Dear Ellen,
Thanks so much for this information! I knew you were active in this direction from some of our previous conversations. I know we'll see each other at Midwinter, but I would especially like to sit down and pull some ideas together with you. I'll see you at your ALISE session on Thursday morning and we can set something up!
Best!
Audrey
>>> [log in to unmask] 01/05/01 22:33 PM >>>
Dear Audrey:
Fantastic idea! Since I first went to ATIA in 1999 then CSUN in LA last March
and in my CSUN AT training I have been networking with many AT exhibitors and
have urged everyone to exhibit at both ALA and the Texas Library Association.
I also have encouraged ALA vendors and library automation vendors I meet at ALA
and the LITA Conference in November to exhibit, or at least attend AT
conferences (and see what they are missing .. much better than Disney World or
Disneyland!).
ERT and bringing the matter up at the ERT general membership meeting at
Midwinter would be a good idea. As an ERT member I have talked with ERT
officers and members and I believe also ALA Exhibits Manager Carl Ruffin about
the idea and in Texas have talked with Cindy Boyle, the TLA Exhibits Manager.
Everyone has seemed most interested.
In fact, some of the vendors I met at ATIA/CSUN came to ALA Chicago like
AlphaSmart, Galileo, and Adapt-a-Lap. Seiko, now Wizcom Technologies,
manufacturer of The Reading Pen, exhibited at an earlier ALA. A representative
from Galileo/SensAbility Distributors, I believe, attended our LSPVPDF meeting
in Chicago.
Mitake Holloman Burts, representing Keystone Library Automation Systems, will be
speaking at the AT program I organized for TLA on March 29th.
I will be attending ATIA in Orlando on January24th-27th and CSUN on March
22-24th and would be most happy to do whatever I can to help with the effort.
In fact at ATIA, I will be leading a table talk at a luncheon - with vendors
and other attendees, on enlisting ideas how the AT exhibitors can get into
the mainstream market and increase their sales! Any ALA literature I can
distribute would be fantastic.
One of the companies' main concerns of course has been the cost of exhibiting,
especially for the dedicated AT companies and personnel who are in the
business, not for the profit motive but for the people - including themselves -
they serve. If participation in the Accessibility Pavilion could have a
discounted price ...
I will bring with me to ALISE/Midwinter copies of the exhibitor guides (that
list all of the exhibitors with contact info) from ATIA '99 and CSUN 2000.
Thank you, Audrey! You are making one of my dreams come true: AT going
completely mainstream marketplace where AT really should be. ...
AT/accessibility is where it's AT!
Ellen Perlow
Chair, ALA ASCLA Century Scholarship Committee
"Celebrating a New Century that Celebrates Diversity"
http://www.ala.org/ascla/centuryscholarship.html
Next Application Submission Deadline: March 1, 2001
ALA 2001 Scholarship Application page:
http://www.ala.org/work/awards/scholars.html
Have YOU recruited/applied to be a Century Scholarship applicant today?
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Texas Woman's University
P.O. Box 425438
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Tel.: 940-898-2622 Fax: 940-898-2611
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