The intent is to "test the waters" or gauge interest in this. Based on the organization's own statewide conference, these topics are requested most often, but addressed in short formats...often not enough for educators to present questions, see them "in action," and more.
Texas AGBell frequently seeks out ways to fund various
outreach activities. This memo will outline one project, a hearing loss
awareness workshop, to be conducted in conjunction with a statewide conference.
This workshop will “test the waters,” so to speak, to gauge interest in a much
broader workshop that can be conducted within each education service region in
the state of Texas.
Due to often limited funds, the outreach activities of Texas
AGBell have generally been through their own biannual statewide conferences and
exhibiting at other similar conferences. To expand the outreach to different
areas of the state, the organization seeks to focus on the issue of
communication needs/strategies related to oral education and legal awareness
for educators because these are topics that are most often addressed during
conferences on a regular basis, but in condensed formats. In addition,
attendance by many educators to statewide conferences is not high for a variety
of reasons. Most attendees to conferences tend to be professionals who fund
their own attendance and travel. Educators receive district funds for travel to
conferences such as this, but unfortunately, the districts are either limiting
their travel to local conferences or to one particular organization over Texas AGBell.
In many cases, the preference is a result of communication preference or not
having a complete awareness of the benefits of oral education for deaf/hard of
hearing children.
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