ATU757 – Holiday Gift Guide 2025 Part 1

Merry Christmas, happy holidays. This is Nikol Allee. I’m the education and outreach lead for the INDATA Project at Easterseals Crossroads.

Hey, everybody. Happy holidays. My name is Brian Norton. I’m VP of adult services here at Easterseals Crossroads.

And I’m Josh Anderson, your host, and welcome to our Special Gift Giving Guide 2025 on Assistive Technology Update.

All right, listeners, lets all heat up a big old plate of leftovers and dig into this year’s Assistive Technology Update, Black Friday Holiday Gift Giving spectacular.

Every year on the Friday after Thanksgiving, I get the pleasure of inviting some of my friends here at Easterseals Crossroads to the show to talk about some technology that they’re excited about for the coming holiday season.

Is it still called the coming holiday season? I feel like the holiday season starts right after the 4th of July these days. But anyway, today I am lucky enough to have voices on the show that will need no introduction, but I’m going to give them a little introduction anyway.

Nikol is our outreach and education lead for the INDATA Project here at Easterseals Crossroads and helps us get the word out about our amazing programs among many other things.

And Brian is our vice president of adult services, and he does vice president things or whatever the heck that might mean. But he’s also the host of ATFAQ, and both of them have been nice enough to come back to our show today.

Nikol, Brian, before we get into talking about all the amazing AT and the gift giving shopping spree spectacular, could you tell our listeners a little bit about yourselves?

Just work-wise what we do or personally?

Sure. Whatever you want to talk about. If you guys have been on here 25 times, so you don’t have to get too [inaudible 00:01:47]. Whatever you want to talk about.

All right. Yes, I am Nikol Allee. As Josh mentioned, and I am the education outreach lead. I love to be the cheerleader for all the very cool things we do throughout our INDATA program, which is the Assistive Technology Act for the state of Indiana. And we have two goals of that program, which is to educate people about assistive technology and to also help people get their hands on assistive technology.

And so I go throughout the state talking about all of our services. I go to transition fairs and health fairs, and we put on full day trainings here. We do a lot of education and outreach through, as you mentioned, the podcast that we’re doing now. Or tech tip videos that we do weekly or a lot of blog posts as well. So it’s all about getting the word out about assistive technology and all the great services we provide.

You do a great job at it. We are lucky to have you.

Brian, what about you?

Well, I’ve been here at Easterseals Crossroads for … 33 years? I have not. I don’t know why I said 33. Let me try that again.

It felt like 33.

The last two years have felt like five years. Yes.

So again, my name is Brian Norton. I’m VP of adult services here. That means I get the pleasure of overseeing several of our service lines here at Easterseals Crossroads. Most importantly to me is assistive technology. I was a part of that program for many, many years, but now I get to work with Josh and the wonderful team we have at INDATA in our clinical AT program and some of the other programming that we have to lead that program.

And then also, our employment program, our veterans program. We have brain injury services here. And then we also have deaf community services where we do ASL interpreting and case management services.

So just excited to be able to work with the amazing people here at Easterseals Crossroads and wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.

Awesome. Well, thank you both for taking time out of your days to talk with us today just about some of the cool tech stuff.

But onto the cool tech stuff, I thought that we would start with gaming. Now I myself am not a big gamer. I think my ego’s just not strong enough to know that I’m getting beat up on by a child in some other part of the world. But for a lot of individuals, gaming is a means to interact and participate with peers. And what’s nice is that there’s really no judgment since you can’t really see each other.

There’s a lot of cool devices out there to assist individuals with disabilities with gaming. And I thought that we’d start off with some of them.

So I thought I’d start off with just kind of talking and I’m going to lump these all together. But PlayStation and Microsoft both offer an accessible controller created by the actual companies. They’re created with accessible buttons on the devices, but also have just a ton of the 3.5 mm Jacks that allow for attachment of switches of all different kinds to replace the standard controller buttons.

These can be any kind of switches, which can really open up the accessibility of gaming for all users, regardless of the presence of a physical disability or motor challenge. They look very different in form factor, but both of them offer just a ton of different options and are highly customizable to allow individuals to utilize switches that maybe they already use for other kinds of needs for their gaming needs.

