CanAssist Events and Seminars
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Building Bridges: Planning for your Child's Future - A Forum Date: August 17 - 19, 2010 Location: TBA Registration:
After February 26, the registration fees for the Forum are as follows: The registration fee will cover the costs of meals, materials and the use of facilities. If you would like to pay by credit card, please follow the link and fill out the online registration form: https://confreg.uvcs.uvic.ca/index.aspx?cid=1656 NOTE: Families who are interested in the Forum but might not be able to participate because of financial reasons should contact Elsa Yan at elsay@uvic.ca. We will respectfully and confidentially do our best to address such challenges your family might have. Registration Deadline: March 5th, 2010 Description: CanAssist, together with its community partners, is hosting a two-and-a-half-day Forum that will bring together families, educators, health providers and social service providers to undertake joint planning that supports middle-years children (aged 10-14) with special needs. Our shared vision is that youth with special needs in the middle years thrive and reach their full potential with the support of thoughtful, comprehensive plans that are youth-centered and peer- and family-focused. This will also be an opportunity for educators and service providers to learn more about the contributions of their colleagues, as well as about the children and families they serve. Participants will have an opportunity to:
The Forum will include a series of practical workshops during which participants can choose the sessions they would like to attend. Topics include:
The Forum will also include opportunities for personal reflection while providing practical tools that assist with individual goal setting. There will also be opportunities to determine specific plans to realize these goals.
Inclusive Day Camp Programs: We are planning to provide day camp options for those attending the Forum whose children do not have access to day camps during the week of August 16 to 20 inclusive. We expect one of the day camp options to take place at Royal Oak Middle School (the same location as the Forum) and to provide respite for Forum participants (the day camp runs for five days, including the two-and-a-half days scheduled for the Forum). Please note that the day camp program at Royal Oak is an option for those families unable to access other camp programs during the week of August 16 to 20. NOTE: The day camp program is in the planning stage and has not been finalized yet. Additional information on the program will be sent to individuals who indicate an interest on their registration form. Proudly supported by:
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CanAssist Disability Resource Fair Date: Wednesday, December 2 Time: 12 PM - 5:30 PM Location: Michele Pujol Room, Student Union Building, University of Victoria Description: Ever wonder what resources are available to people with disabilities? Would you like to learn more about community organizations and how to get involved? Come join us on Wednesday, Dec. 2, at the CanAssist Disability Resource Fair, where disability organizations from Victoria and Vancouver will be showcasing their programs and services. This will also be an opportunity for the community to see and test new technologies from CanAssist. Inspiring speakers and musical guests will be featured in the first half hour of the event - so don't miss out! Please join us on Dec. 2 in celebrating the accomplishments of people with special needs and the work of community organizations. For directions to UVic's Student Union Building, see the map. Please note that general parking is available in all main campus lots and that permits can be purchased from dispensers. Here is a list of some of the fair's participating organizations:
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CanAssist Seminar: "Let's Face It!: Training Face Perception in Autism" Date: Thursday March 26, 2009 Time: 3:15pm - 4:15pm Location: Room 660 in the Engineering Computer Sciences Building Presenter: Jim Tanaka Jim Tanaka's Bio: Jim Tanaka is a cognitive neuroscientist specializing in the cognitive and neurophysiological processes underlying object and face recognition. He is interested in questions of cognitive and neural plasticity related to how experience influences the way we perceive and recognize objects in the world. In his research, he combines both psychophysical and electrophysiological (i.e., event related potentials) approaches to understand the relation between behaviour and brain. In a related line of research, he has been working with children with autism in a program designed to improve their face recognition abilities. Abstract of the Presentation: Most people are considered face experts, quick to recognize a familiar face or interpret a facial expression in a moment's glance. However, recent research suggests that children with autism are less expert in their face recognition abilities and have difficulty identifying faces and understanding facial emotions. Can facial abilities, like other forms of perceptual expertise, be taught through direct instruction and training? In his presentation, Jim Tanaka will describe the Let's Face It! software, a computer-based program designed to teach face processing skills to children with autism (http://web.uvic.ca/~jtanaka/letsfaceit/). They will discuss results from a recent study demonstrating the effectiveness of the Let's Face It! intervention and give a hands-on demonstration of the program. |
