>> WADE WINGLER: We are doing a quick sound test. We have our captioner online now and making sure that everyone is being heard. My voice is showing up. Jim, can you give us a test?
>> Jim: This is Jim calling from Fort Wayne. Am I coming through okay?
>> WADE WINGLER: Sounding great. Josh, how are you?
>> This is Josh here in Indianapolis coming through okay? Perfect.
>> WADE WINGLER: We’re seeing everybody. Kathy, thank you very much. And we will get started here at 2:30 or just a little after. For folks who are in the audience, we’ll be getting started here in just a little bit. Today is our training on assistive technology for VR counselors and employment services, the inside track. So we’ll be back on here in just a few moments.
>> WADE WINGLER: And again, folks, letting you know we’ll get started with the training. We still have folks coming in. Doing a few last minute adjustments. We’ll begin with our training here shortly.
>> WADE WINGLER: All right, folks, we’re going to go ahead and get started with our training here. My name is weighed Wingler and I’m the director of the assistive technology program here at Easter Seals Crossroads and I’m looking at the chat loom, and we have a number of folks here with this afternoon. So we appreciate you all taking some time out of your afternoon to hang out with us and learn about assistive technology tips for VR counselors. And we are kind of calling this an inside track session. And you’ll know more about why that’s the case here in just a little while.
Before we jump into the actual content of the training, I need to make sure that we are ‑‑ we do some housekeeping here. I see many of the names are familiar to me in the chatroom. So I know some of you guys are already going to know this. But for the new folks, I want to make sure you’re familiar with the environment. We’re using go to training for our training platform this afternoon. Somewhere on your computer, and it’s different on your computer whether you’re using a PC or a tablet or a Mac, you should have a go to training control panel. There are two primary things there that I want to make sure you know about. One is the chatroom. There’s a chatroom usually at the bottom of your control panel which I will type hi into right now and there’s a place where you can type questions to our presenters. And while I’m moderating the panel today, I’ll keep an eye on those questions. So if everybody would take just a quick second to say hello or something in that chatroom to let me know that you’re hearing me. Boom. There they go. Saying hi, hello, happy Friday, everybody. And I’m guessing that Paula is the person who knows my next question. I’m going to put your hand up. Here we go Lori knows the next question, too. There’s a “raise your hand” button there. Everybody is jumping all over that. Usually near the top of your control panel is a raise your hand panel. That’s a way to let us know you have a question. And if you have a microphone hooked to your computer, I can even unmute you to give you an opportunity to ask the question out loud if it doesn’t work well for the chatroom.
For folks who are hearing and on the call today, you’ll notice on our opening slide that we do have captions available today. They’re live. So if you rely on those or are interested in following along with the captions that are being provided today, our friend Kathy is writing for us and helping out with that.
If you direct your browser over to Eastersealstech.com/captions, that will take you to the captions for today’s event.
Another quick bit of housekeeping here. I’m going to change away from our slides and go to the website. If you haven’t ‑‑ well, I know you’ve been here at least once. If you go to Eastersealstech.com/first Friday, it will take you to this web page which is kind of the hub for the information for our first Friday trainings. And this is where you can learn about the topics that are coming up. This is probably where you went to register for the training today. You’ll see that’s right here on the screen, the VR counselors one. You’ll see just today we have opened up the remaining registrations for the rest of the trainings. So if you have registered for today and September and October, you can also now register for November. And the topic in November that we have is technology for activities of daily living. And in December, we’re going to do ergonomics in the office. So those are now available for registration. If you want to do that today, that’s great. That way you won’t have to worry about doing it. The system is set up that it sends you a reminder, I believe two reminders, I believe a week before the training and then the day before so you have automated reminders. We think the trainings are valuable and we think you will, too.
The other thing to know is if you are keeping track of continuing ed, CRC credits with this through central office of VR, there’s a couple of things you need to do. The first is you have to have registered. If you’re on the call, you’ve done that part. Then, two, you have to complete the survey afterward. So you go to the survey link and I will create that survey link today probably during the training so that you can go and take the survey and get yourself covered for those CRC credits.
The other thing to know is there is an archives button. There is a training you can go. It will ask you for a password, Indiana, all lowercase. You can see that we have archives. Trainings that we have done in the past. I will tell you these highly produced or edited. We basically turn on a screen recorder. It records the audio and the video of the training and we plop those up there so that you can get them later. Particularly helpful if you get interrupted in the training or if you have another colleague who wasn’t able to make the training today but you know that they would like to check out the content later, they can go here on the archives link and get that.
