Fall 2007 Canadian Corner

Canadian Corner: Positive Progress
By Jane Parsard, AER Canadian Board Representative

The good work of the AER Canadian office continues to produce positive results.  In the last year, Canadian membership has increased by approximately 16 percent, which reflects the office’s continued efforts to promote AER throughout the country and enhanced retention efforts.

Staff member John Martin took an active role in the 2006 CNIB conference, where he participated in an information sharing session.  He has also promoted the association through involvement in the Association for Special Education Technology (ASET) Committee of Ontario, as well as by attending itinerant teacher meetings, and serving as co-chair of the Canadian Vision Teachers Conference 2007. 

We are very pleased to report that in partnership and discussion with the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB), any CNIB staff member who wish to join AER will have half of their membership dues paid by the employer. We applaud the leadership role CNIB has taken in recognizing the professional networking and development opportunities AER membership affords and for supporting their employees.

The Canadian office has also been involved in advocating endeavours at all three levels of government (federal, provincial, municipal) through letter writing campaigns. John Martin was involved in the historic decision for the provincial government of Ontario to provide early childhood opportunities province-wide for children living with visual impairment. He participated in the round table discussion of the project completed by Drs. Gold and Shaw for Identifying the Facilitators of Successful Employment for Persons who are Blind or Visually Impaired in Ottawa, Ontario, in March 2007.

Future planned projects are poised to help keep this positive momentum moving forward. These include:

• Continue partnership with CNIB is planned to promote awareness of blindness/visual impairment concerns throughout Canada by attending and promoting AER at various meetings and workshops.
• Continue yearly lecture series in partnership with the CNIB (Cortical Visual Impairment presented by Dr. Christine Roman in April 2006 and Digital Portfolio Project by Troy LaPlante in June 2007).
• Discussions continue regarding the possibility of an amalgamation of the western chapters of Canada and the northwest chapter of the USA. This would provide a larger membership concentrated into one chapter and allow for greater growth and development in the west.

As you can see, your “neighbors to the North” have been extremely busy growing AER in our region of the world.  I would like to recognize John Martin and Anna Disimone for their hard work and dedication to the association and the field of vision services in Canada.  We couldn’t have come this far without them!