Two years ago at the ISAAC Conference in Toronto I attended my first ever presentation about phenomenology. A phenomonological approach is where individuals tell their stories to make meaning of their truths, realities and experiences. Phenomenology then allows researchers to interpret the meaning of the experiences through hearing and observing the words and descriptions of the participants.
Kathy Howery was the presenter - and her presentation was the best session I attended at the 2016 ISAAC Conference. Kathy was working on her PhD using phenomenological methods to seek to understand the lived experience of speaking with or through a speech generating device. She has now completed her PhD and the videos and stories she shared in her session made me cry, laugh and (most importantly) helped me to consider AAC in a way that I never had before. I left her session so thankful that I had attended and had the opportunity to learn so much.
I recently came across a PODCAST with Kathy recorded by Christ Bugaj that I wanted to share with you - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/kathy-howery-making-modeling-better-more-meaningful/id1300126888?i=1000489251865
Also, for those of you attending the ISAAC Conference this year on the Gold Coast, Australia, you will have the opportunity to hear Kathy present. She is giving a full day pre-conference workshop - and I highly recommend heading along and learning as much as you can from both Kathy and from people who use AAC.
Hopefully I'll see lots of you at #ISAAC2018!