I think that is it for housekeeping today. I’m going to unmute our two presenters so that we can get them engaged in the conversation. Josh, do you want to say hello? Hello, Josh, are you there?
>> Josh: Can you hear me now?
>> WADE WINGLER: We can hear you now.
>> JOSH ANDERSON: Okay, good. This is Josh Anderson, assistive technology technician with Easter Seals Crossroads.
>> WADE WINGLER: Jim, are you there?
>> JIM RINEHART: I am. Good afternoon, everybody. This is Jim Rinehart, I am also assistive technology technician with Easter Seals Crossroads.
>> WADE WINGLER: So, for those of you who don’t know Josh and Jim, the reason we are doing an interesting session today with them is that they both are still fairly new to the world of assistive technology, at least in a formal capacity. And they are both technicians here who are providing services as part of our assistive technology program. They are also in our kind of ramping up process for more advanced assistive technology training here. So they are newbies but Josh came to us as somebody who has been working for the last several years as an employment specialist. So he’s been doing job placement, job coaching and all those kind of things and is now kind of a new assistive technology person.
And Jim comes to us as a former vocational rehabilitation counselor, so somebody who has sat on the side as a VR counselor and received lots of recommendations and acted on them in the past and is now working toward the person who creates those recommendations and is doing a lot of good services in the meantime.
So, guys, I am going to kind of sit here and moderate and mostly try to be quiet. I will watch for questions in the chatroom. I will advance the slides like you want me to. But if you want me to hit the button, say Wade, next slide. I think, Jim, you’re first so I’ll mute myself and turn it over to you.
>> JIM RINEHART: Thank you, Wade. Thank you, everybody, for coming to the training today. Again, as Wade has said, I’m Jim Rinehart and with me is Josh Anderson today. So we’re going to be walking you through assistive technology tips for VRCs and employment specialists. There are a few things that we’re going to try to accomplish in today’s training. There are going to be a number of points that are probably grouped into three. So if, Wade, if you’d like to advance the slide, please? There you go, thank you. What we’re going to hope to learn today is really kind of three broad groups, kind of what assistive technology is and what it does and a little bit what assistive technology can’t do. You can kind of see there. The other is kind of answering the question for VRCs is like “okay, when do I refer somebody for an AT evaluation?” And also what you could expect from us as far as report and recommendations when it comes back to you.
And kind of the third part is what happens when maybe things don’t go quite according to plan? And how all of us can work together to try to make the process go as smoothly as possible.
Finally, after all that goes, we will have just a few slides talking about a few other resources that will be available to you in order to learn more about assistive technology, as well.
So with that, let’s go ahead and move the slide to that slide. And, Josh, I believe you’re up.
>> JOSH ANDERSON: All right. Thank you very much, Jim. And, again, thank you, everybody, for attending today and choosing to spend your Friday with us. We’re just going to start off with a brief overview of what exactly assistive technology is. On your screen there you can just see kind of the Wikipedia definition, that assistive technology is an umbrella term includes all the assistive, adaptive and rehabilitative devices for people with disabilities but it also includes the process of selecting, locating and using those devices. Assistive technology, of course, promotes the greater independence by enabling people to perform tasks that they were formerly unable to accomplish or had a great deal of difficulty accomplishing.
Of course we do that by enhancements, changing methods of interacting with things and then of course the technology needed to accomplish those tasks.
So what you can kind of see from this is that assistive technology is not just the devices; it also is the people who do the evaluations, the recommendations, the installation and training. All of these are parts of assistive technology.
And if you can go on to the next slide, Wade, oh. So what exactly can assistive technology do? Well, in the next few slides we’ll go over some of the low and high tech items TAN kind of show you what a few of them can do. But really what assistive technology can done an the reason we work with VR and other funding sources is we can help individual consumers either prepare for a particular vocational choice and then perform the essential functions of that job, school, whatever their vocational choice may be. And as it said in the last slide, essentially it assists us with overcoming barriers. In school it can help people see the board, access the computer materials, study, learning. And at work, computer access, ergonomics, other things like that. Perfect.
As types of assistive technology, there are two main types. We have the high tech and the low tech. High tech can include computers, software such as Kurzweil, which is a good learning tool. You have magnifiers for people with low vision. You have jaws for people who cannot access the computer screen. CCTVs and hand magnifiers that help magnify written text and can read back to individuals. Lately we’ve seen Ipads, tablets and that kind of technology with apps really work into the way.
Keyboards, hardware and other things really help with access to the computer. Ergonomic equipment has really started to come to the forefront as more and more people are seeing problems with sitting in a desk all day. And then of course augmentative communication devices which can help people who have problem expressing themselves, speaking and other communication disorders.
