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ATFAQ031-06-06-16
Show notes:
Panel: Brian Norton, Mark Stewart, Belva Smith, and Wade Wingler
Q1. Turning off a lamp with a switch Q2. Microphone for computer and iPhone Q3. Calling 911 with an app Q4. Portable magnifier to read small meters Q5. Joystick mouse on computer Q6. Used AT
——-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 AT FAQ episode 31. My name is Brian Norton. To kick things off today, I want introduce the folks that are in the room with me. Today we have Belva Smith. Belva, you want to say hey?
BELVA SMITH: Hi everybody.
BRIAN NORTON: We also have Mark Stewart. Mark?
MARK STEWART: Hey gang.
BRIAN NORTON: And we also have Wade Wingler.
WADE WINGLER: Hello, hello.
BRIAN NORTON: Great to have you here.
WADE WINGLER: Glad to be here.
BRIAN NORTON: I would love to give folks who are new listeners to our show gets a little bit of information about what we do here. Our show is called AT FAQ. It is assistive technology frequently asked questions, where we sat around in a panel format and we collect questions throughout the week, collect feedback from our listeners, and we go ahead and try to answer those questions that we receive. We get questions in a variety of different ways. One of those ways is our listener line. That’s 317-721-7124. We also get those through email, which is tech at Easter Seals crossroads.org. And also through twitter witches with the hashtag ATFAQ. If you guys have questions or as you are listening today if you guys have, comments, additional feedback for us, you can send those things through the very same channels to be able to come back to us. Again, we will play those during our next show to give people some more information about the questions that they ask. It really is a format of question and answer, so without further ado will jump in today.
We have a couple of listener feedback segment here, so we will go and play those for you.
SPEAKER: Hello, this is Lewis from California. I’m calling about ATFAQ episode 27 where somebody asked about the braille note touch. I would like to make several clarifications about that. So the braille note touch is a braille tablet, and it does have a touchscreen as you guys said. The way it works is that you rest all 10 fingers on the screen – I’ve seen this in person by the way – so you rest all 10 fingers on the screen. You get a soft vibration as the touchscreen recognizes your fingers. On my braille screen on the iPhone, you can just start typing, and even if you shift or move your finger is a little bit, the touchscreen has already recognized her fingers so it starts tracking your fingers. The left pinky is backspace, right pinky is enter, right thumb is . It already corresponds your fingers to what dots it should be so you can move your fingers around and just type as if you are on a Perkins keyboard. Of course, you’re not. For me, it took about five minutes to get used to but it wasn’t terrible because the touchscreen tracks your fingers rather than you having to hit target. It does have a keyboard, and magnetic keyboard, that you can attach to it. Those who are not comfortable with the touchscreen, they can use a keyboard. Also, from what I can tell, it is a braille tablet. It is running on android Kitcat 4.4. You are able to go to the Google Play Store, download apps. I listen to several of their demonstrations, and they were demoing — the product manager was demoing that and several other mainstreamed apps that he was using such as a B&B. I guess the second part of the question they ask is what they should look for, the person that asked the question asked what it should be looking for. They are looking for a new modern notetaker/braille tablet. There are four options. There is the L braille which runs Windows from freedom scientific. There is the B2 G which is a twin cell android 4.1 device from national braille press. There is the braille note.
WADE WINGLER: He got a little bit cut off it seems.
BRIAN NORTON: Sorry about that. Belva you are mentioning —
BELVA SMITH: Lewis, I’m glad you called in because we actually did have the opportunity to get our hands on one of these a couple of weeks ago and never wanted to talk about it ever since. I think I still kind of stand by what I said at that time, which is I don’t think it would be for someone who is not really fluent with their braille and also I think the person might be able to pick it up quicker if they are kind of tech savvy. However, if you’re good with your braille and your tech savvy, yeah, I think it’s pretty neat and I was more impressed with it once I was able to actually see it. It’s my understanding, Brian, help me if I get this wrong, but it’s my understanding the human where actually makes this screen especially for this tablet, which is why they what with the android tablet, so it can interact with the touch for the braille.
BRIAN NORTON: Correct. It’s a proprietary screen that humanware designed – at least that’s what the rep told us. That’s why you can’t put a proprietary screen on an iPad. You have to use android. Yeah, it’s a tablet they designed or a screen that they designed to sit on top of that Kitcat software, and then there tablet format.
BELVA SMITH: We are actually going to be – I just found out we are going to be getting a couple of these for our lending library, so I’m excited to be able to actually show them to people and let some of my consumers get their hands on that.
BRIAN NORTON: It’s a pretty exciting device. It’s new, interesting, different than traditional notetakers. With QWERTY style keyboard and even the original braille, that touchscreen kind of makes a very interesting. The Mac and it got one thing to throw to your backpack and set of two or three.
BRIAN NORTON: Correct.
