ATU682 – BT Speak Pro from Blazie Technologies with David Goldfield

Hi, this is David Goldfield, director of marketing at Blazie Technologies, and this is your Assistive Technology Update.

Hello and welcome to your Assistive Technology Update, a weekly dose of information that keeps you up to date on the latest developments in the field of technology designed to assist individuals with disabilities and special needs. I’m your host, Josh Anderson, with the INDATA Project here at Easterseals Crossroads in beautiful Indianapolis, Indiana. Welcome to episode 682 of Assistive Technology Update. It is scheduled to be released on June 21st, 2024. On today’s show, we’re super excited to welcome David Goldfield from Blazie Technologies on, and he’s here to tell us about the BT Speak Pro. We also have a story about the kind of disparaging difference between assistive technology access around the world, as well as we welcome back BridgingApps with an app worth mentioning. We thank you so much for listening, folks. Now let’s go ahead and get on with the show.

Folks, our first story comes to us today from Tech Xplore, and it’s titled, Investing in assistive tech is a smart choice for governments, say experts. It’s written by Pascal Bijleveld from SciDev.net. And it talks a little bit about things that we all kind of know. It starts off by just talking about assistive technology, kind of what it is, the fact that many folks who probably use it on a daily basis with or without a disability, everything from wearing glasses to text-to-speech tools, the ramp to get in the building, subtitles on your television, all kinds of different stuff, gets into a little bit deeper about what they are and how they can help individuals with disabilities. But then it really gets into some kind of stark facts and some big differences between folks, kind of where you live, maybe what your income is, and then what your access is to assistive technology.

So a lot of folks know we are the ATX provider here for the state of Indiana. So that means there’s 56 such programs all across the United States and territories, and each of these get kind of money from the government, the grant funds in order to run these programs in order to increase people’s access to assistive technology. And I’m sure we don’t get to everyone. We definitely try, but unfortunately, not everyone even knows that we’re here or kind of what we can do. And I mean, the qualifications for most of our programs are just you have to be a resident of the state of Indiana. And of course, other programs and other states and territories probably have those same kind of rules. For some of our programs, you have to be a resident of the state of Indiana and have a documented disability for some different things. But mostly, that’s kind of it.

And our programs are really to get the word out about assistive technology and to get it into folks’ hands just so that they know it’s there. They can make informed decisions, and go out, and be able to purchase it on their own. And while we really can’t provide assistive technology straight to everyone or make recommendations on such things, we can still at least raise awareness, get it in folks’ hands, and kind of give them the tools they need in order to go out and find those things on their own. Anyway, I say all that because here in the story, it says that as few as 3% of people in some low-income countries have access to the AT they need, compared to 90% in high-income countries, according to a 2022 report by the World Health Organization and UNICEF. So if you really think 3%, I mean, what a difference. Think of your state, your country, wherever you might be listening to this from, and then think about just 3% of the population having access to assistive technology in any way, shape, or form.

I mean, that’s such a small percentage of the individuals with disabilities, but goodness gracious, that’s just kind of wild. And one big thing that they don’t talk about in AT a lot of it… And I don’t is part of our kind of deal with the grant is we don’t lobby or do any of that part, which is perfectly fine by me not having to do those kind of things. But there is a huge return on investment in assistive technology if you really, really think about it, not just for the individual. So if I have a disability and I want to work and I need assistive technology to do it, of course that makes a huge impact on my life because I’m able to work, I’m able to thrive, to succeed, hopefully to excel, but also think about for society as a whole and where all those come. And it’s very hard to maybe quantify all those numbers of just how much, but if you think, “As I make more money, I pay more taxes, I buy more goods, so I’m contributing probably to the economy a little bit more.”

If you think that just goes downstream so much and there’s so much just return on that investment of that assistive technology, that business purchase, that person purchase, the government assisted somebody with getting maybe… It’s huge, and I don’t even know the numbers of… The kind of dollars… Return on investment for the ATX programs. I know you can go find that data if you really and truly want to. I’m pretty sure it’s definitely out there. But then this also has the question, do you know why have these problems gone unaddressed? And of course, some of it mentions fragmentation. It cuts across all sectors of health, education, livelihoods, humanitarian responses, aging, disability. And that’s very true. I know a lot of folks who, when they hear the word assistive technology, they think of AAC devices, and that’s it. That’s the only thing they know, because maybe in the school system somewhere else, that was assistive technology, and that is what it does. That’s all that they know, but there’s so much more out there. So really, as this kind of just go across, it can be very, very hard.