You can go on to the next one. Okay. Then we also have the low tech devices. This can be all kind of different things. Different grips like you see in the picture for pencils. People who might have some ‑‑ missing some fine motor skills. Switches and joy sticks for the same thing so that they can access the computer. And other needs. Timers which we’ll get into a little bit later what those can help with. Very simple things like flash cards, reminders, stools or mats, perhaps, for people who have a hard time standing for a while for a job that would require them to do so. Reachers, grabbers to help people reach things. And then of course custom made creations, which is probably the funnest part of assistive technology.
On to the next one, please? These are just a few of the disabilities that we do see. And a couple of the things that can really, really help out. As you see at the top there is vision. Jim and I both work in the vision team here at Crossroads, so this is probably what we see the most. And with that, there’s the screen readers such as zoom text, Magic and other software. CCTVs, magnifiers, hand magnifiers, voice recorders. Again, the tablets and I‑devices are in there, as well, can help people get access to the computer and do their job duties, help out in school and those things.
People with cognitive disabilities, learning disabilities, TBIs, and that sort. Again, voice recorders, timers, I‑devices, study tools such as Kurzweil and these other things can really assist the individual in becoming successful in their vocational goals.
Individuals with autism that have difficulty with employers and school. Again, recorders could help them record a class to go back to later. Timers that can help them stay on task. Flash cards can do the same thing. And then of course things like noise canceling headphones that can really help them stay on task by cutting down distractions.
Physical disabilities. There’s desks, chairs, switches, alternative keyboards and mice. Again we get into ergonomics a lot with those, as well. Just trying to make people as comfortable as they can and able to perform to the best of their abilities. Hearing impairments is in there as well. I‑devices have come a long way with helping individuals communicate, especially people who rely on ASL and perhaps have to communicate with people who don’t use ASL.
There’s also vibrating timers, video phones and all other kinds of devices for individuals with hearing impairments.
So and then we also get into what assistive technology cannot do. All of those things do assist the individual really overcoming barriers. Assistive technology can’t do everything, though. It cannot fill in the fundamental skip gaps. Occasionally individuals, if someone would be illiterate, assistive technology cannot completely teach them to read, but it can perhaps be able to give them some software where it will actually read to them so that maybe they can actually self access to things that they did not have. If someone comes in and types 10 words per minute, assistive technology is probably not going to get them up to 50 words per minute. But with the help of some software, they can dictate and perhaps get up to the functions that they need.
So, again, they would actually have to have some of the skills to be able to perform the essential functions of the job, and assistive technology is there to help improve that. But it cannot actually just put those skills in place.
Jim?
>> JIM RINEHART: Okay, thanks, Josh. So now we have an understanding a little bit for why assistive technology is and does. Then the big question for employment specialists and VR counselors is when should assessment be done? And really the answer to that is: It depends. And I had a supervisor that used to tell me when I brought questions to her and she would say “it depend.” And it does. It’s really true. You want to do it early enough so that you can make those good decisions regarding other career choice or what may be required to achieve that career goal or that career choice or when technology is simply one of the missing pieces or is the key to opening a door for an individual.
It’s good to get it early enough, however, go to the next slide, Wade, you don’t want to be too early because assessments are costly. It’s time spent with whoever is doing the evaluation. Sometimes that might be one person. Sometimes it might be more than one. And so some of the questions we kind of thought about when trying to answer this question, put this training together, are these ‑‑ and this might be helpful for VR and seasoned employment specialists.
First is the career choice really nailed down? Do you and your client really have an idea of what the goal would be for example writing your IPE. So that you’re not just kind of shooting in the dark on that.
Another one I ran into a lot as a VR counselor is how stable is the customer’s condition? Is it stable? If it’s a vision impairment, is their vision kind of stable and this is kind of where it’s going to be for a while? And if so, are we able to proceed? Or it could be again other type of physical disability, as well. Or is it unstable? When you’ve talked to your consumers, is it unstable? Do we need to maybe wait a little bit before we actually do an AT eval to see if this condition is going to stabilize or not.
And if it’s not going to stabilize, do we expect it to get better? Or do we expect it to get progressively worse. And progressively worse, we have to kind of have an understanding of where we are today, tomorrow, three months, six months, a year from now, it may be different and conditions might change, which may again require subsequent or additional evaluation to determine what the needs are. So kind of the when, it does depend. And that’s where y’all’s good professional judgment and your knowledge of your clients, I think, certainly comes into play. So we get it early enough to make good decisions but not too early that we wind up either having to redo things or we’re kind of chasing something that maybe we don’t have all the facts and we don’t make the recommendations because we don’t have all the facts.
