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Your weekly dose of information that keeps you up to date on the latest developments in the field of technology designed to assist people with disabilities and special needs.
Show Notes:
Bridging Apps with Cristen Reat, Co-Founder and Program Director
Fujitsu’s Ontenna could be a big deal for the deaf http://buff.ly/2dLgucI
App: Simply Sayin’ Medical Jargon for Kids | www.BridgingApps.org
Caresync: https://search.bridgingapps.org/apps/42b62cf6-46a7-4fb0-ba7b-3835852541b3
Pillboxie: https://search.bridgingapps.org/apps/54711c14-ec82-aa26-10cb-7d6a7702238c
BridgingApps on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BridgingApps/
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——-transcript follows ——
CRISTEN REAT: Hi, I’m Cristen Reat, and I’m the cofounder and program director of BridgingApps.org, a program of Easter Seals Greater Houston, and this is your Assistive Technology Update.
WADE WINGLER: Hi, this is Wade Wingler with the INDATA Project at Easter Seals crossroads in Indiana with 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 people with disabilities and special needs.
Welcome to episode number 281 of Assistive Technology Update. It’s scheduled to be released on October 14, 2016.
Today I have a visit with my friend Cristen Reat who is the cofounder and program director of BridgingApps; a story about Sam Schmidt getting a very special driver’s license in the state of Indiana; some news from Fujitsu about a hair clip that might improve the lives of people who are deaf or hard of hearing; and an app review from BridgingApps.
We hope you’ll check out our website at www.eastersealstech.com, send us a note on Twitter at INDATA Project, or call our listener line at 317-721-7124.
***
CRISTEN REAT: Hi, I’m Cristen Reat, and I’m the cofounder and program director of BridgingApps.org, a program of Easter Seals Greater Houston, and this is your Assistive Technology Update.
WADE WINGLER: Hi, this is Wade Wingler with the INDATA Project at Easter Seals crossroads in Indiana with 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 people with disabilities and special needs.
Welcome to episode number 281 of Assistive Technology Update. It’s scheduled to be released on October 14, 2016.
Today I have a visit with my friend Cristen Reat who is the cofounder and program director of BridgingApps; a story about Sam Schmidt getting a very special driver’s license in the state of Indiana; some news from Fujitsu about a hair clip that might improve the lives of people who are deaf or hard of hearing; and an app review from BridgingApps.
We hope you’ll check out our website at www.eastersealstech.com, send us a note on Twitter at INDATA Project, or call our listener line at 317-721-7124.
***
In episode 155 of assistive technology update, we talked with Sam Schmidt of Indy Motorsports fame who is a person with quadriplegia who drove a Corvette over 150 miles an hour around the Indianapolis motor Speedway. It looks now according to Tech news world that he has been issued a driver’s license in the state of Nevada, heavily restricted. He can drive a particular car, that Corvette he drove in India, with no ice or snow, only with another driver in the car and was the lead vehicle out and about. But it’s the first person that a person with a spinal cord injury or quadriplegia has been issued a driver’s license to drive a semi-autonomous vehicle on public roads. It’s a fascinating article. There’s a lot of technical details about what is allowed and what is not. It’s worth taking a look at because this could mean a whole lot of things for folks who are leading on the future of technology as it comes to some autonomous vehicles and what that might mean for folks who have disabilities. Congratulations to him on your driver’s license and I’ll encourage our listener to check out the show notes. I’ll pop a link in there.
***
Not long ago there was an electronic show in Tokyo called CEATEC where Japanese companies show off some of their coolest big screens, robotics, and fastest computers. One of the things that interested me was a product called Ontenna, which is something that is helpful for people who are deaf or hard of hearing. It’s basically – get this – a hair clip that someone wears in their hair and they will let them know that there is noise in the environment. Example, if the doorbell rings, it would vibrate in such a way that you would know that was the doorbell; or if you are sweeping the rug, and the vacuum cleaner comes unplugged, it would stop vibrating to let you know that the vacuum cleaner had stopped working. It basically amplifies our house a microphone that takes sound in the environment and converts it to a vibration so you know there is an auditory queue in the environment. Quite a simple device but it got it built up so it looks sort of like a hair clip they can wear in your hair. One of the reporters that reported on this was a gentleman without hair and they say they’ve thought about that too. Fujitsu is the company making it. They are going to make a version that works as an earring. Sort of a fun thing but I think very practical. It’s a prototype device right now not currently available but coming soon. They are predicting a US price title of around $60-$70. I’ll pop a link in the show notes over to PC World where you can get some pictures of this device and a video showing how it works. Ontenna the vibrating hair clip for somebody who is deaf or hard of hearing. Check our show notes.
