Assistive Technology: Tracking

Trends and Transferring Knowledge

Carolyn Phillips, Tools for Life With contributions from Martha Rust, Liz Persaud & Ben Satterfield

www.gatfl.org

For Handouts: http://www.gatfl.gatech.edu/tflwiki

February 2015

AMAC

AMAC Accessibility is a social change organization on a mission to create affordable services for governmental, private and non-profits organization working with individuals with disabilities. Services include e-text, braille, captioning, assistive technology, office management software and consulting.

Accessibility Made Smart

AMAC creates practical solutions that work, with a focus on utility, ease of use, and high quality. • Accessibility Consulting focuses on organizational accessibility needs with evaluation,

technical assistance, customer support, and website accessibility solutions. • Braille Services produces customized projects from both print materials and electronic

text including partial books and chapters or graphics only using cutting-edge technology.

• Captioning Services makes classrooms, meetings, labs and other audio environments fully accessible for deaf or hard-of-hearing.

• Professional E-Text Producers provide high-quality e-text in many formats such as PDF, DOC, DAISY, and HTML.

• Certified Assistive Technology team provides on-site and remote assessments, demonstrations, training and technical assistance for education, work, and daily living environments.

For more information, please visit our website at www.amacusg.org

Tools for Life Mission

We’re here to help Georgians

with disabilities gain access to

and acquisition of assistive

technology devices and assistive

technology services so they can

live, learn, work, and play

independently in the

communities of their choice.

Come Visit Us!

Guiding Principles

• We – Collectively – are Brilliant & Can find an Innovative Path and Create Brighter Futures

• We must Think, Live and Act from a place of Abundance – We have enough time, money, resources…

• We Must Focus on Abilities!

• YOU have the Power to make the Difference!

– Change vs. Progress (Bob Phillips)

• It is Not what You Start…It is what You Finish! (Bob Phillips)

Why Am I Here Today? • Master Our Skills!

• Expand Our Knowledge and

• Build Stronger Schools to Create an amazing, Inclusive and United Community!

The Neurology of My Brain

The “rate” at which you learn will become the only sustainable competition advantage you’ll have in your life.

- Peter Senge

• Visual Perception & Discrimination

• Auditory Perception & Discrimination

Key Terms Used To Describe Specific Learning Disabilities

• Dyslexia - Difficulties with learning to translate printed words into spoken words with ease

• Dysgraphia - Deficits in writing (organization, clarity, unity, mechanical errors, spelling, handwriting)

• Dyscalculia - Difficulty with numbers and/or remembering facts over a long period of time (columns, number reversal, mathematical operation)

Key Terms Used To Describe Specific Learning Disabilities

• Auditory Perceptual Deficit – Has trouble receiving accurate information from the sense of hearing (trouble with how the brain interprets what it hears) - oral instructions, differentiating between similar sounds, hearing one sound over a background of other noise

• Visual Perceptual Deficit- Has difficulties receiving and/or processing accurate information from their sense of sight ( picking out an object from a background of other objects or seeing things in the correct order)

Auditory Perception & Discrimination

The “FAST” Track

• Frustration

• Anxiety

• Stress

• Tension

“...What do we mean when we call something a

disadvantage? Conventional wisdom holds that

a disadvantage is something that ought to be

avoided—that it is a setback or a difficulty that

leaves you worse off than you would be

otherwise. But that is not always the case....I want

to explore the idea that there are such things as

“desirable difficulties.” That concept was

conceived by Robert Bjork and Elizabeth Bjork, two

psychologists at the University of California, Los

Angeles, and it is a beautiful and haunting way of

understanding how underdogs come to excel.”

~Malcom Gladwell from Chapter 5

“Technology gives me hope &

I need a lot of Hope!" ~ Earnestine

Looking Back to See Forward…

“In 1990, the internet was something used by

fantasy baseball fanatics on CompuServe and

mobile phones were the size of toddlers — a

luxury for those who could afford to not use

pay phones. Satellite TV meant having a

massive dish on your property; millions

struggled with programming their VCRs to

tape L.A. Law; bills were paid by check... in

the mail.”

By Chris Morran

Tools for Life

AppFinder

TFL AppFinder

Search by:

App Name

Categories – Book

– Education

– Environmental Adaptations

– Hearing

– Cognition, Learning,

Developmental

– Navigation

– Personal Care and Safety

– Productivity

– Communication

– Therapeutic Aids

– Vision

TFL AppFinder

Guided Access

• Helps remain on task and focus

• Limit to one app / turn off home button

• Restrict touch input on certain areas of the screen

Comparing Tablets

Property Android iOS MS Windows Amazon Kindle Barnes and Noble

Nook

Number and

variety of Tablets

Over 11,000 iPad and iPad mini Several Kindle Fire and Fire

HD

Nook HD

Operating System Android (Jelly

bean)

ios7 (Sept 18,

2013)

Microsoft Windows

8

Modified version of

Android ICS

Modified version of

Android- Microsoft

bought 2013

Apps 860,815

(AppBrain.com

updated 9/13/13)

900,000 with

375,00 optimized

for iPad/mini

(mobileburn.com

updated June

2013)

104,917

(winbeta.org

updated July 4,

2013)