***
BRIAN NORTON: Our next feedback segment was from a miss all day. She was commenting on a wildcard question back from our main ninth episode. She said you briefly mention Google cardboard and your most recent AT FAQ, from May 9. I thought you would be interested in an app I called for it called nearsighted VR augmentative aid. I have yet to get to try it out since I have an iPhone and this is for android, but I’ve seen some reviews comparing it to the E site and review is actually preferred this app. Here is the link to the app on the Google play store. I actually went out to the Google play store, took a look at it, and it is one of those augmented, virtual-reality type of application where you utilize the rear facing camera on your phone and it puts it into what’s called stereo vision. Essentially what that does is it that takes the image that’s coming to the camera, split into two so both of your I see the exact same vision. What happens when you process that in your brain, your brain then adds to it and will combine it into one image for you, allowing you to be up to sometime see it better. I also listened to some video reviews and things like that from folks. One particular review at that was really good was from blind site. They were using Google cardboard with an android phone, and it had a favorable comparison to the E site device that is fairly expensive. I think E site —
BELVA SMITH: Fairly expensive? Let’s be honest. A
BRIAN NORTON: It’s $15,000 cost is pretty expensive.
BELVA SMITH: It’s a car.
BRIAN NORTON: Right. And their particular application, it’s a high definition video screens that do very similar things to what this virtual-reality nearsighted VR augmentative aid does.
BELVA SMITH: So how much is the app?
BRIAN NORTON: Interestingly enough, I was out there on the play store and I do not see a cost on the particular page it was on. I’m not sure if it is free or does cost something.
BELVA SMITH: It’s probably free if I don’t have a price beside it, right?
BRIAN NORTON: Possibly.
BELVA SMITH: Interesting.
BRIAN NORTON: Several folks who gave video reviews of it mentioned that it was a really interesting experience. They were able to see things with much more clarity than they had before without using it.
BELVA SMITH: I’m kind of excited that we got this feedback as well, because, again, since we talked about this several episodes back, we’ve had the opportunity to actually see this device as well and got a good demonstration of it. Interestingly enough, the warranty that comes with this is amazing. Yeah , $15,000 —
BRIAN NORTON: You are you are talking about the E site, not the app she was referring to.
BELVA SMITH: I’m sorry, it was the E site. But the warranty that the company is providing with this device is amazing. What we were told – I expect this will have to change at some point – but what we were told was if anything goes wrong with it, for a period of three years, they’re just going to replace it. Supposedly you’re going to be able to get training for as long as you need training. So on this a month of training, and less amount of replacements. You could get it replaced actually two, three, four times in the warranty and it doesn’t cost anything for that. That’s included with the $50,000 price.
BRIAN NORTON: A right. That’s interesting. The second company I’ve seen include training and the cost of the actual device. Not only E site, but I also think the other device, the ore cam which is a similar, takes pictures of things, terms of text rolling out into speech feedback for you. They also include training in the cost of their device. That’s the second one within the last few months that I’ve heard of that have kind of started to do that, which is different.
BELVA SMITH: Is different, and I’m thinking it’s a sign of their inexperience because I think as time goes on – and I mention that you both reps – as time goes on in people, more and more people have this device and they are needing training and they are needing support, I think they’re going to become overwhelmed with the amount of hours and time that goes into it.
BRIAN NORTON: With the Eastside, with the being $15,000, that’s a pretty heavy price tag. But then you have to think, for some individuals, $15,000 for you to be able to see things and do things better, maybe it’s worth the cost.
WADE WINGLER: It could be that it could mean the difference between employment and not. For a lot of folks that would be worth it. It’s interesting, because we see we live in a world where we see $.99 apps and five Dell apps all day long that to a lot of the same kind of things. I think our industry is becoming less accepting of these high price points on things that are computer-based at least.
***
BRIAN NORTON: So our first question comes to us through email. She was asking, hello, I’m hoping you can help. We hope we can too. I’m looking for a device that goes into the outlet and then a lamp or radio plugged into it, and then the individual can turn it on by hitting a switch. I’ve actually responded to the individual via email and told her about a couple of different things that may be helpful to her. What used to be called X 10 controllers, there used to be things called X 10 controllers which use radiofrequency signals and would communicate with a remote or some sort of switch box to be able to turn on and off lights. Essentially what you had is you had your appliance, which would be a fan or light, would plug into the X 10 controller which would then plug into your plug, and then when you would hit a switch, they would communicate through radiofrequency to be able to turn them themselves on or off using a controller. We talk a little bit about that, but realized X 10 Controllers Are Way in the past nowadays.
WADE WINGLER: You can still get them but they are not what folks are using most of the time. The Mac that’s what I was thinking. I think they are still available, but I think people —
BRIAN NORTON: Moved on.
BELVA SMITH: Are moving forward.
BRIAN NORTON: And I think they’ve moved on to things like and stay on and so on – is that how you say it? Instead on or we mow controllers. And stay on, as I did a lot of research on this, seems to be what is kind of moved into the X 10 realm because you use the same kinds of things. You plug appliances into modules, photo plugged into the walls. Except for Insta on uses a different type of technology. They still use kind of a low-power radio signal, but they also communicate with things through the electrical circuits as well. They call it dual mess dual mesh technology that happened there. It’s interesting. I think they found it a little bit more reliable. And so on is one. We mow I mentioned. We have those in our lab. Those are wireless signals, is that right? They are Wi-Fi.
BELVA SMITH: Don’t both of those require Wi-Fi? The extent doesn’t require Wi-Fi, does it?