And then for the Nintendo Switch, there’s something called the Hori Flex controller. It’s H-O-R-I. Unlike Microsoft and the PlayStation controller, this is an aftermarket device developed by a third party and not Nintendo itself. But like the other controllers, it offers a large amount of buttons and customization because you can connect a ton of different switches to the device to be able to control everything.

And all the devices also include means to connect them to a wheelchair or a mounting system allowing for even better access for folks.

Some of these have been out for quite a while, but this year Microsoft also introduced the Xbox Adaptive Joystick. So this joystick can be used as a companion to the accessible controller. So it actually plugs into it. And it also features different sorts of buttons as well as, of course, a joystick, but it allows for button mapping and different handles for the joystick.

So I can control it with my chin, my feet. I don’t have to do it with my thumb, as you would think of using a standard joystick. It can also be easily connected to a mounting device to be put on a wheelchair or be able to be wheeled up to an individual and make it a little bit easier to use.

And then finally, Microsoft also offers a bunch of other adaptive accessories for PC gaming, including their adaptive buttons and hub, which are fully programmable. And allow the user to fully map the buttons, program sequence macros, and adjust them to meet their needs on the PC for gaming. And really, anything they might want to do on there. They come in a joystick, a dual button and a D-pad style, and the interfaces can be changed with 3D printed controls to make even more accessibility.

So these are all devices made by the companies with the exception of the Switch one that really just opened up the world of gaming for individuals with really challenges to mobility or really any other needs. And what I love about them probably the most is just that they allow you to connect your own switches. You’re not completely connected to them. You can use whatever you’re used to using or maybe whatever you use for other stuff.

And then Brian, you found some switches that are specifically made for gaming. Can you tell us a little bit about those?

Yeah, so these are the Logitech G Adaptive Gaming Kit. I think back when the Xbox adaptive controller came out, Logitech partnered with them to design a kit of switches that would make it easier and more accessible for people with physical or motor disabilities.

And so what you find in this kit, plug and play buttons or triggers that can be placed wherever is easiest for the person to be able to use. And so oftentimes, some of the buttons that are pre-made or developed specifically on the Xbox controller, those still may not be accessible. Even though they’re more accessible than your traditional, the one that comes with the PlayStation or the Xbox, some of those switches may not be accessible because of the placement.

And so these little switches can be plugged in to those adaptive controllers and moved around into the person’s environment to where they can then get easier access to those. And, for me, I think it makes gaming fun. It makes it more inclusive and gives more people a chance to connect, play, and enjoy games together.

And so the Logitech G Adaptive Gaming Kit is about $79.99. You can find it on the Logitech G website. And it’s just a great gift for folks who have physical or motor disabilities who want to be more active in gaming.

Brian, thanks for bringing up the price and the website.

Listeners, all the things we talk about today, or at least most of them, hopefully, will show up in the show notes along with links to where you can find them. And do a little bit more research and figure out a little bit more about them.

And yeah, those are really cool, Brian. I love that there’s different kinds, different shapes, different sizes. It really lets you customize which ones do what and can really make it a little bit easier to use.

Well, not only am I not a gamer, I was also blessed with minimal, if any, musical talent. But this year, we’ve been lucky enough to learn about some new accessible instruments on this show, and we wanted to highlight a few of them here.

Nikol, could you start us off by telling us about the composer?

Sure. So a composer, and it is CMPSR is the composer. So that’s all capitalized, and it’s just a really cool accessible controller. It looks like a joystick with some color coded buttons. But it’s designed to work with a software called Swipe to Create Music, kind of like a piano. So just to be an accessible tool if you are not able to use traditional instruments.

And so like I said, it’s just like playing a piano, but using the joystick and those accessible interfaces on it. And then that just allows people to create the music, play music, you can even record it. But that’s so great, just for your creativity, self-expression, just to be involved in a group, and that’s such a wonderful device. So that’s just fun. It’s around $375. It could be purchased at lots of different retailers.

I know we did a tech tip, so we do weekly tech tips on different devices. And when we were at the ATIA conference, we met with Westminster Technologies who actually had that device. And we were able to show off the device and the basic features. So you can also view that there on our YouTube channel. And again, that was about $375.

And listeners, we also have it here in our lab. So if you happen to be in Indiana, you can always come and check it out. Or you can check it out from our loan library as well. Or if you’re somewhere else here in the States, check and see perhaps your loan library might have one as well.

