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Show notes:
Panel: Brian Norton, Craig Burns, Belva Smith, and Wade Wingler
Q1. Pick one AT device for person who is visually impaired? Q2. Important factors for selecting an AT solution? Q3. Abbreviation Expansion software options? Q4. Questions or steps that need to be taken to prepare for your child’s transition from K12 to Higher Ed. Q5. What certifications are available in the field of AT? Q6. Wildcard Question: What podcasts do WE listen to?
——-transcript follows ——
WADE WINGLER: Welcome to ATFAQ, Assistive Technology Frequently Asked Questions with your host Brian Norton, Director of Assistive Technology at Easter Seals Crossroads. This is a show in which we address your questions about assistive technology, the hardware, software, tools and gadgets that help people with disabilities lead more independent and fulfilling lives. Have a question you’d like answered on our show? Send a tweet with the hashtag #ATFAQ, call our listener line at 317-721-7124, or send us an email at tech@eastersealscrossroads.org. The world of assistive technology has questions, and we have answers. And now here’s your host, Brian Norton.
BRIAN NORTON: Hello, and welcome to ATFAQ episode 32. My name is Brian Norton and I’m the host of our show today. Thank you for joining us. I’m really glad you’re taking time out of your day to download and listen to our podcast. I want to welcome the folks that are in the room with me. I want to welcome Belva Smith. Belva?
BELVA SMITH: A. 32!
BRIAN NORTON: 32. I also want to welcome Wade Wingler.
WADE WINGLER: Hey, everybody. 32 episodes. Wow.
BRIAN NORTON: Moving up in the world. For those that are regular listeners, Mark Stewart is not here with us today, but we do have a special guest in the room. Craig Burns is here. He is our mobility and cognition team leadership. Craig, you want to say hey?
CRAIG BURNS: I want to say hello. This is number two for me.
BRIAN NORTON: Excellent. Thank you for sitting in the chair with us. For those that are new listeners, I want to give you a brief exhibition about our show. It’s ATFAQ, Assistive Technology Frequently Asked Questions. How it works is we receive feedback and questions from across the country, around the world, about various AT related topics. Then we set around in a panel and try to answer those questions as best we can. We do rely on consumer feedback or just feedback from our listeners to kind of fill in the gaps. If we don’t talk about something or maybe you guys have advice or a particular product that would work for a particular situation or a question that we have, please call in and let us know. You can send us your questions and your feedback in a variety of ways. The first way is through our listener line. That is 317-721-7124. You can email us at tech@eastersealscrossroads.org. Or you can send us a tweet with the hashtag ATFAQ. Again, we collect those throughout the week and put together shows and set around here and try to answer those as best we can. today we’re going to start off with a voicemail from Chika Tanaka. Let’s play that.
SPEAKER: This is Chika Tanaka from Maryland. I am referring to the last show that you did. Two questions. What’s your website so I can type it into my browser? And how do I get — what is the website to the podcast site so I can download your podcast on my computer? Secondly, how can a blind man go from Silver Springs to Baltimore? Let’s say I want to go to my school’s convention in Baltimore [Inaudible] Silver Springs. How do I get around by myself, because a paratransit company called Metro access does not go to Baltimore.
BRIAN NORTON: First of all, I want to thank Chika for giving us a call in. Actually, he left us a few voicemails with lots and lots of questions in it. Today we had time to handle just a few of them and we will probably spread out all of his questions over the next several shows. one of his first question was, what is your website for your podcast? He is interested in downloading it to his computer. There are a variety of ways for you to be able to find our show. You can look us up under iTunes if you have an iTunes account. If you look up ATFAQ or even just type in accessibility, you will be able to find us. You can also go to our website. We do have our own website. That is ATFAQshow.com. Or you can also go to our agency website which is www.eastersealstech.com and find our podcast there under a link called on air. Just a few different ways for you to be able to find our show castle hopefully that would answer your question.
WADE WINGLER: Brian, the other thing that I’ll throw in there is sometimes folks are looking directly for the RSS download link. We talked about those in the past. I went into our website in the last few days and added those so that if people go to accessibility Channel.com, it’ll take them to a listing of all of our shows in YouTube channel. Under each show, it will have a link for the RSS feed directly. if you’re using one of those podcast programs that doesn’t rely on iTunes or the Google place door or whatever cause you can go there and get those direct RSS links and put them into a podcast player, or you can put them into your web browser and look at them that way or get them that way. That would be another way to get that.
