"THE WORLD OF TABLETS, iPADS, iPHONES, AND APPS"
WEBINAR
~ JUNE 21, 2011 ~
CAROLYN PHILLIPS: And like I said, we're going to
get started in just a few moments. And well now, we'll get
started now.
We're very excited that you're with us. And this
is our webinar, Tools For Life webinar, focused on the
world of tablets, iPads, iPhones and apps.
We'll also wander into other technologies that are
out there, talk a little bit about widgets and things
around that sort.
We are absolutely doing this in collaboration with
the Center for the Visually Impaired. We've got John
Rempel with us, who I was just connecting with. I've heard
his name for years, and we actually are now sitting here
face-to-face, which I'm excited about that. And I'm
excited about learning from him also.
And Joe Tedesco is with us also from Georgia Tech
and the AMAC.
And then Martha Rust is right here beside me. She
has a very sore throat, so I'm going to be playing the role
of Martha Rust, as I said earlier. And she's with the
Tools For Life team.
Part of the presentation that you're going to be
hearing today is a presentation that Martha and I did when
we were in Toronto at an international conference up there.
Part of that conference was the Rehab Engineers Conference
of North America.
And so we want to thank you for joining us. And we
also want to walk you through just a few things of our --
about the way that our system works. And we also -- I'm
going to toss this over to Steffany.
So, Steffany, if you'll walk us through that, that
would be great.
STEFFANY STEVENS: No problem. And thank you,
Carolyn.
I want to make sure that everyone can hear me okay.
So if you can, just type in the chat room that you can hear
me.
Okay. It looks like people can hear me. Let me
turn up my mic a little bit.
Okay. I just wanted to give you a few housekeeping
items. We will allow you to use your microphone once the
presenter has finished presenting so that you can ask
questions. And you can also type questions into the chat
area.
If you will try your microphone out during the
question-and-answer, you can raise your hand. So if you go
below the "Participants" window during our
question-and-answer session and you see a hand with a green
arrow pointing up, then you can go ahead and press that and
raise your hand.
So we see that some people are trying that. That
function does work.
Okay. And let me see. This session is being
recorded for your convenience. And we also have captioning
available. And if you select the "CC" button on the top of
your screen, you can turn on your captioning.
Okay. Those were all of the items that I had. So
I'm going to go ahead and turn it back over to you,
Carolyn.
CAROLYN PHILLIPS: Thank you so much, Steffany.
We're excited about our collaboration with you and with the
TACE center. So thank you so much for walking us through
how this works and also, as I said, for the collaboration.
Liz Persaud from the Tools For Life team is going
to walk us through the next part, which I know a lot of you
are interested in, which is how our CEUs and our CRC
credits work and some other pieces about further improving
our webinars.
And so, Liz, take it away.
LIZ PERSAUD: Thank you, Carolyn.
Hey, everyone. This is Liz with the Tools For Life
program. We did want to let you know that we are offering
credits for our webinar today, and we have done this in the
past.
We're offering CEUs. If you are in need of CEUs,
if you just visit the AAC Institute website, which is
aacinstitute.org, you can click on their "CEU" section on
their home page, and it will walk you through all of the
steps of getting your CEU certificate.
And if you have any questions, please feel free to
e-mail me at any time, and I'll do my best to help you out.
We're also offering CRCs. We're very excited about
that. A lot of you have e-mailed me yesterday, and I got a
lot of e-mails today and even last week as well, too,
requesting CRCs. So thank you for sending that
information.
But if you haven't done so, please send me an
e-mail. Again, my e-mail address is liz@gatfl.org. And
I'll be happy to send you your CRC verification form as
soon as the webinar is over.
I also wanted to let everyone know that we are
constantly working on improving our webinars. And we
definitely want feedback from all of you out there. A lot
of you have e-mailed us behind the scenes, have filled out
our evaluations on our webinars to give us webinar topics.
And in fact, not too long ago we got many requests
for doing this webinar on iPads, iPod Touches and all of
the apps that are available out there. So we certainly do
listen to you.
So please take a moment to complete our survey on
this webinar. Here is the link. We'll also put this link
up at the end of the webinar as well, too. It will take
you less than five minutes. We just want some feedback.
And also this helps us to offer credits as well, too.
So again, thank you guys so much for joining us
today. And I'll pass it back to Carolyn.
CAROLYN PHILLIPS: All right. Thank you, Liz. I
really appreciate that.
And we really do listen to you at Tools For Life.
So please do let us know what you would like as far as
suggestions and other ways that we can help, and it sounds
like someone has a question and so...
Okay. So, Marilyn, just so you know, I'm not
sure -- we put it in the public chat that we are using just
the computer. So hopefully you can join that way.
I'm going to proceed with our presentation so we
can get to the good stuff of John and Joe and walk y'all
through just some basics about, you know, what our
objectives are today.
We are going to review the TFL new apps website.
We're very excited about this. And y'all are some of the
first people to get your eyes on this. And we definitely
want to hear what you think about it and how it can help
you as you're helping other folks, as you're learning more
yourself.
We want this to be a continuing conversation, a
dialogue. And we do want your feedback so that we can all
grow. We see this as a community effort, if you will.
And we're going to review some common tablets.
When we were in Toronto, we actually got to pass these
around. That's the limit I think of the virtual world is
that we can't pass it around. A lot of people got excited
in Toronto because they thought we were going to give them
away. But we didn't do that.
And then we're going to talk about a few apps for
vision and a few apps for organization. And then we'll
obviously entertain any questions that you have.
We also are going to be developing some other
webinars focused on other areas that some people have asked
us about for hearing -- you know, that's another example,
hearing and writing and reading, even some for math.
And so we definitely want to let you know that we
continue to grow in this area. And we'll continue to meet
the needs as we see -- as y'all let us know what the needs
are.
I was going to tell you a little bit about the
Tools For Life program. We are celebrating our 20th
anniversary this fiscal year, actually, starting 2011.
We're very excited about that.
And it's been a growing experience. We've been
around for a long time and seen a lot of changes. And the
conversation that we're having today about the world of
tablets, iPads and iPhones and apps is definitely one of
those that we wouldn't have had 20 years ago. So it's
exciting to see where technology is headed, and I can't
wait to see what's around the corner.
We are housed within the Georgia Department of
Labor/Vocational Rehabilitation Program. And we developed
Georgia's state plan for assistive technology.
And any of your -- all of your states -- I see that
a lot of folks are on from other states. Every state has
an Assistive Technology Act program, and we just happen to
be the one in Georgia.
So for example, in Tennessee, Kevin Wright is the
director of that program. And I picked Tennessee just
because I saw someone from Tennessee on here. But we could
let you know actually what -- other states what your AT Act
program is and the territories also. And we do work with a
lot of the other AT Act programs from around the country.
And part of that is reflective in the AT Act and in the app
database.
We serve individuals of all ages and all
disabilities in Georgia. We actually have served over
30,000 through various activities throughout the year, just
this past year, over 30,000 individuals in Georgia, which
we're thrilled about. And of course we want to help even
more folks.
Tools For Life, it really is a network of assistive
technology resource centers; Friends of Disabled Adults and
Children, which does primarily reuse; and the Center for
Financial Independence and Innovation, which is also one of
our key partners when it comes to funding assistive
technology.
Our website is very -- we use it all the time. We
put in all kinds of information up there. We put
presentations up there. We archive information. We have a
Dollars & Sense guide that's up. And we also have a
learning disabilities guide that's up there.
And now, as you are about to hear, we have
developed the apps database. And we get about 12,000
unique visitors a month, which is -- we're happy about
that. We would love to see even more folks visiting our
site. And people actually do spend a lot of time there,
which is great.
We'd also like you to visit some of our network
partners. As I said, we have this network around the state
of Georgia and their assistive technology resource centers
where you can actually go, and you can try out some of the
apps that we're talking about today. You can see some of
these different technologies that are out there.
Those ATRCs, they include:
Touch the Future, Inc., which is in Tucker,
Georgia.
