University of Pretoria

My first reflection centres around the notion that the Centre for AAC team is a dedicated team. We are committed to the vision of improving the lives of persons with severe disabilities and their families. This ongoing commitment has been bolstered in the last four years as the team focused on developing innovative solutions and partnerships to realise our vision.  Second, the Centre for AAC team is a resilient team that can weather transitions and change. We experienced changes in staff and leadership in the wider university, at the Centre, as well as among our own team members. We embraced new colleagues and harnessed their strengths, which has brought a new energy to the Centre. We successfully applied for a position under the auspices of the New GenerationAcademic Programme, and we are so pleased to have a new member of the team.We are saddened by Prof Bornman's move to a new university. We acknowledge her three decades at the Centre. Collectively we admire her leadership qualities, astute skills as an internationally renowned researcher and prolific writer. We will miss her smile, laughter, creativity and bright personality at the Centre. We are pleased that she will continue her ties with the CAAC as a research affiliate for the next three years. Third, we have striven for excellence in our research, teaching and community engagements and successfully managed to integrate these three aspects in innovative ways. In 2023 it culminated in the Centre receiving the Humanities and Social Sciences – Digital Humanities for Community Engagement award for acollaborative teaching and research project with the Department of ..

The year 2022 was a productive one for the CAAC team, its student cohort and collaborators as we were engaged in a diversity of activities, research projects, publications, and stakeholder encounters. Our small, yet dynamic team conducted excellent research and teaching, and I am very grateful to each member for their resilience, passion and tenacity.We are excited about the New Generation of Academics Programme (nGAP) position that the CAAC successfully applied for. It is a prestigious programme under the Department of Higher Education and Training which involves the recruitment of highly capable scholars as new academics. The CAAC will now have the opportunity to add an additional person to the team in 2023 who will be mentored through a PhD and into an academic career. As a team we wrestled critically with our impact and reconsidered the future direction the CAAC should take. We have become more critical of the impact of our research and work. Besides building the academic knowledge base, what benefits do our activities offer to promote health, education and to build up communities? How does what we research and teach change the lives of persons at risk of or with disabilities and their families? We have also had to challenge many of our conventional ideas and comfort areas. We had to make tough decisions in terms of the types of activities we need to focus on and those we need to let go of. What we learnt, is that change is constant and that to thrive, we must embrace flexibility, evolve to changing circumstances and pursue greater sustainability. The pandemic has ..

The year 2021 was a significant year as it marked the 30th anniversary of the CAAC. The roles played by the co-founder and previous Director, Professor Erna Alant, followed by Professor Juan Bornman, as well as the various committed team members over the years have jointly contributed to the positive trajectory of theCAAC. The CAAC continues to grow in terms of its post graduate student cohort, research outputs, funded research as well as community-based activities, as outlined in this Annual Report. Another equally important component of 2021 was the CAAC team’s resilience and tenacity as we collectively navigated the second year of the Covid-19 pandemic. The team jointly found innovative ways to lead in their respective fields of Augmentativeand Alternative Communication and Early Childhood Intervention and continue to support our students and each other during a very uncertain year. Reflection, mindfulness in our daily actions and interactions, rest, and kindness to ourselves and others, were important factors to navigating 2021. According to researcher and podcaster, Brené Brown, “a leader is anyone who takes the responsibility of finding the potential in people and processes, and who has the courage to develop that potential.” The CAAC team clearly has many leaders who constantly inspire and test the limits of their earlier achievements. Various members of the team have embraced new and innovative ideas and explored an inclusive participatory research agenda and human-centered interactions - in our research, teaching, learning, as well as community engagements. Having reflected collectively on the meaning of our work, we remain committed to impacting the lives of individuals and their families through multiprofessional hybrid postgraduate teaching ..