Brian, adaptive music is not a whole new thing, and there’s some other switch-adapted instruments out there. Can you tell us about some of them?

Yeah, so I’m going to be talking about switches a lot today. And one of these things that I know we have in our library, and I’ve just had a lot of fun. I’ve worked with a lot of kids over the years, and it’s a switch-adapted drum toy set. And by extension, there are lots of other musical instruments that are adapted for switch use as well.

What I’m going to talk about currently is that adapted drum toy, if you will. And basically, what it allows, it makes it easier, again, for people with limited mobility, hand control to enjoy making music. Instead of using small buttons or keys, people can use these instruments with just pressing a button.

And for a lot of folks, a lot of younger kids, I think the clear benefit for them is there’s a cause and effect experience that happens for them. Right? They press a button, they hear the music, hear the sound, which then really helps them build understanding, engagement, and motivation. The setup will allow people to participate in music for fun, but also for therapy and education, and really can support creativity, sensory stimulation, and social connection.

And so to be able to find these, you can go to some different places online. You can go to rehabmart.com would be one place. You can find that adapted drum set for about $210 from there. Another vendor of that particular adaptive drum would be Spectronics as well. And I think there it’s about $145.

So you’ll find different prices for different types of toys. And again, there’s a lot of different ones. There’s a lot. There’s drums, there’s piano, there’s other types of things that are adapted for switches, which would make a really fun to for, especially kids, younger kids who are, again, looking for that cause and effect. But also for older folks just interested in making music.

Awesome. And I do love our switch-adaptive bongos that we do have here there. And kids love them, adults love them. Really everybody loves them because it is cool. It has little, almost, I don’t know what you’d call them, tiny little drumsticks that as you push the switch, they swing around and hit them. And it’s very cool. But we have different ones.

And then earlier, I think this last month, we were able to learn about another adaptive instrument that was coming out there called the Arcana Strum. And it’s an accessible guitar that’s very straightforward and easy to use. The control were designed after studying how individuals utilized a power wheelchair.

And it’s made to be played by anyone with or without a physical or cognitive disability. And then it also allows you to connect different tools, including different handles and different keys to make it more accessible in the ways that you might be able to physically manipulate it. But it also has something you can buy called an e-box that enables it to be controlled by switches as well. So lots of switch talk today. Sorry, I didn’t mean to get us all into the switches so much.

But one of my favorite add-ons though might be something called the Air Strum. And so what it is, you connect this to it and it’s a proximity sensor. So that basically, if you just move your hand, your arm, any part of your body across it, it gives you the same sound as if you’re strumming a guitar. So essentially, they made an air guitar, which is, I can’t wait to get to use it and play with it and see how it all works. But it gives you just tons of different ways to do it.

And I think one of my favorite parts was, and listeners, you can go back and listen to the show, like I said, I believe it came out earlier this month, was at least a story about how it came about. One of the developers was teaching a class, teaching people how to play instruments. How to play guitars and stuff.

And essentially the flyer he’d put out was, “I can teach anyone to play instruments.” And a girl came in who had a CP and said, “Hey, I want to learn to play guitar.” And he was like, “I don’t really know how to do that. ” And she handed him his own flyer and said, “Well, you said you could teach anyone.” And I was like, “Wow, that’s a good challenge right there.” But that helped him and his friend be able to come and put this all together.

There’s some other things that came out this year. So the new Apple iPhones and iPads and all that stuff came out earlier this year. While they didn’t offer a ton of new updates from their predecessors, they did come out with some exciting new and updated accessibility features.

Brian, can you start us off by telling us about the head and eye control and the improvements to those?

Yeah. So in the new version of iOS, they came out with some new head tracking and eye tracking controls. And so if you go into your settings app, you go under accessibility, you’re going to find some new features in there. Again, to be able to help folks control their phone. Depending on what their mobility is, they can now use their eyes or their head to now move, navigate, and to be able to operate their iPhone.

And so to look at that, basically what this does, so head and eye control features on the Apple devices let people, again, use head movement and eye gaze to control their phone or tablet. Especially helpful for folks with limited hand or eye movement. So instead of having to interact with that screen, the touchscreen, you can now just simply use your head and eyes to be able to move through apps, input text, go online, communicate with other folks without ever needing to touch the screen per se.

