ATU775 – Clevy with Jay Bon

Hi, this is Jay Bon and I am the product developer of Clevy, and this is your Assistive Technology Update.

Hello and welcome to your Assistive Technology Update, a weekly dose of information that keeps you up to date on the latest developments in the field of technology designed to assist individuals with disabilities and special needs. I’m your host, Josh Anderson with the INDATA Project at Easterseals Crossroads in beautiful Indianapolis, Indiana. Welcome to episode 775 of Assistive Technology Update. It is scheduled to be released on April 3rd, 2026. On today’s show, we welcome Jay Bon to talk all about Clevy. Let’s go ahead and get on with the show.

On April 22nd, 2026, Easterseals Crossroads is opening its doors and its Zoom room for a truly special celebration, Assistive Technology Awareness Day, and we want you to be a part of it. This year, INDATA, Atlas and our clinical assistive technology department are joining forces to highlight the incredible impact of assistive technology and the dedicated professionals who help individuals with disabilities access life-changing tools every day.

Whether you’re a longtime AT user, a professional in the field, a caregiver, or just someone curious about how technology can transform independence, this is an event you won’t want to miss. Assistive technology is so much more than devices and gadgets. It’s about possibility. It’s about giving people new ways to communicate, connect, learn, work, and participate in everyday life. It’s about opening doors that might otherwise stay closed. And on AT Awareness Day, you’ll get an inside look at the innovations and the people that make all of that happen. During our celebration, you’ll have the opportunity to tour our programs, meet the teams behind the technology and get hands on with a wide range of AT tools and devices. You’ll see communication devices, smart home solutions, mobility supports, computer access tools, environmental controls, workplace accommodations, accessible gaming devices, and so much more. Each one designed to remove barriers and help individuals live more independent lives.

And the best part, you can join us in the way that works best for you. Our in-person event will be held Wednesday, April 22nd, 2026 from 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM at Easterseals Crossroads in Indianapolis, Indiana. You can walk through our buildings, ask questions, explore devices firsthand, and meet the specialists who change lives every day. We’ll be guiding attendees through our programs and demonstrations so you get a complete, real world look at how AT is used, evaluated, and delivered. If you’re not able to make it in person, no problem. We’re hosting a live Zoom tour. You can join from anywhere. You’ll still get a behind the scenes look at our AT labs, demonstration areas and services, all guided by members of our AT team who will walk you through the tools, answer questions, and give you a front row seat to the work we do. Our virtual event will happen Wednesday, April 22nd, 2026 from 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM. The Zoom link and more information is available at eastersealstech.com/atawarenessday2026. There’s also a link in the show notes.

Why do we celebrate AT Awareness Day? Well, AT Awareness Day is more than a calendar observance. It’s a recognition of the fact that assistive technology is not a luxury. It’s a necessity. These tools support learning, communication, employment, safety, and community participation. They’re essential for independence, dignity, and access. But this day also honors the professionals in the field of assistive technology, the specialists, program coordinators, researchers, technicians, and advocates who work tirelessly to help people get the right tools for their needs. Their dedication ensures that individuals are never alone in navigating the world of assistive technology, that there’s always someone ready to help, teach, build, adjust, and support as needed. So please join us on Wednesday, April 22nd, 2026 to celebrate National AT Awareness Day here at Easterseals Crossroads or online. More information, including links to the remote session are available at eastersealstech.com/atawarenessday2026 or down in the show notes. Can’t wait to see you there.

Today, listeners, we are excited to welcome Jay Bon from Clevy to the show to talk about all the assistive and adaptive solutions that they offer. Jay, welcome to the show.

Thank you, Josh. Thank you for having me.

Yeah, I’m excited to get into talking about everything, but before we do that, could you tell our listeners a little bit about yourself?

Yeah. So my main focus is product development and our main assistive product is the keyboard, the Clevy keyboard. Yeah. So our vision for the keyboard is that everyone should be able to use technology, especially child, and digital inclusion should be a right that everyone has to have. So yeah, Clevy is a funny story. Clevy stands for clavier in French, and for clever. So that’s how you can remember it.

