Bronwyn
Bronwyn
I am a driven and dynamic leader with over 20 years of progressive experience providing thought leadership and driving human-centred transformational change. As an innovator and natural facilitator, I excel in bringing cross-functional teams together to achieve business goals by exploring new ideas and enhancing operational efficiency and growth. My passion lies in scaling human-centred solutions to address our most pressing challenges. Additionally, I actively champion sustainability, diversity and inclusion, with a particular focus on supporting the Disability Community. With a strong track record of success, I am committed to making a positive impact and driving meaningful change in both business and society.
Last year with the launch of iOS 6 Apple launched a number of key features that included Guided Access, which was described as an accessibility aid that could also open up iOS Devices like including iPod Touches, iPhones and iPads to be used in a whole range of new ways.
What is Guided Access?
Guided Access allows users to selectively disable portions of a device’s screen from use, disable hardware buttons (including the home and volume buttons) and even disable certain portions of apps. When first presented at the keynote address, the use case example given was to aid in teaching children with disabilities, specifically Autism. This really hit home for me. I know that my children love using the iOS Devices (or iDevices as I generally call them) but can be easily distracted or use the device inappropriately … predominantly stimming (self-stimulatory behaviour), watching the same piece of video over … and over … and over again.
How can you use Guided Access today?
- Let a child use a iPhone Touch or iPad as an ACC (Augmentative and alternative communication device) and not be distracted by other applications
- Let a child watch a movie/tv show but not let them have control over the fast-forward, rewind play/pause or volume buttons
- Let a child play a game, but the child can’t exit the game to do anything else (like mess up settings, etc)
- When you’re playing a game keep you from
- accidentally tapping the Home button and leaving the game
- having notifications get in your way
- pull down the notifications area by accident
- Set up a device as a demo or kiosk showing an app or movie or slideshow
How do I set up Guided Access?
Tap Settings > General > Accessibility > Guided Access to set up Guided Access. From there you can:
- Turn Guided Access on or off
- Set a passcode that controls the use of Guided Access and prevents someone from leaving an active session
- Set whether the device can go to sleep during a session
Start a Guided Access session
- Open the app you want to run.
- Triple-click the Home button.
- Adjust settings for the session, then click Start.
Disable app controls and areas of the app screen
- Circle any part of the screen you want to disable.
- Use the handles to adjust the area.
Ignore all screen touches
- Turn off Touch.
Keep iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch from switching from portrait to landscape or from responding to any other motions
- Turn off Motion.
End a Guided Access session
- Triple-click the Home button.
- Enter the Guided Access passcode.
One of the great things about digital scrapbooking is that you don’t have to look too hard to find samples and freebies out there. They can be a great way to get started, try designers and build up your stash … and for Project Life as this year it has has been very popular within the digital scrapbooking community and many designers have done papers and elements that can help you get started on your Digital Project Life journey.
Here is a list of some of the ones that I have found out there that are worth looking at for your stash. Keep reading as I will be sharing more samples and freebies … as well as lots more tips and tricks for getting the most out of Digitial Project Life.
- Becky Higgins Freebies – http://www.beckyhiggins.com/freestuff/
- Digital Grid Journalling Card
- Simplify – The importance of simplicity
- Life Quote Cards
- Binder Labels
- Doors of Tallinn
- Fonts – Becky’s Font and CK Jot
- Third Party Project Life Freebies
- Clementine Coordinates – Jessica Sprague (must get if you are using the official Clementine Kit)
- Outline Journalers – Kate Hadfield
- 6×6 templates Persnickety Prints
- Photo templates Paisless Press
- Tiny Tiny Cards – The Art Of Choosing Joy
- Photoframe Cards (Great for Instgram) – Karla Dudley
- Happiness Is cards Design Editor
- We journal cards My Sister’s Suitcase.
- Weekly journal cards A Vegas Girl At Heart.
- Ephemera Inspired Journalling Cards – Sweetly Scrapped
- Springtime – 8×10 Inspiration Cards – Smile Like You Mean It
- Springtime Printables Collection – Sweetly Scrapped
- Halloween Freebies – Project Alicia
What do you think about the freebies? Do you have a favourite? Am I missing Anything? Do you want to share some of your creations …
With the warm weather and summer approaching I thought that it would be a good time to talk about pools and pool safety. Who doesn’t love a swim … well I know that I do and so do my kids. Swimming in backyard pools just seems to be one of those things that is linked with summer and Australia … but is your pool safe? Does it comply with the current regulations?
Did you know
- Drowning is the greatest cause of accidental death in children under five in Australia.
- Every year over 35 Australian children under the age of five drown.