As we really get down in here, and I’ll put a link to the story in the show notes so that you can go and check it out. It really kind of gets into some different numbers, some other kind of studies, and other things that are really important and really cool to read about. And then just about how some countries are kind of ripe for creating assistive technologies and maybe able to kind of help bridge that gap, not just for their own countries, but maybe change some distribution channels, increase the accessibility, and maybe even bring down the price of some things as it goes. I’ve had the pleasure on this show of talking to folks from all over the world that make all kinds of different assistive technology, and really just to benefit everybody. On here, it also says that June 4th was marked as the first ever World Day for Assistive Technology. I work in assistive technology, and my goodness, I missed that one, and I am so sorry. We’ll make sure to do that again.

But anyway, a very good story and really some things that we don’t always think about. I mean, I got to admit just in the services of my job and the things that we do every day, it’s very hard to think on that global scale as you’re trying to serve the folks that you’re kind of here to serve. But then, how can we use those skills? Can we use those things to ensure that we’re serving all and that all folks have access to assistive technology? If anyone, listeners of this show, the guests of this show, the folks on this show, myself included, know the difference that assistive technology can make. So hopefully we can all work together and just increase that access to everyone all over the world. Anyway, I’ll put a link to this over in the show notes that you can go and check the story out for yourself. Next up on the show, please join me in welcoming back Amy Barry from BridgingApps with an app worth mentioning.

This is Amy Barry with BridgingApps, and this is an app worth mentioning. Today’s app is called Choiceworks. Choiceworks is an app for helping children complete daily routines and tasks, understanding and controlling feelings, and to improve their patience. Caregivers, teachers, and therapists use this app with students diagnosed with autism, ADD, and other learning disabilities to keep them on task and motivated. The Choiceworks app is high-quality, user-friendly, and the students we’ve trialed it with really enjoyed it. We use this app with speech and language students, both verbal and nonverbal. While using Choiceworks, the students consistently stayed engaged, productive, and motivated.

We like to customize the schedules, tasks, and rewards specific to each student. A feature we like having is the option to add a timer for tasks. The timer provides convenience as well as efficiency when moving through a schedule, giving more time to work on important skills. Therapists often tend to scramble with visuals, schedules, star pieces, and a separate timer for breaks, but this app has it all in one place. The Choiceworks app is currently $24.99 at the iTunes store. The app can be used on an iOS device. For more information on this app and others like it, visit bridgingapps.org.

Listeners, today we are super excited to welcome David Goldfield from Blazie Technologies onto the show, and he’s here to tell us all about their BT Speak Pro and how it can be a powerful tool for individuals who are blind or visually impaired. David, welcome to the show.

Thank you for having me on the podcast.

Yeah, I am looking very forward to getting into talking about the technology, such a cool thing and a great idea. But before we do that, could you tell our listeners a little bit about yourself?

Sure, I’m happy to do that. So I’ve been working in this field for about 30 plus years now. I actually started out working at Blazie Engineering, which was the company that was run by Deane Blazie, who’s now the Chief Technology Officer of Blazie Technologies. And they were known for products for the blind, such as the Braille ‘n Speak and the Braille Lite. And after that, I worked for about 17 years doing computer training with blind kids and adults for a couple of nonprofits. I then went to Comcast for seven years, where I was a user acceptance tester and a product manager on their accessibility team. And that was a great run, really enjoyed that. And now, since February, I am the director of marketing for the new company run by Bryan Blazie, who is the CEO, as well as Deane Blazie, who’s the Chief Technology Officer, and a couple of other guys with the last name of Blazie who have positions at the company. But this company is called Blazie Technologies, and as you said, the product that we have now is the BT Speak Pro. BT standing for Blazie Technologies.

I’m glad you cleared that up. That was actually going to be my first question of just what that BT stands for, but that makes complete sense and I probably should have been able to figure that one out kind of from the beginning. But, David, tell us, what is the BT Speak Pro?

Sure, happy to do that. So the BT Speak Pro is, we call it a pocket computer for the blind. So it is a computer that uses a Braille keyboard with eight keys and a space bar. So it’s a Braille input keyboard for writing, reading, editing, and file management, and all of the other functions of the device. And it has speech output. We currently have three different text-to-speech engines. It has a variety of applications on it. Front and center is an editor that we have that is very similar for those who have used it, very similar to the older Braille ‘n Speak note taker. And for those who have not used a Braille ‘n Speak, that’s perfectly fine because it’s very intuitive and it allows you to compose and edit documents. It also has a variety of other applications, such as an appointment calendar. We have a radio tuner and it even has a dictionary.