Nice. Nice. And Jay, especially because we’re an audio podcast, can you describe the Clevy keyboard to me?

Yes. It’s like a keyboard with bigger keys, of course. So it’s easier to hit them for people that have limited motor skills. And it’s really colorful and it has every… The letters are blue, the numbers are red, so it’s easy to distinguish each function of the keys. And also, we also provide it in lowercase letters. So it’s easier for kids to understand because often you learn lowercase first and then afterwards uppercase. At least that’s the way it is here in my country, the Netherlands.

I swear, I think it varies kid by kid. Some of my kids started off writing all capitals, other ones all lowercases, some of them all over the place. So I think maybe it’s just what you pick up, but I will agree. It does seem, I don’t know, easier to interpret, I guess, a little bit, at least with some of the kids I’ve seen use it.

Okay. Okay. It’s interesting. It’s different in some countries. Yeah, I imagine.

Oh, for sure. And probably just the things that some kids pick up on and everything else. Jay, what else makes the Clevy keyboard accessible for individuals?

Yeah. So we started off as a keyboard for kids and we slowly, it turned into an assistive product because of the bigger keys. And yeah, we made some additions to it. The biggest addition I would say is the… Well, actually two, there’s the software side that’s programmed into the keyboard. I’ll come back to that later. But the physical thing is the key guard that you can place over the keyboard, and it basically protects a user from accidentally hitting two keys at once. And also, it helps the user to rest their hand on the keyboard without pressing any keys so they can really carefully navigate to the right key and then press that if they’re struggling with their coordination.

Very cool. And then there’s also kind of a cover, is that correct, that can kind of help protect it a little bit?

Yeah. So that’s what we call the key guard.

Oh, okay.

But yeah, it’s a little bit confusing because there’s a cover to protect it for spills, for water spills. That could be handy for kids where accidents happen, of course. But the other thing is the key guard, and some people also call that a cover. So yeah, that’s maybe where the confusion comes in.

Perfect. Nope, that makes total sense.

Yeah. So one nice feature of the keyboard is that it’s spill-proof. So when kids accidentally spill water over it, it will not immediately kill the electronics. Around each switch, I always joke about this because the product developer that made this at the time, he was of course a very Dutch person, and Dutch people, as you know, like to build dams. So every switch has a dam built around this, which diverts the water.

I love it. I love it.

And it prevents the keyboard from breaking because of a spill or an accident. I have to say, it’s not submergible in water. It’s spill-proof. So it’s not waterproof, it’s spill-proof. Yeah.

Well, that’s still pretty good, because I know my odds of spilling something on my keyboard are decent every day, but dropping it in the water, not as often. So I think that you definitely covered the good one there.

Nice. Nice. Thank you.

Well, just because we kind of started talking about it, talk a little bit about the software.

Yeah. So the firmware is baked into the chip of the keyboard, let’s call it the brain. And yeah, we put in some extra technology in there or features that help a user. For example, if they can only use one hand or one finger to control the keyboard for, let’s say if you cannot press two keys at once or even three keys, you can make certain keys sticky by holding them for a period of time, and then you can still make your own keyboard combination. Let’s say, I don’t know, do you often use the screenshot tool? Do you use Windows or Mac, by the way?

I am a very much Mac user, but I also do use Windows a lot just with folks I work with. So yes, I have done the screenshot and the other kinds of things some.

So when you want to share something, what’s on your screen, you would use Command Shift Four, I would think?

Yes.

Yes, yes. So imagine for someone that has limited motor skills, it would be very hard for them to hit those three keys at once. Yeah, we can program the key that you can press them one at a time, or we could even, that’s actually an idea we have for the future, that we can bind one key to that functionality.

Nice. Nice. Very cool. And you’ve got a few different kind of versions of the Clevy keyboard. What are the differences between some of the different versions?

Yeah, so we are now on version three, and this was a very difficult process. It took a lot longer than we hoped and you have to imagine this market is not very big. So the problem always is you don’t want to spend too much money on it and invest too much money, because then the product will become also very expensive and no one will buy it. So it’s very delicate balance. We finally did it and we are now version three. And what this means is that we have the Bluetooth capability back and also the Bluetooth version will also be used, be compatible. So yeah, it will be three, or we say two keywords in one, but it’s the third version.

