A Profile of Phyl T. Macomber

Phyl T. Macomber is a nationally recognized, award-winning speaker and President of PracticalATSolutions.com. She provides consultation and training services on topics of adapted curriculum and teaching, augmentative communication, collaborative team building, and specialized software in New England and on a national basis.

Phyl has authored an adapted curriculum framework called T.H.E. P.A.C.T.™ – Technology Helps Easy & Practical Adapted Curriculum Teaching - which outlines how to design "Learn About, Read About, Write About, and Talk About™" modules for special needs learners of any age. She is also authoring the PracticalATSolutions.com book series, with the first book in the series on T.H.E. P.A.C.T. Phyl is donating 50% of the profits from this book series to fund ovarian cancer research in honor of her mother who passed away from ovarian cancer in 2007.

In her work, Phyl incorporates principles from a national service delivery model in assistive technology. Phyl identifies solutions that are practical and easy to implement, delivers clear explanations and realistic expectations to team members, trains essential skills, and develops materials that can be immediately put to use.

Phyl began her career in the field of assistive technology over two decades ago at Johns Hopkins Hospital - Kennedy-Krieger Institute in Baltimore, Maryland. Serving on the staff in the augmentative communication department, Phyl provided diagnostic and training services for both national and international referrals.

After moving to New England in 1988, Phyl worked as an educational consultant for an augmentative communication manufacturer in the four-state region of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, and Vermont. In 1992, Phyl formed her own business to provide specialized consultation and training services in the field of assistive technology on the coast of Maine.

In 1997, Phyl moved to the state of Vermont and has since served as an Assistive Technology Specialist in New England, bringing her personalized philosophy of consultation, training, and collaboration to children and adults with varying disabilities. Phyl specializes in the areas of adapted curriculum & teaching, augmentative communication, collaborative team building, control interfaces & switches, educational & vocational supports, environmental accommodations, keyboard & mouse emulation, and specialized software applications. In addition, Phyl fabricates low-cost assistive technology solutions that are simple and practical to implement.

In the area of staff development, Phyl conducts customized trainings and course series for various programs, school districts, and agencies. Phyl provides clear, step-by-step instructions on the basic operation and plan of implementation for a range of assistive technology supports. In addition, Phyl regularly is invited to present at national, statewide and regional conferences on a variety of assistive technology topics.

In 2003, Phyl's work was recognized by Parent-To-Parent of Vermont for her family-centered collaboration. Phyl was selected as the recipient of that statewide organization's 2003 Partners in Care Award.

Phyl currently serves as a member of the Advisory Council to the Vermont Assistive Technology Project. She has served in this leadership role since 2004.

In 2007, Phyl donated her time to collaborate with ABC Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. The ABC crew spent a week with volunteers building a home for a family in Vermont. In conjunction with an augmentative communication manufacturer, Phyl assisted onsite with the identification, delivery, and set up of communication technologies for the child in his new home. In addition, Phyl consulted with the family and the child's team and fabricated adapted paint handles to hold paint brushes to further increase the child's independence in producing his artwork. This child's art work, along with art work produced by other children with disabilities, is posted on the web site www.angelboyart.com. In an attempt to incorporate this child's artwork into this makeover, the staff of ABC Extreme Makeover: Home Edition surprised the family with an art exhibit at the Brattleboro Art Museum the evening before the house viewing.

In the fall of 2007, Phyl was notified that her presentation proposal was accepted as a workshop session at one of the nation's leading assistive technology conferences: the Assistive Technology Industry Association (ATIA). Phyl's work, in collaboration with that of a colleague, in the area of designing and using Visual Scene Displays (VSDs), outlines a research-based communication approach using personalized and generic backgrounds in low to high assistive technology supports. Phyl and her colleague, Keith Woodbury, software developer of Tobii ATI, presented this educational session in Orlando, Florida at ATIA in January 2008.

In the spring of 2008, Phyl collaborated with Byron Wilkes, President of Learning Magic, Inc., to author educational software activities for students with varying disabilities. This software application, The Writing Bin II, contains various adapted computer-writing activities, serves as an add-on software application, and is used in conjunction with the Classroom Suite software program from IntelliTools.

On this CD, Phyl authored three functional life skill activities which offer students voice-recorded instructions, digital photo writing prompts, and talking color-coded word banks for sentence formulation. Phyl's activities also provide the opportunity for teachers and parents to add additional digital photos to the writing section of each of these activities to further personalize the writing process to each student's life experience.

Phyl continues to teach the foundations and principles of assistive technology on a national level. In the summer of 2007, Phyl was notified that her presentation proposal was accepted as a workshop session at another one of the nation's leading assistive technology conferences: Closing The Gap (CTG).  Phyl, along with her co-presenter, Keith Woodbury, software developer of Tobii ATI, presented an educational session related to research-based augmentative communication strategies in Minneapolis, Minnesota at Closing The Gap in October 2008.

In January 2009, Phyl and her colleague conducted a hands-on computer lab to train augmentative communication software programs at the Assistive Technology Industry Association (ATIA) conference in Orlando, Florida. The participants in this session received customized training on how to design and program practical, interactive communication boards, using both basic and sophisticated software features, using Boardmaker Plus! and Communicator 4.

Phyl has, for years, donated time to collaborate with leading companies in the field of assistive technology. Examples of this collaboration include (1) participating in beta testing groups for new software and supports; (2) attending, by invitation, focus groups to provide feedback to manufacturers on specific industry topics; and (3) having input in the development and creation of new tools in the field of assistive technology with developers.

In October 2009, Phyl debuted her adapted curriculum framework, T.H.E. P.A.C.T. in Minneapolis at Closing The Gap and at ATIA in Chicago along with the launch of her resource materials available on T.H.E. P.A.C.T.

Phyl continues to enjoy and expand her relationships with various companies, manufacturers, and software developers in her ongoing work. She strongly believes that this collaboration is an important part of her role in bringing a national perspective to her skill-building trainings and customized consultations with teams serving individuals with varying disabilities.