And we also have a full-featured desktop mode. And in this mode, you can access some off-the-shelf mainstream applications such as LibreOffice for writing documents and opening spreadsheets. Mozilla Thunderbird is installed for email, and we have two web browsers, Mozilla Firefox, and Chromium. And all of this is done with the Braille keyboard. And the reason why it’s called a pocket computer is because of the dimensions of the device. It’s similar to an iPhone 14 or 15 Pro. So it’s 6 inches across, 2.8 inches from front to back and 3/4 of an inch thick. So it can literally fit in many pockets. If you wanted to carry it in your pocket. You could also wear it around your neck because you can buy an optional leather carrying case for it that we have from Turtleback. And once it’s in the case, you can put the strap on, and wear it around your neck and walk around and do what you’re doing with it without having to hold it.

Wow, that’s great. And that’s a lot of stuff. And David, just so I’m completely clear, it does not have to be connected to a computer to do all these things. Is that correct? It’s all just right there in that pocket device?

That’s correct. You don’t have to connect it to a computer for it to work. All of the applications that I have mentioned are already pre-installed. However, it does have Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, and it has Wi-Fi for several reasons. First of course, because we frequently update the device with improvements to existing features as well as new features. And that is done over-the-air with Wi-Fi. And of course, you need Wi-Fi if you’re going to perform tasks such as email and going on the web. It has Bluetooth, if you want to connect it to Bluetooth speakers or Bluetooth headset, you can do that. And it has a USB-C port, so you can connect thumb drives, hard drives.

And of course you can use it to charge the device. It does have a battery. The battery, by the way, lasts for around 10 hours of use, depending of course on what you’re doing with it. And it also has a microSD card and the micro SD card you can do the same thing that you can do with USB thumb drives or hard drives. You can look at files on the card, you can open files on the card, you can transfer files from the card to the device or from the device to the microSD card.

Nice. Very nice. And I know when you said it has a USB connectivity, if I would need to maybe use an external QWERTY keyboard, could I connect that or maybe other kind of peripherals?

Yes. Yep. You can connect a QWERTY keyboard if that’s what you like and that’s what you want to use. The other port that I didn’t mention that I probably should have, because you talked about other peripherals, is an HDMI port. So if you want to connect a monitor or TV, you can. Now, that’s not required. Most of our customers probably don’t, but one way in which we foresee this as being useful is in the education market. So if you’re a blind person, you might not care whether you have an HDMI-connected video device, but if you’re a teacher and you’re working with one or more blind children, that might be a really important thing for you to be able to see what they’re doing. So we do allow for that as well.

David, as a sighted individual who’s done a lot of training with individuals who are blind or visually impaired, I thank you for putting that on there. It becomes so much more helpful. I mean, also, I work with a lot of folks who are so used to the voice output that turned up so fast that I can’t hear it anymore. So it’s very helpful to have at least something if I’m trying to assist or train to kind of be able to do it. But yeah, I know in the teaching environment, that’s a very big thing too, just because it really does help the teacher be involved. And just if you’re doing any kind of training or anything like that, just gives a whole mode of communication, I think. So I love that that was thought of and put in there without having to do much extra to be able to do it. David, I got to ask you, where did the idea for this device come from?

That’s a great question. So four years ago, Deane Blazie, who, as I mentioned, produced and developed the Braille ‘n Speak, he and Bryan were talking about this, and they said, “You know, I wonder if we could produce a modern Braille ‘n Speak for this time with all of the modern features that people would want. Could we do it?” And they were wondering, “Could we do it with a Raspberry Pi?” Which is a very small computer board. “Could we take that and put a Braille keyboard on it as well as special software to make it Braille friendly? Could we do it, and is there a need for it?” And so they started working on this really four years ago, and I became involved with the project about two years ago just as a beta tester as it was being developed. So I think we now have the answer to those questions.

The first answer is, can it be done? Yes, it can, because we have it. And not only do we have it, but we’re shipping it. Customers have it in their hands, and they’re using it, and they’re giving us feedback. And the other question is, is there a need for it? And I think the answer is definitely yes. People have wanted this. Deane realized that no one really had been producing a Braille ‘n Speak the way the Braille ‘n Speak was developed. There just wasn’t a product like it, and he wanted to try to fill that need and fill that void.

