NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF DISABILITY PRACTITIONERS

NADP Conference Autumn 2008: Feedback from evaluation forms

Assessment and Support of Visually Impaired Students

Number of Delegates: 72
Evaluation Forms Completed: 50

Download Conference Autumn 2008 Feedback (MS Word .doc, 64 Kb).

How would you rate the conference venue and facilities?

Excellent: 16
Good: 28
Adequate: 4
Poor: 2
Did not respond: 1

Conference Content

Perspectives of visually impaired students

Excellent: 23
Good: 25
Adequate: 2
Poor: 0

Assessing students in FE and HE

Excellent: 20
Good: 25
Adequate: 4
Poor: 0

Mobility, Orientation and Guide-Dogs

Excellent: 18
Good: 29
Adequate: 4
Poor: 0

Braille: what and why?

Excellent: 19
Good: 25
Adequate: 4
Poor: 1

Student voice

Excellent: 26
Good: 18
Adequate: 1
Poor: 0

Specialist Assistive Technology Demonstrations

Excellent: 11
Good: 24
Adequate: 5
Poor: 1

Did not respond to sessions: 16

Did the Conference Meet your expectations?

Exceeded: 10
Met: 38
Did not meet: 1
Much Worse: 0
Did not respond: 1

How helpful/useful did you find the conference?

Excellent: 16
Good: 32
Adequate: 2
Poor: 0
Did not respond: 0

How well do you think the conference was organised?

Excellent: 20
Good: 24
Adequate: 4
Poor: 1
Did not respond: 1

Would you like to attend future one-day conferences?

Definitely: 40
Maybe: 8
No: 0
Did not respond: 2

Specific Comments about the Conference

• Would have liked a greater depth to the subjects. Many of us maybe already work in VI field so know about generalities
• Could have had more input on FE
• Informative and varied
• Very useful interaction with members and technology consultants
• Good, clear information and detailed guidance for assessing the VI student from both perspectives assessor/assessed
• Very informative to experience from a delegate view
• Provided with up to date info about supporting VI students
• Opportunity to focus on the area with experts in the field and to update knowledge. All very interesting
• Most information discussed was known to me
• Enjoyed the student experiences - a personal account was more accessible and felt more comfortable hearing from them rather than talking about them
• Did not expect to hear the views of actual VI people, they were very interesting
• I have not been to an NADP event before I had only attended SLC events and this even exceeded the standard set by SLC
• Thought the 'demo' sessions were very good as it gave a break from sitting listening
• Good info but problems with microphones
• Would have liked more time with specialist assistive technology demonstrations
• Good general overview but not sure if I could confidently start assessing VI
• Excellent day, good speakers and suppliers
• Lovely venue, excellent food, refreshments and facilities
• Enjoy focussing on one disability support with events like this to raise understanding and profile, support opportunities, etc.
• Not very wheelchair user friendly! Height restrictions for wheelchair users
• Good to see that it is wheelchair accessible

Main reasons given for attending the conference?

• To find practical/theoretical/technical ideas to employ when supporting VI students
• Not been to one before, also deal a lot with VI students
• Increased knowledge of assessment
• To update information in order to improve support and guidance for VI students
• To broaden my knowledge and understanding and networking
• To gain further knowledge of assistive technology for VI students
• We support VI students in the Manchester area and find it difficult to recruit specific/relevant people to support VI students
• Supporting two VI students for first time this year
• Update knowledge - which it did. Also new areas such as mobility training were very interesting and informative
• To learn more about assistive IT for VI students and hear the student perspective
• To get to know the ways you work in England (coming from abroad)
• Increased number of students with VI and so thought it may be useful
• More confidence with VI students
• Professional development
• Greater awareness of scope of VI difficulties. More info on factors to pursue to determine appropriate support - exposure to latest assistive technology
• Job role is expanding away from just dyslexia
• The conference has been very well put together. It has improved my awareness of VI student support requirements

What did you find most useful?

• Student voice - excellent to have totally honest feedback
• Case studies
• Braille: what and why
• Assessment of students and assistive technology demonstrations
• Two first parts of conference - informative, clear and useful
• Hearing some useful tips/ideas from Sue Hartley regarding mobility/orientation support
• All of it
• DSA - assessing students
• Mobility talk, more info on the training, practical session with blindfold and cane, etc would have been very good
• Assistive technology/Braille info
• All the talks and demos were useful in different ways. Glad I attended
• How the disability officer can tailor the DSA assessment and what can be included in it that I had not considered previously
• Listening to information about the software
• Using a conference to liaise and exchange ideas. Questions regarding funding were frequent and might be a topic later on. Possible workshop for assistive technology - hands on with tasks because people only get overview and it is not enough.

What did you find least useful?

• Software demonstration - would have been better if they had been over lunchtime as drop in
• Braille: why and why, although very interesting too specific. A couple of examples passed around the room would have been cost effective
• Supplier exhibition - nothing really new - Too rushed and hard to hear the speakers over the software
• Technology was needed but as I have no background a bit over my head
• Assistive technology - some of the info was not properly introduced so it was a bit confusing. I specifically work within NMH so I do not know much about it to begin with
• Mobiltity/Braille, student voice experiences - rather long did not seem very relevant as specialised
• Paul Jarman's talk - thought he was a bit harsh especially his comment about the RNIB
• AV difficulties, PA problems, dodgy wall - but all ok
• An example of an assessment form would have been useful
• Very tedious waiting for laptop to be set up, obviously Hotel's fault though. Also not much info on FE
• Not a lot of interaction from audience - which can sometimes be helpful at conferences
• Would have been better to have smaller groups to view equipment demos. Plus they ran out of material for us to take away
• Was a bit rushed due to late start but would have liked more discussion and questions after each presentation
• Sadly not as good as previous NADP conferences due to problems on the day but I will not stop me attending future events in Manchester!

Download Conference Autumn 2008 Feedback (MS Word .doc, 64 Kb).