And the home of the ReBoot program, which is a
program that provides computers and other types of
assistive technology at no cost or low cost.
Friends of Disabled Adults and Children, which is
in Stone Mountain. And they primarily reuse durable
medical equipment for all ages, which is wonderful.
CFII, as I said, the Center For Financial
Independence and Innovation.
Disability Connections, which is located in Macon.
And they also are branching out over into the Columbus
area, which we're excited to see that growth there.
Walton Options, which is located in Augusta. And
they serve the Augusta area and south all the way down to
Brunswick in Savannah.
And then TechAble, which is one of our strong
partners, assistive technology resource centers and has
been around for a very long time. And they're located in
Conyers. And they serve primarily the northeast part of
our state, but they actually do a lot of services
throughout the whole state, too.
All of these centers provide assistive technology
for lending. So you can borrow. You can try it before you
buy, if you will.
And when we're talking specifically about the
tablets, I would recommend that. I find myself doing even
more feature matching with individuals to see what really
does work. And so I'd encourage you to go to the assistive
technology resource centers and put your hands on some of
these before you end up at Best Buy or Office Depot or the
iStore or what have you -- Apple store.
We do AT evaluations and trainings looking
specifically at the individual and focusing on what's the
need. What is it that the person really wants?
And as we said, we do the demos really to promote
choice so that people can see that there are all kinds of
options. It's not all about the Apple. It's not all about
the iPhone, the iPad. There are reasons why perhaps a XOOM
would be a better choice for you.
Hold on just a moment. And I was going to ask
Steffany because it looks like that she's looking over some
things here, but I'll proceed with my part of the
presentation as we go through that.
Steffany, are you navigating there? Or who's
driving, I guess is what I'm wondering.
STEFFANY STEVENS: The slides? I'm not, so I'm not
sure who is doing that on the screen.
CAROLYN PHILLIPS: Okay. Well, we'll keep moving,
and this may get interesting as we see somebody else is
driving there.
All right. So here is our website. And it's just
a picture here. We captured this picture. And "we" being
Martha captured this picture.
And we have -- to the left we've got the
information about the TFL network, more information about
assistive technology, our training calendar, trainings that
we offer.
And if you would like us to come do a training in
person, you can go there and actually request that. Liz
Persaud is the person who actually handles all of our
training. And so she would be -- as the scheduling and all
of that. And so that's who that would go to. And you
would be able to get connected that way.
And then we've got events and resources,
publications, more information about our advisory council,
and then contacts.
Over to the far right is where the link is for our
favorite apps. And so you would click there, and you would
be brought to our database.
And then down the middle we actually have just more
detailed information about who we are and why we do what we
do and some direct links to the different guides that I was
discussing earlier.
So our database, we actually called it "Our
Favorite Apps For Living, Learning, Working and Playing"
because we do see this as more from a holistic point of
view and that a lot of these apps help across the life span
and also in different environments.
Therese Willkhomm, who's a friend of mine but also
somebody that I absolutely respect, Dr. Therese
Willkhomm -- she's the director of the AT program in
New Hampshire with the Institute on Disability -- helped
develop our database with us by providing all kinds of
information about the apps that she's recommending. She's
a leader in this field along with Joe Tedesco and John, who
are with us today.
So you can click right on this link, and you could
get to the database. And that's what you can do.
And I'm actually going to try to do that. Should I
try it? I'm going to try it. I'm going to click. Oh,
okay. It didn't go.
So I would encourage you to click on that and go to
the database. And I'm going to actually show you screen
shots in just a moment about that.
So the iPhone, iTouch and touch-screen tablets are
really popular. I don't know how many of you who have seen
that commercial that says, "You already know how to use
it." And I would say that's absolutely true.
I have put the iPad, for example, in front of my
father, who is 81 years old, and he knew how to use it,
along with my nephew, who is all of three years old, and he
knew how to use it.
And I don't think that's just because genius runs
through the Phillips family. I think it's because it's a
really intuitive piece of technology.
They're handheld. They're lightweight. They're
portable. They're actually, in my opinion, pretty low
cost. You can get an iPod touch, an iTouch, for as little
as $200.
The tablets we're seeing they're coming down. I
was in a Verizon store the other day just because I think
it's important to stay on top of things, and the Galaxy was
$200.
And they're mainstream technology, which is
something we've always promoted. So universal access and
in trying to create technologies that are popular to
everyone.
They have accessibility features. Some are
built-in. We see that with the iPad and the iTouch and the
iPhone, that they're built-in. All you would do is go to
the "Settings" and then down to "General" and then to
"Accessibility Features," and there they are. Other ones
you have to download. And we find that primarily when
you're working with the Android systems.
And as I said, affordable. The cost could be
cheaper than one piece of AT. So, for example, my daughter
uses an AAC device -- that's alternative augmentative
communication device -- called the DynaVox.
Her DynaVox, when it was first purchased, was
around $8,000. And she does very well with that, but she
prefers the iPad, which was about $700, along with
Proloquo2Go. And so her total cost using the speech that
way is under $1,000, which is exciting to see the cost
difference and also seeing the functionality there.
So multiple functions: Internet, photos, videos,
music. All kinds of things you can do: organization,
calendar, e-mail. All of that.
And then the apps and the widgets. They're often
affordable, and they can help in many, many ways. It's
just a matter of, once again, figuring out what works best
for you.
That flows naturally into the overwhelming aspect
of this. It can be extremely overwhelming. There are over
200 new apps released a day. That's 200. You heard that
correctly.
Many touch-screen tablets are now available, but a
lot of people don't know exactly which one works best for
them. You know, what's the best match. And I've spent
time with individuals just trying to sit down and figure
out what is the best? What is the best?
It looks like somebody has a question about, "What
is AT?"
And I'm glad that you asked. I'm a big person for
not trying to use acronyms. So AT is assistive technology.
That's what it is, assistive technology.
And it looked as if somebody else had a question,
and I've got folks that help me by reading these because
I'm dyslexic.
Can I click back to the archive...yes, I sure can.
I'll click back. Okay. And I don't think this is
clickable. So I'll see if somebody can type that in for
us. And I'm going to ask somebody who can type fast, like
Joe.
So thank you, Joe.
Okay. So, Jane, it sounds like that you just tried
to purchase an iPad for a client in Mississippi, and they
don't say this is assistive technology.
I would absolutely argue about that. I just went
through a very heated I guess conversation with the school
system locally who kind of felt the same way. And we did
win that argument. And I'd be happy to talk to you about
how we were able to do that. So if you need my assistance,
just let me know. Happy to do that.
All right. And thank you, Joe. And thank you also
it looks like Liz was able to put that up.
And so you've been blocked by your state. Go to
Starbucks and check it out there. I'm so sorry that that's
happened.
Okay. And within vocational rehabilitation I've
got to tell you that actually quite a few folks are
actually getting it through vocational rehabilitation
nowadays.
We're also seeing where school systems are buying
it. We're seeing that employers are buying the iPads and
the other smart phones and all of those things.
As well as we're finding that -- I think it's
Medicaid -- is that right, Martha? Medicaid bought it
recently in Georgia for somebody.
So would be very happy to help you, Ruth, in
convincing people. Not a problem at all.
So we'll move forward. And as I said, we
definitely want to help. That's the title of this slide
right here. And we really do.
We know that it's frustrating where to find the
information. Hopefully you're going to gain a lot of
information today. And as I said, this will be a
conversation that continues with these 200 new apps that
are released every day.
I was looking, preparing today for this
presentation. And sure enough I was doing just a simple
search for apps for reading, and there were five more that
were released in the last two weeks. Yeah. So interesting
to see those and wanting to compare those and see what
really works.
Also what apps are available? How do they work? I
will tell you that not all apps are equal. That is for
sure. And also trying to figure out what's the difference.
What features really do make a difference?
So, for example, there are lots of iLibrary, iBook,
i-all-kinds-of-things when it comes to downloading books
and getting them for free.