- According to a report earlier this year by Royal Life Savings Society up to 85 per cent of home pools are not compliant with pool safety standards (Reported in SMH).
In 1991 mandatory pool fencing legislation was introduced. Since that time there has been a decrease in preschool drowning. However each year many children under 5 continue to drown in backyard pools. Most of these deaths can be attributed to the fact that the pool fencing did not comply with legislation.While each State and Territory’s laws may differ, if you are a pool owner it is your responsibility to make sure that your pool complies with the state government pool fencing legislation
And this is not just an issue for people who have kids. If you have a pool you could be held responsible and charged with manslaughter if someone dies and you haven’t maintained your pool or fencing that complies with the regulations. Seriously … this year a man was charged with manslaughter in NSW when a neighbours child drowned in the pool because he failed to keep his fencing in a proper state. Could this happen to you?
There are several things you can do to prevent drowning:
- Fence the pool/spa with a four sided fence in accordance with government guidelines This means that access to the pool/spa is via a self-closing, self-latching gate, not the house.
- Ensure that you have signage around your pool giving instructions on how to perform CPR.
- Any equipment not related to the function of the pool/spa must be securely stored outside the pool area. The gate to the pool/spa should never be propped open.
- Regularly inspect your fence (a quick check once a month) using the Home Pool Safety Checklist (downloadable from www.homepoolsafety.com.au) to ensure your fence and gate are in good working order.
- Get your pool inspected at least every 2 years by a professional to ensure that you are keeping your pool safe.
Great Resources on Pool Safety
Image courtesy of 99club
Have you heard about the Project Life back-to-basic style of scrapbooking but either prefer digital scrapbooking. I love scrapbooking but I am a tend to be more of a digital scapper or hybrid. Sometimes I find that it is just too hard to do traditional scrapbooking because of a number of reasons including
- space – just not having the space where I can work (and look after the kids at the same time) and not having a space where I can stop and leave my work without having to pack it up … so you have to unpack … scrap … then pack up again. This also means to have to have dedicated scrapping time when you know you have time to complete that whole process.
- paper-product brain freeze – I find that I tend to get a scrapping brain freeze when I am working with traditional papers. I think it is because you can’t undo something when you have made your cut. I love with digital scrapbooking that I can experiment and try different things and know that it is not going to cost me a bom in paper or other products.
- expense – I find that doing paper-based scrapping is alot more expensive. I find that the kits are cheaper when you get them digital … and I love the fact that you can buy a kit once and use it once or a million times and it doesn’t cost any more. Plus I don’t print everything so in the end I save a heap of money.
- easier to share and be social with other scrappers – I find that as they are already digital that it is quicker and easier to share your creation with other scrappers. Join a site like DigiShopTalk and you can be chatting with scrappers around the world 24/7.
What do I need?
- Project Life Style Templates – You can get templates either from
- JessicaSprague.com – These are the official digital templates are you can get them in all of the styles just like the physical Project Life. You can buy either the complete template set (US$11.99) or each of them individually (you can get designs A-G here US$1.99 each)
- Unoffical Ones – You can find some unofficial Project Life templates like those by Valorie Wibbens – Pockets No.03 The Basics. (US$4.99) These are alittle different but look cool and should work with most Project Life elements (maybe with some small modifications .. but hey that is easy with Photoshop Elements).
- Project Life Elements and Papers
- JessicaSprague.com – You can find here the official kits that are direct replicas endorsed by Becky Higgins for Project Life. With these kits you can do Project Life exactly the same as anyone doing it with the paper products. You can buy the components individually or the complete sets (Original Edition Full Collection, Turquoise Edition Full Collection, Cobalt Edition Full Collection, Clementine Edition Full Collection and Amber Edition Full Collection)
- Unoffical Ones – There are alot of digital designers out there that have created some fantastic stuff for Project Life – Some of my favs include HGD by LA, Kate Hadfield and Designs by Lili. Plus of course you con’t need to use only kits and elements designed for Project Life. You can use anything from your stash.
How do I get started?
This video by Jessica Sprague is a great introduction on how to get up and running quickly with Photoshop Elements with the official templates and kits. Even if you aren’t using them they are project heaps of information that would be relevant to the unofficial templates and kits too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?=lAQ8y8Pq95k
Are you doing digital project life? Want to share your creations … put a link in the comments. Have some tips … please also share.
Recently I have travelled to Indonesia for work and as part of my preparation … and because I like to be prepared I wanted to organise Travel Insurance. This was my first overseas trip for work since my children had been diagnosed with Autism. They weren’t travelling with me … but I guess I had it in the back of my mind when I was organising my travel insurance.
