Chauncy Rucker

chauncy.rucker@uconn.edu

Joy Zabala and I invite you to join STEP International (Special Technology for Exceptional Persons), a new Email list focusing on technology for individuals with disabilities.

Background

Joy and I are old friends who met through are association with TAM, the Technology and Media Division of the Council for Exceptional Children. I'm a past president of TAM and Joy recently became the President Elect of TAM.My interest in international special education dates from my earliest connection with the European Schools Project (ESP). I served as TAM's laison to the ESP for many years.In 2000 I convinced Joy that she should take over these responsibilities and she has become a very dynamic member of ESP.

With our interest in international special education, Joy and I gravitated to DISES, the international division of CEC.That action eventually resulted in our becoming co-chairs of the Worldwide Technology Desk of DISES. We decided that establishing STEP International, sponsored by DISES, should be a first step to beginning and maintaining a worldwide conversation to exchange ideas on all aspects of the use of technology with individuals with disabilities.

My Perspective

A major factor in my wanting to be involved in something like STEP International had to do with a conference I attended in 2003 put on by the folks at the Lemelson AT Center, Hampshire College.I presented an overview of the conference on the ConnSENSE Bulletin website (http://www.connsensebulletin.com/lemelsonat.html). The major learning that came out of that wonderful conference had to do with the level of poverty in many parts of the world and the record of America's support for those countries compared to the support of other countries. So, I hope STEP International will give us more contacts around the world because I would love to learn more about AT in other countries as well as to find ways to be of help to people with disabilities who live in other countries.

Joy's View

I won't really speak for Joy, because she will do that in future issues of the ConnSense Bulletin and through her interactions on STEP International, but there are some thing I would like you to know. Joy came very close to being a UConn doctoral student in AT, but instead is finishing up her degree at the University of Kentucky and is a national resource on so many areas having to do with individuals with disabilities.

Joy is the developer of the SETT Framework, a problem-identification and solving tool which supports collaborative problem-identification and solving by students, parents, and multi-disciplinary professionals (http://sweb.uky.edu/~jszaba0/JoySETT.html). She is also a founding member of the QIAT Consortium, a grassroots national group which has developed a set of Quality Indicators for Assistive Technology Services. In this capacity, she maintains the QIAT Homepage (http://www.qiat.org) and facilitates the QIAT Listserv which can be joined via the web page. You may also have attended SERC's Assistive Technology Conference last year where Joy was the keynote speaker.

Joy envisions STEP International as an online learning community where people with differing perspectives, interests, and responsibilities in AT share experiences, knowledge, skills, and ideas so that people with disabilities have the support they need to use technology to meet their educational, vocational, and personal goals.

Joy and I have an invitation for you.

We would love to have you join us on the STEP International list! There are two ways to do this.

1. You may sign up on the web by going to

http://listserv.uconn.edu/

Scroll down the list of lists to:

STEP_INTERNATIONAL-L

Note: The name of our list is not case sensitive, but you need to remember it needs an underline (_) between step and international and a hyphen (-) between international and l.

When you activate the step_international-l link you will be brought to a page with options. You need to select::

join or leave the list (or change settings)

This will lead you to a page so you can join STEP International.

You can simply enter your E-Mail Address and Name and select:

Join STEP_INTERNATIONAL-L

However, before you do that you might want to note the options you can select. The one I find useful is :

Acknowledgements Receive copy of own postings

That way I know my message makes it to the list. As soon as you complete this process you will receive an email message that requires that you point your browser to a provided URL. That results in another email that welcomes you to the list and explains how to send messages to STEP International.

2. You can also sign up by sending an Email to:

LISTSERV@LISTSERRV.UCONN.EDU

There's no need to include a "Subject."

In the message area insert:

Subscribe STEP_INTERNATIONAL-L Chauncy Rucker

NOTE: Please substitute your name in place of Chauncy Rucker
ANOTHER NOTE: Just let us know if you have any difficulty signing up for STEP International because we want to make sure you're on the list.

When you send this email it will result in an Email message to let you know you have been subscribed to the list. It will also ask you to confirm your subscription by pointing your browser to an URL that is provided. That results in another email that welcomes you to the list and explains how to send messages to STEP International.

If you have friends with similar interests here or in other countries, we would encourage you to pass this information on to them.

We're both looking forward to hearing from you!