| The RERC must disseminate research results and other knowledge
gained from the AAC-RERC research and development activities to
persons with disabilities, their representatives, disability organizations,
businesses, manufacturers, service providers, and other interested
parties. Equally important, the RERC must solicit the timely input
of information relating to the emerging issues in the field of
AAC to develop necessary policy statements for future research
and development. |
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The State of the Science Conference, Accessing the World through
AAC Technology, was held on August 2 -4, 2001 in St. Paul, Minnesota.
The Conference was held in conjunction with the annual conference
of the United States Society of Augmentative and Alternative
Communication. Prior to arriving at the State of the Science
Conference, all conference participants received seven white
papers that summarized the content of the presentations at the
Conference. In addition, discussion questions were posed at
the conclusion of these papers, so that participants would be
able to prepare themselves for the breakout discussion sessions.
At the Conference, all seven of the SOSC Conference presentations
were open to all USSAAC Conference and State of the Science
participants. During these sessions, there were no competing
sessions so all 250 participants of the two conferences could
attend. Participation in the breakouts sessions was limited
to the 53 participants of the State of the Science Conference
only.
Following the State of the Science Conference, the presenters
prepared the summary manuscripts. The AAC-RERC has arranged
for these manuscripts to be printed in the Augmentative and
Alternative Communication Journal. Five of the papers will
appear in the September 2002 issue of the Journal with the remaining
two papers scheduled to appear in January of 2003. The AAC
Journal is the primary research journal of the AAC field. It
is sponsored by the International Society of Augmentative and
Alternative Communication (ISAAC). The RERC on Communication
Enhancement thanks the United States Society for Augmentative
and Alternative Communication and the Augmentative and Alternative
Communication Journal for their efforts to support our dissemination
efforts by making the presentations and manuscripts available
to the larger AAC community. This level of support in our "information
transfer" effort is an important indicator of the extent
to which this RERC has collaborative relations with the larger
AAC community.
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