(Cummings, f. 1989)
In review today, thinking back at the development of our field and my experiences working at such centers as the Non Oral Communication Center with Judy, Loma Linda University with Mel Cohen, Systems and Programs to Enhance Augmentative Communication (SPEAC) at Upward Foundation Phoenix with Mary Christen, Zygo Industries and moving forward, the role of OT as a team member has not significantly changed. Stage 2 Fast forward to 2005: I am now the Director of Assistive Tech- nology and Accessible Instructional Materials at the Arizona De- partment of Education. Our service delivery model, not dissim- ilar to other statewide delivery programs such as WATI, PIAT and TATN, was to service the needs of the children through building capacity in school personnel. Individualized education program (IEP) team members were struggling to consider the need for Assistive Technology for all students during the IEP process, and at the state level, we attempted to supplement team trainings with ‘easy to do’ ways to advocate for students. I carried the chal- lenge forward, attempting to create a way OTs could effective- ly look at a student and make meaningful contributions – even an OT who did not share my passion for AT. In 2007, I joined the faculty at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and partnered with Dr. Shelley Lund to develop a speech and language pathol- ogy and occupational therapy team at Milwaukee Center for In- dependence. While working with her, Dr. Roger Smith and Dr. David Edyburn, I continued to brew the idea of a cheat sheet summary for OTs working with persons with complex communi- cation needs. In February of 2010, while teaching at Midwestern University – Glendale, I collaborated with the AT team (Barbara Hendrickson, OTR/L and Jolene Madden M.Ed., CCC-SLP) in the Scottsdale Unified School District to develop and disseminate the following protocol:
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