Position: Distinguished Member of Technical Staff; Founder and President

Description of Presentation

In this session we'll introduce you to a new generation of tactile symbols that are perfect for use with non-speaking individuals who are blind, deaf/blind, or visually impaired – including students with cognitive disabilities. The symbols benefit from two different technologies: 3D-printing and Blissymbolics. 3D-printing makes it inexpensive to create these tactile symbols. Blissymbolics provides a rich, conceptual language to develop communication skills with low cognitive requirements. The presentation will highlight the experiences shared by several teachers of students with visual impairments (TVIs) and speech language pathologists (SLPs) how they collaborate and use these tactile symbols with their students. The session will include how educators can get free access to these tactile symbols and supporting materials.