Using AT for People with Autism Part 2

This is Part 2 of the Using Assistive Technology for People with Autism webinar archive.
This presentation explores various low-, mid-, and high-tech tools can facilitate organization, information presentation, and communication for people with Autism. This training will be presented in a dynamic graphic style that encourages audience input and direction.
Presenter: Jennifer McDonald-Peltier

There are a few different programs that I have found.

One is one called Discovery Desktop.

Discovery Desktop is a very simplified desktop. So if I expand this picture you've got things like,

Web and WebTech Connect, that's your email, this is your calendar, this is the user, her cell.

So it's a very, this takes over desktop. So she has access to very limited places on her computer.

And the places she has access to are largely other Assistive Technology.

So this is an assisted browser. This is an assisted e-mail.

This is a visual word pad. So this is assisted composition.

Very similar to that is the PACK Drive desktop. Again, this is the desktop that somebody sees.

And they have very few options. Again these lead largely to pre-selected and adapted pieces of software

to assist somebody with email. To assist somebody on the internet. To assist somebody with games

and this training is mouse training. Mouse and keyboard training.

Now the big difference between Discovery Desktop on the left and PACK Drive on the right is that

PACK Drive comes on a USB drive so you can put in on any computer.

So that can be very helpful for people who use public computers such as the library.

The third one is not necessarily an adaptive tool, but it's a rather darling tool that can be very helpful for some people

who need a visual layout. What this real desktop does, it does not control or restrict

the access to anything else on the computer. What it does is transform the visual display of the desktop into a series

of tiles laid on a virtual floor. You can toss these tiles, so these tiles were all tossed into a corner.

You can toss them into the trash. You can organize them into different ways.

It's all visual and it has a bit of a 3D feel to it so there's a bit of depth to it.

And that for some people can be helpful with their understanding of the icons

and their interaction with the icons.

Does anyone else have other pieces of software that they know about?

If you do, please go ahead and share them in your chat, ask a question about them.

Like I said. You've seen me modify this presentation twice already, edit this presentation twice already.

I can easily add new things from people so that we can all benefit from our combined knowledge.

Each of these by the way has a note that includes the URL where you can find each of these.

So if you click on it, and click here there's the URL where you can find this piece of software.

[Karen] And Jen, Laurie has a question. I'll unmute her.

Laurie I've got you unmute if you want to ask your question.

[Laurie] I actually don't have a question. I was just trying to get the microphone to work. Sorry.

[Karen]Ok.

No problem. As somebody who is dealing with technological troubleshooting all day every day.

I can relate. If somebody has a difficult time hearing me.

Please raise your hand or send a question or a chat to let us know so that we can make sure that I speak more clearly.

Okay we've done the desktop. Let's go ahead and do email.

So here are three different email programs.

They all look a little bit different but they all do basically the very same thing.

They have a contact list that has pictures. So that you can identify people by their pictures instead of by words.

They have an option to let you type in or as you can see in these two, you can record a message.

If it's easier for you. If it's easier for the user to record words auditorily then to type words.

Then you can send. And each one has a very structured process that they guide you through.

So, this one in the middle is by RJ Cooper and so it looks a little more childish, for lack of a better word.

And the other two look a little more mature.

And so depending on the age of your user. Each of these might be an option.

Webtrek Connect is the software, is the email program that is used from the Discovery Desktop.

Coglink is the email linked from the PACK Drive Desktop.

Any questions about email programs?

Ah, something to say. I believe that all of these, if not all, definitely most are PC only.

So if you are a Mac user. A little out of luck. My apologies. As someone who is doing this on a Mac as I speak.

So we've done desktop, we've done email. Let's do the internet.

Webtrek is a browser that comes again with, as part of this Discovery Desktop.

[Karen] And Jen, can I interrupt for one second? We've got a question from DeeDee.

She asks, are you aware of any programs that can be utilized through a communication system

or utilizes symbols for writing?

Yes. We will get to that. There are 2 programs that come to the top of my head.

I believe that they are under presentation and practice supports, Symbolated Text.

Under Software I believe. Let me just confirm that and I'll come back out of that. No. Not there.

Ah, they're in another part of it. So, yes. We can definitely talk about that if you'd like to talk about it know

we can talk about it know. If you would like to wait and talk about it at a different time we can do that.

Why don't we finish up with this and we'll go find it.

So these two browsers. This one is a piece of software that is linked to from the same Discovery screen

we saw before, and it has very limited URLs. A very limited number of URLs and they are linked to through icons.

So those are the ways that they are accessed. I believe that this one allows the user or someone who works with the user

to create individualized looks. So if there's a person and he really likes going and seeing the Oakland A's website

then you can make an icon for the Oakland A's website.

I do not believe that is the same Zac browser. Zac is a double entendre.

It stands for both of the child for whom this was originally made and it also stands for Zone for Autistic Children.

It's a browser that I believe is actually run through a browser.

So I don't think it's a piece of software that you download. I think it's a subscription that you sign up for.

I could be wrong. It's got a very definite and discreet number of icons in places that it allows a child to go.

There are two different browsers. Again, each of these has the URL where you can find it right in the note.

Ok. Last one. iPad and iPhone. I have to say that I do not own either an iPad or an iPhone.

However, give me about another month and a half because we just got a grant to get a whole bunch of both

and I will know much more than I do today. So, as far as computing interfaces.

The interface itself with an iPad or iPhone is already its icon based and its touchscreen based.

So those two pieces right there make it very accessible for people with autism to understand and easily interact

with those two interfaces. However, I did find these examples of stunning app interfaces.

I found an article online. I'm clicking on it now. It's going to it now hopefully.

No it's not. Let me just pull up a new one. Go like this and try it again.

Nope. It's not going to go there. If you run into this problem when you have downloaded something,

downloaded this presentation. You can click on the hyperlink tool. Here's the hyperlink itself.

Copy it. Go to your browser. Go to the URL and paste it in.

So here are 30 examples of stunning iPad app interface design. They're all very visual.

If you see something that looks like something that someone you know might be interested in, take a gander at it.

Alright, we have finished with this one. Let's go ahead and pull out of here and pull out of here

and let's go back to here. Let's see if I can find. It is... Symbolated Text.

Thank you. That's what I wanted. So we have had a question about examples of Symbolated Text.

Boardmaker is one that many of us know but it doesn't allow, it allows us to create text pretty easily for the user,

it doesn't necessarily allow the user to create text very well.

PixWriter on the other hand is a program that allows a user to. No. PixWriter, yes. There's another one.

Their both by Slater Software and it has one that allows you to use pictures to write.

News-2-You is an online newspaper that is all symbolated.

There are two programs so let me show you them really quick. One is Clicker 5.

Clicker 5, I would pull up the program but it is glitchy on my machine. So as you notice.

This has a whole palette that someone can use to write.

So they click the at school button, they click the I button, they click the read button, they click the my button,

and they clicked book. Now I could have attached a picture to each of these cells and the picture would go in there.

So that a user can use pictures to type.

The other one. Slater Software. It is PixWriter, the other one is Picture It.

To give you an example. We'll see if there is one here I can show you. No, they don't have a.

So this one gives you a little palette at the bottom similar to click software, Clicker, and then you can use pictures to

write in and they're both very nice programs.

Let me try this one. Nope. Let me try this one. See if I can show that one to you. Nope.

Let me try. Nope. They are not in any of those ones. Oh, Process and Schedules.

Thank you for not getting seasick.