BRIAN NORTON: Excellent. Thanks, Wade. The second question he posed was, how do I get from Silver Spring to Baltimore. Offhand, that’s a little bit hard for us to probably answer pure? We live in Indianapolis, Indiana.
WADE WINGLER: That’s not really a technology question.
BRIAN NORTON: It does lead to a question about transportation. How do you find reliable transportation in different places? I’ll throw that out to the group.
BELVA SMITH: My answer would be Uber. I had a lot of friends and clients that are visually impaired, and they rely heavily on Uber to get from point A to point B. I think we can estimated that this is going to be quite a distance cost I’m sure it will probably cost quite a bit, but you can probably find that out up front about what it’s going to cost you.
BRIAN NORTON: The other thing I would be doing is I would be asking any of my other friends who are blind or visually impaired, asked them about the transportation they use. You mentioned Metro access and how it doesn’t go to Baltimore, maybe there are other means of transportation including Uber, which can get you anywhere if you are willing to pay the cost. There may be an option for you.
BELVA SMITH: Maybe it’s a two-parter. Maybe use the Metro express to get so far and then Uber to get the rest of the way.
BRIAN NORTON: Absolutely.
WADE WINGLER: Another resource I would suggest our caller checkout or anybody who really has a question like this, check out the local Independent living centers. In most areas of the United States, there are Independent living centers. in the Baltimore area, it’s called Making Choices For Independent Living, or MCIL. Those are organizations that are staffed by people with disabilities for people with disabilities, and they often have answers to some of those questions about how do I live more independently. that’s really what we are talking about here, is transportation how to get around on my own. if you’re not familiar with your local Independent living Center car you might want to check them out. If you just Google Baltimore and centers for independent living, you’re going to find a website there that as part of the MD network of care.org that will have some of that information there appeared I might be a good place to look as well. Romich excellent. We will handle a question today and maybe wait for the rest of those in subsequent shows. Third question from him was, what is the difference between android and iOS?
WADE WINGLER: One is good, one is not pure,
BELVA SMITH: I was going to say, Samsung and Apple? I don’t know. They are both good.
WADE WINGLER: They are both operating systems for your smartphone or tablet.
BRIAN NORTON: I used to think accessibility was something that Apple did so much better than any other form, we have actually someone on our staff, her name is Anna, and she’s been actually spending a lot of time in android. I’ve been a little surprised that there is quite a bit of accessibility built in to the android. I would say in more recent years, if you go back a few years, there was less and less, more recently I was pretty impressed, especially with the Samsung lineup of products. There are some pretty good accessibility. But what I do like about iOS is things for the visually impaired like a full-featured screen reader is built in to iOS. I think in the android environment, you do have to downloaded third-party application can’t talk back, and maybe have some cost to be associated with that. But I think that’s changing a little bit. Maybe the gap isn’t quite as far as what we might have thought it would be in the past.
BELVA SMITH: I think that you’re going to find still can’t even though android is really moving up, I think you’re going to find more apps are being developed for the iOS devices than for the android. I think part of that is the control that Apple keeps over there iOS environment where the android environment is more open and flexible or changeable. That’s just my opinion. I don’t know if it’s a true one or not. Thanks for listening.
BRIAN NORTON: I will say, I just recently we did either an email that came across from me or just a suggestion or somehow I came across my desk, but in the App Store when they are throwing out there suggested apps and things like that, if you wait and keep refreshing your screen or moving through some of those things, there comes up the accessibility options. They will list out accessibility apps, not the stuff that is built-in but apps for folks who are blind or visually impaired.
BELVA SMITH: Laura did that and accessibility minute.
BRIAN NORTON: Laura is also on our staff. she’s also the host of accessibility minute, one of our other podcast.
WADE WINGLER: Accessibility minute.com.
BRIAN NORTON: She threw that out a couple of weeks ago. I thought what a great resource. We know those because we are in and around them, for the general public who are looking for apps, what a great way to scroll and see different ones that do a variety of different things for you. What a great thing.
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BRIAN NORTON: Our next question was posed to me last week. I was out at a local university teaching a OT class. One of the questions that — we were doing an AT 101 presentation about, here is technology for the visually impaired coherent examples of technology for folks with intellectual and cognitive issues, here is of the technology for folks with different impairments, just an AT 101 setting. One of the students raise your hand and she said, if you could pick only one assistive technology device for a person who is blind or visually impaired, what would it be?
