ISAAC's a wrap! Insights & Experiences by Siobhan Daley
Siobhan Daley shares her insights and experiences from her attendance at ISAAC 2018. Siobhan is an inspiring young women who is a master at using Minspeak on her Accent 1400.
I attended my first ISAAC conference on the Gold Coast a few weeks ago, and what an absolutely fantastic experience that was. It was my second ever AAC conference, having gone to my first AGOSCI conference in Melbourne last year. It’s always amazing to be in an environment with so many other AAC users as well as those who just generally love AAC as much as I do, getting to meet so many amazing people from all over the place.
I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to present two papers of my own in such an incredible environment, having people from all over the world coming to listen to what I had to say as well as having the most important people in my life sitting in the front row of both presentations.
My first presentation “There Is Such Thing as a Stupid Question” occurred pretty much first thing Monday morning, covering the topic of the really personal questions and pointless comments AAC users receive from strangers when out and about, a topic I felt was important to address as it’s something which is not discussed as often as it should be. I talked about how annoying answering questions from complete strangers is and some of the situations AAC users find themselves in from time to time, as well as discussing some ways in which AAC users can get ourselves out of conversations we don’t want to be in, something we could all benefit practicing from time to time.
My second presentation “Children Should Be Seen and Heard”, which I presented on Wednesday morning, was one which held a very special place in my heart even from the stages of just being an abstract as it discussed my personal AAC journey from when I was really young to where I am today, as well as discussing some of the different types of communication partners, being completely honest while also saying some really deep and heartfelt things about the most important people to me.
While I spent most of my “down time” during the conference either hanging out at the Liberator stand or exploring the Gold Coast, I did jump into a few awesome presentations. One of my favourites was the Consumer Lecture which was just absolutely amazing, considering I had no idea what I was walking into while I was following about a thousand people into the main hall, I was absolutely blown away by the speech by Mke Ninces from New Zealand, who built an incredible atmosphere in such a jam packed auditorium, lying out pretty much her whole life story and all the brilliant things she’s done for everyone to hear. Listening to that made me and everyone around me decide that the main stage is definitely something we are going to work towards for 2020.
Another absolute stand out presentation, for me, was “I hate my body, I want to die” by Catrin Anderson and her team, which is probably a really weird favourite to have, but for me, I really connected with a lot of the things Catrin and her team were saying and I kind of just wanted more. It was really deep, emotional and personal, but it was probably one of the most amazing presentations I’ve ever been to. The rest of my crew and I got a lot out of it, and it kind of made us realize how much work we have to do still for my mental health to keep on top of that.
I definitely loved my first ISAAC conference and can’t wait to see everyone in Mexico 2020, hopefully on the big stage this time!
Siobhan Daley