Winners of the ISAAC awards, (left) Heather Rose Slattery and (right) Fiona Given. Read Heather's consumer lecture HERE!

SAAC (The International Society For Augmentative and Alternative Communication) is an organization devoted to advancing the field of Augmentative and Alternative communication (AAC). Formed in 1983, ISAAC now has over 2,800 members in more than 50 countries, including 11 national/regional Chapters in Canada, Denmark, Finland, German Speaking Countries, Ireland, Israel, The Netherlands-Flanders, Norway, Sweden, United Kingdom and the USA. Membership is open to all persons who are interested in AAC.


The Mission of ISAAC is to improve communication and the quality of life for people with severe communication impairments. ISAAC does this by advancing the field of AAC, facilitating information exchange and focusing attention on work in the field. For more information on ISAAC, visit the ISAAC website at: http://www.isaac-online.org

ISAAC 2000 CONFERENCE PRESENTATION
by - Heather Rose Slattery

INTRODUCTION

Hi everyone, I am Heather Slattery. I’ve travelled here from Adelaide in South Australia because I won the Words+/Isaac consumer scholarship. I am an actor and screenwriter and for security reasons when acting, I use the name Heather Rose.

For years I had people putting me down, so I decided to do something worthwhile. I wanted to create a screenplay, but not just another soppy disability film, I wanted to make a hot sexy film, which showed the real world.

The topic I am going to present here at the ISAAC conference, relates to my experiences whilst writing the screenplay and during the filming process. I will include discussion about the voice output devices I used when making the film and other devices I have used during my life.

The name of my presentation is "Dance Me To My Song – my experiences whilst writing and starring in a critically acclaimed film."

I started my schooling at the Ashford School in South Australia, and at the same time, lived in nursing home accommodation in Somerton. I stayed living and studying in those places, until the Regency Park Centre for young disabled was built in the suburb of Regency Park. I then moved into the residential villas, which were built alongside the new school I was attending. The whole place was built to cater for people with disabilities, including a pool, gym, school and homes.

As well as living at Regency Park, I used to spend a lot of time with my grandparents, Nan and Pop. They raised me and I used to visit them and stay with them at their home.

It was Pop that first got me communicating well. He made word boards and letter boards out of cardboard when I was about seven years of age. I could pick words and spell words by using those boards. I used to use them at home and at school as well.

While I was at school in Ashford and in Regency Park, I used a typewriter to type messages. It was an extremely slow way of communicating, because the keys were very hard for me to press. I really hated the ribbons that went into the typewriters too! It really wasn’t a very good way of communicating, but it was all that was around at the time.

The first ‘real’ communication device that I had, was a Canon machine. It didn’t actually speak out loud, but I was able to type messages into it and then they printed out on paper. The only problem was that when it was given to me, I didn’t have any support or training in how to use it. But I managed pretty well.

The next thing I had after the Canon was a nightmare! It was called a Handyvoice. I didn’t like it because it didn’t have any letters, only numbers. You had to remember three number codes for each word. Although I didn’t like the Handyvoice at all, the way I came to get it was really special to me.

I went to a blue light disco, which are dance parties run by the South Australia Police Department in Adelaide, when I was about 16 years old. There was a band playing at the disco called The Boys. I had a good talk to the lead singer on the night.

A few months later, Regency Park were trying to raise money for the Handyvoice, so I rang 5AD (a local radio station) to find out where The Boys were. They agreed to come to Regency Park and to give a concert to raise money for the device. The concert was a success, and a good friend of mine, David Ward, also sang on the day! I didn’t realise he was so good on stage!! The concert raised enough money to buy the Handyvoice, so I felt quite sentimental about it, although I didn’t like the device itself.

After the Handyvoice, the next voice output device I got was the Epson RealVoice when I was twenty three years old. Getting the Epson was fantastic. It really changed my life. For the first time I could use the telephone to talk with people, and I felt like I could go out by myself. I developed a lot of self-confidence once I got the Epson. Some people find it hard to understand the way it says words, but there is nothing I don’t like about it.