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CanAssist Seminar: "British Columbia's Disability Strategy" Date: Tuesday March 3, 2009 Time: 2:30pm - 3:30pm Location: Room 162 in the Elliot Building Presenters: Rachael Ross and Shelley Giesbrecht Rachael Ross's Bio: Rachael Ross is the Director of the Disability Strategy for the Ministry of Housing and Social Development in Victoria, British Columbia. Prior to her current position, she managed the Minister's Council on Employment for Persons with Disabilities for the Ministry of Employment and Income Assistance for two years. She has eight years experience in disability policy and project management. Rachael has worked internationally as a researcher for the Centre for International Rehabilitation based in Washington, DC and was involved in the development of the United Nations Convention on the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities. Rachael is the past president of the National Educational Association of Disabled Students (NEADS) in Ottawa where she served three consecutive elected terms on the Board and is an award-winning advocate, including two Council of Canadians with Disabilities Awards and a Woman of Distinction Award. Shelley Giesbrecht's Bio: Shelley Giesbrecht has been a member of the BC Public Service since 1997, when she joined the international relations team of the Intergovernmental Relations Secretariat. She moved to the then-Ministry of Social Development and Economic Security in 2001, initially holding positions related to financial and human resource management. She has been the Manager of the Disability Strategy since its creation in February 2006, most recently with a specific focus on the development and implementation of the Personal Supports Program. Abstract of the Presentation: It is estimated that approximately 687,000 British Columbians (16 percent of the population) have a disability. Of this population about 300,000 need assistive aids and devices and 400,000 need help with everyday activities. British Columbia invests over $4 billion annually on supports and services for persons with disabilities. Though many efforts are being made to improve the lives of people with disabilities in our province, people with disabilities continue to face barriers and obstacles to fully participate in our communities and workforce. The Disability Strategy aims to work collaboratively with governments and community organizations to recommend solutions to theses challenges. Its vision is to make British Columbia a leader, where people with disabilities live the life they chose, enabled by an innovative, integrated system of networked services and personal supports that generate and sustain welcoming, accessible, and inclusive communities. In May 2006, the Disability Strategy was approved by Cabinet to focus of Five Key areas: Integrated Programs and Citizen Centred Service Delivery; Personal Supports; Housing; Accessibility and Inclusion; and Employment and Income. This presentation will talk about the Strategy's objectives, challenges and successes, and about the Personal Supports program, a key component of the Strategy. The Personal Supports Program uses an innovative new service delivery model for the provision of goods and services to persons with disabilities - a model that puts the individual and his/her goals at the centre of the process. This program is currently being piloted and evaluated through Personal Supports Centres in Victoria and Prince George. |
"Living Colours - A Spirit Spectacular"Outside it may be rainy, grey and cold, but inside the Victoria Conference Centre there is a brilliant burst of colour, energy and excitement at an exciting family festival that celebrates the spirit of Greater Victoria! Living Colours - A Spirit Spectacular is an experiential showcase of activity, creativity, community and diversity, featuring interactive stations by more than 50 community sports, arts and service organizations, live performances, hands-on fun and much more. Come join in the fun and find CanAssist and VOCYL in the BLUE community zone--see you there!
Date: Sunday, February 15th 2009 For more information about this event, please phone 250-361-0546 or visit their website at: http://victoria.spiritofbc.com |
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CanAssist Disability Resource Fair Postponed
We are currently selecting a new date for the Disability Resource Fair and will announce the new date shortly. We will be aiming to run the event in Fall 2009, so please come back to our website and check for the new date! |
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CanAssist Seminar: "Enabling Realistic Force Interactions among Remote Users" Date: Wednesday December 10, 2008 Time: 2:00pm - 3:00pm Location: Room 660 in the Engineering Computer Sciences Building Presenter: Dr. Daniela Constantinescu Dr. Daniela Constantinescu's Bio: Dr. Daniela Constantinescu is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering where she has held this position since July 2005. Her research interests are in the areas of robotics and mechatronics, with particular focus on the use of robotic haptic technologies for rehabilitation, skill training and improved performance in manipulation tasks. Dr. Constantinescu's work in haptic interaction with rigid virtual environments has been recognized via the Best Paper Award at the 12th International Symposium on Haptic Interfaces for Virtual Environment and Teleoperator Systems in 2004. At UVic, she directs the Assistive Robotics and Mechatronics Lab. The lab includes six haptic interaction systems, two of which are full 6DOF platforms that allow spatial body interaction, and collaborates with the Technical University of Eindhoven (TUE) in the Netherlands and with the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Electrical and Computer Engineering at UBC. Abstract of the Presentation: Haptic interfaces are robotic computer interfaces that enable users to touch and feel remote and virtual objects. For example, a joystick with force feedback is a haptic interface. Through haptic interfaces, users can shake hands with users anywhere in the world, surgeons can operate on remote patients, physical therapists can help home-based clients from the office, and physical interaction can be added to multiple-user computer games. The research in the Assistive Robotics and Mechatronics Lab at UVic focuses on enabling realistic force interactions among multiple remote users for applications like tele-surgery, physical tele-therapy, and multi-user computer games. In this talk, we will present two novel haptic control architectures that enable remote users to manipulate objects together and to interact with each other directly. The key novelty of both architectures is the use of avatars of remote peers in the local environment of each user. We call these avatars remote dynamic proxies. Compared to existing networked haptics approaches, remote dynamic proxies render physically more accurate forces, permit stable interaction under larger network delays, and support direct user-to-user contact. Currently, we are interested in the analytical investigation of the new architectures and in expanding the use of remote dynamic proxies to networked haptic interaction among a very large number of users. |
