AAATE promotes a special thematic session at the 2023 AAATE conference which will be held in Paris between the 30th of August and the 1st of September.

The scope of the session is to bring together researchers and practitioners that work for the advancement of Assistive Technology and AAC for children in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Increasingly countries in those areas adopt national legislation that aims to promote early childhood intervention, inclusive education and the provision of AT to children, but often there are difficulties in implementing those policies due to lack of AT capacity, ecosystems and services required to support the transitions involved.

AAATE and the Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia of UNICEF have started to collaborate with the aim to support the wider uptake of AT and AAC in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, starting from the development and consolidation of a network of experts. We are inviting colleagues that work in Eastern Europe and Central Asia to submit an abstract for an oral presentation in the scientific part of the conference, with or without the option to submit a full paper.

The session will be followed by a policy session in the Inclusion Forum of the conference during which we will discuss ways forward and further collaborations.

Chairs

• Evert-Jan Hoogerwerf (AAATE),
• Maurice Grinberg (Assist Foundation)
• Nora Shabani (UNICEF-European and Central Asia office, invited, to be confirmed)

Information: sts18 at aaate2023 dot eu