ATU791 – Hygiene Hippie with Gracyn Conner

Hi, my name is Gracyn Conner. I’m the founder of Hygiene Hippie, 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 791 of Assistive Technology Update. It is scheduled to be released on July 24th, 2026. Today’s show, we are super excited to welcome Gracyn Conner here to our studio to talk all about Hygiene Hippie and how this can help individuals with disabilities with different routines. We are also joined by our friends at BridgingApps with an app worth mentioning. Listeners, I know I tell you this almost every time, but don’t forget, you can reach out to us if you’ve got a question, a comment, or maybe a suggestion for someone you’d like on the show or something you’d like to learn a little bit more about.

Please do not hesitate to reach out. Some of our best guests, topics and things that we talk about here on the show come from your request. You can shoot us an email at tech@eastersealscrossroads.org or call our listener line at 317-721-7124. We always love to hear from you. Also, if you’re looking for a transcript of today’s show, please go over to eastersealstech.com, find the show, and a transcript will be right there. Our captions and transcripts for the show are generously sponsored by Indiana Telephone Relay Access Corporation or InTRAC. You find out more about InTRAC and the amazing services that they offer over at relayindiana.com. As always, listeners, we want to thank you for taking time out of your day to give us a listen. Now let’s go ahead and get on with the show.

We also start off today with a story from EurekAlert! This is from over at Lehigh University and written by Amy White and entitled Researchers Develop Assistive Technologies to Address Needs of People with Disabilities. Talk about a new university research center at Lehigh University that takes a human-centered interdisciplinary approach to assistive technologies to support mobility, independence, and daily life. I know we’ve had some stories kind of over the last few months about some different universities having programs like this and actually working in the community. So this one, the Center for Community Driven Assistive Technologies or CDAT works to take their engineering students and professors and pair them directly with individuals with lived experiences. So basically folks come in, tell them what kind of problems they face, and then they work to develop, design and make tools that can assist with those problems. It’s got some different pieces and parts to it.

There’s a mobility and access focus area. One of the projects included in this part is the Mapping for Accessible Built Environments or MABLE. It says here this is an ongoing initiative that allows people with a range of impairments to use an app to receive turn-by-turn instructions while navigating indoor environments. It also talks about a bunch of other projects in that area. Another focus area is preparing for change or transitions, and it says that this one centers on helping people with disabilities as they move through major life stages such as high school to college, employment to retirement, even college to employment, and these different parts. And then a third focus area is called smart spaces, and this explores how technology can support people in activities of daily living.

So a bunch of different kind of focus areas, but it sounds like the really cool thing is that they’re actually working with community members to find out what their needs are, what the barriers are, and then work with the students and professors to put different things into place. So I’ll put a link to this over in the show notes so that you can check it out, but excited to see what kind of developments and findings come out of Lehigh University and their Center for Community Driven Assistive Technologies.

If you happen to have questions about assistive technology, we have Assistive Technology Frequently Asked Questions or ATFAQ. This show is hosted by Brian Norton and features yours truly along with Belva Smith as we all talk about assistive technology with questions that come in from email, phone calls, and other means. We also don’t always know the answer, so it’s very important that we have listeners that can help us out with some of those questions because while we like to think every once in a while that we may know everything, we’re proven wrong almost daily on that one. So if you’re looking for more podcasts to listen to or if you have questions about assistive technology, make sure to check out Assistive Technology Frequently Asked Questions wherever you get your podcasts.

Listeners, as you may know here at INDATA, we do full day trainings all throughout the year and I’m very excited to announce that our next full day training is coming up on August 26th, 2026, and it is over wearable assistive technology. This training will be in person here at Easterseals Crossroads in Indianapolis, Indiana, but we will be streaming it. So if you are not able to make it here to our office, well, I’d say try to find a way, but if you’re not able to make it here to the office, you can log in online. You do have to register beforehand and I will put a link down in the show notes so that you can easily get over and register. With that link, you can also get into the archive of our previous full day training. So if there’s something you want to learn more about or maybe a training that you attended that you want to watch again, you can always find them in there.

