2005 winners of the Distinguished Academics Awards

A plant physiologist, Nigel Livingston turned his mind to how technology could be used to assist people with disabilities when his daughter was receiving therapy at Victoria’s Queen Alexandra Centre for Children’s Health in 1998. Prof. Livingston was asked to design a device that would allow a severely disabled child to use a slight finger movement to control a cassette player. Realizing the huge need for custom devices to assist people with disabilities to better interact with the world, he looked to the university community to find a solution.

In 1999, Prof. Livingston asked the campus news paper to run an article calling for volunteers and from this the University of Victoria Assistive Technology Team (UVATT) was born. Over the years, the UVATT has drawn on the knowledge and skills of over 40 faculty members, more than 500 students, and many community volunteers to design and build devices too specialized to be profitable for the private sector. Participants from Engineering, Psychology, Biology, Mathematics, Physics and Music have come together to help people with disabilities better interact with the world around them, and in the process become more independent.

One of the UVATT’s first projects was to design a communications system based on brainwaves so that Victoria teenager Claire Minkley could attend the University of Victoria. A “straight-A” student in high school, Claire’s rare genetic disorder made it impossible for her to speak and extremely difficult to move. Sadly, Claire passed away in 2002, but “The Claire Project” continues, offering hope for people with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) (also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease) and similar conditions that they will be able to communicate their wants, needs, fears and joy.

The fact that Marianne Boelscher Ignace holds appointments in three SFU departments (Sociology & Anthropology, First Nations Studies, and Linguistics) is testament to her curiosity, her ability, and her desire to see the world as a whole. As co-founder and Academic Director of the Secwepemc (Shuswap) Cultural Education Society/Simon Fraser University Program (SCES/SFU Program), Prof. Ignace has sought to provide educational opportunities to the people of the Shuswap First Nation. In doing so, she has become part of the Shuswap community, putting her talents as a teacher and a researcher at the service of the people.

Prof. Ignace has worked with the Shuswap people, and other First Nations around British Columbia, to document aboriginal languages threatened with extinction. She has moved beyond mere documentation, however, to create tools to help teach these languages to aboriginal youth, and teaches these programs herself on top of her other academic responsibilities. In addition to her native German tongue, she is fluent in English, French, Spanish and Secwepemctsin (Shuswap). She is also able to communicate in five other BC aboriginal languages as well as Chinese and Latin.

Prof. Igance’s work with University of Victoria Botanist Nancy Turner in documenting the traditional use of plants by aboriginal peoples has demonstrated the intense connection between the land and the people. It is clear to Prof. Ignace that without a means of expression there is no culture. Thus, by learning their traditional languages, aboriginal young people can hold on firmly to their cultural roots.