WADE WINGLER: I don’t think Insta on does. I think it’s RF and using the electrical conduit, the copper wire to submit it signal. We mow does require Wi-Fi connection which is why I found it to be less reliable than I would like. And I think it’s unreliable, but I found that it loses its Wi-Fi connection sometimes. I find myself resetting it up or reestablish the connection more often than I would like. A couple of times a month, everyday or anything.
MARK STEWART: I think it’s on has a number of products. I think they work with infrared as well.
BRIAN NORTON: Very well. The other ones that I had thought of before – and I’ve used this in a couple of job accommodations for some folks who have some physical disabilities and being able to get operate small switches and things like that. I’ve used PowerLink’s in the past. PowerLink’s are kind of a block, you plug your appliances into it, and then you can connect switches to it. So any number of types of switches. You can blink your eyes, you can wiggle your big toe, move your head side to side. You get operate or turn on and off a device using a PowerLink to be able to operate those devices with those simple movements as well. PowerLink’s may be another option.
WADE WINGLER: I want to dig into that switch access a little bit. Just as a switch and the question, and if we’re talking about a very specific switch like a blank switch or jellybean switch that is the AT like, you would have to rely on something like a PowerLink and a we know. If you’re using a PowerLink, the switch would connect directly into it. If you’re using a we know, you’re going to have to use that iOS app and then use a switch access built into iOS to make that happen. You have to think about what kind of switch. Otherwise I would say Christmas tree switch is a really great option.
MARK STEWART: Absolutely.
WADE WINGLER: Have you guys use those before?
MARK STEWART: Minard or Lowe’s.
WADE WINGLER: Is designed to plug into the wall. You plug your Christmas tree or whatever decorative lights into it, and it gives you a four or five foot court with a floor switch that designed to be stepped on. We use those in our house for a couple of different things like of the Atlanta plugged in behind the house couch, you can run this thing. But the switches, you just have one switch option and there tend to be a little mechanical, a little clunky, little bit more stiff than something like a featherlight switch or something else.
MARK STEWART: You’re making a distinction – maybe this is all she is looking for is just a simple toggle on/off. It’s not just a foot switch. Just in Minard’s, you can buy — Minard to the local hardware store.
WADE WINGLER: We got one that’s like a snowflake. You touch it on the Christmas tree and this little tin metal thing, and you just touch the snowflake itself makes a flip on or off.
BELVA SMITH: Those things are just a couple bucks, right?
WADE WINGLER: They can be around 3 to 5 dollars.
MARK STEWART: Identifies fitted out, but you can do handhold as well.
BRIAN NORTON: In our lab, we took our Amazon echo to our we mow. Because it’s all connected through Wi-Fi, we’ve got —
WADE WINGLER: [Sing-song] The Wemo’s connected to the Echo; the Echo’s connected to the Wifi.
BRIAN NORTON: So now all I have to do is walk in, and I can voice activate all the appliances in our lab. I can say a lexicon light on, and it goes and turned our light on. Again, it relying on an Internet connection which can be flaky at times. That works pretty good.
WADE WINGLER: Wi-Fi is the emerging connection between all of these things because homes have Wi-Fi in them largely. It’s not that hard or expensive to make a Wi-Fi enabled device, which is a whole Internet of things. That’s what that’s all about.
MARK STEWART: If we were to guess at her question, after discussing all that cool factor, we would come back probably too simple is better, maybe even if there – in one of the store but things or to extend technology out there. Just a direct wireless signal to something that is plugged into the wall.
BRIAN NORTON: I would tend to say, I would want reliability over something that may cut in and out on me quite a bit with the Wi-Fi.
WADE WINGLER: The kiss theory. Keep it simple silly. We’re trying to do more publicly or politically correct and dental metaphors around here. The new one is pain or get off the ladder. There was another one but we try not to say that one.
MARK STEWART: If we have opened up a really fun can of worms here for this lady like, really, the answer was easy and now I can do this with this and this with that. The category from the assistive technology standpoint is the ADL, environmental aids — electronic aids to daily living.
WADE WINGLER: ECU, environmental control units. Another want to throw in there, not to make it more complicated because we decided not to and now I want to. The if less than that works nicely with those Web-enabled technologies. Though we mow are things that can tie into if this then that would could tie into your phone.. You do something like when my phone gets within a half-mile of my house, turn on the front porch light, or if my phone gets farther than a half-mile away from my house, turn off the power outlet them a curling iron is plugged into so that you can also do those things. Or you could even say, if the weather is rainy today, change by Phillips you light bulbs to a blue color or whatever. It’s getting more multilayered and context and geographically aware so you can do all kinds of fancy stuff. If this then that is free as long you have a Wi-Fi or smartphone. It’s free to play around with that stuff.
BRIAN NORTON:
MARK STEWART: Was to universal design phraseology for what’s going on? This is becoming so much more accessible.
WADE WINGLER: Home automation.
***
BRIAN NORTON: So the next question is, I am looking for a mic that connects to my computer and phone. Any suggestions? We did talk about this —
WADE WINGLER: This is iPhone specifically, right?
BRIAN NORTON: Yes. To my computer or iPhone, and it suggestions. We talked a little bit about this a while back. In fact, I went back into our archives and SR February 8 show where we talked about different kinds of microphones that can make that connection. Mark, I think you mentioned the Voyager Pro back then.