BELVA SMITH: I read the question this morning and said, hmm, that was one of our wildcard question is just a couple of shows back.
WADE WINGLER: That was in the context of a library. I said if you could recommend one technology for library. Was that right?
BELVA SMITH: Know, I think it was if you’re going to be on an island pure
WADE WINGLER: Who asks questions like that?
BRIAN NORTON: Wade Wingler does.
BELVA SMITH: My first thought to this question was I need more information because I need to know who is this person and what are they trying to do. That’s got everything to do with the one piece of technology that I would recommend for them.
WADE WINGLER: Obviously whenever we are talking about problem solving, we need to learn more about what the goals we’re trying to accomplish, what do you have, what are your skill sets, and those kinds of things. It could be anything.
BRIAN NORTON: I kind of looked at it from just a broad sense, like what is your average person these days who is using technology. I know they can get very specific. Are the visually impaired? Are they completely blind? To the have light sensitivity, other kinds of things? And get into all sorts of nuances about what they’re doing and things like that. But if I could pick one device, that might be the Swiss Army knife for somebody, would that be?
BELVA SMITH: I can’t answer that without knowing what the person is and what they’re going to do. I could recommend an iPad or an iPhone, what if it’s an individual who really can’t they are blind and really want to read their mail? Then probably getting them a clear reader would be a better fit. That would be one tool that would get their goal accomplished.
WADE WINGLER: Or what if they just want to walk to the park? Then we are talking about a white cane at that point. I kind of know what we’re trying to get at. I think with the advent of smartphones and tablet computers, that really is a device that has tons of bang for the buck. it was something like the iPhone, you can turn it into something like a reading device, a color identifier, a talking email, money identifier, tons of bang for the buck with smartphones and tablet computers and things like that. But it’s hard to get pushed in the corner of making those kinds of recommendations or suggestions. Clearly those categories of devices are so multipurpose that that becomes one of our go to’s. In fact, I’ve had the privilege of hearing a feedback question that you guys haven’t heard yet, and we’re going to get called out on this topic in the next week or two. It’ll be fun to do with that when there is a little teaser.
BRIAN NORTON: Nice. That brings up an interesting point. Just to bring a little bit of background for folks that are listening, we have a clinical AT program, and many of us work on the clinical team. what that means is we meet with folks all the time and do evaluations. When we do evaluations, we spent certificate amount of time getting to know them, getting to know what are their challenges, what are they trying to do, and what’s keeping them from doing certain things. When we do take these broad strokes of picking one assistive technology, it probably makes us all cringe a little bit. Again, like you said Wade, I think the gist of the question is what about that bang for the buck? If I could get one thing that could hit a variety of different needs and do that, that would be the gist of what they were trying to get to. it does make us cringe because we don’t like to be painted into that corner. We don’t like to – we want to meet the people can make sure they get a copy what they need, and not just a broad stroke with that stuff.
BELVA SMITH: I was going to come back and say if it is a student, a college student or even a high school student, obviously I wouldn’t say that the one piece that they would need would be a clear reader, because they need to be able to do lots of different things. It would probably be a tablet or a smartphone.
WADE WINGLER: The answer is always it depends.
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BRIAN NORTON: Looking at that last question, this question but often that a little bit. What are the important factors one should consider when evaluating and selecting an assistive technology solution for someone?
WADE WINGLER: It depends.
BRIAN NORTON: It depends. I don’t think that depends.
WADE WINGLER: This is the new show title, the it depends show.
BELVA SMITH: Who is your person, what is their abilities?
CRAIG BURNS: What are their goals? What are they trying to get to?
WADE WINGLER: Is somebody going to bust out some Cook and Hussey here? The HAAT model?
BRIAN NORTON: Human Activity —
CRAIG BURNS: Assistive technology.
WADE WINGLER: Somebody is setting for their ATP.
CRAIG BURNS: Oh, yes.
BRIAN NORTON: Certainly getting to know the individual, getting to know what they have going on visually, physically, cognitively, all those kinds of things are really important. I would also say not just from the person themselves but if they do have other folks that can be a part of the evaluation process, I also lean into as much feedback as I can get about what’s going on with the person and then what are they trying to do, what are the things they’re trying to do. If they are going to school, they are going to have three textbooks. And if they are trying to read text books, they are going to school, they are also going to have to use the computer probably to generate reports, all sorts of things they are going to interface the school computer. So what does school offer? Not just person but also these other things that come into play, looking at all those things and then pulling all the information together to make an informed choice about here’s what we think we can do in this particular situation.
