Flo Taber Brown
Author and former AT Consultant
Date:
Snippet 1: "Share your thoughts on the 1983 CEC conference in Hartford, Connecticut" (3:45)
Snippet 2: "Did you give a keynote at another Connecticut Conference?" (1:55)
Download: Full Transcript
Flo's AT story began in 1980 when she worked for MCE, Inc. in Kalamazoo, designing and writing special education software for this company that was the first to do so, and later being their director of marketing. Going on to work for the Indiana Computer Training Project associated with Indiana University, she sold voice recognition systems, had booths at CEC, and was asked to write her well-known book, The Use of Microcomputers in Special Education Selection and Decision Making Process.
The 1983 Hartford CEC technology conference is described as the "birthing" of assistive technology, microcomputers, and the special education movement---a few hundred were expected and over a thousand came, hungry for information. She shares the excitement of the TAM beginnings and her work for the Miami Dade School system, evaluating children for assistive technology, giving special education presentations, and training those beginning in AT.
Flo includes her personal and professional relationship with Warren Brown, her engineer husband, who made technology and switches "and if you could design it and talk about it, he could make it." She ends this interview with insights into how far we have to go and the challenges of accessing technology for everyone.