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Special Needs Islington, Boonton NJ, Bristol, Brussels and BETT 2002 Brimstone!
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December 2001 In November I spent eleven nights at home and nineteen nights in hotels variously in Islington, New Jersey, Bristol and Brussels. January will be busy again with thirteen days at home and eighteen away either at the Special Needs Fringe, our new office in New Jersey or at the ATIA conference in Orlando, Florida … I can sense your sympathy ebbing away.
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 High noon. US Office Manager, Joanne Fattrosso and UK Operations Manager, Shelley Evans, synchronize systems to launch Inclusive TLC, Inc. |
Well, the right resources for pupils and students with special needs are an international mission now. Because of the price of assistive technology, the poorer countries have hardly started - costs are still much too high. Even the richer countries are not so rich that they can develop their own adequate resources for every low incidence disability. In continental Europe south of Sweden, language and cultural barriers are depriving students with disabilities of existing well-known assistive technology that would help them to communicate and learn.
The mission is to spread the word … and spread the costs of development across more students in more countries, so reducing the cost to everyone.
Currently, the United States, the United Kingdom and Sweden are the major producers of assistive technology. But that does not mean that any of these three can pick from the whole basket. In the UK our company, Inclusive Technology, does try to present to schools the best resources available worldwide. Many of these come from America.
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| Our UK Operations Manager, Shelley Evans, sets up our US inventory in Boonton, NJ. | ||
But the United States still do not see the whole show. SwitchIt! Maker and ChooseIt! Maker, the whole LäraMera collection, our metal keyguards, SwitchBoard, SwitchBox and the wonderful VariTech adjustable computer tables were all unknown in America before the first Inclusive TLC catalogue in November 2001. Clicker and TextHELP, staple products here, are only just beginning to penetrate the US market.
In Britain the battle is different. The need is to provide comfortable and interesting meeting, training and networking opportunities for educationalists and suppliers from the UK and the USA without damaging limited school budgets. We are hoping that the SpecialNeedsIT events in Bolton and in Islington are leading the way.
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| Crick Software won the busiest seminar prize and their stand was always busy too. | |
Special Needs London goes from strength to strength. We had 16,350 visitors in Islington over three days with 8,000 attending professional special needs seminars. In addition to these forty seminars mounted by NASEN there are twenty-eight "How-IT-Works" seminars provided by the exhibitors in SpecialNeedsIT (SNIT) an assistive technology exhibition within the main show. Twice a year the SNIT exhibitors vie with each other to pack their seminars to the doors. Crick Computing won, ahead of rivals Don Johnston Ltd who had narrowly beaten them at Special Needs North in May. Ann Crick got the largest seminar attendance on both Thursday 1st and Friday 2nd November at the SpecialNeedsIT Exhibition in Islington.
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| SS Great Britain. The flags record the strong link this ship forged between Britain and the United States. | ||
Inclusive Technology are also mounting an expanding programme of Coordinators' Days all over the UK. We try to pick interesting venues and treat our school and LEA coordinators well. The latest event was aboard the SS Great Britain in Bristol docks. A fantastic venue. The MIDIcreator demonstration was stunning. You had to be there!
| Then to Brussels. The European Association of Education Law and Policy were staging their ninth conference. They were focusing on Special Needs and had invited us to attend. In the United States, the law has had a dramatic effect on the special needs resources available. First it was the American Disabilities Act (ADA) now Section 508 of the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 is set to have an enormous impact. The whole program of the Assistive Technology Industry Association (ATIA) conference has been expanded to deal with "508" and its ramifications. |  Art Nouveau in Brussels. The "Old England" department store. |
 Merlin John of the TES and Inclusive's Melanie Jones enjoy a joke at Not at BETT 2001. |
In 2003 the Special Needs Fringe will include a full assistive technology and special needs exhibition. We are out of the closet! The Special Needs Fringe has taken root in the Kensington Olympia Hilton next to the annual BETT Exhibition. Free special needs seminars, free coffee and somewhere comfy to sit down and network has made this competitor to BETT popular with Special Educators. |
This new event will eventually be the centrepiece of our task to create world awareness for the best resources that Britain, the United States, and anywhere else, can produce to help pupils and students with Special Needs to communicate and learn.
Enjoy your Christmas break!
Martin Littler
18th December 2001