Does Clevy come in different colors? I know it’s got the colorful things, but are you still making the high contrast version as well?

Yes. We also make the high contrast version. So from the outside, it looks the same, but the brain of the keyboard has been upgraded a lot. For example, now we have a programmable firmware, and that means that we can actually improve the firmware from time to time. So when we have an idea or if you have an idea, that you say like, “Oh, you really have to develop this,” we can program it in and send an update and then make the keyboard better over the year. So I’m really excited how the keyboard will evolve for people with those needs, because then it will really become an adaptable keyboard. For example, one thing we developed is now is the ABC mode, and that was not in a previous keyboard. So to be honest, our vision previously was like, why would you want ABC mode? But back then, we didn’t know… Yeah, we also learned, so we were like, “Yeah, it’s better for kids to learn QWERTY.” But yeah, we’ve also learned that some kids, it will be very hard and confusing to learn QWERTY.

So that’s why there is a place for an ABC keyboard. So what you can do now is program the firmware in ABC mode, and then you can just reconfigure the keycaps and then put them into the ABC order, which will be much easier to find the letters for kids. For example, in New York, there’s the International Academy of Hope, and they help kids from until 21 years old with brain injury. And yeah, this functionality makes it a lot easier to make the first steps into writing and keyboarding. So yeah, I’m really excited about that as well.

No, that’s great. I love that you can change it and alter it to make it more accessible for the individual and how they learn. You’re not stuck with just one setup, like you said. It’s important to learn the QWERTY and that kind of typing, but if that’s not a possibility, I like that you can change it and just move the caps and suddenly you’ve got the kind that might be beneficial.

Yeah. You can see it maybe a bit as training wheels on a bike. You wouldn’t want to throw them into the deep end.

True, true, true.

Make it a little bit easier. And yeah, if the training wheels stay on forever, it’s also fine. But yeah, if the training wheels can come off, it’s better, of course. And yeah, for some people, I mean, why do we even type in QWERTY layouts? Yeah. It’s just the way we’ve done it for years, and it doesn’t make sense at all anymore, so-

No, no. I was going to say, it’s the way my mom’s typewriter was, if I remember correctly. I think that’s the only reason why, and just no one ever thought to change it. It’s a really, really good point. Wow, we could probably spend a whole episode on why that’s there and why it’s still there.

Yeah. We are stuck in QWERTY.

Yeah, I don’t think it’s changing now. Even the little keyboards on our phones that we text on are all kind of set up in that way. So I’m going to guess we’re stuck with that, but until then, at least there’s some options out there that are able to assist kids. Jay, you probably got a ton of these, but can you tell me a story about someone’s experience using the Clevy and maybe how it was able to help them out?

Yeah. So we had a nice story from Kobe. It’s also on our website. He’s a boy and he has DCD. I don’t know if that’s the same abbreviation in English, but it basically means that the connection between his brain and his coordination in his hands were not as developed. And yeah, he told us that he learned typing, getting the confidence on a Clevy keyboard, and that he now uses a normal keyword because of that.

Oh, nice.

So yeah, that was really nice story. And another one was from the International Academy of Hope that I just mentioned for kids with brain injury, and what they did is also really nice. It was new to me as well. I saw this on ATIA. It was with Gretchen Hansen. I don’t know, maybe you know her, but she does a lot of stuff with early literacy and what she did was like take off all the keycaps that were not relevant to the kids, so basically all the orange keys from our keyboard. And yeah, she took them off and you only had the letters and the numbers and maybe enter and space left.

So kids can just go and play with the keyboard and like playfully learn writing. So that was also a really nice and inspiring story I had. And I actually had some ideas to make this, I would say literacy mode a bit easier to make for them. I have a couple of ideas and I will, one of the ideas is to block the other keys with a 3D-printable file, and I’m hoping to make that file available if it’s perfected. So people can print them themselves or ask someone to print for them or they can ask us, but basically to make the training wheels for the kids and to learn, to make the steps even smaller.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. And to take some of the information and the, I mean the noise, I guess kind of out of the way so they can really focus on what it is they’re trying to learn.

