SPEVI News
Join us at SPEVI 2025: 'EmPOWERment through connection, inclusion and education'.
The 2025 SPEVI conference will be held from 13-15 January 2025 in Brisbane, Queensland as a hybrid event, for attendance in-person or online. The Conference Theme is 'SPEVI 2025: EmPOWERment through connection, inclusion and education'. The program is incredible, and NOW is the time to organise your conference registration! In-person tickets have sold out, but you can still be just as involved by registering for the online conference. Three full days of concurrent sessions are to be enjoyed. On Thursday 16 January we will hold a Braille Awareness Community Event in the Brisbane CBD. All information about the Conference, including the opportunity for youth with blindness and low vision to volunteer at the event, can be found on the dedicated conference website. We are grateful for the fantastic supporters, sponsors and exhibitors that have signed up.
Not a member of SPEVI Inc. yet? join SPEVI now to benefit from members' discounts!
Please use the hashtag #spevi2025# if you are talking about us!
Attending as participant or presenter? Share the news, use our social media links and tiles!
SPEVI Deafblind Education CoP: 19 November
On behalf of Julie Tait, facilitator, and the SPEVI organisers, we would like to extend our sincere apologies for the issues experienced at the 4th session of the SPEVI Deafblind Education Community of Practice on Tuesday 19 November 2024.
The session with Guest Speaker Rob Last, on Communication for Children with CHARGE Syndrome, could not go ahead due to global problems with the Zoom platform, regretfully outside SPEVI's control. This was very disappointing for all involved, as we know how much you had all wanted to attend this important session. We also apologise to Rob Last. We are very thankful for him kindly sharing important resources. To learn more please visit the DBE CoP webpage.
Nominations for the Frances Gentle Award for Innovations in Professional Learning (Early Career and Established Career) are closed.
Thank you for your interest! The award winners will be announced at the SPEVI 2025 Conference. For more information please go to the Award webpage.
Call for Papers Open for JSPEVI Journal
The Journal of the South Pacific Educators in Vision Impairment (JSPEVI) provides essays, quantitative and qualitative research articles and analyses, conceptual papers, literature and book reviews, case studies, policy analyses and innovative practice descriptions and evaluations as well as perspectives and opinions on a wide variety of issues and topics related to the education of children, youth and adults in Australia, New Zealand and Pacific Island Countries who are blind or have low vision. Since 2024 JSPEVI has a partnership with Informit. This partnership increases discoverability through major academic databases and discovery services, ensuring that content reaches a diverse audience.
For more information and submission guidelines, visit the JSPEVI webpage.
SPEVI Communities of Practice (CoP's)
Next meeting SPEVI Early Intervention VI Community of Practice:
Next meeting date: In 2025. Date TBC
For more information and to register in advance (required) please visit the EIVI COP webpage.
Next Meeting SPEVI CoP for Parents and Carers of children/young people with blindness and low vision
Date: TBC.
Visit the Parents CoP webpage for more information.
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.