But as far as our wearable AT training coming up on August 26th, this training will be over all kinds of different wearable assistive technology for health and wellness, for control, to help with vision, community access, work, and a whole myriad of other needs. If you’re here in person, you’ll get to try out some of these amazing accommodations. And if you’re online, we’ll make sure to try to keep you as involved as possible. If you happen to need continuing education units for certifications or other needs, you can get CEUs by attending our trainings. So whether you’re new to Assistive Technology, an old pro or just looking to learn a little bit more, please do attend our INDATA Full Day training coming up on August 26th, 2026 over wearable assistive technology. The training will be from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM Eastern Time. And again, it will be in person here at Easterseals Crossroads and also online streamed via Zoom.

You do have to register in order to attend the training and I will put a link down in the show notes to go and get to the registration. All of us here in INDATA look forward to seeing you there either in person or remotely on August 26th for wearable assistive technology full day training. Listeners next up on the show, we’re very excited to welcome back Ale Gonzalez from BridgingApps with an app worth mentioning.

This is Ale Gonzalez with BridgingApps, and this is an app worth mentioning. This week’s featured app is called Oko Cross Streets and Maps. Oko is an accessibility app designed to help people who are blind or have low vision navigate intersections more safely and confidently. Using a smartphone’s camera and audio feedback, the app can detect the pedestrian crossing signals and provide real-time information about when it’s safe to cross. Oko also includes map features that help users better understand their surroundings and navigate unfamiliar areas. Our favorite features were the real-time crossing signal detection and clear audio guidance. The app provides valuable information that can increase confidence and independence when traveling on foot. Its simple designed and accessible interface makes it a useful tool for individuals who want additional support while navigating their communities. Oko is available for both iOS and Android devices. For more information on this app and others like it, visit www.bridgingapps.org.

Listeners today, our guest is Gracyn Conner, the creator of Hygiene Hippie. Now I’ve been to enough Phish shows and music festivals to have learned that the words hygiene and hippie do not always go together, but she’s here to tell us how this tool can assist individuals’ routines and I am excited to learn more about it. Gracyn, welcome to the show.

Hello. Thank you for having me.

Yeah, I am excited to get into talking about the technology. Before we do that, could you tell our listeners a little bit about yourself?

Oh yes. I’m Gracyn. I’m an occupational therapist and I’ve been an OT for about five years, but I’ve been in and around the autism space for 10 years now. I also am a faculty member at Marian University for their OT programs. And yeah, I created an app out of just a desperate need as a clinician.

And it’s amazing how many guests I have on here that that’s kind of what ends up happening. It’s like, why in the world is this not here already?

Absolutely.

So you know what? It’s not. Let’s go ahead and put it in there. So I guess just start us off with what is Hygiene Hippie?

Well, thank you for that question. Hygiene Hippie is an app that basically combines visual schedules and video modeling together to help train staff, support parents and caregivers, and promote individual independence and hygiene skills or really any daily living tasks that you have.

Nice. And I know you said that this kind of came out of frustration, but where did the idea to use this to get rid of that frustration come from?

Right. It kind of goes back to those three things that I mentioned. So I kept running into the same issues over and over again in practice. Training staff is a big issue. Unfortunately, in the disability space, we have so much turnover. And through that turnover, I saw my clients’ progress completely stagnant, even though that I knew that that progress was there and could be made when myself or other clinicians have to spend a lot of time retraining over and over again, that’s not fair to the client or the individual or their family members. And then on the caregiver side, they are overwhelmed and overworked.

And I definitely grew an empathy for that as I became a mother too, where I was like, oh my gosh, the things I’m asking family members to do, even though I perceive to be so small are mountains. And so when they come in and they do parent training with me and I am doing my thing where I’m talking so fast and giving so much information in a one hour period or in the five minutes at drop off, or maybe I’m sending this long email that I’ve spent a ridiculous amount of time writing and they don’t have the time to read.