Go ahead, Wade. Okay. So with that, the other question we wanted to talk about in this section is what to expect from assistive technology evaluation. So there are a few points there that you can see on the screen that we’re going to talk about. Kind of what’s an assessment? Where we would like to do an assessment. Who does one. What do I as an employment specialist or VR counselor ask for in the assessment. We talk a little bit about a few ideas there of ways to phrase things that might be helpful. Kind of what happens after the referral is made. And finally I want to show you kind of what the final report, blank, kind of looks like.
So what’s an assessment? Well, most of you are familiar with assessments of different types, whether it’s a psychological evaluation or a neuropsyche or various type of assessments that you all are familiar with. And assistive technology evaluation assessment, if you will, is not too dissimilar from that. It’s really an informational process between the consumer and you folks as employment specialists and VR counselors and the folks who are doing the assessments for you.
Yes, in some ways it’s simple and will satisfy the needs for documentation. We have a written evaluation of what a qualified professional thinks is going to be necessary.
It’s a way to solve problems collaboratively between, again between the assessor, the referring agency and the consumer.
It also helps us with starting to set the plan in motion with a good assessment you hopefully will have an idea of where you’re going from that point forward, making sure that your goals are identified and that again so we’re not just going out there looking for anything, we actually have some clear goals and objectives in mind that these recommendations are going to help us solve. And one thing that makes, I think, Easter Seals Crossroads a little bit unique, actually quite a bit unique than other providers, we try to get our consumers to get some hands‑on experience with different forms of technology as part of this process and we’ll talk a little bit later about the lending library that helps us do that. Okay. So where can assessments be done? There’s a couple things to consider. Geography and setting. And in a broad sense, what we would like to do is do the assessment in the environment where the person is going to use the recommended pieces of technology. So that could be a variety of settings. It could be a person’s work site if it’s a work situation. If it’s in their home, if it will be technology that a student might take to school, to the classroom setting, just, you know, where are we going to use this technology? So it’s certainly possible to do it in a lab setting, but we believe it’s best that these assessments be done in the environment, in the location where the assistive technology pieces will actually be used. And that’s one thing about Easter Seals cross ropes that I learned is we tend to travel. We are road warriors. We go where we need to go.
Okay. So who does the assessment? That could be a variety of people. When you contact Easter Seals Crossroads, there will be people called assistive technology specialists. They will be the folks doing the assessments. Wade mentioned earlier that Josh and I are technicians. We kind of smile and say when we grow up, we’ll be assistive technology specialists. And eventually we’ll be doing assessments and we’re kind of working towards that. But these are folks that have the credentialing and knowledge and experience and the training to go into a person’s environment and work with them, talk to them, gather information from the funding sources such as yourselves and bring all that information together to make sound and practical doable recommendations for assistive technology items and tools.
We do staff cases periodically. Sometimes we go outside our team if that’s necessary, talking to maybe teachers or medical professionals. And all the professionals in our group, we pass those four competencies, and those are the things that Josh and I are working on now, before we start completing assessments. And the good thing to notice is if you look up in the slide, there are some letters called ATP. And that’s a credential that’s assistive technology professional. There are a number of people on this team that have that credential. And a report that’s written is reviewed by an ATP prior to being sent back out to you folks. We also have an assessment process, who doesn’t, we have access to the INDATA loan library that has something in excess of 1500 different kinds of items. It’s a huge room with all kinds of gadgets and gizmos and computers and all kinds of stuff in it for about any and all cases that you might run across. And probably if it isn’t in there, it’s probably something we’ll say, hey, we need one of those and we’ll buy one. So kind of the next question as a VR counselor, employment specialist, what do I ask for? And this is something that when I was a VR counselor probably wasn’t as good as maybe I could have been at times, but now that I’m on this side of the equation, I’m kind of like oh, yeah, this will be a great idea.
And I think the idea is ask your questions in a way that relates the AT evaluation to a specific goal or purpose. I think that helps you as far as again kind of helping define the scope of what we’re trying to do and I also think it helps the evaluators on learning to do evaluations would help me in terms of okay what are we actually trying to accomplish here? And I’ve written a couple of examples there just to kind of stimulate thought. But customer A has cerebral palsy. I’d like in the AT evaluation to see what assistive technology may be needed so she can continue working at her job as a customer service rep at a local bus company.