***
Each week, one of our partners tells us what’s happening in the ever-changing world of apps, so here’s an app worth mentioning.
AMY BARRY: This is Amy Barry with BridgingApps, and this is an app worth mentioning. This week’s app is called Simply Sayin’ Medical Jargon for Kids. Simply Sayin’ is a valuable resource to help medical professionals explain common procedures and surgeries to patients and their families. Straightforward and easy to navigate, Simply Sayin’ can also help parents prepare their children for doctor’s appointment and medical procedures, easing children’s fears and anxiety. Simply Sayin’ features for menus to choose from. There is enough of it has glossary, preps, drawings, and pictures. The glossary of terms menu links to simple explanations, illustrations, and photographs. Some of the terms also link to anatomical images where drawings can be added and include the necessary preparations for procedures as well as photos. The preps menu links to easy to understand explanations of the procedure, why the procedures necessary, what will happen during the procedure, what your job is during the procedure, and things that can help when having a procedure. The drawings menu links to illustrations that can be used to help explain a procedure. A favorite feature is the freehand drawings that can be added to the illustrations. The pictures menu includes photographs of actual procedure rooms and equipment also linking to explanations of the procedures, why it may be necessary, and things that can help during the procedure.
Simply Sayin’ incorporates teach back techniques to reinforce understanding of the medical information provided. All of the menus and content are available in English and Spanish, and we found that the app proved to be a necessary and useful tool for medical professionals and parents, preparing a patient, child, family for medical procedures and surgeries. Simply Sayin’ Medical Jargon for Kids is available for free at the iTunes Store and is compatible with iOS devices. For more information on this app and others like it, visit BridgingApps.org.
***
WADE WINGLER: If you listen to the show at all, you are familiar with the term BridgingApps. BridgingApps is a group that is one of our most regular providers of the app worth mentioning segment. Amy Barry, Cristen Reat, there are others that you hear on our show representing BridgingApps. I’m going to get in the nitty-gritty with them today about what’s going on about BridgingApps. I’m super excited to have my friend and colleague Kristin Reed who is the cofounder and program director of BridgingApps which is out of Houston. We’ll get into that stuff. First and foremost, hey, how are you?
CRISTEN REAT: I’m great. Thanks so much for having me.
WADE WINGLER: Always good to hear your voice. Great that you back on the show. It’s been a while since we’ve had a chance to sit down and talk about what’s going on with BridgingApps. I’m excited to do that. Before we talk about BridgingApps, what you tell my audience about yourself and why you started caring about assistive technology.
CRISTEN REAT: Thanks. I’m a parent of two boys, and my younger son Vincent who now is 13 – it’s hard to believe – he was born with Down syndrome. He also has what the doctor called an autistic flavor. He has a visual impairment and a lot of medical issues. I really got into this, and to assistive technology. I do not have assistive technology background. My background is in language is. I’m actually a veteran. I served in the military as a translator. I had nothing to do really with the technology world, but when my son was born, and as he began to grow and was moving from preschool into a kindergarten program with typically developing children, I knew that technology was going to be a great assistance to him; however, he had difficulty navigating a regular computer, a laptop. He needed a lot of assistance to use it. We tried all different things that we could find for access points for a computer, like a joystick and different adaptive mice. None of them he could really do independently. For a few years, I know speech therapist had been using the iPod touch as an assistive device and speech therapy. In 2010 when touched tapas started coming out, notably the iPad and android tablets, I knew that that touch technology would be key for him because immediately he could do it independently. There was a whole new market for educational games and just the accessibility features that are built into the devices and operating system were just wonderful for him. That’s how it started, and we started as a support group of parents of young children with all types of disabilities, not just Down syndrome, and speech therapist and occupational therapist. Started in the clinic and we began meeting and swapping notes and sharing information and “ooh-ing” and “awe-ing” over the amazing things that we were able to see our children be able to do.
WADE WINGLER: I have always been shocked at how many programs that are wildly successful and quality programs like yours are sorted by what we call the mama bears around here, a group of parent advocates to get together on behalf of kids with disabilities and get with professionals and do something amazing, which is certainly what’s happening with BridgingApps.
CRISTEN REAT: Yes, we were really pleased that it was the therapist to were very eager to do this because, again, like I said they were using the iPod touches and speech therapy with apps that works necessarily made with children with disabilities, just regular apps, and that continues. Out of necessity is born some things that we hope are useful for other people. That’s the whole point to BridgingApps, is a community of people to share information. That’s how we started and that’s what we continue to do.