The year 2020 marked a series of firsts for the world collectively, as well as for each of us individually. The impact of COVID-19 has been so pervasive that it has altered all aspects of our lives. Even the English language was not spared and an unscheduled update had to be made in its dictionaries to include new terms such as COVID-19, Corona virus, patient zero, community spread, contact tracing,social distancing and self-quarantine, to name a few. It has been a year of change, weathering uncertainty, ambiguity and vagueness. 2020 has been a year of loss, as we collectively grieved the changes in our ways of living and also the loss of lives. The simple acts of meeting family, innocently hugging our elders, having a coffee and chatting with a friend, or consoling loved ones suddenly evoked feelings of fear and uncertainty. Collectively we scrambled as we got accustomed to new ways of being, working and interacting. Professionally, we searched a plethora of online platforms to schedule online meetings, teaching and research collaborations. We struggled with ‘legacy hands’ and remembering to ‘unmute’ as we tried to remain connected and continue with our academic projects.

The year 2019 provided us an opportune time for reflection as it signifies the last year of the decade, coincides with the end of the second cycle of the University of    Pretoria’s strategic plan, UP 2025, and concludes my second term of tenure as the    Director of the Centre (2009-2019). Therefore, I meticulously gathered the words, activities and memories like one who picks up spilled beads, and it provided me the opportunity to ponder the colour, texture and uniqueness in each one. From its modest 1990-origins, starting with one professor (Prof Erna Alant) and myself as her temporary, part-time research assistant with no students, the Centre has developed into a vibrant, diverse multi-disciplinary team with three professors,    two extra-ordinary professors, two senior lecturers, three lecturers, a junior research fellow, and two professional staff members. Together, we have been serving 135    postgraduate students and two post-doctoral fellows who have all chosen to study at the    Centre. As economies globally become more knowledge-based, education is seen as an important driver of growth. Hence, the additional 321 students enrolled in different degree programmes and at different universities (both locally and internationally) – who were also taught by this cohort of academics – constitute a significant student corps.

At the Centre for AAC, we are well known for innovation and excellence: a philosophy that has underpinned many of our achievements and initiatives during the past year. However, our reputation depends mostly on people. People who teach and conduct research, in other words, our committed, passionate and talented academic staff, as well as the staff who support all these endeavours.    People who make use of our offering, such as our students, alumni, peers (locally and internationally) and the community and industry members who believe that we can add value. People who support our work by providing us opportunities to develop, specifically our Dean, Prof Vasu Reddy, the deputy deans, members of UP’s executive and our advisory board. Therefore, I would like to start this Director’s Message by saying thank you to each and every one of you. Because of you, our centre has succeeded in earning a strong reputation for academic excellence in teaching, learning and research, and for socially valid community involvement projects!   The beginning of a new year brings with it opportunities to put together a smorgasbord to tease the taste buds. Producing an annual report can be compared to the creation of a recipe, and although most scholars don’t refer to the use of recipes when describing their work, academia does make use of many of the same ingredients year by year. If you add new flavours and spices, something novel and creative can result.     However,    by accidentally leaving out certain ingredients, by adding others that the recipe did not call ..

I would like to invite you, by means of this Annual Report, which uses the 2017‐2021 UP Strategic Plan as a broad roadmap, to take that first step and join the 2017 journey of the Centre for AAC. This Annual Report is a key tool for sharing the journey through data points that provide insight into our recent progress with regards to research, teaching and learning, and community engagement projects, designed to impact on the economic and social development of persons with disabilities – especially those with significant communication disabilities. The information presented here is not merely a glimpse into our 2017 trajectory, however; it is also a testament to a longstanding commitment to our core values: respect, diversity, teamwork, and integrity. Wherever improvements have occurred, they are due to the commitment of great people, and it is rewarding to see that many of the names in this Annual Report have not changed since the previous year, showing a high degree of continuity and stability in terms of our key initiatives, despite a period of change in the broader academic landscape. I thank my outstanding colleagues at the Centre, our committed students and loyal alumni, the generous local and international partners in academia, government, the private sector, and non‐profit organisations, as well as our Advisory Board and the management and executive of the University, specifically our Dean, Prof Vasu Reddy, and the deputy deans, Prof Hennie Stander and Prof Maxi Schoeman – a truly dependable force. Together, they enable ..