And all that leads to, again, is the inability to really create that carryover from our sessions in OT to their real life, really creating that independence and that carryover in generalization. And then the last thing is that independence. When we are not consistent, we cannot help our individuals be independent. When everybody is instructing someone to brush their teeth a different way, oh my gosh, I know how frustrated they get and I can’t imagine how frustrated I would be sometimes with limited communication and somebody giving different expectations every time. So with all of that, I said I really love video modeling as a tool. It is so successful in addressing a lot of those problems that I was just talking about, training staff members, keeping families on board and potentially keeping that client independent. But it’s not always accessible to be able to click the photos app, scroll through the photos.

The million screenshots we’ve taken of Bluey or whatever, other things we’re interested in that time. Clicking the video, watching it, and then knowing which step to go to next. Maybe we brushed our teth first. Okay, now I need to find the flossing video. That is really not an accessible experience. And then beyond that, when I am talking to parents or talking to staff and I say, “Hey, can you actually go through the Photos app and wait till you find a video? And it’s going to be of them brushing their teeth in this purple bathroom you can see in the background.” Right? None of that is accessible and none of that leads to independence. Even though those tools, visual schedules and video modeling are evidence-based intervention tools, they’re still not accessible for that independence piece. So ultimately that’s why I created it to really address that kind of three-pronged issue and then to keep it with them forever and wherever they go.

Nice. Nice. And just for folks who maybe don’t know about video modeling, don’t know about those kind of things, we talked a little bit about hygiene, but what other kinds of routines can we build or put in Hygiene Hippie?

Absolutely. It’s been something that’s been in the back of my mind and often brought up. Why is it called Hygiene Hippie if it can do so many other things? It’s completely customizable. So whatever you want to put in there, you can. Really, it can be anything. It’s just the OT brain goes to Hygiene Hippie or hygiene, but you can do vocational skills. I’ve put in folding pants specific ways, folding shirts certain ways. I’m doing laundry routines, washing dishes, even some things as relaxation routines like, “Hey, I feel that I’m getting a little overwhelmed. Here’s a video on demand that helped guides me through some breathing or counting if I’m feeling overwhelmed.” There are kind of endless opportunities for whatever you would do in your daily life, which I think is kind of the goal of occupational therapy, right?

For sure. Yeah. Yeah. That’s why it’s there. It’s not just for occupations. I remember when I first learned that.

Yes. Absolutely. Exactly. It can be anything that you need in your daily life to help facilitate independence in it. And I think that’s the other thing too that I’ve been finding as we’ve been piloting and people have been testing it, is that I think a lot of people think that, “Well, they don’t need a full video model. They only need help getting started,” or, “They only need a small piece of a whole task.” Maybe it’s specifically knowing where the settings needs to be on the washing machine before you start the washer. That’s a small piece of a really large task. And I think a lot of people will automatically count out different assistive tech opportunities because of that. But really because it can be customizable and be anything that you want it to be, you can just choose, “Hey, if my loved one only needs help with this single individual piece and they can be independent beyond that, then that’s something that you can do.”

Nice, nice. You just put that one piece on there and that’s what-

Absolutely.

… they can use it for. Excellent, excellent. So what does setup look like? I know sometimes for caregivers, for family, it’s like, oh, not another piece of technology that I got to learn, that I got to put all together, that I got to do all this. I guess what does setup look like from that standpoint?

That’s a great question. So it can be initiated by either a clinician or by the parent or caregiver themselves. So if it’s initiated by a clinician, the setup is really supposed to be kind of naturally a part of you working with that client anyways. If you are already working on a laundry routine, you literally pull out the Hygiene Hippie app, you take a photo of the wash… Gosh, I’m using laundry a lot. I don’t know why.

That’s okay.

I was doing laundry this morning. Maybe that’s why.

I was going to say, and I’m sitting here like, “Oh, I do need to finish that. I left them in the dryer this morning. Oh, dang it.” Okay, go on. Sorry.

