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[Upbeat music]

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Hi I'm Rebecca. I'm a speech and language therapist and now I'm an app developer as well.

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Many of you think are going to think that the ipod is cool. It's mainstream. It's fun. It's relatively inexpensive compared to mainstream AAC devices.

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And you're going to be thinking about how you're going to use it.

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But recently I've seen the questions shift from 'What is an ipad?' to 'How am I going to make the best use of it?'.

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So the app store is jam packed with apps that are there for fun, there're for travel, recipes,

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and now you have apps for AAC.

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When we first started to take notice of apps, this was way back in 2009,

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and things have moved quickly especially with the release of the ipad

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I'm going to tell you about the apps that I know

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This is part of the Proloue2go design by AssistiveWare.

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And it will not look dissimilar to a lot of the AAC programs that you've used before.

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This is Predictable, a text to speech based app with sophisticated word prediction engine

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which is designed to improve efficiency in getting your message across.

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Plus it has the useful features of being able to SMS, Email, Facebook, and tweet.

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This is Scene & Heard, it takes visual scene approach to augmented communication.

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You take a photo on your ipad and then you edit it to make it an interactive page with hot spots to play your video and audio message.

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For it to pop up symbols or to link to another page.

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Now this all happens on a very common piece of equipment.

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There have been over 30 million ipads sold in the last year.

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How many iphones and ipods did you see on the tube on your way here today?

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And these apps sit alongside all your other apps like email, music, or even angry birds.

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[laughter]

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Now the ipad and the iphone do have some inbuilt accessibility features

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Like voice over which enables you to run your hand over the screen and it will speak aloud as you tap on it.

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Plus they're devices that you can integrate, like the switch box, to make them accessibile.

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But I think one of the biggest things going for the ipad or the iphone is the cool factor.

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I've seen teenagers who've abandoned their previous AAC devices in the years before

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Who are now independently programming their apps and showing their mates how to download songs.

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But communication for people using AAC is not just being able to have face-to-face conversation.

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They want to be able to use social media and exciting tools like skype, and facebook, and facetime

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to chat to their friends and family

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So how is using an ipad different to using a designated device?

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Well some of the things going for an ipad are that it's easy to use

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It loads up straight away, and the touch screen is responsive, and the operating system is intuitive both to the user and to the people programming it.

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So many of the traditional AAC companies are now commissioning apps.

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And certainly put a focus on the need for affordability and innovation across all platforms to meet the needs of a changing client

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Who demands the latest in technology

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Well of course the ipad is not the answer for everyone

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And while there's plenty of hype, as clinicians we continue to ensure that we provide the most appropriate option based on our assessments

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The paper I'm about to show you sets out a simple reasoning process

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looking at how clinicians go about considering if an i device might be an option

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and then how the i device might be then used

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This has come out in response to what seems like a big shift in this area

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and also the high profile media reports, especially in the US

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which led to many families rushing to their speech therapist to demand an ipad

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[laughter]

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so the challenge is then that the clinicians need to be up to speed

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on the range of apps currently available and then keep up with all the new ones

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that keep coming out

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some of these apps are complete rubbish

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and others will be applicable to some of your clients needs

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at last count there's a hundred and ten communication related apps on the app store

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so it's important to sort them out and identify what might be useful in your assessment kit

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clinicians also need to know the difference between an ipad and other tablets

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what different operating systems are

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how they're going to use it, and how they're going to manage them within their departments

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We need to know about the features the apps have

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look at how they're customisable and how they might work for our clients

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Considering their needs now and in the future

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we need to complete assessments that look at all of the operational aspects

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like 'does the school have wifi?', 'how am I going to sync to itunes?',

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and to see how the person is using the device in a rage of settings with a range of people

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we need to assess in real world settings

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I'm racing along

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[laughter]

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Sorry. Really our role hasn't changed. This is what we do anyway

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We just need to make sure that we're keeping up to date with the latest technology

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and that we know where to find out more about which apps or which device

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might be suitable for our particular clients

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If you'd like to contact us we can certainly come out and show you what we've found

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[applause]

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[upbeat music]