October 10 and 11 were two very delightful days for our team at the Vision Australia Texpo. The Texpo showcases a range of Vision Australia (VA) services and independent exhibitors showcasing their own product. It is a free annual event and many teachers, early childhood educators, specialists, parents and children come to see what new or existing technologies exist to assist people with vision impairments in their every day lives. There were many interesting and exciting things happening and on display during the day including real-life scenarios based on home and work environments, remarkable gadgets to improve unavoidable daily tasks and even an unconventional game of cricket!

It was a pleasure seeing familiar faces and meeting many new ones. On 10th October, our founder Mandy Lau had the pleasure of introducing our design to the Vision Australia CEO Mr. Ron Hooton and we look forward to seeing more VA offices applying Reach & Match.

Reach & Match Founder Mandy Lau (left), Vision Australia CEO Ron Hooton (middle) and Professior. Michael Vitale (left) with his seeing eye dog Florrie.

One major highlight of the Texpo was being able to engage many children with our games and activities. The bright colours of the mats and tiles attracted many children, and although shy at first they quickly warmed to us and many parents were so happy to see their children being so interactive, social and excited. We tried many new games that we have just developed and the children were ecstatic. Many passers-by would pop into our exhibit to find out what the ruckus was.

Here we have Neva and Frank delighting in a game of “Riverbend”: When we called out “river” they had to jump onto the mat pathway and pretend to swim, when we called riverbank they had to jump to the left side of the mat and when we called riverbed they had to jump to the right side. The first person to jump to the correct side won a tile.

It was fantastic testing Rory on his audio skills. After letting him feel the different shapes and sounds of each tile we would shake a tile and ask him to identify it. Rory was brilliant and could identify two different tiles at the same time! Another new game that we played was a role play game. We created a shop with the R&M play mats and the sensory tiles were our currency. Neva was the shop keeper and sold toys. It was her job to “price” the toys and provide the correct change. Also, we had a lot of fun with Leahcim and he enjoyed matching the tiles to their pockets in our 3D configuration as well.

We had a great time at the Texpo, if you are interestedt to see more photos you can visit our facebook: www.facebook.com/reachandmatch Please support us by liking & sharing our page. Thank you again and if you would like to visit Reach & Match, our next events will be at Statewide Vision Resource Centre Expo on 24 November and SPEVI conference in January 2015!!