There's iLibrary. It has over 250 books that you
can get, and they're read. You can download the audio, and
it's read in natural voices. Whereas the iBooks, they
don't have voices at all. You can see the text, but it
relies on you downloading a screen reader, something like
NeoKate or NeoNate or whatever his name is, which are
screen readers.
So it's important that you know really what you're
getting. And so that's where we can help out too.
So the way we set up this database is you can
search by category. There's all kinds of categories
including art, books, communication, computer access,
education, health, hearing, learning disabilities when
you're looking specifically at cognitive issues, and then
also cognitive issues LD, and learning disabilities and
vision, how to navigate.
You can get apps that help with gross motor skills,
apps that help with photos that can also help with memory,
relaxation resources. There's all kinds of resources out
there. Speech, vision, weather. And even figuring out
what you should wear. I'm excited about some of those.
So the database is interactive. It's something
that we wanted to make sure that all of us as the community
could add favorite apps to. You can review the apps. You
can leave comments. You can do all kinds of searches.
And we also have a helpful link piece to this. And
so once again, we would encourage you to go there, try it
out, and let us know what you think.
I just threw up here an image screen shot of what
this database looks like. And so you'll see at the very
top it says "Celebrating" 200 -- 200 -- I wish it was
200 -- "20 Years of Tools For Life. Our Favorite Apps for
Living, Learning, Working and Playing. Compiled by
Carolyn" -- that's me -- "Martha Rust, Liz Persaud, and
Therese Willkhomm."
And then, as you look down below, you can actually
select what types of apps you're interested in, what are
the prices. And so in there you can see -- when you look
at the apps that interest you, it's that whole list that I
just went through before, how we've categorized everything.
The price, it gives you "All Prices" as a
selection, "Free" has a selection, free to $5, basically,
and "Over $5."
Because we're finding that most apps are under $5.
We see some that are $20, $30. The most expensive app that
we've acquired, at least the most expensive app that I've
acquired, is the Proloquo2Go, which was, at the time I
bought it, $189.
And then the device type. This is important
because we need to know do you want to look at all device
types, or do you want to look specifically at Android or
specifically at Apple?
And then, as you go further down, it gives you a
little place for helpful links, which you can click on that
and then a link that you can click on that says "Add a new
application or widget." And you can suggest your
suggestion.
So if you have a list, you can e-mail that to us.
Or if you have just one or two that you think would be
great, let us know.
And then what we've done is we've got buttons on
the left side that say to view the details of each of these
apps. And then we've got the icon. As you know, icons are
extremely important for those of us with learning
disabilities, but actually all of us do better with icons.
And then it gives a brief description with the name.
This one has "5 Little Monkeys," and it talks about
that this is a wonderful app for children, and it was
developed to entertain youngsters. And my son really likes
this one actually. And it's the type of app -- it's music,
and it costs $2. So that is basically how the database
works.
So here's just a screen shot of where you can
suggest an app or a widget that you found is useful. And
we want to know more about it, so please let us know. You
would name it for us, tell us how it's helpful, and your
name, your phone number, your address. And then you can
click "Send," and then we'll move forward.
We are trying very hard not to just give you a list
of apps. We really want to give you apps that we have
interacted with. There are positives to some of these.
Actually all of these in the database we have put our hands
on; we have put our eyes on; we've used. We are not just
throwing apps out there.
So we do want to hear what you think about it, but
we also want to provide as much information as we can to
you.
So here are some of the helpful links that we were
just talking about. So AppleVis is an example of that
helpful link. We give the URL and also a description,
which is it's a community-powered site for people that are
visually impaired or people that would like to use that
type of app that would promote -- you know, helping with
vision of Apple's operating -- devices that are using
Apple's operating system.
And that is basically the database. If you have
any questions about that, please let us know. And we
really are looking forward to hearing more from all of you
about what works and what doesn't work and how can we make
this even more friendly.
As we said, there's all kinds of tablets out there.
These are some pictures that Martha and I took when we went
out to explore in the community some more and interact with
more devices.
We have looked at all kinds of devices. We have
some of these in house now. So the XOOM, the Playbook.
We're actually going to be getting that, the BlackBerry
Playbook, at some point. And we're also going to be
getting -- we have the Galaxy, and we're looking at some of
the ones that are not necessarily mainstream but you can
still find in Best Buy and other mainstream stores. And
you can try these out if you come visit us, and that's not
a problem at all.
So the iPad. I'm going to talk to you just a
little bit about that because a lot of the apps that we're
going to be talking about are ones that you would find on
the iPad.
So it's got multitouch screen. All of ours in the
Tools For Life state office are set up that you can
actually do a triple -- like hit the screen with three
fingers and touch it and your accessibility features will
come up.
So there's a lot of things you can do with that
multitouch. You can just spread your fingers really
quickly and you can zoom in, zoom out. And you'll hear
more of that from John, I'm sure, in just a little bit.
There are thousands of apps, as we said. You can
surf the web. You can get on iTunes and download movies,
TV shows, music. You can do all kinds of things. I
downloaded books the other night -- audio books from
iTunes.
You can do videos. And actually with the iPad 2
you can make videos. They can help with organization.
It's so easy to use this.
And then there's VoiceOver, which is more of an
accessibility feature that you can use. And then obviously
books, photos, all kinds of things. So it starts at $499.
And as I said, here's some of the accessibility
features. So you would basically -- and these are built
in. There are all kinds of features in there.
You can increase the print, the text size. You can
switch right now from one view to change the view to where
it would be a different contrast, which is great.
You can do VoiceOver where it will actually -- you
can hover over some text, and it will read it out loud.
The zoom is fabulous. The iPad 2 actually increased it to
500 times, which is very helpful for a lot of our folks.
And you can also have it so that it reads the words
that are going to be completed or the auto correct words as
you type out loud. And I use that feature all the time.
So there's all kind of features that are built in.
But I wrote an e-mail the other day to Apple to
recommend a few other features that they should consider
and also some tweaks to the accessibilities features that
they have and did get a response back that they would
consider those, and so we'll see what happens.
The Samsung Galaxy tablet, that's the one that I
was telling you that I was looking at the other day at
Verizon. We have one of these in our inventory. We have
played with this. It is ultra light. There's an image
here of it up in the upper left-hand corner.
And then we've got a picture of Martha looking at
it, very exciting. She's like, "Oh, look at this." It's
very lightweight. And some of our folks that have issues
with like perhaps strength or that the iPad is too heavy --
believe it or not, it could be just too heavy. Even though
it's just a pound, it can be too heavy. And so it allows
folks, because it's smaller, to just have a different
option.
It kind of reminds me of the size of a Kindle or
actually a book. Like a paperback book is what it reminds
me of. But believe it or not, lighter. So 13.5 ounces.
And then we've got the Motorola XOOM. I've got to
tell you I like the XOOM for a lot of folks, but it can be
extremely confusing to some of the folks that I've worked
with. The iPad was extremely intuitive, as I said. It was
easy for people to navigate quickly.
The XOOM you have to think a lot more about it.
You have to know how to download. You have to figure out
what the Android market is. It was just much more
complicated. It wasn't quite as intuitive as the iPad.
But it has some great features. For example, it's
got WiFi that comes automatically with it. It's the
Android system. Built-in camera for pictures and videos,
which, as you recall, the original iPad did not have. Now
the iPad 2 has that.
It's ultra lightweight. It's also bluetooth
compatible. And it also has a USB port, which is very,
very helpful. So we're able to use switches with the XOOM
that we're not able to use with the iPad.
I think it's AbleNet -- is that right -- no,
AbleData -- no, AbleNet that made the -- the only switch
that I've seen that really does work with the iPad. And
we'll give you more information about that with our next
presentations that are going to be coming up when we're
talking more about access.
The BlackBerry Playbook. Now, I've got to be
honest with y'all. I am a BlackBerry girl. And so I was
excited about the Playbook. I'm excited to see where
they're headed with this.