And so the tool itself can promote a lot of independence by giving users some more direct access to the devices and the digital world around them. What I love about the form factor of an iPhone or a tablet is it’s not a big laptop. You don’t have to have a camera pointed at your eyes all the time. It’s smaller form factor.

So again, if you need to be able to use your head or your eyes to be able to control the iPad, you can be sitting down in a wheelchair as long as that iPad is consistently in the same location. Or your phone is in the consistently the same location. You should be pretty easy to be able to start using some of those things to be able to navigate and operate that iPhone.

The great thing too is they’re built into the mainstream Apple products. This isn’t something you have to download as an extra tool or an app. It’s built in. They support some inclusion and really let people use the same technology as everyone else.

And so again, iOS 26, it’s built in. It’s free. Check it out. Certainly something to play with and at least be knowledgeable about. And so head tracking and eye tracking within iOS 26.

Awesome. Awesome.

And Nikol, you found that there’s some new magnifier settings using the Mac and iPhone. Can you tell us about those?

Yeah, absolutely. They’re very cool. It’s also a free feature and it allows you to use the camera and then magnify text and objects. And it has AI built-in accessibility tool that utilizes that camera to magnify the text and objects.

You’re able to use different features such as Zoom. You can change the brightness of it, enhance the contrast. You can even use a focus lock to focus on a thick specific area. And if you need a flashlight while you’re in there, you could just use the Taurus option and that will activate the flashlighter to better illuminate that area.

So that’s obviously going to be helpful for folks with low vision or those needing assistance reading just very small text, viewing distance objects. Or even someone with a reading impairment. But it’s really cool. I know prescription bottle labels seem to get smaller and smaller and smaller to me. I’m sure I’m not getting older and my eyes are getting worse. It’s the labels.

The labels. Definitely, it’s the new fonts these kids use.

Yes.

So that’s the problem. That’s certainly the problem.

Hey, Josh, I was going to also just plug some resources you guys have on the website, the end data website. So eastersealstech.com to look up a lot of these different features, specifically for folks with low vision.

We’ve got a couple of really great PDF downloadable documents that walk you through all of those different tools. They’ll even point you to some different apps that could be useful for folks.

And so if you go to our website, it’s eastersealthtech.com. Click on resources, go down to other resources. You’ll see PDF downloads. And we’ve got some PDF documents there that have all these things listed. Gives you a brief overview, and tells you more about those things. And so check some of those things out as well.

Not only that, Brian, but we also have that section, the app section on there, where you can go in and do some database searching for different ones. AppleVis. AppVis is one for someone who’s visually impaired and they would go in and search and put in different search criteria what you’re looking for and it would suggest some apps. BridgingApps is another great one on there that has some great reviews. And then there’s, I believe, Tools for Life.

So if you go into that same resources tab and go to the apps, there’s some great resources too because there’s so many apps and they come and go. And they’re just millions daily, it feels like coming out. So that’s a great search if you don’t even know where to begin.

Yeah, most definitely. Most definitely. And that reminds me, we probably need to update that PDF. It’s probably got some pretty old information on there.

We haven’t done one in a while yet.

Nope. We sure haven’t.

We probably need to print all the ones when we have some downtime this winter and see what’s accurate on there and what’s not anymore.

Yep. That’s probably a great idea. We’ll definitely do that.

And one thing I love about all those features is that it used to be you had to use something external to get any of that stuff to work. And I guess some of it you’re mixing the iPhone with the Mac, but I don’t need a separate device to accomplish these things. So I love that.

And then speaking of combining the Apple devices for more accessibility, one of the things I was really excited about involves active listening, which is something my children are completely and totally incapable of doing. But this is actually, it’s a feature that’s been around for a minute. And it allows the user to use their iPhone as a listening device, essentially turning the microphone towards their communication partner and having that sound sent straight to their AirPods.

So if you’re in a really busy place and you’re sitting there trying to talk to the person across from you, maybe you have a problem with background noise. I can turn my phone towards them and essentially, they’re going to talk. My phone’s going to pick it up. It’s going to send that information straight to my AirPods. And it’s going to knock out the rest of the sound with this noise-canceling.