Phrasing sort of in that venue or idea really kind of narrows the scope of what it is we’re trying to accomplish. We’re not looking for assistive technology necessarily to go out and, you know, shock the web or shop at Amazon, although that could be, in some cases, the goal. But in this particular case, it’s not. We’re really focused a lot in this case on somebody who is working who maybe condition has changed and we want to look at why assistive technology might be necessary in order to keep this person working and keeping them productive.
The second example there, you’ve got somebody who is visually impaired. Again, has a goal of being a homemaker. And you’d like an AT evaluation to determine what needs will allow this consumer to perhaps read her email and email others and also maybe write checks and pay some bills.
So that’s not an all inclusive list, obviously. But my hope is that this slide you will get an idea of maybe when you’re asking for an evaluation, ways to kind of work on phrasing that helps you clearly define the goals and also helps us kind of get an idea of what you’re looking for.
Okay. What to expect after making the referral. I think, of course, this is an IRIS you fill out. Part 1 is the assessment. One thing to be aware of is if you have somebody who is working and something’s happened and we really need to get on that. That is a high priority with us. But be sure you make sure you let us know that on the referral form and also probably send an email to Brant Norton, so that he will know that this case is a high priority because I have someone who is working who we’re trying to do services to help them maintain their job.
So those are usually are given a higher priority. We pass that referral every Monday and those are usually acted on every way usually within a week, at least trying to get those assessments scheduled.
Not that nobody is a low priority, but folks who are maybe not working and we’re just looking in more of a general assessment, those, again, are passed out on Mondays as we get them and then we really try to contact them within a week or two and try to get that first meeting scheduled.
Like always, sometimes some of the flies in the ointment, we try to make phone calls, the consumers and we leave voice messages and sometimes they call us back, sometimes they don’t. Sometimes they call us back days later. So we still experience some of those kind of issues with contacting our consumers and keeping ‑‑ in fact, just like you folks do as employment specialists and VR counselors, as well.
Okay. After that assessment, that’s usually hours in the writing, the evaluation reports are completed. And once it’s approved by an ATP, it’s sent back to you, the person who referred it. So it contains basically these four things. It’s going to have some customer information. It’s going to have what the evaluator’s recommendations on equipment and services are. And the justification for those recommendations. Again, we’re very mindful of what’s necessary and required. We do try to look at costs when we can. All the things especially for the VR counselors that we try to keep in mind is what you keep in mind, as well. And one thing since I’ve been here, I kind of occasionally bring that up and say, well, if somebody brings an idea, well, tell me how it’s necessary and required to accomplish that goal.
And then it kind of helps the specialist and you and the consumer kind of be on the same page and have that path, that road map, if you will, to successful installation and training and ultimately reaching the goal that we all hope to achieve when we started this.
Okay. So for those of you who may be new and haven’t seen what a report looks like, this actually is about a four‑page report. This one obviously is not filled in. This is a blank. But the top page is on the left. It’s got, as you can see, some basic information in it. Customer name, all that stuff that you might expect, who the evaluator is, who the funding, the counselor is, as well. The purpose of the service. You can kind of see what’s there. It’s got some information on the medical, the vocational goals. So, again, ooze employment specialists, VRCs, as much of that as you can provide would be helpful. If you have like Josh said earlier, we both work on the vision team. If you have copies of the latest report from the low vision doctor, that those kind of things are helpful to us to understand really who we’re working with.
The next page has some recommendations. And you see in‑services and you kind of see there’s description of what it is, the justification and then kind of what we’re trying to accomplish with each of those recommendations as far as that page of the report.
Okay. The next page is on the left again is the equipment list. So here ‑‑ again, you’ll have the contact information for the consumer and then that equipment recommended. You can kind of see what’s there. We’ll write in how many, what the item is and the vendor information. What we try to do is give you an idea of maybe a web link or something in that order where you as a funding source can go to the website and see information about the items that we have recommended. Sometimes, as well, we may even generate some quotes for you if we know there is stuff over that $600 threshold.
Do you want to go back one? Thanks.
The right side is the services recommended, which we’ll talk about the service description which will include things like the installation time to install whatever equipment that we’ve recommended, the amount of travel that is required for those specialists or the technicians like Josh and myself to get to the site. And We’ll try and estimate the best we can how many trips that we may need. And also the number of hours of training that we believe may be necessary. Those tend to be kind of ballpark estimates, as many of you might already know. And a lot depends on, again, the consumer, how quickly they catch on to the equipment. Just kind of how quickly they can learn how to use the equipment to the level that we need them to. We’ll have June white’s contact phone number on there. Jim, for those that don’t know, is the secretary for the assistant technology department here at Easter Seals Crossroads. And she’s like the secretaries in the VR offices, she’s kind of the glue that holds us all together.
