The Bridge School was founded in 1986 as an educational program serving children who could benefit from the newly emerging field of augmentative and alternative communication. Augmentative and alternative communication (abbreviated as AAC) is the use of other means to communicate in support of, or as an alternative to, speech. The field of AAC experienced its pioneer days in the 1950's, when people began to formally explore symbol systems and manual communication boards or displays as a way for people to communicate. The changes in the microcomputer industry in the late 1970's and early 1980's introduced the possibilities of message storing and speech output to the development and manufacturing of portable communication devices. It was at this time that a founding group of two parents (Pegi Young and James Forderer) and one speech-language pathologist with expertise in the field of AAC (Dr. Marilyn Buzolich) developed a vision. That vision became the Bridge School, an educational program that brought together an interdisciplinary field of specialists, newly emerging technologies, and children just beginning their educational experience to discover and to learn what works and why.

Establishing the Bridge School model and key components of what make our students successful participants and learners in the educational process began from the time the doors of the school opened in the fall of 1987. Bridge School has developed a strong reputation for educational excellence, and was commended by the California Department of Education (CDOE) for an "outstanding technology-based program".

In 1992, we began the process of exploring how/if we could replicate key components in program models outside of the Bridge School. On a global level, Bridge School has been and continues to be on the cutting edge of movements that are leading to the successful participation of individuals with communication and other disabilities into all aspects of community and life.

Our outreach endeavors enable us to demonstrate the effectiveness of these approaches, and to extend the benefit of good educational principles and practices, along with specifically designed strategies and materials, beyond the walls of the Bridge School program. With funds from a private donation, we were able to establish two pilot programs in local school districts. We also established the Building Bridges Camp program in the summer of 1994. This unique one-week overnight camp experience brings young AAC users from around the country together to learn more and do more with their communication systems. In addition, professionals and instructional assistants attend along with the children they work with over the course of the school year in order to gain valuable experience in implementing the wide-range of technology applications available to these children.

In 1997 we broadly expanded our outreach mission, identifying the following benchmarks for achievement: are we promoting the universal inclusion of individuals with severe speech and physical impairments, are we impacting the global community and reaching as many people as possible and are we preparing these children for life?

This led us to frame an outreach program that would take advantage of information technologies, and in particular the Internet, to support a variety of projects. Developing a web site that would support the needs of expanding our outreach mission beyond individuals we could have direct contact with was our first priority.

Public School Connections

In 1992, the Bridge School began to look beyond the walls of our educational program with the hope of bringing what we have learned to the community at large. We began the process of exploring how /if we could replicate key components of our program model outside of the Bridge School. This desire led to some of our first endeavors of outreach. These first outreach projects focussed on providing direct training and mentoring opportunities to parents and educators working with children in our local community.

With funds from a private donation, we were able to establish two pilot programs in local school districts. The Technology for Augmentative Communication and Learning Enhancement (TACLE) program was established in the Oakland Unified School District during the 1992-93 school year. This program continues today, and has expanded to four classrooms serving students in kindergarten through high school.

Project REACH (Resources for Education and Augmentative Communication enHancement) was a collaborative project with the Berkeley Unified School District that took place during the 1993-94 school year. Project REACH enabled school staff to more effectively apply augmentative communication and assistive technology as well as develop educational strategies for students. Students with disabilities participating in project REACH were fully included in general education classrooms and utilized AAC and assistive technology options to support their participation in the classroom curriculum.