GTT Nanaimo Meeting June 4, 2015
Summary Notes
The June 4 meeting of the Get Together With Technology (GTT) Nanaimo group was held from 1:00 until 4:00 PM at the Community Services Building in the 710 Club Room.
Approximately 15 people attended most of whom were blind or visually impaired. We also welcomed 3 Vancouver residents who were visiting friends in Nanaimo.
Nanaimo GTT Meeting Logistics:
*Please note that the monthly meetings of the Nanaimo GTT group will now be on the first Thursday of each month from 1:30 until 3:30 PM. The location remains the same, in the 710 Club at the corner of Prideaux and Fitzwilliam.
Who is the GTT Nanaimo Team?
- Donna Hudon , GTT Nanaimo Second in Charge (2IC), is blind and a highly skilled Social Worker specializing in Child Protection. She is also a great technology user and trainer.
- Albert Ruel, GTT Nanaimo Coordinator is blind and has been employed by the CCB National office to facilitate the growth of the GTT initiative throughout Western Canada.
Meeting Summary:
June 4 Feature Topic – Humanware and AbleTech Assistive Technologies Inc;
Guest Speakers;
Richard Robinson is the General Manager of AbleTech Assistive Technology, and he introduced Michel Pepin is the Canadian Account Rep for HumanWare. Michel was in Western Canada for meetings and agreed to attend the GTT Nanaimo gathering to provide an overview of Humanware product’s. He spoke about and demonstrated their Prodigi Closed Circuit TV equipped with Optical Character Recognition, the Stratus and VR Stream lines of talking book machines, several refreshable Braille displays and note takers, as well as their recently revised Trekker Breeze Plus talking GPS solution. Prices were indicated and some Trekkers were catalogued and taken to Montreal for upgrading. Michel and Richard both believe in the value of GTT and will do what they can to support us. To see what they have to offer please check the below web sites:
Richard demonstrated a variety of assistive technology beyond that which Humanware offers and answered questions during the second hour when participants were encouraged to check out the devices with their own hands.
Albert gave a brief overview of the JAWS accompanying software released by Brian Hartgen called, LEASEY. It was also available for participants to trial briefly during the hands-on session. For more info, or to download a free trial go to;
http://hartgen.org/leaseycentral
Next Meeting Agenda (Thursday, July 2, at 1:30 PM;
- Let’s set our agenda for the summer and fall meetings, and discuss the formal sanctioning of the Nanaimo GTT Chapter of the Canadian Council of the Blind.
- In the second hour breakout groups will discuss any topic you wish. Please bring your technology and your questions.
GTT Nanaimo Group Overview:
- GTT is sponsored by the Canadian Council of the Blind (CCB).
- CCB now has GTT chapters in Ottawa, Edmonton and Victoria.
- There is a national GTT monthly teleconference call as well.
- GTT Nanaimo will foster the same learning experience as the above GTT chapters by holding monthly meetings to help participants with all manner of assistive technology.
- Each meeting will have a feature technology discussed in the first hour and general question and answer about any other technology in the second hour.
- Small groups or even one on one assistance is possible at the meetings.
- Participants are encouraged to come to each meeting even if they are not interested in the feature topic because the second hour is for any and all questions.
- The more participants the better able we will be equipped with the talent and experience to help each other.
- Participants decide what the feature topic will be for the next meeting.
GTT Program blog and resources 