I had thought getting the travel insurance should be pretty simple … I could not believe how wrong I was. What I discovered very quicly that while you might think that there are 1000s of different travel insurance policies out there .. well really that is not true. In fact there are really on a small number of business that offer travel insurance and underwrite for other businesses (that more often than not just copy and paste the PDS from the underwritter). And many of them aren’t really fans of people with Autism … well at least their polices aren’t
How does having a child with Autism that is not travelling impact your ability to get travel insurance?
I know this might seem to be a bit confusing and not make alot of sense … but this is how it works. According to all of the insurance companies I spoke to Autism would be counted as a “Pre-existing Medical Condition”. Pre-existing Medical Conditions of not just the travelling party, but travelling companions and non-travelling relatives need to be considered when getting travel insurance.
Why would that be important? Well if you need to cancel your trip and be repatriated quickly because of something that relates to a Pre-existing Medical Conditions that could be very expensive. That is why you get travel insurance. But how can Autism be seen as a potential cause a claim on travel insurance. Well when I was talking to the insurance companies I got different responses to how they would consider the following.
Scenario – Your child runs out onto the road and gets run over by a car. They are hurt badly and you need to return home.
Response – All insurance companies said that they would pay for repatriation.
Scenario Expanded – I then asked if this could this change if it was known that the child had autism and that one of the aspects of their condition was that they had a fascination with cars and had a general lack of awareness of road safety.
Response – Mixed. Some said that they would pay, some not sure … a few said definitely not.
IMHO travel insurance companies are unfairly (and I wonder if illegally) discriminating against people with non-travelling relatives with Autism. Many don’t or won’t provide coverage for autism and potentially will twist things to extend unreasonably the impact on autism to cover well pretty much anything. This is just wrong.
What do you think?
Image: 99Club
What to do during the school holidays … well if LittleMan had his way I think he would be here everyday. It is his favourite place in Sydney … and probably really anywhere. Where is this wonderful place … it is the Train Shed at Luddenham.
For me this time of the year is perfect for a trip to the train shed. The weather is just perfect … not too hot or too cold and wet. We are probably going to do a few visits over the school holidays.
What can I do at the Train Shed?
Well if your little people love Thomas …they will love it and they can
- Ride behind Thomas, Toby, James, Mavis, Gordon and Percy
- Be the Train Driver of the Model Trains on the “Self-Drive” layout
- Explore and empty your wallet at the toy shop
- Book tables and BBQ for a nice BYO lunch. Otherwise you can have with a Devonshire Tea or snack from the Kiosk
How much does it costs?
It is free admission for all adults and children. All adults and children 3 years and over must have a ticket each to ride. Children 2 years and under ride free but must be accompanied by a fare-paying adult over 18 years of age. (An extra child 2 years or under needs an extra ticket)
Tickets $6.00 each / 6 tickets for $30. Although I prefer the Unlimited Rides Passes $35 per child for the day.
Group discounts are also available.
When is it Open?
Open 10am-4pm Saturdays and Sundays and every day during NSW Public School Holidays.
Where is it?
Where is it Just 20 minutes from Penrith, Liverpool or Campbelltown At Vicary’s Winery, The Northern Rd, 2km South of Luddenham, NSW (see map below)
Ask yourself this- when was the last time you‘ve backup your blog? What would you do if you lost all of the data on your blog and all you had left was your backup? You may think that you will never have a reason to it will never happen to you, but there are more reasons than just server crashes and hackers why you might need to use backup to get your site back up and running … You can spare yourself the heartache of losing all of your hard work, if you bank on a data backup strategy that you can do yourself and this is the best insurance there is against the possibility of losing everything.
What are some of the reasons I might need to use a backup
- Security Attacks – Since security threats are the most common way people lose their blogs, it’s the biggest reason you should have some kind of backup system in place.
- Server Problems – I have heard lots stories of those who have had servers that have crashed and they lost everything that was on their site. Don’t think this can’t happen to you. All of the hard work you put into your blog can be lost and it usually happens without any warning to prepare you for it. But by having a backup of your blog you can make sure that even if your server melts down, you will be able to get your site up and running again in a matter of minutes instead of days and weeks.
- Viruses and Malware – yes your blog can be impacted by Viruses and Malware too.
- Problems with Upgrading Wordpress, upgrading plugins or installing new ones – There is a reason that Wordpress asks you to back up everytime they have a major release.
- Blogger – Your account can be disabled without warning if they feel you have ‘broken the rules’ and you can loose everything. Don’t risk it.
How often should I backup?
Well that depends on how much you are willing to risk (and potentially lose). It is your decision.