MARK STEWART: The Voyager Pro and Voyager legend was about was out for a couple of years. Plantronics just cannot with their latest and greatest in a series, the Voyager 5200. To make a distinction — from experience, this will hit a home run with this question. Other companies probably have a product that can do this but we’ve had a lot of success with this. If we go with their latest latest one, which I haven’t had in my hands, I haven’t tried but each time they made a step up I’ve had success with it. The Plantronics 5200 you see has a Bluetooth dongle that you plug into your computer so it is in the it is even going to have better reliability and signal strength than even if you have Bluetooth built in to your computer. Then you can simply just toggle as you were talking about, title on the headset and take a cell phone call, take a computer call. If you have Bluetooth connectivity to your desk phone, you could even do a three toggle.
WADE WINGLER: So it’s a Bluetooth that connect to multiple devices simultaneously and has a physical switch, so you are like yeah, into my cell phone or flip a switch, they fit into my computer. Bluetooth is the common denominator here. It has to be a Bluetooth microphone to talk to a computer and an iPhone. Then you’re talking about the specific one that has a switch back and forth to the two.
MARK STEWART: Yes.
WADE WINGLER: That’s awesome. I didn’t know you could do that.
BRIAN NORTON: There is a savvy series from Plantronics that I worked with. Those are more — there is a docking station or base station that sits on your desk. It’s not really a mobile solution, so if you’re looking to connect it to your laptop out in the community and also have a connect have it connect to your phone when you’re away from your desk, best of the option the Voyager Pro would be. But if you are sitting at a desk all day, it has a manual the button switch to also do the very same thing, switch between the computer, your cell phone, or your desk phone, which have one you might be using at the same time, and use that one microphone as a connection for them all. That’s a USB connection, I believe, to the computer, and it connects to the landline phone for the regular, traditional phone, and then I think Bluetooth to your cell phone.
WADE WINGLER:
MARK STEWART: To stir this up a little bit, to get some of the questions coming in or what not. As we know, there are handset lifters that can be activated from a distance wirelessly, from your headset you can lift the handset on a physical desk phone. Keep that in mind. You can have a wired USB headset that goes to a switch so you can have an in-line connectivity to your computer which goes through a switch. You can also answer your desk phone with that in line headset.
WADE WINGLER: I didn’t know you’re still doing handset lifters. That’s pretty old school but I guess that might be relevant in a call center environment.
MARK STEWART: Certain configurations you still need it.
BRIAN NORTON: The savvy 700 series does that. It has a connection for that particular handset lifters we’ve been using for years. It just easier to operate everything wirelessly and press a button on your headset to get that thing to lift up.
MARK STEWART: There is sometimes some connectivity that can bypass that handset lifter. Sometimes you can get that exactly right so you go back to the handset lifter, it’s tried and true.
WADE WINGLER: Mark, I’m going to look to you on this. Didn’t use they were using Bracken on the computer, but if they were, you can also use something to turn your iPhone into your Dragon Mike, right? So you can use your phone to be the microphone that you’re dictating into your computer with. Isn’t that right?
MARK STEWART: Yeah, I still wouldn’t do that just because of the mic quality. The Mac we just talked about that on Friday. The Mac was a cold?
MARK STEWART: Voice recognition accuracy.
WADE WINGLER: Is that what it’s called we know, the name of the app or system that turns your iPhone into a Dragon Mike.
BRIAN NORTON: Dragon mobile speak?
MARK STEWART: There is Dragon mobile. We meant that I was going for.
MARK STEWART: You can do it. Most androids, iPhones, they had their own built in technology that works quite well. It just a question of how accurately it records what you’re saying.
BRIAN NORTON: Typically with the folks we see, we are looking for, they may struggle with speech and put, they may have some issues with that, and we’re looking for the highest level of accuracy we can provide to them simply because we want them to be the most sixfold that they can be on the job. For faster, more efficient access to the computer.
MARK STEWART: To analyze what happened there just a little bit, Wade is pushing the envelope of technology. I said to myself, oh, yeah, that can be done. I knew that, but he’s really making me think about it because there is always that sort of on-the-fly, scared factor about when am I not going to be current with the technologies that I use with my consumers know, meaning that in five years, qualifiers like, well, let’s not do that because we would rather have – if we had a Bluetooth microphone, that would do it or help going into directly in the iPhone. But in five years, which is going to be a yes, yes, yes. You have a mic somewhere, down the hall, they’ll pick it up. It will have 100 percent accuracy. We just cannot qualify it and consider these things like Brian was talking about.
BELVA SMITH: You will have a mic in our finger.
MARK STEWART: Will have a mic in our watch.
WADE WINGLER: A chip in your hand to pay for your Taco Bell.
MARK STEWART: Was that what you’re asking? And Mac you got it. It’s amazing. You used to have to do huge gymnastics with microphones and phones to make all the stuff happen. The same is true with keyboards and mice. Now it’s Bluetooth, and you’re ready to go. It’s amazing how that all works.
***
BRIAN NORTON: Our next question is, I have a client that cannot speak and would like to be able to call 911 with their cell phone and play message. I did get a qualifier on the question that they did not live in an area with text to 911, which would be our first answer, is you can text to 911 in many locations if it is available in your area. I guess in this particular person’s location, they do not have that service. I’ll throw that out to the group. Any suggestions?