Yeah, exactly. So especially if you have the Windows key in Windows, if you press that by accident, for example, then a weird menu pops up and it’s kind of confusing. So stuff like that, it can really help in the early literacy type learning.

Oh, yeah. And just cut down on the frustration that I know can get in the way of learning so much of, like you said, you just hit that Windows key and suddenly, “Well, what’s it doing now? I was typing away and now suddenly I’m somewhere else and where was I? How do I get back?” All those things can become frustrating for any of us. Even I’ve been doing this for years and still you hit the wrong thing and think you’re just typing away and you’re not, you’re in a box somewhere else doing something else. So I could definitely see how that can be helping. Well, Jay, we got a little bit of time here left. I guess, what’s kind of coming up on the horizon, or is there something you’re kind of excited about as you’re working on things there with Clevy?

Yeah. So what I’m really excited about is making the keyboard better through the firmware because the hardware, it will stay the same. It’s also very hard to change hardware, but before, we couldn’t change the functionality and now we can improve it by the year. So we invested in a firmware developer, and yeah, you will help us make this vision come reality, and they are not cheap as I can tell you, but I’m really excited about it anyway. So yeah, I’m excited how this will evolve. And also, yeah, I think with how AI is now evolving, I’m also excited to make software that has the keyboard layout baked into the software. So you have one interface that you can use like a game or software using the keyboard so kids can play for the learn. So we can maybe make a total solution that we can create an environment where kids can learn and play, let’s say.

Oh, yeah. Most definitely.

That’s something I’m really excited about.

That’d be really cool. It’s always, I don’t know, I always refer to it as tricking children into learning because they don’t realize they’re learning things because they’re just having fun. They really don’t even notice. The next thing you know, they’ve got a new motor skill or they learned how to do something kind of on the computer, but really just being able to get them involved and feel like they’re really doing something enjoyable and not, “Oh, I got to learn something new,” or, “Oh, we’re doing this again.” That kind of practice and everything can just be so much more enjoyable, yeah, if you can make a game out of it or a way, and especially with-

Yeah, we want to make it fun and especially to make the keyboard part of the environment because now we’ve handled the keyboard more like a separate thing. And yeah, often occupational therapists also would ask us, “Which software do you use? Which games do you play?” And stuff like that. And most of the time our answer was, “Yeah, you can use anything, anything you want.” And now maybe we can say, “Yeah, we have developed this game and then you can put it in this.” And then a kid sees the same font and layout of the letters that are printed on the keyboard. So it corresponds what’s happening on the screen and what’s on the keyboard. So it becomes more one. And I think that is really important.

Yeah, no, that’d be great. Jay, if our listeners want to find out more, what’s a good way for them to do that?

Lately, we’ve been very active on Instagram, so I would definitely add us on Instagram or follow us on Instagram. So it’s Clevy Products, @clevyproducts, and of course clevy.com is our website and you’re welcome to send us an email through the website if you have any questions. And yeah, I don’t know if I can promote our webinar, our monthly webinar here on your podcast, but-

Yeah, go right ahead.

… I already did.

Listen, listeners, don’t leave and just go to their thing. But no, that’s perfectly fine. Go ahead, Jay.

We are hosting monthly webinars and they’re… Well, everyone is welcome, users, but the content will be mainly for occupational therapists, but also users are welcome, of course. And every webinar we’ll have a new guest speaker that’s an expert into the access technology field. So yeah.

Awesome. We will put all that information down in the show notes so that it’s easy for folks to find, be able to follow and join the webinar, check out the website, check out everything going on Instagram and everything else. Well, Jay, thank you so much for coming on today, for telling us all the great things Clevy can do. I think we were talking beforehand, we’ve got a few in our libraries that are out quite a bit. And I know folks really do seem to like them, seems to help out a lot of folks. So thanks again for coming on and telling us all about them.

Well, thank you, Josh, and thank you for having our products in your learning library. That’s really awesome. Yeah, thank you.

Do you have a question about assistive technology? Do you have a suggestion for someone we should interview on an assistive 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. 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.