Courage Center AT Bytes
December 2011 Issue
Courage Center Assistive Technology
Jen Mundl, Lead Assistive Technology Specialist
www.couragecenter.org
What’s New at Courage Center Assistive Technology
Fall and Summer Robotics
It’s another exciting year of robotics at Courage Center Assistive Technology every Saturday. Between 10 and 20 kids are exploring the Lego MindStorms in a competition about food engineering and nutrition. The topic the kids have chosen to study is about cheese. They attempted to create cheese from scratch and learned the process as well as the difficulties. The kids have done many things including creating recipes, making a web page, researching, programming and building. The coaches use their technical skills in this program while supported by many volunteers and occupational therapists.
Another option for Legos League will be starting up with the older group that are in their teenage years. This team called the Blizzards will be meeting at Courage Center in Golden Valley, and will be working with more sophisticated electronics and robots. More information about the group and signing up can be found on the Courage Center website.
Closing the Gap
The Closing the Gap Conference is an international conference on assistive technology held each year in Minnesota. Courage Center participated in the conference by sending staff to learn more about cutting-edge assistive technology, and Sue and Jen presented Cool Tools for School.
Minnesota Occupational Therapy Association Conference
This annual conference occurred in Minnesota, and it's where occupational therapists come for training on different topics. The Assistive Technology Department was asked to present a half-day learning experience on the use of assistive technology for therapeutic needs often found in any school system or rehabilitation center. The presentation was well appreciated and many therapists have continued to contact us for additional information and services. In particular, it covered the IPad, as this device is now functional for therapeutic services and independent living needs.
Minnesota Rehabilitation Association Conference
This conference is designed for professionals working within the vocational services, post secondary education and employment areas. Courage Center Assistive Technology presented a new PowerPoint lecture entitled "Promoting Employment and Academics through the Use of Assistive Technology."
Shining Star of Perseverance Award
“Shining Star is a reflection of Assurant Employee Benefit’s culture and commitments to help those facing disabilities continue leading productive, meaningful lives,” Assurant Employee Benefits president and CEO John Roberts said. “Jennifer Mundl exemplifies a true Shining Star. Thanks to her unwavering perseverance, she overcome countless obstacles and continues to inspire those she interacts with every day. We can all learn from her example.”
Assurant Employee Benefits presented the award during National Disability Employment Awareness Month in October, which Congress enacted in 1945 to raise awareness about disability employment issues, and to celebrate the many and varied contributions of America’s workers with disabilities.
Jen Mundl is quick to share credit for her award. “It takes a village for anyone with or without a disability to live in our modern world,” she said. “We all have our personal issues, mine was medical, but other employees have life events – like divorce, child illness, injuries, financial problems and other responsibilities that impair their capability to work. It is about what we do with our life and how we react to roadblocks in front of us.”
The Lab and Services
Courage Center Burnsville has moved. They provide a variety of services in which assistive technology is a key component within their occupational therapy and speech therapy programs. Recently, they updated their knowledge base for more information regarding mounting IPads. An open house was held Nov. 19, 2011, for the public to come and visit their new location.
New Products
Courage Center Assistive Technology recently updated their equipment to include IPads 2 and expanded their library of apps to include robotics, special education, autism, healthy foods and yoga for disabilities. These devices have also been instrumental in the Robotics Club as a way to reward participants and teach them good academics, and as methods of relaxation when a break is needed from the highly actively group. This device does have some limitations for the disability community in terms of access to the device. Therefore, Courage Center Assistive Technology will soon include an Android and a Windows-based system for clients.
What You Should Know about AT
Read & Write is a popular tool for the Macintosh and Windows computers, and is now available for iPAD and other tablets. too. Recently, they expanded their products to include Read&Write Web. This includes Read aloud HTML web content with dual color highlighting and access to Dictionary, Picture Dictionary, Translator, and Study Skills.
One of the features is the eBook Reader. This allows the user to log in to Bookshare, search for, save and read Bookshare eBooks using the same support tools found in Read&Write Web. Additionally, it will work with a variety of e-book options such as the ones available through the Minnesota Library system. The Speech App reads aloud with dual color highlighting of any typed or pasted text. The Dictionary App will look up typed or pasted words and get both text definitions and images. Text definitions can be read aloud.
It includes an exciting Picture Dictionary enhancement. Users can now double-click on any image to place it in a Word document next to the associated word. This is especially beneficial to students who require augmentative and alternative communication and English language learners.
Apps for the IPad and iPod as well as other Popular Tablets
The iTunes library and apps store continues to grow exponentially with apps designed for disabilities. The following are a few options to explore. There are many others available for an Android device besides the IPad. These tools are not full-blown software programs, but have been found useful to young and old people alike. Many times, there is a free version of the app and a professional version can be purchased after the free version, which will add many new options for the user.
Touch and Learn: Emotions- Alligator Apps: Available Free on iTunes App Store
This is an interactive game that shows four pictures of children and adults engaged in various activities, and prompts the child to identify different people participating in different activities or displaying different emotions. It is an excellent tool for those who demonstrate difficulties with facial recognition, emotional recognition and following directions.
