It's simply a way that if you start to type a word the technology predicts what you want to
say and gives you either the choice of selecting from
a list of words or put the words up for you
This can be very effective, this can also be very annoying.
On one of my emails for example is "J.B. Vincent"
and when I try typing that into my smartphone
it always tries to substitute something like "unsuitable".
So its a technology that in the mobile
world still has quite a ways to go.
But in terms of speeding up typing, if people
prefer to type as opposed to selecting words
it can be a very, very useful and powerful technology.
So you do need to have a sense of whether word
prediction will assist that individual or not.
Next slide please.
So an additional consideration for people with dognitive disabilities:
.Will the person best understand words, graphics, or a combination?
If for example somebody is already using the
Bliss Symbol System, then transferring Bliss Symbols
to their augmentative communications strategy
will simply be a natural.
What else will help comprehension: it may
be useful to not simply use any graphics
downloaded off the internet but to use graphics
that specifically portray family members
or something else that is meaningful to the
individual wishing to communicate.
How many options should be presented at a time?
Some people are going to get confused if your
showing them too many options of things to communicate.
So they may benefit from simply having four options
at a time. Or they may benefit ... even benefit from
simply having a yes/no setup. So that
they can answer simple questions. That may
be most relevant to what they need to communicate.
And how should the options be organized?
How should they be set up so that individuals
will easily know where to find what they want
and be able to retrieve it whenever they want?
And again that somewhat ties into how many
options should be presented at a time.
You don't want to confuse people with too much,
but you don't want them to have to dig too deep
to find what they want.
So it's a question sometimes of finding a balance there.
Next slide please.
So what has really created a revolution
in augmentative communication is the availability
of the IPad. The device is a huge price
breakthrough for the level of sophistication provided.
Traditional dedicated devices have cost in the
thousands of dollars for the level of
sophistication that you can get on the IPad.
The IPad is about five hundred dollars and
some of the very best programs as we'll see
are totally free. So all you're paying for is
the cost of the IPad itself and perhaps a case
and some peripherals like that.
But there is so much good free software out there
these days that it brings the price way down.
The problem with that is the insurance companies
which are saying, " Well, heaven forbid that someone
might use the IPad for something other than
communication, therefore we're not going to fund it
since it's not a dedicated device. We would rather
pay $5000 for a dedicated device,
than $500 for a device that can
potentially do other things such as letting
people play solitaire or surf the web.
And that is something that is just going to have
to change. Because, you can't go on forever paying
ten times...paying out ten times the amount for the
device and thereby serving far far fewer people.
The other great thing about the IPad is that
it's easily...not only easily portable but its normalized.
It looks like what everybody else is using.
You don't have a device that's exotic,
that's un-cool looking in some cases.
You have something that looks like pretty much
what everyone else is carrying around.
So the individual is probably going to feel more
comfortable using it. 'Cause they are not going
to stick out as much.
The IPad is relatively easy and intuitive to use.
I've seen people, pretty much, including myself,
pretty much take to it right away.
And understand about moving your finger to
swipe back and forth. Pressing on something
to open it. It's pretty straight forward. There
isn't a huge learning curve with it.
And it's also very easy to develop and distribute apps,
such as the apps for augmentative communication.
And then a lot of these apps can be customized
by the end user. So you're not stuck with
what comes to you downloaded onto your IPad.
It's pretty easy to in most cases, to customize
to your particular needs.
Next slide please.
So a lot of these apps will run on just the IPad, just
the IPhone, just the IPod Touch.
Some of them will run on all three.
Some will run on only two out of those three.
When making a decision between the three
different hardware platforms, you want to look
first at the apps. Make sure that the app that
the individual wants to use is supported by
the hardware that you are selecting.
You want to look at the users ability to use
a larger or smaller device. We have, (at CforAT) as part of our
IPad Loan Program, 10 IPads, and 5 iPod Touchs.
