ISAAC, day one

Yesterday I made my first trip to a foreign speaking country alone! I flew to Duesseldorf Germany in order to go to the International Society for Augmentative/Alternative Communication (AAC) biannual conference. It has been interesting so far.

This morning there was an opening ceremony with some AAC users performing. They had a band and a black light show. I took a few pictures which I will post when I get back from my trip. It was really nice to see a variety of people of many ages performing together. Some needed help, some didn't. And they got to show off a more artistic side of themselves. The band was really interesting because the clients were using a lot of alternative access methods such as head pointers (they were a hat of sorts with a stick attached and use the stick to hit button/keys. One client used a pencil that she could grip and hold onto to play the keyboard. One guy also had really good rhythm and was dancing to the music as the performed.

The black light show was also really interesting. It was set to music and the performers used ribbons that showed up in the light to do an artistic performance. The pictures turned out really well but I can't post them until I get back. :(

The people here are also friendly. I hear a lot of American accents but others, too. The conference is far more laid back and practical in comparison to many that I have gone to. Tomorrow I get to go on a dinner cruise that was part of the conference fee! I also get transport as part of the conference fee, which is nice since it was 8.25 Euro from the main train station to the conference!