BELVA SMITH: An additional you want to know what is their peer support going to be and what kind of an environment are they using it in? Are they going to be in one place all the time or do they need to get to multiple places? And how are they going to be getting to those multiple places?
CRAIG BURNS: Even using the technology in a trade school setting versus a traditional classroom setting. That’s different.
BRIAN NORTON: It’s going to be much different.
CRAIG BURNS: The shop floor is different than the classroom. For in a work setting, are they going to be mobile, walking around the warehouse, or are they going to be sitting in an office space? Those things are a part of the environment that Belva was talking about that you have to consider that could affect. Do you get an iPad or iPhone or Samsung? Those help you decide those.
WADE WINGLER: Also you have to think about things like cost and longevity. There might be several different tools that will do the job. Do you want a Chevy or a Cadillac? And our situation, we are constantly reminded because we rely on public funding and being good stewards of our resources, to use the Chevy instead of the Cadillac because you might be able to help folks get two or three Chevys or two or three people get Chevys as opposed to one Cadillac. And then how long is it going to last? Doesn’t need to be upgraded? Does it need do batteries? Is there ongoing cost related to upgrades?
CRAIG BURNS: Some of the tools have quite a lot of features in them. It might be a nice feature, but really what are you going to use it for? You may use the basic features and that’s plenty adequate for what you need.
BRIAN NORTON: So there is a whole lot there. Wade mentioned Cook and Hussey, which is kind of a postgraduate textbook that folks who were studying for the assistive technology professional certification through RESNA readthrough. They have lots of good information. They have an entire model of what that assessment process should look like cost selection process, the evaluation process. I would also say, that even just a Cook and Hussey, they talk about the HAAT model. There is also another set of information called the WATI, which is the Wisconsin assistive technology initiative.
WADE WINGLER: That’s the name of the program that came up with it.
BRIAN NORTON: I’m a it still names that, is it?
WADE WINGLER: I think it is.
BRIAN NORTON: But they also have, if you’re in a school setting, they talk about students and teachers and it’s geared toward that K-12 environment type of thing. But they have some really great information about the assessment and selection and evaluation process as well. Two good resources if you want to look those things up. It certainly would give you some information with regard to the question.
WADE WINGLER: The other thing to think about, the WATI ends up getting used a lot in the educational setting. Then also the SETT frame work which was made famous by Joy Zavala who I think has been on our show. She’s definitely a colleague of ours. That’s where they talk about the student, the environment, task, and the tools. As you are considering assistive technology, make sure you’re thinking about all those things. Obviously that has a K-12 slant to it, the individual and the environment, the task and tools are they that show up in these different frameworks of you are doing it well.
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BRIAN NORTON: Don’t forget, if you have an assisted larger questions or even some feedback, please give us a call on our listener line. That’s 317-721-7124. You can email us also at tech@eastersealscrossroads.org, or send us a tweet at the hashtag #ATFAQ. Our next question is, I’m looking for a solution to provide abbreviation expansion on the Windows 7 PC. The user wants to insert program text with a keystroke or two into a Word document or email without having to, and paste from another document. I’ll throw that out to the group.
BELVA SMITH: My first thought is, since there wanting to do it in Word or Outlook, is auto complete. Where you type out a phrase or a word and then you give it an abbreviation.
WADE WINGLER: That’s built in across the Microsoft office platform, so any of those Microsoft office tools. You could have WW spell out Wade Wingler. You can make an unlimited number of those things.
BRIAN NORTON: Auto complete or AutoCorrect, again, that’s a really fine job with that. I think it’s actually kind of used across both of those platforms. I don’t think if you enter it into word, it will work in Outlook. I think it goes back and forth as well.
WADE WINGLER: I think so.
BRIAN NORTON: Great way to make that happen. What about third-party applications? Anybody use a text expansion program?
BELVA SMITH: I don’t. I thank you and waited do.