One of the things I like about the Playbook that's
different than the iPad and the XOOM is that you really can
do multiple things at once. The iPad you have to close the
screen and then go to your next app. But with the Playbook
you can actually look at things at the same time, which is
great. So it allows for someone like me, who likes to do
all kinds of multitasking built on top of multitasking
built on top of multitasking to multitask. So that's a
great thing.
It is ultra light also, .9 pounds. So it's not
even a pound. One gigabyte of RAM. And that actually does
make a difference. That's a lot more, and that's what a
lot of us were hoping with the iPad 2 would happen, but it
didn't happen with the iPad 2. I think iPad is going to
come out with probably 1 gigabyte in the iPad 3.
But anyway, the reason why that plays a part is
that, if you look at a bunch of sites, if you're trying to
get information quickly, things that you've looked up
before, you're able to do it much quicker on the Playbook.
I've seen it, and it's amazing.
Same thing as the other devices we just spoke
about, the other tablets, where it's a touch screen. You
can get apps. The Droid system is primarily what it is
that it's working off of. Wireless. Built-in camera.
But you do have to download the accessibility
features. So it takes another level, if you will, of
understanding and knowing how to navigate some of that.
So this is just four pictures up here of a variety
of Android tablets that are out there. And we included in
here the NOOK because you can download apps on the NOOK.
And there are different ones that Google has and that
Barnes & Noble have come out with and other folks have come
out with.
So we would encourage you to -- as we always say at
Tools For Life -- try before you buy. Really get an idea
and get familiar with some of these.
No doubt this is the wave of the future, not just
because it's new and it's cool and it's bright and it's
shiny, but because I have seen this change people's lives.
There are people that I've worked with with pretty
much all ages and all disabilities, and I can find that it
really does make a big difference for everybody, pretty
much. So I'm excited about that.
There's a little rule that we have in our house,
and it becomes so personalized, if you will, that I say we
don't -- you know, we share everything in our house except
for toothbrushes and our iPads, Droids and all of those
things, smart phones. So everybody gets their toothbrush
and then whatever their assistive technology is, and we do
not share those.
So it looks like that I have two questions. And
one is about you want to know where the PowerPoint is going
to be posted. And Liz, she is a whiz at helping us with
this.
We are going to actually post this on our website.
If you go to our website GATFL -- that stands for Georgia
Tools For Life -- GATFL.org, you will see that the website
is -- you'll see on the right-hand side where you can click
for the webinars, and we have an archive section there.
And that's where you will get this PowerPoint.
If you need it before it's going to be posted --
usually we post that along with the transcript and all of
that in a couple of weeks, about ten days or so. But if
you need it before that, you can e-mail any of us, and
we'll be happy to get that to you.
And there's another question.
All right. Jane -- thank you very much, Joe, for
reading that to me -- and your question is, "Can you tell
me what you mean by you have to download the accessibility
features?"
Absolutely I can tell you because that's a critical
decision point for which tablet you're going to go with.
As I said, with the iPad, the iTouch, the iPhone, the
accessibility features are actually built-in. So you can
go in and go to the "Settings" to the "General" and then
within "General" -- I mean within "Settings" go to
"General," and then there are the accessibility features
over to the right. So you can find them right there. Very
easy.
If you get the XOOM or the Galaxy or any number of
the other -- the Playbook, the BlackBerry Playbook, any of
the other devices, you have to go in, and you have to
download those features.
So you would have to download the ability to really
zoom as much as you can with the iPad 2. You would have to
download VoiceOver so that it will read out loud. You
would have to download the ability to change the fonts and
the whole look of the tablet as far as the background and
the screen color and all of that. So you would have to
download all of those things.
Does that make sense, Jane? Does that answer your
question? So let me know.
Oh, you go to the Android Market, and that's where
you would download those. And that's part of why we came
up with our database, is because honestly sending anyone to
the Android Market is like sending me to the grocery store
to find something because it is just too much information.
It's overwhelming, in my opinion.
I think it's very hard to navigate the Android
Market. And that's my opinion, but it's also the opinion
of a lot of other folks.
It's a lot easier to find apps through iTunes than
it is through the Android Market. And so that's part of
why we're trying to make it easier for y'all.
So good. I'm glad that answered your question.
It sounds like that we also have a question about
videoconferencing, some of those things, Skype. Yes,
absolutely. With a lot of these, as long as you have the
video capabilities and the WiFi and you download the app,
then you sure can use this to teleconference.
With the iPad 2, they have that built in with Face
Time. And you can do it. I've tried it. It works. I've
also used it with Skype. I used XOOM -- the Motorola XOOM
the other day with Skype, and it worked great.
I was working with some folks -- Liz and I were
actually working with folks the other day that are from
GACHI, which is our local -- the Georgia Deaf and Hard of
Hearing nonprofit organization that helps so many people.
And we were showing them all the apps and doing a
similar presentation but focused primarily on deaf and
hard-of-hearing issues.
And I was sharing with them about how I'm actually
seeing people signing to each other using the iPad 2 and
also the Motorola XOOM using those features of the camera.
Even within the same room, they were far away from each
other, and they were signing to each other across the room.
So it was very cool.
And it sounds like one of the questions is, "Are
the Android apps free?"
Yes, many of them are.
So anyway, I don't want to eat into John's time
anymore. So I'm going to turn this baby over to John. I
have enjoyed my time with you today. And as I said, I hope
this is a conversation that continues. So keep the
questions coming.
And, John, I'm going to pass it to you.
JOHN REMPEL: All right. Thank you, Carolyn.
Good afternoon, everyone. Like Carolyn said, this
is John Rempel from the Center For the Visually Impaired.
And this is a very exciting collaboration we have going on
here today.
I commend Tools For Life for this collaboration
between CVI and AMAC and Tools For Life. We all have
different pieces to add to the table here, and it's very
exciting to be able to collaborate with this.
So the Center For the Visually Impaired, we're in
Atlanta, Georgia. And we're at the corner of West
Peachtree and 4th.
We provide services to -- some people say we
provide services from cradle to grave. We have a preschool
program called The Begin Program. We also provide services
to school-aged children. And then we have a new View
program that we provide services right at the Center For
the Visually Impaired as well as in the community.
So today what I'm going to do is hopefully discuss
some of the myths that I've heard floating around regarding
the iPhone and iTouch and iPad. And then I'll launch into
some very specific apps that I think would be very useful
for a lot of individuals.
And Joe is going to be speaking in a little while
about some of the apps that are useful also for a broader
audience.
I'm going to focus specifically on people who are
blind and visually impaired here. There's a lot of
transferable skills that I noticed Carolyn was talking
about where these apps can actually apply to a broader
audience as well.
So let's start off with purchasing an iPhone. So a
lot of people get the 3G and 4G concept mixed up with the
iPhone 3 and iPhone 4. 3G and 4G refers to the download
speed to the specific carrier. And the iPhone 3 and
iPhone 4 are actually the phone itself and the hardware
that goes along with it.
There's some differences between the iPhone 3 and
iPhone 4. Some of you may have recently seen some of the
commercials for the iPhone for 49.99, and that is the
iPhone 3.
Now, a lot of apps do work with the iPhone 3, but
some of them don't. And I'll talk a little bit about some
of the apps that don't further on in this presentation.
The significant difference between the iPhone 3 and
iPhone 4 is the iPhone 4 has a faster processor, so it can
move much more quickly with specific apps, specifically
optical character recognition.
The iPhone 4 also has an LED light as well, which
is very beneficial for low vision. It also has a more
powerful camera. It has a five megapixel camera, whereas
the iPhone 3 only had a three megapixel. And for capturing
images and converting that into text, the higher the
megapixel, the greater level of accuracy with the phone
itself.
Okay. And, yes, there's a question. So there's a
question about comparing the iPhone and its accessibility
features with other smart phones or other devices with
downloadable screen readers.
The iPhone 4 -- well, the iPhone 3 as well, out of
the box is by far the most accessible device there is on
the market now.
I'll give you an example with Windows Mobile.
Windows Mobile 7 has come out now. It is not accessible
with screen reader. A lot of people who have the Windows
Mobile-based smart phones are sticking with the older
version of Windows Mobile just because it's not accessible.