So I guess with our laundry example, if that’s something that you’re working on with your individual, then you’re taking a picture of what you’re doing right then and there. You’re taking a video of the ideal steps that you want them doing, really anything that’s there and you’re just adding it to the app. And once that’s just step one, the next day they can use that routine right then and there. They can press the laundry button that you’ve created and you can start playing the video immediately. And what’s really cool too is it’s built like a normal visual schedule if you’ve ever used one before where normal visual schedules, you kind of take a piece off and say, “Yay, I completed laundry.” It goes to the left side of the board, from the right side of the board to the left side of the board or whatever.

This one, same thing, you press complete and it goes away, but the next day it will actually reappear. So you don’t have to reset up the app every single morning with what you want your loved one doing. It’s really meant to be kind of automatic. What’s also cool is that you can create schedules based on the time of day.

Oh, perfect.

So in the morning you can have a morning routine that will be front and center on the app from 6:00 AM to 7:00 AM, but maybe from noon to 1:00 you have a lunch schedule routine and then that will be center on the app. So really it can kind of help your individual navigate their day however they need to.

Oh, that’s perfect. Perfect, perfect.

Oh, I also didn’t mention the parent setup.

Oh yeah. So what’s it look like from the parent’s side?

From the parent’s side, it is the same thing, but on the clinician’s side, they’re then handing the app to the parent and saying, “Hey, this is all set up and ready for you to go.” On the parent side, it’s really you going through your daily life saying, “Hey, I would like my loved one to do the laundry.”

Oh, nice. Nice.

And same thing, you take a picture and upload a video and really doing the video is not a complicated task. I think sometimes when people think video modeling or anything assistive tech, they’re immediately like, “Oh my gosh, that’s so overwhelm.” No, just record yourself doing something. It doesn’t have to be crazy. There are plenty of strategies for video modeling, but you’d be surprised at how just recording a normal video really does make a really strong impact with anyone. So yeah, you just upload it to the app normally and whatever you want it to be, it can be for your loved one.

Nice. Nice. Perfect. And Gracyn, I have to ask you, how’s the data handled? Just because I know I got pictures, I got videos and I’ve got some probably kind of personal information in there. How’s that all handled?

Yes, that is a great question. So when I started on my Hygiene Hippie journey, what a fun thing to say. A year and a half ago, I did not think about that originally because I was like, how do I just get my clients and loved ones whatever they need as quickly as possible? And then as I started piloting with a couple people and they were luckily just my friends, they were like, “Where’s this data being stored?” I said, “That is such a good question.” In a database, right?

Oh yeah.

But not one that I feel super comfortable saying is the most secure I can promise under everything. So actually it’s one of the things that can make the app a little confusing when you first start, but it’s this weird thing that I’m talking about, this weird feature that we have for safety. And so basically what happens is you get a login code. That login code is a complete random letters and numbers. It’s not assigned to your email address. There’s no password. When you get the code, that’s yours I don’t store it with your name anywhere. That is yours to keep and that’s your login system. The app is downloaded onto a device.

That device has to have the photos and videos on it and in its camera roll. That does sound a little more complicated than it actually is. Basically that means if your loved one has an iPad, you download the app on their iPad and then you either take whatever photos or videos you want in the app on the iPad or you can Airdrop them to your loved one’s device. So that just keeps things as safe as possible. The only thing that I’m storing is the name of your schedule. So morning schedule. Any notes that you add because you can add notes in.

I use the notes for things like make sure that they’re actually touching their teeth when they’re brushing because sometimes they won’t. That may be a note that I put in there or, “Hey, it looks like we struggled with switching to the hot water instead of the cold water today.” That’s things that also get stored but beyond that, no photos or videos are stored and they all have to live locally on your device. I don’t want pictures of you or your loved ones and I don’t want to be responsible for them and that’s just kind of our way of getting around it. And it’s interesting because as I’ve started working with people, they’re like, “Well, that sounds like a really large extra step.” And then they start doing it and they’re like, “Oh, I share pictures with my friends all the time.”

Oh, for sure. For sure.

It’s not as big of a deal as it sounds in the moment and it’s the only way I can really ensure that your information is safe. But yeah, thank you for asking that.