CRAIG BURNS: I used text expander for Mac. It helped me a lot. I do a lot of shortcuts when I’m putting together reports and things like that. With a code, I just type in a few characters and it brings up the whole segment. What’s nice about those kinds of things is you can make sure it’s typed in the right and then you don’t have to worry about that I misspell something this time. Is all put in the same way every time. Then you can still put changes into it, if you need to add a phrase or word or change the name or enter name of the person. It’s really easily done.
BRIAN NORTON: What is that called?
CRAIG BURNS: Text expander.
BRIAN NORTON: A couple for Windows I would throw out there. Word expander is another one. it’s much like text expander. That’s a free download. The nice thing like you are mentioning was it does allow you to create kind of a library and allows you to organize your abbreviations into different types of folders. So I’ve got things set up for work and I got things set up for home, different abbreviation I use in those different places. Phrase expander is another one which, if you’re going to choose between word expander and phrase expander, they both are very similar in look. Phrase expander does have a few more features and some automation to it, but it’s significantly more, since a word expander is free. Phrase expander is $60 for the standard version and $150 for the professional version. Again, you do get some automation and extra features with phrase expander. if you have the resources, it’s probably a good idea to produce those things. One that I don’t have any experience with is short keys. I don’t know if anybody’s heard of that, but I understand there is a free version, then also a $30 version of it. Again I’m assuming that the dollar mission has some extra features to it. Short keys is made by a company called insight software solutions. Three different ones, we had word expander, short keys, and phrase expander for windows.
CRAIG BURNS: I was just looking the other day for an on-screen keyboard that has word prediction. There are some. Subtype is one but I think it runs on Windows 7. I was looking for a Windows 7. Those are good ones, especially for a Windows 10 tablet type of computer where you can actually touch the screen, is now your keyboard is the same as your other keeper but it gives you word prediction.
BRIAN NORTON: I would also say those are all software solutions for this. There are also keyboards, macro type keyboards, so excuse is a good example of that. X keys is a programmable keyboard where, if your purpose is to limit the number of keystrokes it takes to be able to produce input on the computer, which is often times you’re trying to put three or four characters and to produce any number, 20, 30, 40 characters, hence the purpose of abbreviation expansion. Things like the X keys will let you just press one key and that it could put in any number of stuff. It could differentiate on the computer. It can enter menus, enter text, all those kinds of things, using just one key, again further limiting pressing one key as opposed to an abbreviation which could be three or four characters. Again it lessens the number of keystroke to produce input. definitely things to look at as you are considering those kinds of things. Again, the purpose of that is limiting the number of keystrokes. I always look at it as a way for people to not have to take so much time with redundant type tasks. In my job, I send the same email out. so whenever we get a referral in, I send the same email back out to the person who made the referral saying thank you for it, here is a couple of things I need done for us to be able to process it. I write that 100 times a day. Wouldn’t it be nice to set up an abbreviation expansion so every time I type that, I don’t have to retype everything, make sure it sounds right, make sure it’s what I want it to say. It’s just there.
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BRIAN NORTON: Again, if you want to send us a question or provide some feedback, send us an email at tech@eastersealscrossroads.org. Our next question is, I’m a parent and my son has various learning disabilities including auditory processing disorder and dyslexia. He is getting ready to enter his senior year of high school and I want to stay ahead of the game as he transitions into higher education. What questions or steps should I be asking or taking with his IEP team and or the universities and colleges we plan to visit? It’s a big question.
CRAIG BURNS: That is a big question. A lot of times, when we are dealing with individuals with reading disabilities or dyslexia, a reading program, reading software is useful, like Kurzweil or read and write gold, those sorts of applications. Sometimes if you talk to student services, they can provide those to you after you are enrolled in school in those classes. Some high schools have them available to them as well. You can get a download of them and those will help you. And then they have the services they support, so they can give you ideas on how to get started on it at least.
BRIAN NORTON: I can feel for this particular parent because I know, there really is a disconnect and said that K-12 environment. Accessibility and accommodations are handled very differently than they are when you get out. As far as the IEP team that I would be working with, the folks that help implement and create the individual education plan for my son or for this particular student, I would be encouraging them now. You mentioned that he is entering his senior year of high school. I would be a good even now and breaking up topics like what about afterwards, what about that transition phase. Transition is a big word. Vocational rehabilitation is another thing that I would be starting to discuss with him. When can we engage those? Certainly I think in a lot of places, second semester of your junior year makes a lot of sense. But then certainly if he is entering his senior year, he’d be eligible and should be in that IEP setting starting to talk about what happens next. Where are we going? How are we going to finish this up? And how are we going to set them up for success when they get out of high school and enter college? So certainly with the IEP team, I’d be bringing that stuff up.
