SPEVI News
SPEVI Communities of Practice (CoP's)
Next meeting SPEVI Early Intervention VI Community of Practice: Thursday 29 May 2025
Topic: Let’s Talk about CHARGE Syndrome in the early years
Time: 3:30-4:30 pm AEST (QLD, VIC, NSW), 5.30pm-6.30 pm NZ time
For more information and to register in advance (required) please visit the EIVI COP webpage.
Next meeting SPEVI Deafblind Education Community of Practice: Tuesday 17 June 2025
Topic: TBC
Time: 3:30-4:30 pm AEST (Queensland, NSW, VIC), 5.30pm-6.30 pm NZ time.
Speaker: Dr Shruti Bobade. As part of her PhD study, Shruti designed a curriculum-based functional assessment (CBFAC) for students with deafblindness. Shruti studied various curriculum approaches and designs used in different countries to meet the educational needs of students with deafblindness with the aim of Inclusive Education. For all details and to register (required in advance), please visit the DBE CoP webpage.
Next Meeting SPEVI CoP for Parents and Carers of children/young people with blindness and low vision
Date in 2025: TBC.
Visit the Parents CoP webpage for more information.
Watch again: SPEVI 2025 Conference: 'EmPOWERment through connection, inclusion and education'.
The 2025 SPEVI conference, held from 13-15 January 2025 in Brisbane, Queensland, has come and gone! We welcomed many of you, either in person or online. We are extremely grateful for all the fantastic keynote speakers, presenters, supporters, volunteers, sponsors and exhibitors that made all of this possible. Registered participants have now been given access to the recordings of all sessions. Please appreciate that these cannot be shared with others. People who are wishing to purchase asynchronous conference registration to access the content should contact the SPEVI Secretary at spevisecretary@gmail.com.
Winners announced of Inaugural Frances Gentle Award for Innovations in Professional Learning (Early Career and Established Career).
Thank you to all the great nominees for this prestigious award. Being nominated is an award in itself. The proud award winners were announced at the closing session of the SPEVI 2025 Conference:
- The Frances Gentle Award for Innovations in Professional Learning (Early Career) was awarded to Lily Gower.
- The Frances Gentle Award for Innovations in Professional Learning (Established Career) went to Bill Sakoulas.
The winners received a $250 bursary for continuing Professional Development.
Our sincere congratulations to both!
For more information please go to the Award webpage.
Volume 16, Number 1, 2023 of the Journal of the South Pacific Educators in Vision Impairment
Includes articles by leading educators and researchers.
All Issues of the JSPEVI Journal are available for free.
Review and download Issues of the JSPEVI Journal here
Repository SPEVI Conference Papers
Video recordings, papers, handouts and posters from previous SPEVI biennial conferences between 2012-2023 are available in the SPEVI Conference Paper repository!
SPEVI members benefit: discounted Professional Development events
SPEVI is proud to announce our continuing partnership for 2024 with NextSense Continuing Professional Education (CPE) events and Statewide Vision Resource Centre (SVRC, Victoria) professional learning (PL) events. This means that like the previous years, current SPEVI members can register for these PD events with a considerable discounted fee. If you are not a current member of SPEVI Inc., please join now and enjoy this members benefit in the New Year. With thanks to NextSense and SVRC for supporting SPEVI’s aim of encouraging the highest standards in the educators of persons with vision impairment by promoting research and professional training for general and specialist teachers.
Member discounts for NextSense Continuing Professional Education
SPEVI Inc (Australia) continues to offer member discounts for NextSense Institute's Continuing Professional Education (CPE) events in 2024. Each SPEVI Inc. member is entitled to five discount event registrations for NextSense.
This year SPEVI Inc sponsors members for discounted registration for multiple On Demand presentations and two live 2024 workshops/presentations: Peter Cracknell's Blind and Low Vision Masterclass Series 2024, and 'Let’s Get Thinking! Executive Functions, Divergent Thinking, and TVI Influence through Instruction and Graphic Literacy for Students with Visual Impairments' by Dr. Kim Zebehazy
Members can register by visiting the NextSense Professional Development website
We recommend you to book early, as the SPEVI Inc. Committee of Management has set an upper limit of funds for the discount event registrations.
Please contact Trudy Smith, Manager of NextSense Institute CPE program, if you have any questions – trudy.smith@nextsense.org.au.
Member discounts for SVRC’s professional learning (PL) events
SPEVI Inc. (Australia) and Statewide Vision Resource Centre (SVRC, Victoria) are again partnering to offer SPEVI Inc members a 50% discount on the registration costs of five of the ten SVRC’s professional learning (PL) events in 2024.
This offer is for members of SPEVI Inc. only, and is limited to 5 events per member per year. The registration cost for most events is around $33.00 ('Teaching and Learning with braille music' workshop: $55).
For details about the events, please review the SVRC Professional Learning calendar on the SVRC website - Upcoming Events — Statewide Vision Resource Centre (svrc.vic.edu.au)
SVRC uses Eventbrite for their professional learning registrations.
If you are a current SPEVI Inc. member and want to benefit from this offer, please contact the SPEVI Secretary to request a promo code to register at the 50% reduced fee through Eventbrite.
If you have any queries regarding the registration process or the SVRC events, please email svrc@education.vic.gov.au
The South Pacific Educators in Vision Impairment (SPEVI Inc) is the major professional association for educators of students with vision impairments in Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific region. SPEVI is the leading professional body to advocate for excellence and equity in education for students with blindness and low vision, including deafblindness and multiple disabilities.
SPEVI membership is open to professionals and parents/caregivers supporting children and adults with vision impairment, including general teachers and specialist teachers (vision impairment), allied health professionals, orientation mobility specialists and assistive technology consultants.
SPEVI is a dynamic organisation, actively working for its members. It is registered as an incorporated organisation in Australia (Registration Number INC9889733) and New Zealand.