Yeah. Yeah. And I know, and like you said, it was something maybe you didn’t think of at first. It’s something that I would never think to ask until you kind of find out that sometimes that stuff does get out there.

Absolutely.

And like you said, we probably all overshare things anyway, but you still want to at least know where it’s going and know where those kind of things are going, especially-

Absolutely.

Is there any limit to the amount of routines that can be added? I mean, besides of course the person’s limits. I know if you put 250 routines, I’m never going to find the one. I’m not going to use it. But is there any limit to the amount you can put on there?

That’s a great question. I have not found the limit yet.

Nice. Okay, good.

So the answer is there was no coded limit. And I’ve been joking with people, if you can find the limit, let me know. But currently 20 schedules and 200 tasks are the highest that I’ve heard. So no, not a limit that we’ve run into quite yet.

Good, good, good. Can you tell us a story either about someone using Hygiene Hippie or maybe just something that you’ve kind of learned during this whole process that you weren’t really expecting?

Yes. Oh gosh, a story of someone using Hygiene Hippie. Yeah. Successfully, I had a client in the past and oh my gosh. See, then I just start getting into why I love my clients so much. So let me not. Let me go back.

That’s fine. You can tell us that too.

I had this client, so super cool. And going through therapy for a long period of time, especially I’m working with those clients that are mainly 12 to 22. They’ve had a lot of therapy in their lives and have had a lot of support in their lives and they often are always looking towards a therapist or a loved one to kind of guide them through an activity and worked with a client for many years. He can brush his teeth, he can floss, he can brush his hair, he can wash his face, he can get dressed independently, he can even shower independently. However, he just always needed that extra look to me or to someone to say, “Yes, you should be brushing your teeth. Yes, you should be flossing now.” And I know that was really hard on him too, to constantly feel like, “Am I doing the right thing?” And it was really interesting because when I first built Hygiene Hippie, it was for a client with a very different set of skills.

And this was a client that I hadn’t originally though of using Hygiene Hippie for just because he had a ton of skills. But giving him that schedule where he could give himself some confidence that he knows what he needs to be doing, that he’s correctly engaging in the tasks that he wants to be doing, and it’s taking less time because he’s not having to stop what he’s doing in the bathroom, walk to me standing wherever I am trying to give him space and independence and say, “Should I be brushing my teeth now?” And I say yes, and then he walks back. It’s faster for him and he can participate in his daily occupations in a meaningful way. And that’s always what I tend to go back to as the OT, but independently as well. I mean, really preparing him for a life where he could have many living options and maybe not have that constant support, which is something that I’m really excited about as well.

Oh, most definitely. Most definitely. Yeah. And I mean, you said the goal kind of independence. And I mean, I’ve always said that AT, that’s kind of the goal of AT too. It’s just that kind of missing piece. But yeah, and I feel like you could even just build on those skills and learn new ones.

Absolutely.

Because like you said, I don’t have to have that person around. And I know for some people that makes all the difference in the world.

Absolutely.

I mean, it kind of just opens a whole new door of like, “Well, I can do all these things independently. What’s next? What’s next? Where am I going next?”

Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah.

Yep. And really keep those. If our listeners want to find out more about Hygiene Hippie, what’s a good way for them to do that?

Yeah. Check out our website, hygienehippie.com and then also follow me on LinkedIn. It’s where I’ve kind of been following along with my founder story. That’s been kind of a weird and unique journey. Like I said, I was just a clinician that was a little angry, so I just decided to make something. So now I’m just kind of sharing where Hygiene Hippie is on LinkedIn. I need to be better about other socials, but gosh, that’s a lot of work.

It is so much work. Yes. If there wasn’t an automatic thing from our website that sorts things out, we would not be active on most of those things, unfortunately.

Absolutely.

I’m just bad at it. Just bad at it. So I’m not saying anything bad about that. Well, we’ll put links to all that stuff down in the show notes so that people can easily find it. Well, Gracyn, thank you so much for coming on, for telling us about Hygiene Hippie and for just making a really great video modeling tool to just help folks be more independent with the things they need to do and the things they wanted to 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 Nicole 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 guest 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.