Events

282 students with physical disabilities or who have parents who are physically disabled will be receiving their bursary awards from Guest-of-Honour Mr Gan Kim Yong, Minister of State, Ministry of Education and Ministry of Manpower. The bursary award is part of the SPD Education Programme that aims to ensure the holistic, physical, mental and social wellbeing of disabled students.

SPD needs to recruit volunteers for our 1st Flag Day on 12 November 2005 (Saturday). Be part of a worthy cause to help SPD raise funds for our transport service which ferries people with physical disabilities for rehabilitation, vocational training and sheltered employment daily at the SPD Ability Centre.

Get your family, friends, colleagues, classmates to come along! We need at least 2,000 volunteers for the event to be a success, so everyone counts!

Time: (Choose from 3 shifts)

1st shift – 8.00am to 1.00pm (4 hrs)
2nd shift – 12.00nn to 4.00pm (4 hrs)
3rd shift – 2.00pm to 6.00pm (4 hrs)

The Singapore Exchange (SGX) will be conducting The Bull Run 2005, a charity fun run in the financial district, on 21 October 2005 (Friday).

Fourteen charities/programmes will benefit from the funds raised from The Bull Run, of which the SPD Education Programme will be allocated 5%.

Find out the help available for your special child on 938 LIVE’s Parenting Today. Experts from SPD will discuss the services available for young children in the areas of rehabilitation, education and assistive technology in the talk show.

The launch of SPD’s Ability Enterprise sees the Sheltered Workshop, Production Workshop and Multimedia Centre coming together into one distinct and integrated operation. The Ability Enterprise aims to be the training and employment centre of choice for people with physical disabilities. With the restructuring and streamlining of resources, the Ability Enterprise is now better placed to achieve its goals of training disabled people for future employment. It has recently achieved the Certified On-The-Job Training Centre (COJTC) status, awarded by the Institute of Technical Education, which recognizes the structured on-the-job training that SPD provides for the trainees.

This workshop will equip participants on identifying needs and utilizing assistive technology to prepare the disabled person for employment. Workshop topics include the use of AT to enhance jobseeker preparation, job matching, and potential problems on the job. Personal injury and medical negligence cases will also be discussed, as well as how AT should be included in insurance claims and compensation.

The trainer, Dr Graeme Smith is the founder and Executive Director of Ability Technology, a not-for profit organisation providing areas of disability research, product testing, computer assessments and training. He is also one of our invited speakers at the AT Research Forum @ Global Entrepolis 2005 on the 26 Sept 2005.

Course Fee: S$30 (pending VCF approval)

*20% Discount on the course fee will be given to participants who registered for “Best Practices in AT Research Forum” on 26 Sep 2005. 
* 50% VCF for Singaporeans & PRs 
* 30% VCF for non-Singaporeans
*VCF is also available to members of SPA, SHAS & SAOT

Please fax back registration forms to us at 6323 7008 or mail to:
The Specialised ATC
The Society for the Physically Disabled
SPD Ability Centre
2 Peng Nguan Street
Singapore 168955

The Best Practices in AT Research Forum provides opportunities for exchanging views on key issues related to Assistive Technology (AT). Topics that will be discussed include Rehabilitation Engineering (RE) and AT, Practice/Policy, Technology Transfer, Mobility, Assistive Robotics/Mechatronics, Augmentative and Alternative Communication, Environmental Control and Computer Access.

Participation Fee :

S$300 (payments by 16 September 2005)
S$400 (payments after 16 September 2005)
S$30 for VWO staff (Singaporeans and PRs with VCF*)
S$90 for VWO staff (Non- Singaporeans with VCF*)
S$50 for Students (lunch not included)

SPD is launching the new StarHub-SPD Learning & Development Centre (LDC). The LDC will offer quality enrichment programmes, workshops and activities to encourage the integration of physically disabled students and to improve their education experience. Programmes offered will complement mainstream school curriculum. Non-disabled students are also welcome to participate in the programmes.

The LDC will also run programmes for physical education teachers in mainstream schools. Participants will be able to pick up tips on how to integrate students with physical disabilities into their sessions.

The LDC will be complemented by the Specialised ATC, which is equipped to provide assistive technology consultation to children, to help them overcome their physical limitations through the use of technology.

Young children and older adults are generally more prone to falling. Find out who’s at risk, the factors that make them more susceptible to serious falls, and how to prevent such falls from SPD therapists Debbie Chow and Wong Wai Min, guests on 938LIVE’s health programme Body & Soul. The talk show has a call in component, so if you have any questions on the subject, do call the studio phone number at 6691 1938 when the lines open that afternoon.

Organised by the Specialised Assistive Technology Centre, the AAC workshop targets those who work with people with severe language impairments such as teachers, therapists, training officers and interested caregivers. It aims to provide the tools to enable participants to empower the disabled person and those who are at the early stage of communication to communicate and maximize their language potential, through the use of picture representation and symbols.

Through an interactive session, participants will be also introduced to Minspeak, a powerful language representation technique that has empowered communication for many around the world.

About the trainer:

Bruce R. Baker is President of Semantic Compaction Systems, and Adjunct Associate Professor at University of Pittsburgh, School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences. He has designed, individually and in a team, a wide range of individual systems to empower people with severe language impairments to speak.

A recipient of many distinguished awards from the field of Assistive Technology and Augmentative and Alternative Communication, he is regularly invited to speak at international societies as keynote speaker in Europe, Canada and USA.

Course Fee:

S$50
– 70% VCF for Singaporeans & PRs
– 50% VCF for non-Singaporeans
(VCF is also applicable to members of SPA, SHAS & SAOT)