BELVA SMITH: So what, they want to call number one and play a recording? REMIC correct.
WADE WINGLER: I’m looking at the life alert system. I followed and I can’t get a button. Is that the kind of system we’re talking about here.
BELVA SMITH: But that’s going to be something they would have to pay for. I think there is a monthly charge that goes with that. We assume that maybe they already have a landline phone or they arty have a cell phone of some sort, any type of $10, $20 digital recorder where they could have someone either assist them with making the recording. I would definitely keep it near the phone, preferably if it is a landline phone in the living space, and represent that would also be the recorder. I would go for one of the record is only has two or three bonds so they don’t have to fidget with which fund they need to go for. I would have nothing else on there except the 911 recording.
WADE WINGLER: But Belva, what’s the likelihood you will have that recorder when you need to call 911? I would think that it might be left on the dresser or something else.
BELVA SMITH: At times and keep it in one location and use it for no other purpose.
BRIAN NORTON: I think what they’re wanting to do is have their cell phone, call number one from the cell phone, and then play the message on the same cell phone so that the other person on the other line can hear. So you’re playing the message on the cell phone, and app on your phone, and then that would go to the line to number one. As far as I know, there are no apps that can make that happen. You could use the speakerphone, a recording device to record the message, and then hold it up to your cell phone to play , test two separate devices. I would say we’ve been recently involved with the Indiana telephone relay system here, implementing — it’s an iPad program where they are working with folks who have speech difficulties, and they are using a service called hearing carryover HCO with an augmentative communication app on their phone. What happens as they have the these apps where it is pre-recorded messages where they tap a button, I need help, I need to eat, or a need to go home or those kinds of things. They’ve got pre-recorded messages on there where they press a button, the device would use text to speech software to be able to read those messages aloud and through hearing carryover — again this is not quite the same as using the cell phone that you’re placing the call with an app that already has a prerecorded message and playing it through the same phone – this would be holding your phone up with the augmentative communication app on it to a speakerphone or some other device to be able to have that place through to an operator through hearing carryover. Again, I spent quite a bit of time researching different apps that can play a recorded message on the same phone. There are recorders but I couldn’t find one that could play the message back to the operator.
BELVA SMITH: I should know – I did a tech tip on this not too long ago. There is an app, and I can think of the name of it right now, but you can basically do an advanced information. For example, if you are deaf or you can speak, you can contact them and fill out your emergency information with your address so they know when a 911 a call comes in that they must respond. Now, they don’t know if they’re doing fire, they are doing medical, but if they know in advance that you may be a diabetic or you may have a heart condition or whatever, they can kind of preplanned for that. And
BRIAN NORTON: That’s interesting.
BELVA SMITH: I did a tech tip on it and try to find the app and I can’t find it.
BRIAN NORTON: For those that don’t know, tech tips or something we do here at Easter Seals through the in data project. We put together weekly tech tip videos that are two or three minutes on a particular app, product, device, assisted larger related, and repost those out on our YouTube channel. You can check that out through Easter Seals tech.com as a place to find those.
BELVA SMITH: I want to say that I will follow up with that. I’ll get the name of the app and get it back out there.
MARK STEWART: I don’t have the answer in hand either. Like OnStar technology, if you have a car with OnStar, you press the button and they can locate where you are
BRIAN NORTON: That’s a little bit like the life alert which is just a button or medallion you where, but you pay for those services as a separate —
WADE WINGLER: There are a ton of apps that do something similar without the recorded spoken message. There are things like circle of six and panic button. In fact, if you put panic button into one of the app stores, you will find a bunch of apps that don’t necessarily call and say this is Wade Wingler and I’m having a heart attack or something like that , what it would do is call your friends or call 911 and sort of give them a message that something is going on. I looked a quick glance to the App Store. There are ones that have a button for fire or police or ambulance, so at least it’s calling and alerting 911 that that’s the kind of help you need. Some of them are set up to print out your friends — there is even one that works like a literal panic button so if you are walking across the parking lot, and if you get nervous, you hold for them on the screen on this button. So long as you hold down the button and release it, it will not do anything, but if you let go of that button, it will go ahead and call number one and give them your GPS location. There are a whole new crop of those apps that are showing up that will at least alert 901 and give them your location to let them know something is going on.
BELVA SMITH: I found that app. It’s called Smart 911. It’s a service that, again, you sign up for and you fill out all of your information in advance. When you need to dial the 911, they already know as soon as that call comes in from that advance address, the information they need in advance. It is a free service.
MARK STEWART: It would seem to me that would fit the bill to this question just the same as —
BRIAN NORTON: It doesn’t exactly fit the exact mold, but it would certainly probably solve it. But it’s a good start.
BRIAN NORTON: Absolutely. I would encourage folks, if you’re listening and have other options or suggestions, give us a call, let us know, not only on this question but others as well.
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BRIAN NORTON: So our next question is, I’m a therapist working in an assisted living community. I have low vision and need a magnify that can help me you paperwork but is portable enough to view of the things like oxygen tank commuters. And it suggestions?