WADE WINGLER: That’s great. I sing your praises all the time. I’m not having that I’m a fan of what BridgingApps does. When I talk about your organization in the value you bring to the community of people with disabilities, the thing I talk about most is BridgingApps is a resource for finding apps. Can you talk to me a little bit about how folks might find apps using your service and your website?
CRISTEN REAT: Out of the support group meeting that we began, it became very inefficient to swap notes and write down all of the different apps and the ways we were using them, so we began a website way back when, about five years ago. It was called special needs apps for kids. Since then we’ve rebranded to BridgingApps.org, and it’s a free resource. We put all kinds of information on the website that’s surrounding and supporting people with disabilities and technology, specifically right now with mobile devices. I say just right now because we don’t know what’s going to be around in two years and three years and five years, so we focus on mobile devices.
We found as parents and also as therapist that, at the very beginning with all of this amazing app development, that it was hard to find apps for special needs. We find that parents type in their child’s diagnosis, so I would type in Down syndrome and get no results in the App Store or Google play store. Or I would type in cerebral palsy or motor skills. What became very frustrating and a barrier to finding things that were useful was the search process. It was cumbersome, time-consuming, and frustrating. Instead of going to the App Store, instead of going to Google play, we thought was we would vet apps copies of look at apps and create our own database and our own ways of search for apps on both iOS, which would be for Apple products, as well as android, tablets and smartphones.
What you’ll find on the BridgingApps website are how-to videos and articles and products, but the heart and soul of the website is really apps and reviewing the apps. What some people have described it is as the Yelp for apps. It’s a free creation service where you about 3500 apps in our database now. Some of those were apps that were specifically designed for special needs like vision impairment and autism. Other apps are just regular apps that are not designed for disability in mind but that some additional like a speech therapist has found a real creative way to use that app and speech therapy. We asked them to write about it. Out of those 3500 apps, not quite half of them are now reviewed by some kind of professional. You can come into the search tool, into apps search, and you can type in cerebral palsy and actually get results. You can type in visual impairment or phonics or reading or assistive reading. You can search all types of ways because we know that parents and professionals and other groups of people all searched differently. We have different ways research. A lot of teachers and search by whatever is free because they have no budget, so you can search by all the free apps that we have on our site. You can search by category such as adults and seniors. I thought about that in a minute. You can search by math, by grade level. All types of ways that you can search to find results.
We try to have our reviewers who are all different types of professionals tag of those app reviews with as many tags relevant as possible so that you get a lot of great search results. But it’s going to be different from when you go into the App Store where you might come up with nothing if you type in the word cerebral palsy or ADHD. Many different ways of typing and finding out that you need. They range from free all the way up to several hundred dollars and are available for both platforms.
WADE WINGLER: When I first started dealing with assistive technology and apps years ago, sometimes I would find a situation where I would put a keyword into the App Store or iTunes Store and not find anything. Sometimes I would find the opposite. If you put the word autism in the App Store and the people by autism apps or apps for $.99, I would sometimes find a whole bunch of them and be totally confused as to whether any of them were any good. I don’t know, is your experience that that is getting better? Obviously the tool you provide segments that, but for a while that was the problem I experience.
CRISTEN REAT: I totally agree. I think that continues to be a problem because now that the app market has matured a bit, developers are very savvy and want to sell their apps. If you are a one off for developer and you haven’t made a whole lot of apps, you are not one of the big companies, if you put one of those keywords in such as autism in your title, you will have people by that app and spend that the $.99 or $2.99 because it has autism in the title. We do try to do is put a lot of apps on the website, but again, the people are reviewing the apps are all professionals. That does not mean we don’t value what parents and other people who are not professionals need. We want information from everyone. There are ways to comment, ways to rate apps. Parents and go in today and pick their favorite apps and rate them to help other people. It’s sort of like a crowdsourcing system. Only speech therapist and occupational therapist – we even have a dietitian and psychologist – they are all reviewing these apps for the best, most high-quality app that can help someone. Those are marked specifically as an officially reviewed app. In some ways it’s getting better, but in other ways they figured out that certain words will sell.
WADE WINGLER: That’s one of the things at the INDATA Project we get a lot of questions about. We routinely refer back to your website. The question we get is, I know I need it but which is a good one in a particular category. This is a great way for people to find that, but lots of categories.