In the early nineties, when I was around 25 years old, a friend of mine was visiting me at home and told me that another girlfriend of mine would be appearing in a film. She told me that the Film Corporation was looking for more people with disabilities to be in the movie. At first I said ‘no’, because I was lacking self-confidence. My friend was encouraging me to ‘go on’ and do it, so I gave in.

The film, Bad Boy Bubby, was about an intellectually disabled young man, who had been locked away and deprived of life experiences. Bad Boy Bubby was screened around the world. It received critical acclaim even though it had very controversial content.

The best word I can use to describe how I felt about my involvement in the film is "WOW". It really gave me a buzz to see my friends and myself on the screen. I was very proud of what our little movie achieved.

I’d like to show you a part of a documentary video that was made when I was involved in the movie Dance Me To My Song, and then I will talk with you some more.

(VIDEO SEGMENT OF HEATHER’S CHILDHOOD/HISTORY)


CREATING THE SCREENPLAY

A few years after Bad Boy Bubby, I had access to the Internet at home. I started using a bulletin board to chat with other people with disabilities. There was a person named Fred using the same bulletin board one day. We started talking and realised we had both worked on the set of "Bad Boy Bubby". Fred had been the soundman for the film and I had played a part in one of the scenes.

I was inspired by the work of Rolf de Heer, who had directed "Bad Boy Bubby", and being driven by my own feelings and ideas, decided I would like to team up with Fred and create a screenplay. I provided most of the ideas, whilst Fred typed them into the computer. Some of the ideas came from my own life experiences, some from the experiences of other people I have known, and some from my imagination. The message I wanted to convey to an audience was "As people with disabilities, we have the same feelings and desires as others". The screenplay that Fred and I created, became the movie Dance Me To My Song.

The screenplay took two years to finish and was very hard work. Fred had chronic fatigue syndrome, which limited the amount of work he could do. On top of that, I had creative days when the ideas flowed and frustrating days when my thoughts just dried up. I stayed motivated because I had it in the back of my mind that one day I would like to work again with Rolf de Heer.

It took persistence for this dream to be realised. Rolf was not sure about committing to the movie; I had to pester him really. I decided to invite him to my birthday party. It took a few drinks, but I got him to agree to be the director of "Dance Me To My Song".

FILMING

Filming was emotionally hard for me. For the first week of filming, I cried every night. For months before filming started, they had told me that Sam Neill would be playing the part of Eddie. I had built my hopes up, but he was unavailable at the time filming started.

The other thing I found difficult, was how hard it was for me to act in the film. I was tired
a lot of the time, and with every scene needing three takes, I had to type everything three times on my device.

The film was shot in and around my house over a period of five weeks. It was difficult having no quiet time to myself during filming, put a positive was getting to know everyone really well and forming friendships. Some of the cast and crew were from Adelaide, while others were from interstate and overseas.

Some of the positive things that came out of the filming experience were; growing as a person, and feeling more confident in myself, feeling like I had done something worthwhile and making a lot of good friends. The down side of the experience was the fact that my Epson broke down during filming, and we had to interrupt filming while they were repaired and also how tiring the filming process was.

None of us had expected that our film would make it to the Cannes Film Festival, so we were all excited and happy when we got the news.

I’d like to show another segment of my video, which will show you what the filming process was like

(VIDEO SEGMENT OF CREATING THE SCREENPLAY AND FILMING)


CANNES

As far as Cannes (in France) was concerned, I was set up! I had spent two weeks preparing notes on filming, then out of the blue I got a call from Rolf de Heer, saying that he needed them right away and was coming over. When he arrived, Rolf told me that our film would be shown at the Cannes Film Festival. I was very shocked. Rolf had brought a video camera with him, and had set it up to catch my reaction on film. I wasn’t so sure that I wanted to be videoed at that moment.