The year 2016 will be remembered in South African history as the year in which higher education changed irrevocably due to the #FeesMustFall student campaigns across the country. This turbulence certainly brought about many challenges and uncertainty – as is reflected in the drop in numbers of visiting international scholars to the Centre when compared to other years – but this kairos year also brought about new opportunities. One such opportunity was related to rethinking our teaching and learning practices. In December 2016, the CAAC‐team received international recognition when we were named the winners of the prestigious Reimagine Education 2016 Wharton Regional Awards for Africa for our innovative teaching and learning practice. Our project “Enhancing Post‐Graduate Student Achievement: From Honours to PhD” was applauded for the hybrid model which it follows, built on the 5 A’s framework. This framework proposes that all education needs to be available, accessible, adaptable, acceptable and affordable to the learner. Availability is achieved by focusing on face‐to‐face and online learning opportunities, as well as on engagement platforms and resources that we created and now use with our students to ensure a sustained community of inquiry. The accessibility of learning facilitators and mentors who act as co‐constructors of new meaning and as collaborative problem solvers with our students enables deeper learning. Adaptability is provided through asynchronous learning opportunities that were created by a hybrid learning approach (such as online discussions) and that allow our students to participate when feasible for them, even after hours, without ..

The teaching chapter of our 2015 book proved to be an exciting one. At the Centre we are committed to providing the best possible inquiry‐ led teaching to ensure a meaningful learning experience for our 127 students from the Honours degree level to the PhD level. We consistently strive to incorporate cutting‐edge, evidence‐based teaching practices into our four blended learning degree courses, and received a Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Grant to conduct research on our pedagogy, which will continue to strengthen the quality of our teaching. During 2015 we also expanded our students’ exposure to international research projects, thereby delivering graduates who are problem solvers with a desire for accountable decision‐ making based on increased reasoning skills. The excitement was also evidenced by the fact that we had a bumper PhD year that exceeded our expectations, with five PhD students graduating! This bodes well for South Africa’s budding academic community.

2014 has been an intensive yet fascinating and rewarding year. A year of changes that engendered new opportunities. A year of re-structuring and transition, during which we streamlined our output and closer aligned it with the University of Pretoria’s 2025 plan. The staff component changed, bringing new momentum to our work and sharpening our focus, with Dr Shakila Dada becoming a full-time staff member, Dr Kerstin Tönsing being promoted to senior lecturer (as of 2015), Dr Alecia Samuels starting a two-year post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Jönköping in Sweden, Mrs Robyn White completing her Master’s degree, Mrs Karin van Niekerk embarking on a PhD journey, whilst Mrs Ensa Johnson is in the final stages of completing her PhD after returning from a one-year period of study leave. These appointments and qualification upgrades allow the Centre to confront head-on the challenges and opportunities of an increasing number of postgraduate students and shorter completion times for Master’s and PhD degrees.

This past year has been one of great transition within the Centre as far as research, teaching and staff are concerned. 2013 has seen a continuation of our research collaboration with Georgia State University (GSU) in Atlanta, USA, on a National Institute of Health (NIH) Fogarty grant. This grant allows the researchers to study speech and language delays in children with neurodevelopmental disorders from four language backgrounds in South Africa. It has also provided postgraduate students the opportunity to participate in collaborative international research, thereby providing a rich learning experience. In addition, the project’s staff exchange enabled UP staff members to visit GSU and vice versa and allowed them to not only sharpen their expertise at both research and practical implementation level, but also to complement our research network. The translation of research findings into practice is now receiving major attention from the media and from government, which gives the Centre a strategic advantage, as translational research and writing to improve public awareness have been our focus for many years. We were delighted at receiving the “Hamlet outstanding achievement award” in recognition of our service delivery to individuals with intellectual disabilities in South Africa. The Centre staff disseminated our research findings at a number of national and international seminars and conferences, with a focus on the African continent (Zimbabwe, Kenya and Morocco) during 2013. A variety of workshops and skills shops were also conducted – a crucial focus area in a country such as South Africa with a critical ..