How many backups should I keep?
My general recommendation is that you keep at least three backups and keep them in three different places or forms. This prevents problems if a single backup becomes corrupted or damaged.
Can backups be automated?
Yes. There are several methods of automating the backup process available, and we’ve listed some below.
However, it is highly recommended that you back up those auto backups with a manual backup once in a while to guarantee that the process is working.
What are my backup options?
Here are a collection of some of the backup options that are available out there for Wordpress and Blogger.
Wordpress – Premium Cloud Services
- Vaultpress – VaultPress provides realtime, continuous backup and synchronization of every post, comment, media file, revision and dashboard setting across at least two separate cloud services in addition to the Automattic grid, ensuring no loss of content. It is good but it costs.
- BlogVault – BlogVault backups everything off your site, and has a Test Restore where it puts a working version of your site Restored on their website to prove it all works!
- CodeGuard – With CodeGuard all plans allow for daily automatic backups, monitoring, and restores without limitation. The main difference is that with the Enterprise plan you are allowed the option of a concierge restore. A concierge restore is when one of their developer team takes personal time to oversee the process of your restore from beginning to end to ensure its success.
- BackupBuddy – This premium WordPress backup plugin is designed to not only backup your entire WP site but to help you restore it and migrate it elsewhere when needed. As suggested this plugin backs up everything associated with your WP website including plugins, themes, widgets, and the database.
Wordpress – Free Cloud Services
- Wordpress Backup to Dropbox – this plugin makes backup very easy and simple.
- Wordpress for Google Drive – Great for regular users of Google Drive.
- Blogbackupr – Works with both Wordpress and Blogger.
- Online Backup For WordPress – This backup lets you backup 50 MB of your database on their secure servers. This isn’t a complete solution as it only backs up your WP database.
Wordpress – Other Free Plugin Tools Services
- Snapshot is a new, easy-to-use plugin for creating quick snapshots of your database. Snapshot Backup sends a copy of your Database, current WP Core, all your Themes, Plugins and Uploads to the FTP repository of your choice. It’s especially useful for testing and rolling out new functionality to your website. You can play with new plugin and/or theme settings with the full knowledge that you’ll be able to roll back your database tables.
- WP DB Manager – The plugin permits the WP blog owner to schedule automatic backups of his site’s database (via email or server backup) or manually download it. It also allows the admin to select which database table items to backup and either optimize, repair, delete, or restore the database. Perhaps the most enticing aspect of this WP backup plugin is that it is very easy to install and use. The major drawback of this plugin however, is that it merely backs up your database and not your entire WordPress blog.
Wordpress – the Old Fashion way
Plugins can be really useful for backing up your site but depending on its size it might be better to do it from the sever. You can run a script to backup your WordPress site to FTP. Another option is to set up a cron job to automatically backup your WordPress site. If you have a very large database, WPMU.org has a guide that will help you back it up smoothly without timeouts.
Blogger
I am not a blogger user (anymore) and I have found trying to get some automated blogger backup tools alot harder than Wordpress. Of course you can manually export your blog from Blogger (as you can also do from Wordpress) but the range of options for backing up your blogger site automatically seem to me rather limited .. here is what I could find.
- Blogbackupr – Works with both Wordpress and Blogger
- BloggerBackup – Blogger Backup has a simple, straightforward interface and allows you to save posts and comments, with the ability to filter by date if you want.
- BlogCollector
So what are you waiting for … go and back up your blog. While I hope it is not the case I can assure you that some time in the future you will be glad that you did.
Images: 99club
I am very excited that Autism Awareness announced yesterday the distribution of their film “What are you doing?” to over 10 000 schools across Australia. “What are you doing?” is a short film which aims to teach school aged children about acceptance and understanding of their peers with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).
The film addresses some of the fears children may have about ASD, answers their questions and helps show them how they can be a great friend to a classmate on the autism spectrum. The film includes enlightening interviews with the brothers, sisters, cousins and friends of children on the spectrum. These friends and family members share their thoughts and experiences on what it is like to share their life with someone on the spectrum.
Through beautiful imagery, engaging narrative and quirky animation, the film sends a message that children with autism should be accepted, supported and encouraged by their peers to be a part of their community. I have seen it and it is a beautiful, wonderful film that I wish not just school children .. but everyone could see.
All primary, secondary, state and independent schools have received a copy of the film, along with accompanying teaching materials. So contact your local school, let them know how important the film is to your school community and encourage them to show it as widely as possible. More awareness simply means children on the spectrum will be better understood …
Please help spread the word. The path to a better world for all people with ASD starts with greater community understanding and awareness.