Breathe2Relax: Available both on iTunes app store and the Android market: Free
Breath2Relax is a deep breathing exercise program, assisting children and adults through deep breathing exercises with visual cues and background music. You can personalize the background to any picture. User starts by identifying their level of stress or anxiety before and after the breathing exercise to track how they are feeling and how beneficial the exercise was. The user is then guided through a breathing exercise with the selected background and music in order to relax. This is an excellent app for users who have difficulty with emotional regulation and monitoring, and for those with sensory regulation difficulties.
iRewardChart Lite: Available on App Store: Free
This app allows parents to develop a visual reward system for children as they demonstrate good behaviors throughout the week. Much as in classrooms, this app has stars for each day and behavior. On each day, if a child is “caught” sharing, they will receive a star. Then the parent can set up a reward bank in the app that will cash out stars received for different activities. In the setup mode, the rewards available can be edited and added, each worth a different star amount. This is a great app for developing incentives for good behaviors at home and at school.
iWriteWords (Handwriting Game): Available on iTunes App Store: $2.99
This is an interactive fun handwriting learning app for children who need an error-free learning environment. Children follow Mr. Crab as he collects numbers in a sequence to create the letters. Users are only allowed to input information in the correct spots, so they learn how to create their letters appropriately, without the opportunity to make them incorrectly. The bright backgrounds and colors also come with multiple handwriting styles and allow the user to put letters together to spell out different words. The game is fun and interactive, holding a child’s attention and providing enough sensory stimulation for meaningful learning. This app has been reported to be a great tool for children with autism to get the sensory input they need when learning their letters and numbers.
Important AT Information
People are impressed with the iPhone 4S's Siri, but how did such sophisticated speech recognition technology come to be? It started back in the 1950s and is finally usable for all types of voice styles. Looking back on the development of speech recognition technology is like watching a child grow up, progressing from the baby-talk level of recognizing single syllables, to building a vocabulary of thousands of words, to answering questions with quick, witty replies, as Apple's supersmart virtual assistant Siri does. This program is built into cell phone applications for dialing and answering messages through voice. It is important to realize that this free program only allows for the use of certain features on the cell phone and is not completely hands-free control of your device. It also comes with a limited vocabulary and commands, which cannot be expanded.
Alternatives to the IPad
Although the IPad comes with built-in accessibility options, there are many other possibilities on the market today that perhaps will provide greater accessibility and control over the device. The following are a variety of different options to try to ensure they possess the features desired. Many of the devices are already available at local electronics stores such as Best Buy.
Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1:
This tablet PC is close in size to the iPad2 and runs as fast as one, too. Operating on the Android system, it allows for access to the Android Market for apps and is easily usable with its 10 inch screen. While it is Bluetooth compatible, has two cameras for video and picture recording, and runs on WiFi and 3G, the one area in which it falls short is the lack of any USB ports to connect to other switches and devices.
Motorola Xoom:
Produced by Google, and running on the Android System, this tablet is easily accessible for any user with its large screen and keyboard system. With 4G capability, this tablet will run faster than most other tablet PC’s, and will still connect via Bluetooth, WiFi, and with other USB devices.
HP Slate 500
The HP Slate 500 is a new tablet running on the Windows 7 System, which means built in accessibility features found in typical Windows computers. The 9-inch screen brings it close to the size of an iPad. The operating system allows for 64 GB of flash memory, and 2GB or RAM, which means it runs faster than most tablet PCs and is capable of running programs like Dragon to access all areas of the computer on both WiFi and Bluetooth.
The Future of Assistive Technology
The area of assistive technology has increased the capability of all people as it is being used in a variety of different applications to increase independence and adapt for all types of abilities and disabilities. Today, we all use technology and it is estimated that on a normal day, we will be in contact with 25 different types of technology. The following are some new assistive technology items that are making strides in creating a more universally accessible world.
The DynaVox EyeMax System
In combination with the Vmax , the DynaVox EyeMax system gives individuals with paralysis, cerebral palsy and stroke the ability to participate in spoken communication using only their eyes. Using a sophisticated eye tracking system, users can interact with an on-screen keyboard, allowing them to enter words and phrases, which are then translated into spoken text via the device’s text-to-speech mechanism.
The Kapten PLUS Personal Navigation Device
Traveling alone can be a challenge for the visually impaired, whether it’s across the country or down the street. There is always the possibility of taking a wrong turn or getting disoriented in the shuffle of busy pedestrians. That’s where the Kapten comes in. The Kapten PLUS Personal Navigation Device is a very small GPS locator designed to be carried on one’s person. As the user walks down the street, the device speaks direction and location, so the user always knows where they are and where they’re heading. In addition, the user can plan and store routes and tag locations for later reference.
The DEKA Robotic Arm
Segway inventor Dean Kamen and his group of researchers didn’t stop at their stair-climbing wheelchair. Funded on a grant from the Department of Defense’s DARPA research agency, Kamen and his team were tasked with the job of creating a highly sophisticated, highly functional prosthetic arm for injured soldiers returning from the Middle East. The arm supports a number of customizable controls and modular components, making it easy to tailor to the wearer’s individual needs, whether he or she requires only a hand or an entire arm and shoulder socket. Another promising feature of the arm is its sensory feedback system. For example, hand sensors measure the strength of the hand grip and provide feedback to the wearer in the form of vibrations that grow stronger as the strength of the grip increases. This enables the wearer to learn what level of grip strength is and isn’t appropriate for specific tasks, and how much pressure is being applied.
Courage Center Assistive Technology
3915 Golden Valley Road
Golden Valley, MN 55422