CRAIG BURNS: Because a lot of those things are not the same in college as they are in high school level.
BRIAN NORTON: Right, it’s really different. In your high school, there is a system in place for putting up accommodations. You’re going to meet regularly with your team. You’re going to talk about what you are struggling with. They are going to put things in place to kind of help you to some degree or another. When you get into college, you have to start advocating for yourself. The services are there — you just have to be able to advocate. I would certainly be talking to schools, the universities, and asking them what kinds of services my son would be eligible for. What type of support do you offer students with disabilities. Starting those conversations now instead of waiting till the 11th hour is really going to help get you prepared, get him prepared, with next.
WADE WINGLER: I think part of that is replicating any is a set logic you might have been using before college, and thinking about some of those different stressors. Scheduling is a much bigger deal in college. Having access to social outlets I think it’s a much bigger deal as well. Just making sure that those gaps are being plugged as they are considering different kinds of interventions.
BELVA SMITH: I would also suggest sticking out support groups of other parents who may either have already been there or are going there to see what kind of advice or experience they can share.
BRIAN NORTON: Right. We have a really interesting organization here in Indiana called ASK, which is About Special Kids. From what I understand, that’s a pretty great group of folks who have lots of information in a way to refer people out to different services or just to get support in your particular situation. I’m sure there are similar organizations also the offer that ability to be able to talk to people who are in your situation, whoever that will be for you, and can help you navigate the twist and turns as you are going to find. I’ve been around this field for a long time, and no assistive technology or feel like I’ve got a pretty good handle on assisted geology. In this world, we all kind of live within a bubble. We know what we know, but the things that we don’t know, we just don’t really know. We can only go so far with our knowledge. Just being around folks that have kind of, have a broader understanding, that had to navigate through all the different services that are available to folks is a good thing. Support groups are great.
BELVA SMITH: I’m a great fan of support groups because I think it’s important for the parents, and also helps the community grow. For the student himself, they might need someone that they can relate with and become friends with. It helps their community grow.
BRIAN NORTON: Right.
CRAIG BURNS: For those parents that are listening that have children that are younger than going into their senior year, I get started as soon as you can. Don’t put it off till they are there.
BRIAN NORTON: Absolutely.
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BRIAN NORTON: Don’t forget, if you have a question or you have feedback, you can send us a tweet with the hashtag ATFAQ. We monitor our twitter feed and look for that and will certainly get your questions in our queue. This question is, I am considering getting certified in the area of assistive technology. What certifications are available, and is there one that would be considered an industry-standard? Things.
WADE WINGLER: How fun is this, that Craig, our visitor today, is just days away from sitting for his ATP exam. Brian, did you get this question loaded up on purpose?
BELVA SMITH: That’s what I was wondering. Was this plan?
BRIAN NORTON: This is my question. This is a real question.
WADE WINGLER: Brian from Indiana would like to know.
CRAIG BURNS: It’s my question.
WADE WINGLER: As I look at this, really you can be credentialed in three ways: an organization could be credentialed; an individual can be credentialed in a professional capacity; or individual can be credentialed like at a product or specific technique level. Those are the ones we look at. For the agency, we’re CARF accredited and assistive technology, and I think we were the first ones in the state of Indiana to do that many years ago. That looks at our organizational best practices, looks at health and safety car billing, what our stuff looks like, and those other credentials. But a program or organization could be credentialed. That’s one way.
BRIAN NORTON: Right.
WADE WINGLER: Then individuals – and Craig, jump in here because you are the guy dripping from the ATP firehose right now.
CRAIG BURNS: That’s a pretty big undertaking when you are working full-time. To find time to read all the information and to do it. I find when you are doing it, you may think of it as one thing, but the ATP program causes something else. Now you start to think in terms of that. The whole umbrella certification of assistive technology, professional or practitioner, is probably the crown for us in the assistive technology industry. There’s also other ones. I’m a certified autism specialist and a certified ergonomic assessment specialist. Those are nice to have a good for our specialties, but overall the ATP is the one we try to get.
WADE WINGLER: ATP is assistive technology professional picture used to be assistive technology practitioner. It is put on by RESNA, which is the rehab engineering and assistive technology Society of North America. Good friends of the show. We have them on on a regular basis. That’s kind of the standard that we look to hear in our organization to show proficiency as a practitioner of assistive technology.