BELVA SMITH: Yes, I just saw the new Ruby seven inch today. It’s awesome. It’s kind of expensive, but it does distance viewing as well as self viewing. It’s got five different notes on it actually. It allows you to — they call it hobby mode. I’m going to call it a writing mode. If you are familiar with the snow, is similar to the snow and that it has a standup pops open and then you can set it down on whatever you’re trying to look at. But the fact that it does the distance viewing would probably help with — what did you say, oxygen?
BRIAN NORTON: Oxygen tank commuters.
BELVA SMITH: It would probably help with that. It stores up to 105 snapshots. It can connect to any PC through HDMI. Those files can also be downloaded to a PC. Brand-new, just came out, and the price on it is right around $1300. That’s one thing. There are lots of —
BRIAN NORTON: There’s a whole number of video magnifiers, and had once you can use in those situations.
BELVA SMITH: And I’m certainly not saying that that $1300 would be the only one that would work. What I would suggest that you find your local — of
WADE WINGLER: Equipment lending library? Romich yes, and see what they might have in stock that you could actually try. It would be really great if you could try it in your environment.
BRIAN NORTON: Right. I will say others that are similar in nature, I’ll just throw out a few names that you guys can look up. The pebble zoom Max. Ruby has several different sizes. Like you said, Belva, there’s a whole host of video magnifiers, and hold ones. Some come with handles, some don’t, lots of different options, different features, different sizes, different ways to go about it, and different costs.
BELVA SMITH: Different costs. It’s also, this is one of those things where I feel like it’s really important to get your hands on it, because button location is really important for what you’re trying to do with it. If you can get your hands on it and get it in your environment and actually use it to do what it is you need it to do, it will help you make sure that the one you get is proper, not only for your vision but also for your environment and your uses.
BRIAN NORTON: If you’re looking for your local equipment to loan library, you can look up on our website and extension for that. It is EasterSealsTech.com/states. That will give you a listing of every assistive technology act. Here in Indiana, we’re INDATA. But every state, every territory, has an assistive technology act, folks that implement thing like a equipment loan library and do other things related to assistive technology. You could give them a call, see what they have available for you to be able to try out or talk to them about it and see about getting your hands on it, like you said.
BELVA SMITH: You will hear us mention that I a lot on the show, because that’s one of the things that really helps us be able to do our job, is the fact that we can actually get our hands and get these things in the hands of our consumers. It does a lot of the stuff, especially the video magnifiers, it’s almost impossible to look at them on the Internet. I’m sure you will get a full description of it, but you don’t get to see how it really works for you in your situation by reading about it on the Internet. But let’s face it: those are expensive, especially vision equipment.
BELVA SMITH: Yes.
BRIAN NORTON: When you’re talking low vision equipment, devices, we talked about the braille note earlier. That’s a really expensive device. It’s really important to get your hands on it.
MARK STEWART: So the loan library, of course evaluations are important as needed. But for example, the states loan library do it through the assistive technology act, therapist who do evaluations can borrow things from there , then as you are encouraging more access, the better, take a look at these things, I know how you talk about evaluations and how important that is. I do as well , right now you’re just talking about please just get it in your hands as the main point. What about local vendors? In our community, we have some low vision stores. Come to think of it, on the physical side of things, there are some — pretty much every town has a few computing durable medical equipment stores that have some wheelchairs and some walkers and things like that in them. For this topic, what’s your take on a consumer, a person going to a store to look at them?
BELVA SMITH: Let me first say that I love our vendors. I have directed people to actually go in. We have two low vision, and I have directed them to go in there for certain things. But – and that’s a big but – my problem is that is if I go into the Ford dealership, is going to try to sell me a Ford no matter if that’s the right vehicle for my needs or not. If I go to the local lending library, they’re just going to have — I almost want to say like the used car lot. They are going to have a horse from every stable. I’m going to be able to try every one of them instead of just one manufacturer. That’s my opinion.
MARK STEWART: Not-for-profit versus for-profit theme, there’s always going to be those subtle tendencies, at least we would hope they are subtle but some are more aggressive than that.
BRIAN NORTON: I’ll be the first, like you said, we love our vendors. We have some really great vendors.
BELVA SMITH: We do.
BRIAN NORTON: But again, at the end of the day, they are selling something. We all have our own biases towards different types of equipment and things like that.
WADE WINGLER: This might be a situation where you do look at a map. If it’s just checking and oxygen meter, something quick and down and dirty, maybe you’re just pulling your smartphone out of your pocket, without an app, take a picture, zoom in, use the basic camera stuff. They may not require something special. Again, there are a lot of variables there , the nice thing about those as they got a light on them so if the oxygen meter is in the shadow or the dark, you can get a flash, get the picture, look at it. You may have what you need in your pocket already.
BELVA SMITH: Absolutely.
BRIAN NORTON: If you’re looking for professional help in that area, contact your local vocational rehabilitation office, it hooked up with them. That’s what they do: they help people do things on the job. They help people maintain employment. They might be able to send you out to professions, come out and look at all of those options with you and do an assessment with you and the evaluation and figure out what very specifically would be the best option available for you.
BELVA SMITH: I think anytime you’re looking for a piece of technology or a software application, anything that’s going to help you do your job better or just get through the day better, you want to be as educated about all the different options that you have as you can be. By going to one store and seeing one item doesn’t qualify for that.
