Blog Post; July 2023

Registered O&M Specialist in Australasia (ROMSA) 

The Professional Standards Committee have recently updated the fact sheet on Applying for ROMSA. To find out more about Registered Members, or to complete your ROMSA membership application, please head to the OMAA website to find the latest information.

 

Upcoming Conferences 

  • Dog Guide Handlers Australia (DGHA) National Conference, 4-6 August 2023, Brisbane. The conference is a fantastic opportunity to meet, connect and get to know other Dog Guide Handlers from across Australia. Click here for more information and to register.  If you have any questions, please visit the Dog Guide Handlers Australia Facebook page or email dgha@dgha.org.au
  • Save Sight Institute Community Information Day, 29 July 2023, Sydney. A reminder that registration for this event closes on 19th July. This in-person event is for people living with low vision or blindness and those who care for them. Educators are also invited. Read on here for more information. 
  • VISCON 2023, 19-20 October 2023, in-person at Macquarie NSW Australia, or on-line. You’re invited to join VISCON 2023- a 2 day conference for vision education and service specialists on October 19 and 20 at NextSense’s new Macquarie site! See the NextSense website for more information. The Call for Papers is now open until 4 August 2023.

 

Continuing Professional Development (CPD)

  • NextSense Institute professional learning program:

For details on pricing and a list of all the fantastic NextSense CPE event topics, go to: http://www.nextsense.org.au/professional-education.

An example of one of the NextSense courses is Blind and Low Vision Masterclass Series 2023: Post-School Transition to Higher Education & Employment for Students with Visual Impairments.

In this six-part series, Dr. Wolffe will describe the post-secondary trajectory of students with visual impairments as they move from secondary educational settings into higher education, training, and employment.

Remember SPEVI members are eligible for discounts on the above NextSense professional learning events in 2023. Please contact Trudy Smith, Manager of NextSense Institute CPE program if you have any questions – trudy.smith@nextsense.org.au

  • SPEVI is proud to share that video recordings, papers, handouts and posters from the online SPEVI 2023 conference are now available to be viewed and/or downloaded free of charge. Relive the magic of this year’s SPEVI conference by visiting the archives on the SPEVI website.
  • Deafblind Information Australia (DBIA) has released a series of webinars on deafblindness. Their most recent webinar is on O&M and congenital deafblindness. Follow this link to watch the webinar and Q&A recording on our website, along with past DBIA webinars.

If you’re looking for more CPD opportunities, remember to check the OMAA website for suggestions where you’ll find many great course and conference options listed for your convenience.

Are you hosting or attending an upcoming CPD event? Would you like to be able to earn points towards ACVREP recertification at the same time? Click here to find out how you can register your event.

 

Job Vacancies

Have you looked at the Job Vacancies page on the OMAA website recently? You’ll find position vacancies listed for various agencies and locations across Australasia so remember to check it out.

 

Journals

  • In case you missed this insightful journal article on robotic technology and O&M published in the December 2022 Vision Rehabilitation International, please read here.
  • The latest Journal of the South Pacific Educators in Vision Impairment (JSPEVI) is available for free download from the SPEVI website. The journal is available in both a pdf and an accessible word document format.

 

Technology news

  • Guide Dogs NSW/ACT has supported improvements to the GoodMaps Outdoors app by providing feedback on priorities for further development. They are pleased to announce that their feedback to include a 3D spatial feature similar to what was in Microsoft Soundscape has now been included as a feature in version 5.0.0 of the app. Other updates include Siri shortcuts which enable users to verbally create routes to POIs and contacts, and a slight improvement to GPS precision. Update your GoodMaps app to the latest version to become familiar with the new features.
  • A venture capital fund will invest over $17 million into Eyetelligence, a Melbourne-based health technology company that uses advanced AI technology and retinal imaging to screen for eye and systemic diseases. Eyetelligence’s cutting edge AI technology is targeting screening for diabetic retinopathy, age-related macular degeneration and glaucoma. Read more here.

 

Other News

  • Audio description has arrived on Australian free-to-air TV. Learn more here.
  • Mick Curran and Jamie Teh, creators of the only screen reader in the world that’s made by blind people for blind people, have been featured on a recent Australian Story.
    Check out their story on iview.
  • ABC Disability Affairs Journalist Nas Campanella, who has been blind since she was 6 months old, has featured in a very interesting chat on a recent episode of the Conversations podcast. You can listen on the ABC website here or via the Apple Podcast app.
  • Vanessa Vlajkovic, a sub-editor at ABC who is deafblind, explains how she communicates at work in this article.

 

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