CATCH Networking Lunch welcomes AAC specialist Professor Annalu Waller

Members of the CATCH community and collaborators gathered last week for the May Networking Lunch with guest speaker and Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) specialist Professor Annalu Waller.

Held in the ICOSS building at the University of Sheffield. Annalu Waller, Professor of Human Communication Technologies at the University of Dundee had a captive audience as she gave her talk entitled “Emerging AAC Technologies: Training Assistive Technologists”.

CATCH Centre Manager, Simon Butler welcomed the room to the May event and shared a number of exciting events coming this month including the CATCH Open Home Lab on Monday 15th May.

Annalu, who helped to establish Dundee’s reputation as one of the world’s leading centres for research into AAC technologies for people with severe communication difficulties introduced attendees to her three year project ACE-LP. This project aims to increase the communication rate and improve the communication experience of people who use literacy based Voice Output Communication Aids (VOCAs) by developing a state-of-the-art system.

With the audience, Professor Waller explored why the development of AAC has been slower than other forms of assistive technology. Unfortunately, the field is small with little space for innovation due to the associated risks. Until participants are supported to understand what is possible there will not be a demand for new technology.

The next CATCH Networking Lunch will take place on Thursday 1^st June from 12.15 – 14.00 in The Diamond (Workroom 1) at the University of Sheffield. We’re delighted to welcome our guest speaker, Professor Wendy Moyle, Program Director, Optimising Health Outcomes from the Menzies Health Institute Queensland who will be sharing her research on dementia.

To book your place, please contact Laura Murray (l.murray@sheffield.ac.uk).