his BSL poetry and talked about his experiences of performing at a variety of events.
5: Tina Lannin and Suzie Jones: “Working with deafened and/ or hard of hearing learners: including latest technology”
Tina spoke about innovations in captioning technology and demonstrated Google Glass. Suzie brought in her expertise on acquired deaf blindness and outlined tactics to use when working with deafened and hard of hearing learners.
adept 2016 conference
Are you coming to next year’s adept conference in Derby? It will be the 40th anniversary of adept, believe it or not! Check their website for conference details and membership.
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