CRAIG BURNS: There are requirements for that. You need to have so many hours of this — so many hours of study, or whatever your degree is in affects what you need, CEU’s and working hours in the environment. Look into that and find out what fits for you.
BRIAN NORTON: Wade, you mentioned the third one as product specific certification. I know a lot of assistive technology has certifications that are put out by the manufacturers of that software to become certified either as a trainer or a user of that particular type of software. I think specifically of Zoom Text certifications out there. You can get JAWS certified. A lot of AT products have their own through the manufacturer certifications for folks. There is usually typically levels of that, kind of a basic level of certification, and you can even go up to train the trainer certifications and things like that. You’re right, there are different levels to it for every person. And an even and ATP is out there. Craig, I know you’re sitting for that. There are other professional certifications, the ATACP. Belva, we were looking into one the other day and we actually have them on for an AT update podcast.
WADE WINGLER: CATIS certification.
BRIAN NORTON: That’s it. Was that all about? I’ve heard good things about it. I know it’s not out yet.
BELVA SMITH: It’s about to be. There is a big controversy right now as to whether or not it’s going to void the need for the ATP. It’s goal is to certify people that are working with people with visual impairments, low vision, blind, where the ATP is a much broader knowledge base. I think Craig said, there is a lot of information with the ATP whereas the CATIS is going to focus primarily on folks or for folks that are working with people with visual impairment.
BRIAN NORTON: It’s a very specific. It stands for certified assistive technology instructional specialist for persons with visual impairments.
BELVA SMITH: Correct.
BRIAN NORTON: So a very specialized instead of a more general approach that the ATP would have. Excellent.
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WADE WINGLER: And now it’s time for the wildcard question. So here’s my wildcard question for the week. Obviously we want people to listen to the show to have their questions answered and to get more information about assistive technology. We even will shamelessly plug our other shows, assistive technology update, accessibility minute, in our YouTube channel where we do tech tip videos. We are trying to get information about assistive technology all the time. My question for you guys is, what else do you listen to? We are known as people who are knowledgeable in the field of assistive technology, so we had to know about that. We also have to know about technology in general. You have to know what’s happening with Windows. You have a note happening with Apple. You kind of have to be up with what’s happening in the world of assistive technology. What are your go to resources for either assistive technology information, podcasts, YouTube channels, those kinds of things, or mainstream IT information. How do you guys sort of keep up with the techy side of what we do?
BELVA SMITH: Leo Laporte.
WADE WINGLER: I knew you go with Leo. You’ve had a crush on Leo for 20 years it seems.
BELVA SMITH: Ever since his Tech TV days. Yes, he has like 20-something different podcasts. I’ll listen to pretty much any of them. The Tech Guy is my all-time favorite. I also listen to the freedom scientific FS Cast. I also listen to Windows Weekly. I recently have started to listen to the Supernova podcast from dolphin. I’m not sure I’m going to continue with that one cup of those of the ones I listen to. You are right, Wade. On top of having to stay on top of the assistive technology, it’s also very important for us to stay up-to-date with Microsoft and Apple and all of those things, because that all plays a huge role in how our assistive technology is going to work for an individual. We met it’s kind of the foundation.
BELVA SMITH: Absolutely.
BRIAN NORTON: A couple of podcasts I listen to, the first one is Mac Power Users. It’s a great one if you want to learn more and more about Mac. They spent a lot of time talking about different apps you can use, productivity types of tools. I just love that particular podcast. It’s a long one, like an hour-long show almost every time, maybe even longer.
BELVA SMITH: That’s not long. Leo’s is three hours.
WADE WINGLER: TWiT, This Week in Tech, can go on for three hours.
BRIAN NORTON: I listen to lots of leadership podcast, Andy Stanley’s leadership podcast is something I listen to pretty regularly. I do lots of leadership and lots of techie stuff. That’s where I lean into four podcast.
CRAIG BURNS: I don’t listen to too many actually. I do some reading on things. I do a lot of research on AAC because that’s my passion. I catch a lot of things off of LinkedIn. A lot of people I’m connected with do some things.
WADE WINGLER: I’m seeing more and more stuff there all the time.
CRAIG BURNS: I see the assistive technology things that come through Easter Seals crossroads on LinkedIn. I always like those.