Nice. David, I got to ask you, just because you mentioned customer feedback and everything like that, can you tell me a story about someone’s experience with the BT Speak Pro?

Yes, I’ll be happy to do that. So a lot of customers remember products like the Braille ‘n Speak, and they are asking for features either that were on the Braille ‘n Speak, and in some cases maybe things that they might’ve liked but that we just didn’t have available. One of the things that I know people have asked for is the ability to use their device as a radio tuner to be able to tune into radio stations, but both internet stations as well as standard terrestrial ones. And we finally did it, and I think we did it really well. And we now have a radio tuner with 47,000 radio stations, and we’re able to add to it. If people find one that isn’t on there, we’re able to do that. Another thing that we are working on that people really have wanted are games. This is a big deal for some users of the Braille ‘n Speak, and we are in the process of adding some games to it, and I think you’ll see that pretty soon in an upcoming revision.

Awesome. I love how you’re taking just the user feedback and putting those features in that they definitely want, because the more you can do with the one device, especially the things that you want to do most, the more it’s going to get used, and then you don’t have to carry 25 things around to do all the different things you might want to do in a day. So if you can have one that’ll fit in your pocket, hey, that’s even better and can always be a really, really great tool. David, we’ve got a little bit more time. What are some other cool features on the BT Speak Pro?

So one of the features that the BT Speak does have is a built-in voice recorder. So if you want to record either a quick note by voice or something as long as a classroom lecture, you can do that, and the notes are stored on the device and you can play them back. It’s got a pretty good microphone with a nice, crisp sound. And in addition to the radio tuner, it also has a media player. So if you have MP3 or WAV files either on the device or on a microSD card or on a thumb drive, the unit not only can play them, but the unit can find them wherever they happen to be stored and present them in a list. And you can then play those.

And there are global keyboard shortcuts so that you can control the media outside of the media player. So whether you’re listening to your own media, like your own MP3 files, or you’re listening to a radio station, we have commands that you can access from anywhere to pause or go back or go forward, and depending on the media to restart. So those global hotkeys are available anywhere. There is a dictionary, so you can look up the definition of a word, and it does have a weather app built in for getting weather conditions for your local area or any area that you want to get weather conditions for.

David, if our listeners want to find out more or maybe even get a BT Speak Pro for themselves, what’s a good way for them to do that?

So there are a couple ways they can do that. One way is, of course, to visit our website, which is blazietech.com, that’s B-L-A-Z-I-E T-E-C-H.com. On that website, you can read more about the product and you can even order it along with the carrying case if you’d like to do that. You can also call us if you have additional questions or if you’d like to place an order by phone at area code 772-214-1616. That’s area code 772-214-1616. You can email us at support@blazie.net. That’s support at blazie, B-L-A-Z-I-E.net. And finally, if you’d like to interact not only with us but with other users and potential users to ask questions, we do have a support discussion list on groups.io, and if you’d like to join that, it’s free. You can send an email to Btspeak, that’s B-T S-P-E-A-K + subscribe. That’s the plus sign on the keyboard, the plus key, not the word plus. Btspeak+subscribe@groups.io.

All right. We will put all that information down in the show notes so that folks can easily find it and access that in order to be able to sign up, in order to be able to contact everybody there at Blazie and get all the information that they might need. Well, David, thank you so much for coming on the show today, for telling us all about the BT Speak Pro, for telling us about Blazie Technologies, and I’m sure that I probably echo what they say and we’re glad that you came back to them in order to work with this project.

I’m glad that Blazie Technologies is around, and I’m glad the Blazies are back to produce the product. But thank you for saying so.

Do you have a question about assistive technology? Do you have a suggestion for someone we should interview on Assistive Technology Update? If so, call our listener line at 317-721-7124. Send us an email at tech@eastersealscrossroads.org or shoot us a note on Twitter @INDATAproject. Our captions and transcripts for the show are sponsored by the Indiana Telephone Relay Access Corporation or InTRAC. You can find out more about InTRAC at relayindiana.com. A special thanks to Nikol Prieto for scheduling our amazing guests and making a mess of my schedule. Today’s show was produced, edited, hosted, and fraught over by yours truly. The opinions expressed by our guests are their own and may or may not reflect those of the INDATA Project. Easterseals Crossroads are supporting partners or this host. This was your Assistive Technology Update. I’m Josh Anderson with the INDATA Project at Easterseals Crossroads in beautiful Indianapolis, Indiana. We look forward to seeing you next time. Bye-bye.