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BRIAN NORTON: So our next question is from a provider. He says, I have a young man who began using a wheelchair joystick mouse emulator on his Mac computer. Let’s get that right: young man, using a wheelchair joystick to emulate the mouse on a Mac computer. He’s currently using the built-in on-screen keyboard available on Mac. Any suggestions for better access, like a different on-screen keyboard, word prediction program, etc.
BELVA SMITH: We get the question about on-screen keyboards from that quite often. I don’t think there are any, are there?
BRIAN NORTON: There are. But there are?
BRIAN NORTON: Assistiveware has been around for a long time. They do one called switch SX which is a nice third-party software. There aren’t as many. You will find you have a lot more options in the Windows environment. But if you’re looking for pretty sophisticated with lots of switch access and other kinds of tools, Assistiveware switch SX is a pretty good keyboard emulator. It has, I believe, would position to it as well.
BELVA SMITH: I think it does have a word prediction because I think that’s what I was thinking that was.
MARK STEWART: I believe the Spartan Avenue, the software for the smart now for head mouse is Mac compatible as well. What our focus here for this question? I think it’s just software. I don’t know the particulars of what this consumer or client — I think is looking for an alternative keyboard.
BRIAN NORTON: We are currently doing okay, I believe, with the built-in on-screen keyboard. Anybody have something better, anything that we might be able to try to make things better for this particular person?
WADE WINGLER: We are starting with the base of a joystick that’s currently which I assume is currently operating the wheelchair. We have to assume that that particular joystick is a pretty good method for controlling the chair, so it’s probably a good method for the computer access. On a Mac, once you have your mouse going, and that’s good and strong, then you are starting to split hairs after that. Is the on-screen keyboard configurable and can you make the buns big enough and where you want them, and he can you add word position and sort of speed things up? I don’t know.
MARK STEWART: That happens a lot, even if there is a big training curve with using a joystick or using a particular device to run the wheelchair. Why not play off of that for computer access as well for mouse control, mouse emulation. Again, I don’t know the client, but if possible, if we have any functionality in voice where we can get voice-recognition to work, we would like to do that in combination with the mouse input.
WADE WINGLER: This is just one of those where I want to get in the room with this person and watch and observe.
MARK STEWART: It’s an evaluation.
BRIAN NORTON: I really want to try the Assistiveware on-screen keyboard with something like text expander, which is a abbreviation expansion software for your Mac computer. I got some pretty sophisticated text expander applications. I could put in “.ref” which stands for referral, and it comes up with a whole macro for me where I just had to put a couple of lines of text in or even words of text, and it completely finishes off an email for me. Pretty sophisticated text expansion program. I wonder if you can tie that in to the on-screen keyboard.
MARK STEWART: That’s probably exactly the type of thing they’re looking for. And we could go, hey, you can also do head mouse, voice, but it sounds like they’re looking – is there any way we can make the on-screen software work a little more robustly, a little more efficiently.
BRIAN NORTON: At the core, we start thinking about on-screen keyboard and word prediction, it’s all about efficiency. That’s a pretty slow method of input when you are interacting with the asking keyboard all the time.
WADE WINGLER: It’s funny that you mention text expander, because that’s one that I use all the time as well. In fact, my wife and I were talking this weekend about making her computer operation more efficient. I said, you know what, I think the program I use more than email or Microsoft Word is text expander because I’m using it all day long. It’s constantly putting in email addresses for me and commonly used phrases and words are spelled wrong and all that kind of stuff. It’s sort of there all the time like the heartbeat of what I’m doing with my computing.
BRIAN NORTON: It’s a very sophisticated program, let you do lots of stuff. If you are thinking, shoot, I don’t use Mac. What’s an equivalent for Windows? There are some good equivalents for it: phrase expander, word expander, or of the one called short keys are three pretty good applications that do similar things, maybe not to the degree because there is some real sophistication to what text expander can let you do, but those will give you some really good options for abbreviation expansion within Windows.
MARK STEWART: Two other angles just to make sure this person has checked off or talked about, the clicking, left click, double click, that sort of thing. We want them definitely to make sure that they know about the dwell software so that you can do it without a physical click. On the other hand, are they definitely considering doing the mouse emulation through the joystick and also incorporating switches which you could do with a big toe.
BRIAN NORTON: Great.
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WADE WINGLER: And now it’s time for the wildcard question.
BRIAN NORTON: All right, so our next question is are wildcard question of the week. Wade, I will throw it to you.
WADE WINGLER: Okay, you guys. I spent a lot of time on the Internet looking for all things related assistive technology. Lately I’m seeing a lot of use assistive technology showing up on places like Craigslist and eBay and things like that. Sometimes it’s a used video magnifier, so it’s hardware. Or maybe like an IntelliKeys keyboard or something that is used. Sometimes I see software like old versions of JAWS or maybe even sketchy looking versions of Dragon or JAWS or those kinds of things. My overall question is, used assistive technology: good or bad?
BRIAN NORTON: I would say good if it works.
BELVA SMITH: Good if you’re the guy buying it. Maybe, maybe not. But if it’s been purchased for you by the VR, vocational rehabilitation. Is not supposed to be resold. However, I know, as you said Wade, I know people are doing it. Is it better to let it sit in the closet and do absolutely nothing than it is to possibly get it into the hands of someone that’s willing to use it? Is it better for an individual to buy something themselves then to go to evoke rehab to buy it for them? I don’t know. I don’t know what’s the right or wrong. What I do know is legally, they are not supposed to resell, especially not software. Once that software is registered to you, it’s your software. Are you saying no?