So Apple has actually done a really good job as far
as the level of accessibility.
Now, the Android devices, there is a level of
accessibility there as well, but from everything I've
heard, it doesn't compare with the level of accessibility
that the iPhone or the Apple products have.
And keep in mind, this is all built in. So you're
not purchasing proprietary software at a cost. This is
built in. Right out of the box this stuff can start
working. I hope that answers your question.
Okay. So who carries the iPhone? Right now, AT&T.
And then as of I think it was only a few months ago Verizon
carries it as well.
This is really important, the additional expenses
to consider. So the advertisement they have of the iPhone
for 49.99, keep in mind you're usually paying into a
two-year contract. And to break that contract is very
expensive.
So the initial cost of the iPhone is only part of
the expense after a two-year period. The data plan -- you
will need to buy a data plan with the iPhone, and so you're
looking at least $80 to $90 a month.
Also another added expense, if you're not careful
with the amount of data you're downloading, they can also
charge you additional expenses as well. So just things to
consider if you're looking at, for example, the iPhone.
There's also additional texting charges as well
that can apply. So just wanted to keep that in mind.
There's a lot of excitement behind a lot of these Apple
products, but keep in mind the long-term costs as well.
So I've seen, with a number of visually impaired
and blind individuals I've worked with, there is a learning
curve. The iPhone is relatively intuitive and the iTouch
and iPad, but there is a learning curve there. You're
dealing almost exclusively with a touch screen. So for
someone that's used to the actual hard buttons on say a
smart phone such as a BlackBerry, it is a huge adjustment
to go with a flat screen.
Also you're dealing with speech output a lot more
than the reliance of the position of the keys if you're
using VoiceOver. So there's an adjustment with the spatial
awareness as well.
An adjustment to VoiceOver itself. People who've
used synthesized speech for years adjust to this fairly
well. But if synthesized speech is fairly new to the
person, it's going to take a while to get used to.
I compare it a lot to someone who has a very thick
foreign accent. The person may be speaking English, but
it's sometimes difficult with certain words that are
pronounced. And after a few months, we may just tune that
right out and get used to a heavy foreign accent.
That's the same with a synthesizer. And it's easy
to forget, when someone's used synthesized speech for years
and years, that that was a learning curve that they've
tackled.
And familiarity with gestures. There are a lot of
gestures involved with the iPhone and the iPad and iTouch.
And these may not necessarily be intuitive. So although
accessibility is readily available out of the box, to learn
that accessibility is pretty crucial. So iPhone
accessibility itself, we've touched on VoiceOver.
Zoom is a very powerful accessibility feature for
people with low vision. And this is something I use on a
daily basis. So the zoom, if any of you are computer users
and you use any screen magnification programs, it's
basically the equivalent of say MAGic or ZoomText on the
computer.
It magnifies the viewable area, and you can
increase or decrease it. You can also invert the colors.
So if a person is glare sensitive, they can switch the
colors around as well.
And I thought it was important enough to -- Carolyn
mentioned this as well -- but in order to access these
features, it's under "Settings," "General," and
"Accessibility."
And then there's some other options available as
well. The mono audio can be on or off. And so if you have
a stereo set of headphones, you want the same sound, you
can adjust that. Speak Auto-text is something else that
Carolyn touched on.
Triple-click home. This is a really important one.
I had mine set to VoiceOver. So if I am in a situation
where I can't read the text, say in an outdoor environment
with a lot of glare, if I triple click the home button, it
automatically loads the VoiceOver for me, which is a really
nice feature. So you don't have to go to "General,"
"Accessibility" and "Settings" in order to load that.
All right. VoiceOver gestures. So Carolyn
mentioned that there are hundreds of apps coming out every
single week. It's virtually impossible to keep up with
even the majority of them.
In fact, today I was talking with a colleague about
another app that I'm going to touch on today that I just
found out about. So because the apps are rolling out so
quickly, I thought it would be important to cover some of
the main features involved in VoiceOver, some of the
gestures involved.
The apps, for the most part, are fairly intuitive
to learn, but it's the gestures and understanding VoiceOver
and the zoom features themselves which will give you access
to those apps.
The Rotor is something that Apple has incorporated
into their operating system. So a person can use your
thumb and index finger when VoiceOver is loaded, and it
will actually give you options of say reading elements of a
web page or in a document reading characters, lines, or
words. So you can modify that as needed.
And the home button, the triple press on the fly
access to VoiceOver, like I mentioned earlier. Flicking
the finger up or down, depending on which you've chosen
with the Rotor, you can choose characters, words, or lines.
The up and down flicking with two fingers will read the
entire page.
Right and left single -- try to say this quickly:
Right and left single finger flick will cycle through
items.
There's a misconception that, when VoiceOver is on,
you automatically need to know where certain icons are on
the display. And that's not necessarily the case. You can
use it that way. But simply left flicking or right
flicking with a single finger will cycle you through those
icons.
Right or left three-finger flick will go to next or
previous page. So if you have a whole page of apps, and
you want to get to the other page very, very quickly, just
a simple three-finger flick to the right or left will
switch pages.
Double tapping with three fingers. This silences
VoiceOver. And this is actually pretty important because
one of the apps I'm going to talk about is Dragon Search.
And with some of these apps, when they require speech
input, VoiceOver can actually interfere with that speech
input. So it's very important to know how to temporarily
silence VoiceOver.
And the double tap with three fingers doesn't turn
VoiceOver off. It simply silences it. It's similar -- if
you're a screen reader user, say JAWS, simply pressing the
"Control" key will silence JAWS. VoiceOver does the same
thing with the double tap with three fingers.
Zoom gestures. So the three-finger double tap will
enable or disable zoom. And then the three-finger single
tap and hold or panning left to right or up or down will
move you around the screen as well.
The three-finger double tap and holding and then
moving up or down will adjust the viewable size of the
display as well.
One important thing to remember though is VoiceOver
and zoom do not run simultaneously. It's one or the other.
Either you can use zoom, or you can use VoiceOver. But
with this operating system currently, you can't run both of
them together.
Okay. So let's get into specific apps here.
There's a number of apps available for GPS navigation. And
one of the most popular ones is called NAVIGON.
This was not built specifically for visually
impaired or blind individuals, but it happens to be very,
very accessible. And what I'm doing is I'm intentionally
showing the icon on the screen.
There is some incongruence with what the iStore
labels specific apps and what they actually are called
after you download them to your iPhone or iPad. So a
visual snapshot of that -- and I've increased the size of
it to fit the whole screen -- may help some people to
locate it more quickly in the iStore.
Okay. NAVIGON. It comes with its own speech
output. And it's called Pedestrian with Voice
Announcement. It has a very pleasant female voice, very
clear. It's not the robotic speech that VoiceOver
provides. However, you can run VoiceOver at the same time
that you're running NAVIGON.
It is highly accurate, and it uses more than just
GPS technology. It also uses the cell towers. So there's
a triangulation that takes place, a combination of the
satellites and the GPS technology.
Generally I would find that my GPS -- and I use it
probably a few times a week -- is within 10 or 15 feet of
the destination that I want to reach. And
easy-to-understand speech output.
What's really nice is, when you reach -- or you
come close to your destination, NAVIGON will even tell you
if it's on the left side of the street or the right side of
the street.
The cost, the last time I checked, was just under
$35. And you can also buy the Canadian and U.S. version of
the NAVIGON as well. And I think that's about $10 more.
There are some disadvantages with NAVIGON. They're
not significant enough that it would deter a lot of people
from purchasing it. But I think it's worth mentioning.
One of them is that NAVIGON does not automatically
announce the street that you might be crossing. It will
tell you at each point where you need to turn and how far
away you are. It will tell you at .1 miles, at 300 feet,
and then immediately when you reach the intersection, it
will tell you where to turn.
But at point A to point B, if there are three
intersections you're crossing, it will not announce those
intersections. And some GPS solutions actually do, like
Mobile Geo does that.