The Centre for AAC continues to pursue its long-term strategic plan of sustained investment in collaborative research, teaching, community engagement and networking as a platform for new initiatives. Building on the streamlined and highly integrated workflow model, we developed, honed and intensified our activities in these strategic areas over the past two decades. The 2012 Annual Report provides insight into the academic initiatives we have undertaken during the past academic year in order to achieve our mission. We are committed to implementing new ideas and measuring the results, in order that our core functions may be strengthened continually. Our status as a research and teaching centre has benefited us, the Faculty of Humanities and the University community at large by enabling us to collaborate closer with departments, other centres and universities. We achieved our mission by being truly interdisciplinary in orientation, mode, and scope. In order to expand our research output, we implemented strategies to establish and maintain collaboration with other faculty members and colleagues from other institutions on ambitious national and international projects. This year’s most visible example is the completion of the SIDA-funded project with colleagues from Jönköping University in Sweden on the human rights of children with mild intellectual disability; this project involved 440 participants and allowed 34 post-graduate students from South Africa and Sweden to participate, with respectively three and six students obtaining PhD’s and masters’ degrees. Furthermore, it also resulted in 15 scientific ISI-accredited publications, and 23 conference presentations.

In 2011 the Centre for Augmentative and Alternative Communication celebrated its 21st birthday! Reflection on the past befits the celebration of such a landmark event, not only to be inspired anew by past progress, but also to gain a fresh view on current issues and future perspectives – not unlike Janus, the two-faced god in the ancient Roman world who, by looking to the past and at the future, symbolised beginnings and transitions. The real story of the Centre for AAC started in 1981 with Prof. Lyle Lloyd (Purdue University, USA) presenting the first lecture on AAC in Pretoria. In September 1984, Interface, the local association for people with severe communication disabilities, was established in Cape Town. Three years later, Ms Christine Koudstaal and Ms Cecile van Reenen established an Interface branch in Pretoria. They approached Prof. Erna Alant to discuss the establishment of a centre that would conduct research and provide a series of training opportunities in the community. In 1990 the University of Pretoria, in affiliation with Interface Pretoria, established the Centre for AAC with two staff members, no students and a vision to change the landscape for individuals with severe communication disorders in South Africa. By 2011 the Centre had outgrown its baby shoes with 11 staff members, one extra-ordinary professor and a post-doctoral fellow, 405 students in five different academic programmes and more than 2,500 individuals who benefited from the centre’s services through community engagement projects, tender training projects, conference presentations, AAC awareness programmes and consultations.

This Annual Report 2009 reflects some of the work we engaged in, in order to reach these goals. Some highlights include the following: • Increased collaboration with the National Department of Education, which impacted most significantly in capacity building in South African classrooms. This is seen by the enrolment of 125 teachers into our Advanced Certificate in Education specializing in Inclusion of Learners with Severe Disabilities (Gauteng Department of Education), the enrolment of 28 teachers into the Honours degree (sponsored by the Eastern Cape Department of Education) as well as the Assistive Technology Tender for Limpopo, funded by the National Department of Education. Consultation with the South African Revenue Service (SARS) on the amendment to Section 18 of the Income Tax Act, which resulted in the development of new guidelines for this act. Many research projects were undertaken by staff and students, resulting in three completed PhD’s, four ISI accredited journal publications, a book, as well as three book chapters. These achievements were reached despite the fact that 2009 held many organizational challenges, e.g. the centre was re-allocated from the Faculty of Education to the Faculty of Humanities, and a new Director is yet to be appointed (I functioned as the Acting Director from January to December 2009).