WADE WINGLER: Of course you do.
CRAIG BURNS: That’s about it. I have resources cactus people I know that are in some markets or area I like, so I talked to the modification and see what they say is coming up new. I do keep an eye on Apple worldwide developers conference on occasion. They just had one. I haven’t listened to anything or look at the video yet. I’m sure there’s some interesting mission in that.
WADE WINGLER: In assistive technology update, I did a segment on what the need of elements from WWDC are going to mean for assistive technology. There is a ton of cool stuff that’s going to impact what we do with technology. My job has changed in the last year here at Easter Seals crossroads. In addition to doing assistive technology, I’m also over our overarching IT for the whole agency and also the security officer for the agency now, which means HIPA and all that kind of stuff. That shifted a little bit for me. I’ve been listening to Leo Laporte for a long time as well and solicitude TWiT on occasion, and listen to their security show which is Security Now with Steve Gibson which is very good. I also listen to Mac Power Users. That’s one of my favorite to listen to. I have listened a lot more these days to Marketplace Tech, the financial side, talking about how technology is going to impact industry. I’ve been listening to one called the Premise from Forbes. It’s focused on technology in business from the perspective of the CIO or the person who is purchasing technology. It’s interesting because the interview a lot of thought leaders, a lot of the people were going to run in the circles of Tim Cook and Bill Gates and folks who are founding big companies and are looking at major technology purchases. I also listen to a lot of leadership stuff, a lot of in the Stanley as well. I can’t do without my podcast. I have an hour commute each way so I spend a lot of my time listening to technology that way.
BELVA SMITH: I tried listening to Security Now about a year ago and I felt like I was –
WADE WINGLER: It’s a new language.
BELVA SMITH: I decided this is not for me.
WADE WINGLER: That’s the language I’m having to learn.
BRIAN NORTON: Thanks for the question, Wade. Wade to give us a great question.
WADE WINGLER: Thanks for that stinker. That big poop in the studio.
BRIAN NORTON: I now know why I didn’t have any podcast out here. It’s because I have a 16 gigabytes phone and I started downloading, keeping the last five episodes for all my podcast. I had to start deleting things off. I thought the two I should probably keep on the ones I do here.
CRAIG BURNS: That’s like the iPad I have. It’s starting to tell me I have to move storage around.
WADE WINGLER: They are going to fix that in the new version of iOS 10.
BRIAN NORTON: TLR, is that what you download?
BELVA SMITH: No. TWiT.
WADE WINGLER: This Week in Tech. That’s the granddaddy. It lasts 2 to 3 hours.
BRIAN NORTON: I don’t have that kind of time to sit around and listen.
BELVA SMITH: I do it when I’m driving. You go to Evansville, you can get two of them in.
BRIAN NORTON: I would fall asleep.
CRAIG BURNS: Then listen to ATP stuff for three months.
WADE WINGLER: I bet you’re glad that’s going to be over soon.
CRAIG BURNS: So glad.
BRIAN NORTON: Thanks everyone. I want to think specifically Belva. Belva, you want to say goodbye to everybody?
BELVA SMITH: Thanks, guys.
BRIAN NORTON: Craig?
CRAIG BURNS: Thanks for letting me be here.
BRIAN NORTON: And Wade?
WADE WINGLER: Thanks for letting Craig be here. See you guys later.
BRIAN NORTON: Thanks everyone. Hopefully Mark will be back in a couple of weeks. We’ll have to wait and find out. Here’s how to find our show. You can search as assisted larger questions on iTunes. You can look for us on stitcher or visit ATFAQshow.com. Also don’t forget to send us your questions or feedback calling our listener line at 317-721-7124. You can send us a tweet with the hashtag ATFAQ. Or email us at tech at Easter Seals crossroads that order. Again, we want your questions and feedback. In fact, without those things we really don’t have a show. Have a great one, everyone.
WADE WINGLER: Information provided on Assistive Technology Frequently Asked Questions does not constitute a product endorsement. Our comments are not intended as recommendations, nor is our show evaluative in nature. Assistive Technology FAQ is hosted by Brian Norton; gets editorial support from mark steward and Belva Smith; is produced by me, Wade Wingler; and receives support from Easter Seals Crossroads and the INDATA project. ATFAQ is a proud member of the Accessibility Channel. Find more of our shows at www.accessibilitychannel.com.