Okay. And one app that I just found out about
today is called NAVIGON Now. And I don't have a slide for
it, but I thought it was worth mentioning. What you can
do -- and it's only a $2 app.
What you can do is you can actually extract
addresses from your contacts list on your iPhone, and you
can dump it right into NAVIGON, and it will automatically
input that as an address; whereas without the NAVIGON Now,
you actually have to manually select the city, the state,
the street name, et cetera.
You can bookmark that as a favorites, but you still
have to go through that whole process versus copying and
pasting; whereas the NAVIGON Now eliminates that whole
process.
Like I said, I just found out about that a few
hours ago. So there's just so many apps out there.
And I think there's a question. Okay. So Joe
Tedesco here is reading one of the comments here. And I'll
just mention it.
Navigator, it's called. It's posted that it's a
free app, and it will give you -- provide directions -- was
it walking -- walking, bus routes, car, and bike. So
that's definitely worth looking into. I wasn't familiar
with that one.
Okay. The next app that I think is really useful
here is iBlink Radio. Now, most of the contents of iBlink
Radio are actually located online, and it provides a number
of different services. There's audio tutorials and
interviews. There's reading services, podcasts.
So you ought to really be careful with your data
package here not to exceed your monthly download limit.
But there's some really valuable tutorials. If you want to
learn more about the iPhone or iPad, there's a lot of
tutorials here that you can tap into. And this is a free
app, by the way.
Now, the next app is another GPS app, and it's
called LookAround by Sendero Group. This is a $5 app. And
for what it does, it's -- I have it on my iPhone as well.
For what it does, it's definitely worth the money.
It doesn't give you from-point-A-to-point-B
directions, but what it does do is it gives you specific
information around your location.
For example, if you want to know what's the nearest
intersection, it will give you that information. The
nearest five points of interest, and you can limit this to
specific banks or restaurants, coffee shops. So it's
actually a very powerful app.
One other thing worth mentioning here is it can
also be hands-free, essentially, as far as any input. You
can literally just shake it. You can preset it so you
literally just shake it, and it will give you the
information such as the nearest intersection.
So for a person that's traveling and they don't
have the time or it's a noisy street and they can't hear
VoiceOver when they try to input data, simply shaking it
will give them that information.
Okay. Now the next one, Dragon Search. And this
is an app that I use probably two to three days a week at
least. This is another free app. And I'm always amazed at
the level of quality -- the high quality of speech
recognition that the Dragon Search actually provides.
So basically what it does is it automatically
launches the web browser to look for specific information.
For example, I can say, "Starbucks, Peachtree Road,
Atlanta, Georgia," and it would give me a list of the
Starbucks in that location.
And then with VoiceOver or zoom, I could very
quickly locate that information and even just tap on the
phone number, and it can dial for me. It's a very, very
powerful feature.
Keep in mind with Dragon Search sometimes VoiceOver
interferes with the speech input. So that's where you do
the double tapping with the three fingers in order to
disable the speech output temporarily.
Like I said, it's free as well.
Now, keep in mind, when you give it information,
the Dragon Search, it doesn't actually translate that
speech right on the phone itself. It actually sends it to
a server. So you have to have a fairly good Internet data
connection in order for it to work effectively. You
wouldn't be very effective in Peachtree MARTA station
hundreds of feet down and try to use this app.
Here's another one that I use quite regularly,
Magnifier Light or Mag. Light. There's probably dozens of
versions of this app. And they're rolling out with
different ones every day literally.
Essentially what this does is it uses the camera on
the iPhone in order to access information and blow it up.
With the iPhone 4 it also accesses the LED light, and I've
often used this in dimly lit situations. The combination
of the magnification and the LED light itself works really
well.
Most of these magnifier programs or apps are either
free or under $2. So it works really well.
The Color ID. This I thought was worth mentioning,
the Color Identifier. This specific app is free, and it
provides its own speech output. So it works with or
without VoiceOver running.
The challenge with this is, unless you're like an
interior designer and you know hundreds and hundreds of
different colors and shades, it may give you a lot of
colors that you may not even recognize. So that's one of
the downfalls to it.
Also keep in mind that it doesn't access the
camera's LED light. It's using auxiliary light to select
colors. But it has a lot of potential, and in some cases
it can definitely be beneficial for certain individuals.
This is one of my favorite, the LookTel
MoneyReader. The LookTel MoneyReader is exactly what it
suggests. It actually gives you information on the
currency. And it's very, very easy to use. You simply
launch the app, and you wave the money in front of the
camera of the phone. And it has its own speech output as
well, and it will actually call out the specific bill that
you're placing in front of the camera.
I have seen this fail once. And it failed on an
iPhone 3. Keep in mind the iPhone 4 has a better
resolution camera. It has a faster processor. So I have
never seen it fail on an iPhone 4. And so just to keep
that in mind. It's not a hundred percent foolproof, but
the accuracy rate is really high. And it's only 1.99.
Now, another app that is worth mentioning, and it
actually comes on the iPhone itself, is the weather app,
which is entirely accessible. I've downloaded weather.com
on my iPhone, which is not accessible. The weather app
that comes with the iPhone is completely accessible, and I
thought that was worth mentioning.
Okay. How are we doing for time? Okay. So I'll
wrap it up here. Thank you for your interest in this
topic. And I will pass it on to Joe Tedesco from AMAC.
JOE TEDESCO: Thanks, John.
It's really nice to have everybody here. I was
looking through the list of folks on the call, and it's
great to see some names from the not-so-distant past.
I used to be director over at one of the Tools For
Life centers, TechAble, for a few years and worked there
for a number of years. So a lot of the folks on the call
today, it's nice to read your name again and know that
you're there and involved still.
And I'm also so pleased to be involved in the
presentation too. So it was a hard thing to do as far as
coming down -- Carolyn's taking pictures of us in the
middle of it. She's just so nice.
Anyway, it was really hard to narrow down a number
of applications because, as everybody has said, and as you
hear, there's literally thousands coming out, millions out
there in terms of -- I think I looked the other day, did a
Google search. There's over 3 million iPhone apps out
there, 60,000 Android apps. So tons and tons to go
through.
And then of course we're really concerned with kind
of the ones that we feel will benefit the people that we
work with and, well, ourselves in some way.
I was also looking through my own phone to kind of
see some of the things that I would download either to play
with or use day-to-day just as a useful tool.
The GPS, for example. I know I've been to
conferences in other cities, and I've used GPS to help me
find local restaurants or even to help me walk door-to-door
from one place to the other when I wanted to go shopping or
I needed something, a drugstore or something like that.
So it's been very useful, and I would encourage you
to download some of these apps. Even if you don't feel
like necessarily it's a necessity, many of them are
inexpensive or free. And just getting a chance to be able
to use them, like any other AT, the more you use them, the
more familiar you become with them, and it's much easier to
kind of make that connection with your clients.
Also I love the idea that Tools For Life is coming
up with this app exchange because it's really a great idea.
There's so much to go through; it's impossible for one
person to catalog everything.
But kind of with that community of people coming
together, when you find something, I would encourage you to
go to the website and enter in the information on the app
to keep that building.
And then I would encourage you, if you meet with
people just kind of in passing, some of your clients or
some of the people that you're serving, if they're using an
application, ask them what they like about it, and then
encourage their putting their information up on the Tools
For Life site.
I picked out a few of the apps that I really like
and thought that I would share those with you today. AMAC
is the Alternative Media Access Center. We're here at
Georgia Tech, and we primarily work with students at
post-secondary level.
So many of the things that I chose today kind of
work within the educational system and will certainly be of
benefit to students at college level but certainly
transitioning students, students in high school. It just
really depends on what those particular students are
involved in.
But one of the apps here is called SoundNote. And
it's the ability to be able to -- you can use it on your
iPad -- is to be able to take notes, draw, and also record
a lecture, for example. So you can jump through -- as
you're taking notes, you can jump through the recording.
So it's kind of like where you're putting in
markers -- as you're writing, you're putting in markers
into the audio file so that you can cap on parts of your
notes and then relisten to that part of the recording of
the lecture.