But one of the extra cool parts with the newest update is that if you pair an Apple Watch with all this, you can get real-time captions on the Apple Watch. So now I’ve got the sound coming straight from the person talking, straight to my ears, the noise being canceled out. And if I need the extra information, I can get the captions to come up on my watch too. So super-duper cool that I can get all that information coming through just by pairing these devices.

So I can see where it could have a lot of uses again in busy places. Or I could even think of church, of different places like that, where maybe there’s a speaker. I have a hard time maybe hearing, I can just move my phone up close to them and set it up there and have all that information come. And if I’m like, “What did they just say?” I can look down and capture that in the captions too. So just super-duper cool accessibility features.

And then Nikol, there’s also been some changes to personal voice. Can you tell us about those?

Yeah, I think that’s so neat as well. It’s again, a free built-in Apple feature. It’s already there on there when you get that in. And it’s just a really cool way to create a synthesized voice that resembles your own natural voice. And it takes you about 15 minutes to do some recording with your own speech to create that synthesized speech.

And this is really helpful for anyone who’s at risk of losing their ability to speak maybe due to a condition like ALS or other speech impairing illnesses, particularly when you know that your speech is going to get worse. Then using this, the nice thing about that is just helping you preserve your own identity, creating a more natural interaction when communicating with others. And again, that’s free. You used to have to go to a data bank to have to do something like that. Now it’s just right on your phone. I think that’s really cool.

It is super cool. I did it on mine. It freaks me out a little bit, but it’ll be really nice. And I will say with the brand newest update, Nikol, you’re right. It’s 15 minutes. You had to read all these phrases. It’s less than a minute now.

Nice. Nice.

You don’t have to do anything and the AI just fills in all the gaps.

Oh, nice.

Mine, unfortunately, I think it knew I was freaked out while I was doing it. So it sounds very apprehensive and like I have a really bad cold. But other than that, you can still tell it’s me. So anytime I have to call Brian and tell him I’m sick and can’t come to work, I just use personal voice in it.

There. I never thought about it for that. The devious ways to use the assistive technology.

Always good use for that.

Listeners, that is all the time that we have for our show this week. We hope that you’ve enjoyed listening to Nikol, Brian, and myself talk about some of the cool things out there that maybe you can add to that Black Friday shopping list. Or at least go and learn a little bit more about.

Don’t forget, there are links to all the devices discussed today down in the show notes, and we will be back next week with the conclusion of our Black Friday Gift Giving Guide here at Assistive Technology Update with more cool devices, more cool things, maybe even some bloopers and outtakes.

As always, listeners, we thank you so much for listening. As we look back at the things we’re thankful for, being able to do this podcast, being able to talk to the amazing folks that we get to interview on this show. And just to our amazing listeners, we are super thankful for you taking time out of your days, out of your weeks to give us a listen. Hopefully, you learned a little something that might be able to help yourself, those you work with, your family members or something like that.

But during this holiday season, we do want to take a little bit of time to just thank you for listening. Thank the ATX for giving us the opportunity to provide these services and be a part of it. And then personally, I am just thankful to get to be part of such an amazing team that we have here. And get to hopefully make a little bit of a difference in individuals’ lives. And open up some accessibility and inclusion for folks all across Indiana and maybe even a little further out thanks to this podcast.

So again, listeners, we hope you have a wonderful holiday season. And please do check back next week where you can get the conclusion of our Black Friday Holiday Gift Giving Guide. Thank you again so much.

Do you have a question about assistive technology? Do you have a suggestion for someone we should interview on an assisted technology update? If so, call our listener line at 317-721-7124. Send us an email at tech@eastersealscrossroads.org. Or shoot us a note on Twitter @INDATAproject.

Our captions and transcripts for the show are sponsored by the Indiana Telephone Relay Access Corporation or InTRAC. You can find out more about InTRAC at relayindiana.com. A special thanks to Nikol Prieto for scheduling our amazing guests and making a mess of my schedule.

Today’s show was produced, edited, hosted, and fraught over by yours truly. The opinions expressed by our guests are their own and may or may not reflect those of the INDATA Project, Easterseals Crossroads, our supporting partners, or this host.

This was your Assistive Technology Update. And I’m Josh Anderson with the INDATA Project at Easterseals Crossroads in beautiful Indianapolis, Indiana.

We look forward to seeing you next time. Bye-bye.