MARK STEWART: No, I’m just shaking my head – I’m sorry. I know you are working your way through this. It seemed a little specific to what we do, so I didn’t know — first of all, cut all this out. If not, then talk folks through what you’re describing.
BRIAN NORTON: Let me throw this in. I know a lot of assistive technology projects throughout the states, they have – we have a loan library, a website people can go to and borrow equipment from our library. A lot of people use those for a buy, sell, trade platform for themselves where they can post the technology on those sites and let people either purchase it from them or trade assistive technology as well. We also the program here called The Depot where we take in donated equipment. So when people are done, they don’t need their equipment anymore, they can turn it into us. We were cleaned up, fix it up, make sure it works, and then we just turn it around because, for a lot of folks, if you have a need, you’re going out and purchasing – especially I think of CCTV’s, video magnifiers, those are really extensive devices. If they can get one for free they can do a pretty good job of and find something, it’s better than nothing. Then they are not stuck with the cost or bill.
BELVA SMITH: Keyword is free. Wade didn’t say free. He said these people are selling the things. That’s different because they are turning around and making a profit off of something that they should not be selling. I’m not saying they shouldn’t be – maybe that it did buy it themselves and maybe they’re just not able to use it anymore. Maybe the body for grandma and she isn’t using it. Some of those are probably legit, but my guess is the majority of them should not be being sold.
MARK STEWART: I see where your instinct is.
BRIAN NORTON: I’ll jump in and say software, I would have an issue with software. Much like when you go out and buy a car, you want that title put in your name, not stuck in somebody else’s name because you’re not going to be able to get any support. I would make sure if you’re going out there and purchasing software, we talk with the manufacturer of the software about license transferring to you, if that’s possible. That would be a conversation with them. Because you don’t want to get stuck with something that you need support on, they’re not going to offer to you because you’re not the owner of that particular software.
BELVA SMITH: With the software, I would definitely say buyer beware. Make sure that you have called the manufacturer and let you know that you’re getting ready to buy someone’s used JAWS or someone’s used Dragon. And can you install it? Even if you can get support off of it, is it still legal for you to do that, because it’s my understanding it is registered to you, it’s yours. I know in some circumstances they can transfer that registration.
WADE WINGLER: Obviously there are a lot of things going on here when we’re talking about a video magnifier or wheelchair or software or whatever. What are some questions that you ask yourself before buying used assistive technology? Some of this week kicked around, but if we need a list of the question you want to ask yourself before you try to do that, was on that list? Is a stolen?
BRIAN NORTON: That would be one for sure. That might be on the top of the list.
MARK STEWART: Is a functional? Is it going to do what I actually am hoping it’s going to do? Is it still cost-effective for me? Is it really the deal I’m hoping it is? Why am I concerned about that? Is it compatible? Will work with my current operating system?
WADE WINGLER: What version?
MARK STEWART: Brian was saying, is it legal for me to be using it?
BRIAN NORTON: I would like to know the history. Where did you get it? Like you said, is a stolen? Even if it’s not stolen, I like to know where you got it. Who provided it to you? Did you purchase it on your own? Did it come from a state funding source? What if you know where it came from? What if you know where it came from and you find out that it did come from a funding source that they shouldn’t be reselling it, but you really need it and you could go through the VR and take four, six, eight, who knows how long can get it in your hands. Or you could pull $500 out of your pocket and buy it and be done.
BRIAN NORTON: What are the questions you ask when you walk down to the pawn shop two blocks away? Do you ever ask any questions?
BELVA SMITH: Know. You buy it and go home.
BRIAN NORTON: That’s true.
WADE WINGLER: We just ran into a moral question like, is stealing bread for the children who are starting still stealing? It comes into that a little bit.
BRIAN NORTON: We are getting serious today.
WADE WINGLER: I wasn’t want to drill down to the moral, ethical issues because I assume everybody is going to do as honest a thing as possible. But really, the issue is to you by use stuff? Do you or don’t you when it comes to this?
BELVA SMITH: I think it’s okay to buy you stuff. I really do.
BRIAN NORTON: Assistive algae is life-changing for someone.
MARK STEWART: If you have it all figured out and you asked all the right questions, why not?
BRIAN NORTON: Thank you, Wade, for that philosophical, deep, deep question. I appreciate that. On a Monday, late Monday afternoon.
WADE WINGLER: I try not to think too hard about those questions.
BRIAN NORTON: So we will wrap this up today. I want to thank everybody here. Thanks, Belva. Thank you, Mark. Thank you, Wade. Again, I want to make sure folks know how to find our show. You can search as assisted larger questions on iTunes. You can find us on stitcher. Or visit us on our website at ATFAQshow.com. Also don’t forget to send us your questions or feedback. You can call 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.org. We want your questions. In fact, without your questions and feedback, we really don’t have a show castle be a part.
BELVA SMITH: Thanks everybody.
BRIAN NORTON: Thank you.
MARK STEWART: And for use assistive technology, go to —
WADE WINGLER: See you later, guys.
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.