So it's come a long way from boxes and boxes of
audiotapes that we'd have to label and try to keep them
organized and then try and coordinate those with our notes.
It's all happening in one place and really being real
sensitive to not only being able to type but also to kind
of put some visual images in there as well. So a real
multisensory opportunity to interact with notes and
lecture.
The next one is Voice Memo. Now, I don't know
anybody -- well, maybe young people. But I don't know
anybody who couldn't use something like this. Just to
capture a thought, a memo, if you're at a meeting.
Something that you just need to get down really quick.
The thing I most like about some of these apps, and
this one is a good example of it is, in terms of intuitive,
it's pretty simple, right? There's just a couple of
buttons up on the screen, one that's I think more for
effect.
They have an old-timey looking microphone in the
center of the screen. There's a red button -- or a little
silver button with a red circle in the middle that's going
to start the recording, and the other is going to stop the
recording. And then in the center it has a sound meter
which is just kind of I guess fun more than anything.
But it's a very simple interface, and it allows you
to be able to then catalog those voice notes. So
everything from just remembering what you need to pick up
at the store or just an ingenuous thought you had while
driving home or getting home after work or what have you.
So I'd encourage folks to get that one.
Evernote or Dropbox is another option as well.
These are two different apps here, and I don't believe
they're free -- yeah, it is free actually. You can sign
up, yeah, for Evernote.
This is more of an organizational idea. I just
showed you two applications that would either produce a
written file with an attached audio file or just an audio
file.
Well, oftentimes those kinds of things can
accumulate. I remember a couple years ago when we actually
moved from UGA over to Georgia Tech. And when we did that,
we got new computers.
So I was really excited that I was going to get to
start from scratch, and I was really going to be good about
my organization, and I was going to make sure everything
was in the right place and make folders this time and just
not dump everything on my desktop. And so that was my
chance to start again.
Well, Evernote is really one of those things that,
as you're working with different kinds of data -- so
whether that be something that you wrote or a website that
you found or something like a sound file or a voice note or
something like that. And you want to be able to categorize
those things because they don't maybe necessarily just
apply to one concept or idea, and you want to maybe use
them in two different things.
So a good example is I might find an app that I
want to recommend on the Tools For Life website, so I want
to save that someplace. Well, I can e-mail a link from
that app over to my Evernote account, and it will
automatically get uploaded within that area.
I can go into my Evernote account, and I can put a
tag onto that file, and I can say, well, this is an app.
And then I might even put the tag "reading" because maybe
it's a reading app.
And then I think to myself, well, it's also
something that maybe I want to use as part of a project
that I'm working on, and maybe that project has to do with
a presentation that I'm going to do, so I might want to go
ahead and put "TFL presentation" and tag it that way.
So it gives me multiple ways of being able to tag
different types of files but then also different ways to
find those apps too. So it creates multiple points of
looking up and organizing information. So it can be really
useful.
I use it a lot for -- I love to cook. So when I
find a great recipe online -- it will install on your tool
bar on your web browser an Evernote link. And I can just
click that link, and it will automatically send that link
over to my Evernote account.
The Evernote software I have on my laptop, on my
iPhone, on my iPad. So no matter where I'm at, I can
collect information and categorize it and put it into one
place.
So Evernote or Dropbox sort of act as that one
central location where you can organize your information.
And they have great videos too.
A lot of my requirements for picking an app is that
I have to be able to go onto YouTube, do a quick search,
and find some really great demonstration videos.
And most of the bigger companies like Evernote have
really great training support on their websites. They ran
a competition not too long ago asking users to say what's
the best way or most unique way you've used your Evernote.
And so those are kind of fun. They're kind of cute
and stuff. They'll eat up an afternoon, so be careful.
But you can just click through them, and they're a lot of
fun to watch and how people are actually using it.
So that's a great way to also kind of collect ideas
and let people know how they can put that particular app
into play in their own lives.
Remember the Milk. So it's another free app. It's
an iPhone app. And it's kind of a basic to-do list, right?
So it puts together your tasks, the actions. So it can
really set up for you kind of like a step-by-step of --
almost like a project planner. That's sort of like a
larger concept of it. But it really helps you kind of
break down tasks.
Now, in this case the average person might use it
as, well, I'm working on a project, or I'm doing
such-and-such. But as far as like workplace reminders, so
if there are like procedural kinds of things within a
workplace environment that -- an individual who may have
memory issues, this might be a good opportunity to be able
to break down those tasks and make them -- sort of take
them through their day, step by step, each step.
So there's a real great way. So you can see. You
can do your grocery shopping, or it can really help
somebody beginning their day all the way to the end.
And then the next one. This one I really like
because it's a lot of fun to play with anyway. And it's
called Sign 4 Me.
And basically what it does, it's an application
that will put up a 3D character. And the free versions
have kind of just a set number of terms. And the paid
version you can actually type in phrases and things like
that, and they have a much larger library of words and
phrases and things.
But basically what's really cool about this -- and
I wish I could show you all of these up on the screen
because they're kind of fun to watch as well -- but you can
type in and even save certain phrases, and that avatar on
the screen, that 3D character, will do the sign of the
whole phrase. So it's pretty cool to be able to use it and
to kind of coach yourself. Again, this is a great learning
tool. It's a great communication tool.
And the other thing about the avatar is you can
actually rotate them around. So if there's kind of a
nuance of a movement, and you're not quite getting it
because the hand is going behind the other hand, you can
rotate that avatar so that you can actually see them from a
different angle and know exactly what they're doing.
And we mentioned this earlier and somebody had
brought up -- we were talking about using the cameras on
the different devices to make phone calls, video calls.
And certainly this would be a great way -- I can't remember
the person who asked the question or made the statement
about somebody who's deaf being able to then have a sign
call. And it's really fun. So it's a nice feature.
And Skype is a great option because it's free at
this point. And it's available on pretty much all of the
i-products. And I think maybe on the Android, too, you can
download it and use it there as well. So great
connectivity.
Next is the touch mouse. And Martha actually
taught me about this one. This is kind of an extension of
an input device for your computer. That sounded really
smartsy-smartsy, but it's really not.
It can either act as a mouse or a keyboard for your
computer, and not to mention it would also be wireless. So
it's a great input option or alternative for somebody who
has an iPhone that wants to interact with their computer
that may have limited movement or may just need better
positioning for a mouse or a keyboard. And so their iPhone
can act as that keyboard or mouse, you know, touch pad.
And so you can see on the screen there's a couple
of images there of the keyboard that would come up. You
can either ask the keyboard to be shown or hidden. And
then also you've got your left, center, and right mouse
clicks. And then the darkened area in the center would
just act as the touch pad that you would normally find on a
laptop or something like that.
Let's see. This says "I'm using my touch mouse
now." It's amazing. You're so quick. All right.
All right. Let's see. Next I've got Touchcards.
This is a great application for students. And you can
develop your own stacks of study cards, create your own
little quizzes.
So it's a good opportunity for students to be able
to use their phones in a real productive way if they're on
a bus or traveling or walking across campus, what have you.
It's a great way for them to review a lot of their
material.
And you can see there some of the ideas, right?
I'm just noticing it says "Body Cavities" -- kind of
silly -- "Pre Algebra Formulas, Anatomy Skeletal Diseases."
And then there are some, too, that are already predone, so
you can actually download and share the cards as well.
Sparky. This is kind of your CliffsNotes, an idea
of CliffsNotes where it's more of a summarized version of a
lot of favorite literature. So that one is called Sparky.
It's kind of a neat program, too, for students.
There's iComm, and this is short for iCommunicate.
And this is a really neat program. The icon on the screen
really doesn't do it justice because there is a lot that
you can do with this product.
And basically it's creating your own communication
device, saving varying communications. It's kind of a
communication board. And it's excellent for -- you can see
the description there -- excellent for students maybe with
cerebral palsy or autism.