Okay. So what to expect after making the referral, part 3, the installation and training. We kind of talked about all that. Once the equipment is purchased and delivered ‑‑ and that part is really kind of works differently for most, but most of the VR counselors, especially, will have that equipment shipped to us at Easter Seals Crossroads in Indianapolis. That’s the way I did it as a VR counselor. What I liked about that is that the equipment is all here. It’s all in one place. The specialist or the technician will pick it all up together, deliver it all together so that you know it all got there. If you send it to the consumer directly, sometimes experience says they’ll say “we never got that piece” or in a more sinister way, it ends up on eBay or something. You don’t have to send it to us, but I think we do recommend that that’s a cleaner way to handle it.
We take the equipment out there. We install it all. We register the equipment so warranties and things like that are in place. Sometimes when you buy software out of a box it was created months ago and there have been updates since, so we do any updates that are necessary with that software. Then we start the training on the uses of the equipment and kind of follow along with them as they go along.
I think we’ll switch gears to when things don’t go according to plan. Josh, are you still with us?
>> JOSH ANDERSON: I’m still here. Thank you, Jim.
Jim just got done telling you everything how to make the referral and the entire process that goes on with that. I get to express the joy of telling you some of the things that can happen to make that process not go quite as well.
So as you can see there it looks like a big mess of puzzle pieces. As with anything when you’re missing a couple pieces to the puzzle, everything does not go correctly and you don’t end up with vocational success, basically.
So if we go on to the next slide, first thing is to unmanaged expectations. Everyone here in the entire process here has expectations, the employee, the consumer, their employer, the job coach, the funding source or VR. Everyone has expectations of how this process is supposed to go, of what kind of equipment will be needed, what kind of tasks need to be completed and everything else. So we need to make sure that all those expectations are brought together and managed.
And if we can go on to the next one. The good old hurry up and wait game. This, I believe Jim talked a little bit about how long ‑‑ you can kind of expect for us to get something scheduled with the consumers for that first meeting, that assessment. And sometimes things take a little bit longer than planned. As he said, once we get those authorizations, those referrals, we try to get with the individuals as fast as possible. Due to their scheduling conflicts, sometimes that takes a little bit longer. Firms’ phone numbers change. Sometimes other things change. So that can kind of slow down the process.
Also within that whole process, once the recommendations are being made, there needs to be quotes, there needs to be actual items getting ordered. And then those items have to be purchased, delivered and then again you have to get in touch with the consumer, get back out there, get everything installed and the training done. So all those things do take time. That’s why we have the hurry up, slow down. As said, matching everyone’s speed. Sometimes it takes so long to get with people that even authorizations can end before those meetings and training get done. Just due to problems with scheduling conflicts. And as much as with anything else, the more parties that are involved in that, the harder this can become. Sometimes the employer, perhaps HR needs to be there whenever we’re installing things at someone’s business. Sometimes people, other people need to be on site whenever we’re installing things at a school or class. And there’s also other problems sometimes with having administrative rights and installing things on computers at actual businesses.
Of course like with anything else, we all hope to get everything done as quick as possible, but that doesn’t always happen. From time to time, some of these things can be helped out with the loaner devices from the loan library, which I believe Jim’s going to touch on a little bit more later. But, again, it is kind of a hurry up and wait game sometimes.
Sometimes we do just have to hit the recess button and start over. Some reasons that can happen is that the needs of the individual can change from evaluation to implementation. As Jim and Wade both told you earlier, I came from employment, so from time to time this can be a very real problem. We do our best to make sure that we know all the job tasks that the individual will have on the job. But as with any job ‑‑ and I’m sure everyone can relate to ‑‑ sometimes those tasks do change. Of course sometimes the consumer isn’t able to do those tasks anymore. Perhaps their vision or their physical disability has gotten worse between the time the evaluation was done and the time that the actual equipment comes in. It’s also that horror story that they lose the job, decide they don’t want the job or those things can happen in between that time, as well. And sometimes you just have the to have to go kind of to the drawing board and start over. Of course you do the best you can to use what you have, but from time to time you do actually just have the to hit that reset button and start over. We’ll get into after this some things to really combat that. As it says at the bottom. Sometimes this is very legit and it does happen.
Then we get into funding. This can have many different things. Some employers are willing to take up some of the costs in order to keep up with ADA regulations. The funding source, of course, since I know I’m talking to mostly VR counselors here, I know that a lot of times you are the actual funding source. And occasionally the sole funding source. So we do have to make sure that we manage all your expectations on getting the absolute best thing that we can get for the individuals without breaking the bank.