The IPad's are just flying
out the door. The IPod Touch's have been a
much harder sell. Simply because people
have difficulty seeing the screen or people have
difficulty accurately selecting the target on
the smaller screen. The IPads in our experience
have been much more popular. If we had
a different population that might not necessarily be as true.
As I mentioned earlier, if someone needs to use
augmentative communication over the phone, then
obviously the IPhone is going to be a
consideration. Because that's the one out of the
three devices really built for making phone calls.
Portability, the IPad itself is quite portable but
somebody might need something more portable.
and the IPhone and the ITouch can be slipped
into a pocket. Another consideration there is:
Does it need to be mounted to a wheelchair?
and in those cases you may be better off with the IPad,
because thats going to be a little easier
to mount in a good position in many cases.
And security.
The obvious problem with the IPhone and ITouch is
they can slip out of the users pocket and into
somebody elses. Or if the person is going to be
more likely to not lose an IPad simply because it's
larger, that may be a consideration as well.
So all of these may be considerations when you're
looking at specific hardware platforms for an individual.
Next slide please.
Free vs. Paid Apps.
And this is always a consideration.
You get what you pay for and sometimes that's
just fine and sometimes it's not.
The model for a lot of apps is that they have a basic
free version, that you can download and use.
Usually in my experience there hasn't been a time
limit on those as there is with assistive technology on
on the computer platform, but there is very
often a series of better voices or more advanced options.
In some cases you will get a certain number of
communication options but if you want to author
your own you have to pay for it and so forth.
So that's the purchase model for some apps.
And some apps simply come in the free version
and that is the primary option.
Many free apps are surprisingly powerful.
So it's certainly worth downloading and trying
some free apps first to see what does and doesn't work.
And if you can't find a free app that meets the needs
of an individual then you can look around at
some of the ones. I have yet to find an augmentative communication app
that's more then about a hundred and ninety dollars.
They're still relatively inexpensive and more of them
are in the $20 to $50 dollar range.
So we are still not talking about a huge amount of money.
Next slide please.
[Karen] Jane do you see the question I forwarded to you?
[Jane] I did not see the question.
Has there been much success in finding a
stylus for augmenting the finger for pointing?
There has, and the good news is it's basically
a do it yourself.
And one thing (Karen, I will put a note to myself)
and Karen will send this out in the followup email
There is a way to basically take any sort of
stick or any sort of existing stylus and wrap it
using I believe copper wire and aluminum foil
and be able to use that as a stylus on the
IPad. And we have seen good results with that.
So what I will do is put a note to myself
to get the URL for constructing those to
Karen and then she will distribute that as part
of the packet after the presentation.
Good question. Thank You.
And what I'm going to do before we get into the
scenario's is I am going to pause for a moment
to see if there are other questions and rest my
voice for just a second and see if anybody else
has any other questions.
Just a reminder you can type your question into
the question pane or raise your hand if you want
to ask it out loud.
[Karen] I have a question for Jane while we are
waiting to see if there are any audience questions.
Are there websites that review the free apps?
[Jane] There are starting to be. I actually ran
across one that I wasn't thrilled with
but the best feedback that I've found, is if you go to
ITunes, people put in, just like Amazon.com,
People put in their reviews of the various apps.
And I've found those to be very,very useful and
generally pretty much on track.
When considering an IPad for autistic individuals
how durable is the touchscreen and are there
any devices that help with the durability of the screens?
Excellent question. They're relatively hardy but
but if someone is into throwing the devices
they are probably not going to withstand that.
On the other hand if you simply have somebody who
is tapping hard on it that's probably not going
to be a problem. One of the fastest growing
audiences for IPads apparently is cats.
And so Friskies has released three apps
for cats on the IPad, believe it or not.
And the reports are that the cats are pawing
them, the cats are scratching, and the screens
are surviving just fine. So they are relatively
hardy but they are not going to take being
broken or thrown.