But it basically allows somebody to be able to
create their own and develop their own communication boards
and really tailor those to the user. And again, it's all
going to be on the iPhone as well or on an iPad. So highly
usable, highly accessible as far as getting ahold of these
kinds of things.
So that was the last one there. It was tough to
pick, but there's certainly a lot of apps out there. And
as I was saying before, you're going to be able to get to
those through the Tools For Life website, and we'll
continue to add to them.
So I'm going to pass it back over to Carolyn here.
And thank you all.
CAROLYN PHILLIPS: Okay. Thank you so much, Joe
and John. Really appreciate everything.
And, yes, I think it was awesome too. I'm so glad
that y'all learned. I was over there taking notes myself.
Quite a few things that I learned about, John,
specifically from yours.
And obviously I learned from you, Joe. So thank
you very much.
What questions do y'all have?
Okay. So I think this question says, "Apps
suggestions for students with LD."
There are all kinds of app suggestions for people
with learning disabilities. Can you give me a little more
specifics? Because when I think of obviously folks with
learning disabilities, we often think of organization,
writing, reading, math.
So what area are you talking about specifically?
And the other question says, "Are all the apps in
the Tools For Life database?" I think is what that says.
Yes.
Actually, most of them are. I think there are a
couple that I just picked up from John that we'll make sure
we put in there. And we'll make sure we include you guys
as people who contributed to the website. So that will be
good. So we'll make sure that all the apps that we talked
about are in there.
"Apps for stuttering?" I've heard a lot of people
talking about pulling some of those together, but I haven't
seen anything that's really risen to the top as the best
app for stuttering.
There are some that help with therapy for
stuttering. And I'd be happy -- we can actually put some
of those in our app database. But as I said, I haven't
seen anything that is out there that's really blown me
away.
And it looks like the question that you had was
about reading specifically.
Yes, there are apps that highlight as they read.
It depends on the age of the person. I've found quite a
few children's books -- Disney has done an outstanding job
with some of the apps that highlight as you read.
What we're looking for often with reading is the
bimodal input, so being able to see it and hear it at the
same time.
So iLibrary has a lot of great books out there that
are mostly the classics that have a human voice that reads
as you -- that reads, and the book is synced with it. So
the book automatically moves up as you read.
You can also use something like VoiceOver that will
read your e-mails out loud as you write or as you're
downloading your e-mails or websites. So I'm not thrilled
with the voices in VoiceOver.
John, what do you think about the voice?
JOHN REMPEL: So it is a little bit choppy. But
for those that have been using JAWS or Window-Eyes or any
sort of synthesized speech for years, they seem to be able
to tune that choppiness out quite well.
For people who are learning it who are readily new
to synthesized speech, it is a little problematic.
CAROLYN PHILLIPS: Thank you, John.
Joe, anything you want to add about books?
And, yes, there are so many that are out there that
are digital. And that's pretty much what we need is for
things to be digital so we can get that text read.
Do you have anything you want to add as far as
reading?
JOE TEDESCO: Yeah, there's a couple things.
There's an application called Perfect OCR. And I've been
playing with that. So if there's a camera on your phone,
it's actually one of those apps that allow you to be able
to snap a picture of a page and then have it go through an
OCR process and bring it up on the screen so it will then
read it out to you. It needs an app to read it out. And
that would be good for short kinds of reading tasks.
And then of course John brought up Dragon Search.
But Dragon also puts out a free dictation software program
or application. And that's a real super easy application
to run. It's free, and it allows you to be able to just
talk directly into the phone.
Once it translates what it hears and types it up on
the screen, you can send it out as an instant message; you
can now post it to Facebook; you can send it in an e-mail.
And I've seen it used multiple ways. So as far as learning
disabilities, I've seen people here just pick it up, turn
it on, use it for a single word that they might be
struggling to spell. And so it can be used for long
sentences or just a single word.
So there's a number of them out there, and I think
it's just a matter of looking through them, yeah.
CAROLYN PHILLIPS: Gigi, it's always good to see
you. I'm so glad that you're on with us today. And to
answer your question about school textbooks, we happen to
be right here with AMAC, which is all about access to
materials and media and books.
But, yes, you can get it in -- a scan done or if
you can download it somehow. And we're finding that
actually a lot of publishers are headed that way where
they're making more and more books available that are
school-related in an e-format. Then you can. You can get
it read.
And often those screen readers, as I said, they're
free. It can be really labor intensive with some of them.
I don't think that any of the apps that I have seen -- I
haven't seen any apps that really have perfected that yet.
And I know a lot are being I guess developed now. So a lot
of people are aware of it.
Recording For the Blind and Dyslexic has an app.
And, John, do you want to talk at all about that?
Or Martha? I know your throat hurts. Do you want
to talk at all about it?
MARTHA RUST: I don't know if y'all can hear me,
but the Learning Center, which was previously the Recording
For the Blind and Dyslexic, has an app. So if you are a
member with them, you can actually get your textbooks or
books in an MP3 file. And then you can also download that
to your iPad, your iPhone, your iPod Touch.
CAROLYN PHILLIPS: All right. Thank you, Martha.
The other question is, "Is there a one-time fee for
these apps, or is it a monthly fee?"
Vast majority that I have seen it's a one-time fee.
There are a couple of people that -- I have seen a couple
of apps that have tried the monthly.
And to be honest, I don't go for it. So I figure
somebody else is going to come out with something that I'm
going to use. And so I'm not paying the monthly fee thing.
So I think it's such an emerging field, if you
will, emerging area, and so I think a lot of people are
trying to figure out their price structures.
And Moe, you're asking a question about -- Joe is
my screen reader. So thank you, Joe. I'm just going to
carry Joe around with me.
So Moe, to answer your question, "Is this webinar
going to be offered again?" We are going to be offering
webinars, yes, other webinars about the world of apps,
iPads, widgets, all of it.
But this one you can actually download. You can
see the archive which is going to be on our website, and
you can listen to it again and again. I, too, was taking
notes, as I said. So I understand why you want to hear it
again or see it again.
And so, Liz, do you mind throwing up there one more
time our website's address so people can get that? That
would be helpful.
And then there's a lot of discussion up here
about --
Thank you, Liz. I appreciate that.
So if you go down in the chat, you'll actually see
that it's available there on our website at GATFL.org under
the "Training" and then "Webinars." So just click, click,
click your way to that archive.
Do y'all have any other questions for us? And was
this helpful? We hope it was helpful.
It looks like somebody's talking about some of the
Dragon, yep, Flex T9 on the Android that you can get for
$5, basically. So I always fall for that 4.99 -- for $4.99
or $5 you can get it.
So we do hope this was helpful. We appreciate your
time. We know that time is extremely valuable. And it is
3:02, so I'm going to ask my fellow presenters if they have
anything they want to add.
John, do you have anything you want to add to this
discussion?
JOHN REMPEL: Well, I thank you for your
participation. Like I said, this has been a very exciting
collaboration. I've learned from Carolyn, Joe, and Martha.
I think we really complement each other well.
So there's a lot of excitement on this end as far
as sharing this information and learning more about it. So
thank you.
CAROLYN PHILLIPS: Thank you, John.
Joe?
JOE TEDESCO: Thanks, everybody. Thanks for
including me. I appreciate being here. And I look forward
to doing this again.
CAROLYN PHILLIPS: All right. Martha, I know your
throat is hurting. So she's signing, "Thank you all." So
anyway.
And Martha, thank you all for coordinating this.
This was your baby. So thank you so much.
And actually Martha has done an outstanding job
pulling together that database, working with Sharon Meek
and her team.
So thank you, Martha, for making all that happen.
Liz, anything you want to add?
All right. Well, y'all take care. And let us know
if there's anything we can do to help you. Y'all be in
touch with us, and we'll be in touch with you.
Steffany, it looks like you have something you want
to add. So I will release the mic.
STEFFANY STEVENS: No. I'm good. I didn't have
anything to add. Great presentation.
CAROLYN PHILLIPS: Okay. Well, we sure are excited
about our collaboration with you, Steffany, and with the
TACE center. So thank you so much.
Y'all take care.