The employee costs which goes up with who is covering the up front, the ongoing costs. We do our best to explain that VR does not play for data plans for ongoing costs. If someone really thinks they need an iPhone and it is something very good, we try to make sure that they know that that monthly bill is going to go up. It’s going to be your responsibility from now on. They need to for sure know that. So we do our best to manage those as best we can.
There’s always questions about is this my computer now? Is this my CCTV.? We go to explain that. Jim mentioned the nightmare scenario of everything ending up on eBay. So we make sure that they always sign that receipt of goods saying that it will be used for the express purpose that it was purchased for and will not end up on a website next week being sold on Craigslist or eBay or anything like that.
Then down there at the bottom we have the consumer trying to upgrade. Paying a difference to get the Lexus instead of the Chevy. I believe we probably run into this quite a bit, as was said earlier, we auto both kind of new to this. I know I’ve definitely seen it. I wanted the laptop, the iPad, this and that, et cetera. When really what was really needed to accomplish the goal was something much smaller. They already had a perfectly fine desktop computer that meets every need they could possibly have. There’s no reason to spend the money on a new laptop. All they really need Ed was a device, a timing device. You really can’t buy an iPad or an iPhone just to do that small thing. And just to go back on what Jim said earlier. Basically how is that necessary to accomplish the goals as something that has to be asked. So we do need to balance out the funding short for sure. Make sure we’re not buying the Lexus when the Chevy will get them there, as well.
Another thing that can definitely happen. The entire players, as we said there’s a lot of people involved in this process, from the VR counselor, the employment representative, job coaches, the employers, their coworkers, sometimes perhaps the AT specialists. There are a lot of players in the game. And a lot of times these things can change. Coming from employment, there was many times that even while the consumer was going through their first 90 days, they might go through three managers in that time. That’s an extreme case, but it can definitely happen. So making sure that everyone really keeps up communication and talks to each other so that we know who we need to get the authorizations for, who the VR counselor is, who the employer’s representative, who their boss and supervisors are. Make sure that their coworkers sometimes can be resources, as well. And the job coaches, we really need to work with them quite a bit to make sure that we’re good. As it says the client is really the only constant in the whole thing.
So, with all these problems, how do we make things go more smoothly? I’d say that it probably needs to be in bigger letters, but the clear communication is the best part. Jim touched on earlier setting those clear expectations at the beginning. Making sure that we know exactly why we’re doing this assessment. Making sure we know exactly what that vocational goal is and what our job is there to make sure that this person is successful. Setting realistic time frames and keeping everyone updated on that.
If the assessment’s been done, everything’s in, it’s been a decent amount of time, that communication needs to keep going. We need to figure out: We’re waiting on quotes. Is something on back order? Has it been ordered? Was it delivered to a different place? All of these things need to be taken into consideration during that entire time. Again to try to get those things needed to hit the reset button. To get everything implemented, put in, the chances of something changing be it one of the players in the game, be it some of the duties, be it the individuals basically passionate to keep that job, the chances of those staying the same are much better the quicker that everything does go. Of course again back to knowing who’s paying for what and when, is someone just trying to get an upgrade? Also knowing where those goods are going whenever they’re delivered. Jim touched on it things actually getting delivered to people’s homes and if you get a new box at home Christmas you want to open it, play with it. A lot of the things unfortunately have a lot of small pieces, disks that need to be installed, other things like that, and these items can easily be lost, broken. You get out there to try to install something. You’re missing a few of the pieces. And you’re kind of back at square 1 trying to figure out what you’re missing and how to go from there.
So, so far in the presentation, hopefully you’ve enjoyed it. We haven’t bored you to death here at the end of a Friday afternoon. But we tried to answer a couple of questions. What exactly is assistive technology? What can assistive technology do? And as well as what can it not do? When exactly should I refer a consumer for an AT evaluation? What you can expect from that evaluation. And then, of course, you know, some of the things that can happen when things don’t go according to the plan. And then just a couple of suggestions on how to make that process go more smoothly. I will turn it back over to Jim here for a minute and he will go over a couple more resources that are available for you in AT.
>> JIM RINEHART: Okay, thank you, Josh.
The last few slides are just some other resources. Again, many of you are probably familiar with the INDATA process. Probably the biggest piece that I’ve seen that’s been helpful has been the loan library. Again, there’s the website address there on the slide, as well. And that gives you access to ‑‑ Wade is changing it. So there you go.