50,000 in Amazon

App store also shop

in Google Play

Store

(theverge.com

updated August

2013)

10,000 in Barnes

and Noble and

have access to

Google Play store

(barnesandnoble.co

m updated August

2013)

Software Updates As it becomes

available on Google

Apple releases

updates

MS releases

updates

Amazon releases

updates

Barnes and Noble

releases updates

Interface As designed by

manufacturer

Icons and widgets

designed by Apple

Metro style

designed by

Microsoft

Modified version of

regular Android

Modified version of

regular Android

www.bluebugle.org updated by TFL 2013

Android Device Fragmentation

July 2012: 3,997

Different Android Devices July 2013: 11,868

Different Android Devices

July 30, 2013 http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/07/30/heres-what-android-fragmentation-looks-like Ben Satterfield

Knowledge transfer is the practical action

of transferring knowledge from one

organization to another. Like knowledge

management, knowledge transfer seeks to

organize, create, capture or distribute

knowledge and ensure its availability for

future users.

TIP: Universities & Colleges are becoming

more agile and actively seeking avenues

for Knowledge Transfer.

Emerging Trends

Wikipedia

TechSage (RERC)

• Funded by: National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR), Dept. of Ed

• Timeline: Oct 1, 2013 – Sept 30, 2018

• Amount: $4.6 million ($925k/year) + ~ $1 million GT cost share

• Interdisciplinary: CoA (ID, GIS, AMAC), CoS (Psych), CoE (BME), CoC (HCI/HCC), IPAT (IMTC, Awarehome), GTRI, Emory Ctr. for Health in Aging, CS/Engineering USC

RERC TechSAGE

TechSage Mission

To conduct programs of advanced

rehabilitation engineering (RE) and technical

R&D to increase knowledge about,

availability of, and access to effective,

universally-designed technologies that

enable people to sustain independence,

maintain health, safely engage in basic

activities of daily living at home and

community, and participate in society as

they age with disability.

Scope

• Research (Rogers) – R1. User Needs (Rogers, Fain, Jones)

– R2. Effects of Hearing Loss (Bruce, Echt)

– R3. Exercise Telerobotics (Mitzner, Beer)

• Development (Price) – D1. App Development

• D1.1. Cognitive Training Game (Gandy-Kennedy)

• D1.2. Route Planning App (Sanford, Guhathakurta)

• D1.3. Mobile App to Measure Gait (Jones, Johnson)

– D2. SmartBathroom Technologies (Sanford,Jones)

– D3. Intelligent Robotics (Kemp)

• Training (Sanford) – T1. Online Education (Phillips)

– T2. Post Secondary Education (Sanford)

– T3. UD Competition (Rébola)

• Dissemination (Mitzner)

Future

• Evening out the playing field

• More schools Bring Your Own Technology

• The Future is Contextual

– GPS apps

– Ads on Internet

– Smart watches • Martha Rust

Locabulary

• Uses GPS to track user

location and suggests

appropriate vocabulary based

on location

– ie: McDonald’;s starbucks

• A keyboard to type for text-to-

speech

• User can tag their own

locations and create

vocabulary for each location

• Lite version Free; Pro version

$130

Neuroplasticity

Research

Neuroplasticity research has established, beyond doubt, that instead of being a static cell mass, our brain is actually a

dynamic system of neural networks that has the capability of significant growth

under favorable circumstances.

Rudraprosad Chakraborty, M.D.

12 Brain Rules –

John Medina Ph.D.

The brain is an amazing thing. Most of us have no idea what’s really going on inside our heads. Yet brain scientists have uncovered details every business leader, parent, and teacher should know. Dr. John Medina- Developmental Molecular Biologist

How Your Child Learns

Best

Neuroplasticity

When the action is repeated, the more

dendrites sprout to connect new

memories to old ones, stronger the

connections become, the more

efficient the brain becomes at

retrieving that memory or action

VGo Telepresence Robot

• Enables a person to replicate

themself in a distant location

and have the freedom to

move around as if they were

physically there

• Reduces travel costs

• School

• Hospital

• Work from home

Vgo Website

Meet NAO!

iOS 8 Fall 2014

My Question to You:

What have You Learned today?

Contact

Carolyn Phillips

Director, Tools for Life

Carolyn.Phillips@gatfl.gatech.edu

Daphne Brookins

AT Funding & Resource Specialist

Daphne.Brookins@gatfl.gatech.edu

Ben Jacobs

Accommodations Specialist

Ben.Jacobs@gatfl.gatech.edu

Disclaimer

This presentation is produced by Tools for Life which is a result of the Assistive Technology Act of 1998, as amended in 2004. It is a program

of the Georgia Institute of Technology, College of Architecture [COA], AMAC and is funded by grant #H224C030009 of the Rehabilitation

Services Administration (RSA), Department of Education. The contents of this presentation were developed under a grant from the

Department of Education. However, those contents do not necessarily represent the policy of the Department of Education, Georgia Tech,

COA or AMAC and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal government.

Liz Persaud

Training, Outreach and Development

Coordinator

Liz.Persaud@gatfl.gatech.edu

Martha Rust

AT Specialist

Martha.Rust@gatfl.gatech.edu

Rachel Wilson

Tech Match Specialist

Rachel.Wilson@gatfl.gatech.edu