Conferences

Dreams, Ambitions and Realities
5th - 7th September 2002
Glasgow Caledonian University

An international conference supported by the PPP Foundation

"Wonderful atmosphere, as ever. Scotland has been welcoming and full of fantastic ideas."

Over 200 delegates attended the conference with participants visiting from around the world. The conference received high praise from many of those who took part over the three days at Glasgow Caledonian University. The unique atmosphere of the event was largely due to the enthusiastic involvement of the children and adults using Sense Scotland's services and their families.

Delegate Marie Richardson said:

"The staff team was great, from the top to the bottom everyone mucks in and made us feel really welcome."

Brian Abery from the University of Minnesota, USA took a look at issues of self determination and asked the question:

"Would deafblind people choose to tell us more if we improved ourselves as listeners."

The inaugural Tait Mitchell lecture, which will now take place annually, was presented by William Green, Lega del Filo d'Oro Italy and Vice President Deafblind International (DbI)l. In his presentation he used his experience of working with the deafblind community to discuss ethics and good practice.

The final plenary session saw Paul Hart from Sense Scotland use the music of Bach to examine communication between deafblind people and their seeing and hearing partners. His thoughtful and entertaining presentation proved that, in his words:

"It does take two to tango.", while one of his key messages was that: "The essence of being human is being."

Gillian Morbey, Chief Executive of Sense Scotland said:

"The conference has generated a fantastic amount of discussion and debate about real life issues for people with complex support needs. It was a rare opportunity for professionals, families and people who use services to share their own perspectives and to learn from each other. I know that people left the conference invigorated and full of confidence about their lives and the work they do."

Throughout the conference delegates took part in workshops, presentations from health professionals, deafblind people and renowned experts of international standing. There were also a great range of social events including an exclusive preview of the Helen Keller Award exhibition and an evening of entertainment provided by a group of deafblind musicians.

A report on the conference will be published in due course.

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