Access to well in excess of 1500 devices. And that 1500 might actually be a little conservative. But they are available for loan and demonstration. And as an AT technician, learning, I’m borrowing stuff out of there all the time to ‑‑ if I’ve got a pearl camera that I use on a program called open book, I can get it, I can bring it home, I can play with it, learn how to use it so I can teach somebody else. So that loan library is accessible to anybody. There is a registration process. But it’s free to anybody in the State of Indiana with a disability.
So, Wade, go on.
The INDATA depot. Again, this is something that a lot of folks are familiar with. Some of them maybe not as much. But it provides computers to individuals in Indiana with disabilities free of charge. So a little editing will be going on, as well. How that kind of works is folks donate computers with peripheral equipment. It is completely wiped clean, re‑loaded with I think we’re using windows 7 as an operating system. And a newer vision of Microsoft Office. And then they’re redistributed to folks on the waiting list.
The waiting list can be a little long. What I hear from Al who is the director of that section, if you are interested for a desktop unit is something that works for you, the wait time is quite a bit shorter. In fact, if you have a monitor, even shorter yet. So that is a great resource for folks that maybe need a computer but maybe isn’t something that quite fits with the application goal, doesn’t quite fit with the necessary and required piece, but is a way to get one at no charge to them.
Other resources. Easter Seals tech.com website that Wade kind of introduced you to at the beginning of this training, he does assistive technology radio. He is the proud producer of the “let’s listen to webcast radio program I guess in the world, he says. And we’re all very proud of him for that. He has the assistive technology updates that come up. Assistive technology minutes that show up on the website from time to time as well as blog posts and YouTube channels. And on that website is really whole host of things that are a good starting point for anybody who is looking for assistive technology help, information. That website’s a great place to start.
Okay. With that we’re kind of wrapping up. So we’re going to turn it back over to you folks now if you’ve got any questions for either Josh or myself or Wade is still there. Any questions or comments from anybody? Wade.
>> WADE WINGLER: Just a reminder, if you do have questions, just raise your hand or type it in the chatroom or you can ask it verbally. We’ll keep an eye on the chatroom here.
Sorry for changing your links, guys, by the way. The ones I put in there were shorter. The same website.
>> JIM RINEHART: Not a problem.
>> WADE WINGLER: While people are typing their questions in, I’ll let you know that during the presentation, I did go in and make a couple of changes to the first Friday website. Now the survey is available for today and the registration links are available for the ones in the future. And I’m not seeing hands raised nor am I seeing questions. I’ll give you guys just a little more time here.
Seeing no questions, that will bring our first Friday in August. Can you guys believe August is here already and summer is quickly fleeting by? That’s going to bring our training to a close. Remember that the archives are available to you. If you click anywhere here on the page on the archives link, it’ll take you to a place where you can watch not only today’s but previous first Friday trainings. We’ll try to get today’s up there here real shortly so folks will have access to that.
Also we are starting to think of our topics for next year. Here on the screen you’ll see that we have several training topics coming up on adaptive driving, activities of daily living and ergonomics but we’re starting to think of our training topics for next year.
Also, this is a VR‑only training. But we’re getting ready to have a couple interesting full‑day trainings coming up. If you go over to Easter Seals tech.com and click on our services tab and then go down to full day trainings, you’ll see we have a couple coming up. One is on August 18th. It will feature Dr. Wilcam who is from New Hampshire but did spend time here at Purdue. She will do a full day training about solutions, technology in minutes. I like to tease her and call her the dumpster diver of assistive technology. She’s pretty amazing. She takes things like broken Swiffers and turns them into amazing assistive technology devices. On the 19th we will have another training about Ipads. This isn’t the traditional iPad training that we’ve done in the past. We’ll focus in the morning on using iPads with switches and how to use iPads for electronic aids to daily living or environmental control units. It will be some new higher tech stuff. And then we have the folks bridging apps will be dialing in via skip or one of our go to meeting platforms. They will do a training on app, s in the afternoon. Featuring on intellectual or cognitive. And then another Belva Smith will be doing advanced iPad training as it relates to blind or visually impaired. Not just the basics but the more advanced stuff with that. These trainings are free. They are held here at Easter Seals Crossroads near the state fairgrounds at 52nd and keystone. We also stream those live. So if you’re interested in participating in those trainings and you haven’t signed up yet, click on the links to get registered. Know that you have to register individually for the trainings. If the you want to go on the 18th, sign it for it on the 18th. If you want the 19th, they are different trainings on different days and require different registration.
And while I’ve been jabbering along here, we do not have any additional questions in the chatroom, so with that, have a great weekend, everybody. We will see you back here for September’s first Friday training, which is on adaptive driving. And that will be on the first Friday in September. Have a great weekend, everybody.