ANNETTE Thompson will head to the US and Canada this year to improve the way she teaches blind and visually impaired people after receiving a Churchill Fellowship.
The fellowships allow Australians to travel overseas to experience new opportunities, to make contacts with the best in their fields, and to bring the experience back to benefit Australia.
Ms Thompson, who is a training and development officer at the Association for the Blind in Victoria Park, said her trip to North America would allow her to discuss problems faced with software and teaching resources with people in the same field.
She said the association developed all its own resources, which they were currently rewriting to keep up with software changes.
She also wanted to see how other trainers worked with different technology and how they were preparing to switch to the new form of Microsoft Office.
“It’s very difficult to use for blind and visually impaired people,” she said. “Each button has a different key stroke so there’s a lot to remember.
“It’s about putting our heads together and seeing how we can best help the community we are serving.”