I had only two months to prepare for Cannes. The most difficult part was getting a new wheelchair made in such a short time. Then there were other things, such as moulded seating for the aeroplane and having a dress made. It was tiring and stressful, but worth it in the end.

I had been very nervous at the opening night of the film back in Adelaide, and also leading up to the film being shown in Cannes. I was really very anxious. In fact it was "Panic Stations". The night before the screening in Cannes, we had gone out partying, then the day came, and it was time for reality. I was shaking! There were two thousand people in the theatre, including film critics. We were taken out of the screening room at the start of the film. While everyone was watching the film, I was very nervous. I was thinking to myself "How many people could cope with watching an emotional film like that".

The reaction to the film was wonderful. People were saying things like "It’s brilliant" and "thought provoking". That made us all very proud. Rolf (the director), Joey Kennedy, John Brumpton, Rena Owen and most of the crew had made the trip to Cannes to be present at the screening, so we shared in the success.

I was really very happy, especially as the trip to Cannes had been quite difficult for me. Although QANTAS (the Australian Airline) were great, I was uncomfortable in my seat, and was in pain towards the end of the journey. I think planes should have beds for people with disabilities. I did have my Epson in the cabin with me, which meant I was able to communicate with others around me.

The success of Dance Me To My Song in Cannes, made all of the hardship worthwhile. I would do it all again if I had to, and wouldn’t change any part of the experience…..well….maybe I wouldn’t drink so much after the screening the next time!!!

I have some video of the trip to Cannes, which will show you what it was like for me.

(VIDEO SEGMENT OF CANNES)


BACK IN AUSTRALIA

The wave of success continued when I returned to Australia. Dance Me To My Song had been nominated for the award of "Best Original Screenplay" at the Australian Film Industry (AFI) awards in Sydney. I was fortunate enough to travel to Sydney for the awards ceremony, and although we didn’t win, it was the best night of my life. It was the night that I met and talked with Sam Neill, who I think is an incredible Australian actor.

Dance Me To My Song was also nominated for the Jury Prize in Spain, and went on to win. It also won the New South Wales Premier’s Literary Award in 1999. Even though I knew the movie was good, it surprised me that it had been so successful.

The reaction to the film by other people with disabilities has been good. I haven’t heard any bad comments about it. The success of the film has changed my life. I now see what I want a lot more clearly. I am determined to stay involved in scriptwriting and acting, and am currently working on another screenplay. I want to continue to make films that are challenging. I would also like to get back into teaching communication. That is something I used to do at Regency Park years ago.

I’ve had the opportunity to travel because of the movie, and went to Chicago last year. I found it hard when I made that trip to America, because I was upset by the racial prejudice. Life is so different in Australia compared with America. I think we have more in a way, especially the Australian quality of life. There is more understanding. When I think about people’s prejudices about disability, I think it’s better in Australia. People still back off though, they still get frightened.

One disappointing thing about the whole experience was that as a result of people finding it hard to understand the RealVoice on my Epson, they started the process of having another device purchased for me. Without me really agreeing to it, I was provided with another voice output device. I still have not decided whether I will keep the other device, or keep using my Epson. Maybe a bit of both.

CONCLUSION

I believe that everything we do in life, reflects the people who are most important in our lives. When I was small, Nan used to take me to children’s plays. That had a big impact on me, and made me want to pursue acting and scriptwriting as an adult. Nan is now very old and finds it hard to understand my achievements.

I hope that what I have had to say today, will encourage other people to aim for the dreams they have in their life.

I have some people I would like to thank before finishing today.
They are:
Words+/Isaac - for the opportunity and the award
Air New Zealand – for getting me here

I’d also especially like to thank:
My carer and good friend – Fiona
Pammi Raghavendra – for ongoing support, and my initial nomination
John Costello – for his help here in Washington

And a special mention for friends in Australia
Fran Gardiner and Michael Bebb at Communication and Therapy Services
And all the staff who helped make this trip become a reality.

I’d also like to thank you all for coming here today and taking part in this very important moment in my life.

Thankyou.

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