CRISTEN REAT: It certainly is. What I would say especially to all the parents out there, parents and caregivers and you know a lot of the grandparents. We know grandparents are caring for grandchildren with disabilities. What I would say is you know that child the best and what may have network for somebody else may work for you, so that’s when we try to put a high quality narrative in there that you can read to see if that might be Apple for your child. Many of the apps now, not all of them, but many of them do have a free version you can try first. We try to push people to those first to try something where it’s no cost to you. You can just download something for free, try it out. If it doesn’t work then try something else. People are constantly asking is what are the best apps. My answer is always best apps for what? Or best apps for whom? What may work for one child — one child with autism may love trains, another child with autism may hate trains. That train app that works for one child minute work with another child. Just like typically developing children and adults. We all have our preferences. We just hope that out of 3500 apps in a large majority of them being vetted by a professional, hopefully parents can find and professionals can find things to start with and trial with their child.
WADE WINGLER: But you’re doing more than just helping people find apps in an online tool. As a look at your website, I see there are a lot of things going on there. Tell me some of the other things BridgingApps is working on outside of the search app engine.
CRISTEN REAT: We are really excited. As I mentioned before, because we started in a therapy clinic with our young children, obviously we did not want to limit ourselves to that. By trialing a lot of the apps in therapy, we discover that a lot of the same apps work for children work equally well for teens, young adults, adults, and even seniors. Though you will find many apps for the preschool level and young children, you’ll find quite a few apps are appropriate for all the ages. About a year and a half ago, with the support of the Consumer Technology Association Foundation, they helped to start a seniors and caregivers section. You’ll find on the website if you’re poking around in the community section a whole section devoted to seniors and caregivers, because we know there are millions of caregivers who are unpaid who are struggling every day with things. When we find solutions that are helpful with some of the app reviews that we’ve done, we try to put that together in a resource that usable. We’ve got how-to videos, print out sheets of instructions for using specific apps.
We are really excited about that because we’ve had a lot of positive feedback on how, especially from caregivers but also those who are trying to work with seniors, who really want to know about the technology but may need a lot more support at the beginning using the technology. That’s one of the things we are very excited about. You’ll see all kinds of that review is coming out of the website in the search tool, and we’ve been able to work in an assisted living facility here in Houston, a dementia care facility, as well as classes at YMCA with different groups of seniors. I am defining seniors as anyone 50 years old or older. We found a lot of people don’t identify as senior but we are working with a lot of different age groups.
Something else that we are really excited about – and Wade, you’ve probably seen this by your show, is the explosion in healthcare at market.
WADE WINGLER: Yeah.
CRISTEN REAT: We see that as well, and because we are situated in Houston with a very large medical center here, we are very excited to be doing a project at a local children’s hospital, Texas Children’s. We are doing a project that is helping families who are in an inpatient revocation unit with their children, doing a little bit of training with them to see if some of the training and apps that we recommend are helpful for navigating their hospital stay and once they are discharged. You’ll also be seeing a lot more health related apps for medical records and medication compliance and health plans and things like that that, even though we are trialing them with children, have applications for young adults, adults, and even seniors. That something else we are working on that we are really excited about.
WADE WINGLER: When do you rest?
CRISTEN REAT: Exactly. That’s just the beauty of this job. Because I just love exploring and discovering new things – all of us here do. So many of us are test with disability. They either have a disability themselves or are caring for someone or living with someone with a disability. I get to work every day figuring things out that potentially could help not just my son but other people. It’s really exciting and also very exciting in the whole health market. There is one app in particular that you’ll always see at the top of our list because I think it is so revolution, which is called Caresync. That’s an app that can be easily used by most adults, but many people have been very excited because it’s a medical records management app where you can put information about immunizations and appointments and actually have that at your fingertips on your smartphone so that when you go to a doctor’s appointment for yourself or your loved ones with a disability, you can ask better questions. In some cases, I’ve had better information and records than the specialist I’m seeing. We think those things are really important for families, especially as healthcare gets more expensive and more complicated.
WADE WINGLER: It got about a minute left in the interview. Give us another app you’re excited about these days and then we will wrap up.
CRISTEN REAT: Another app I’m excited about is Pillboxie. That’s another health-related app that is kind of like a virtual pillbox that most people can use. We’ve actually used it as a training tool for people recovering from a stroke where they are learning to use their medication and become compliant with that medication. It has a picture of a pillbox and you can take pictures of your actual medication and it is an organizational tool and also give reminders within that app. A caregiver could use it, child, or even an adult with cognitive difficulties could be taught to use that app so that they are little bit more independent. We are really excited about that. That’s been out for a while and was just updated.
WADE WINGLER: If people wanted to learn more, if they wanted to find apps, wanted to learn more about the training and other things you are doing over there, what would you recommend in terms of contact information?
CRISTEN REAT: We are on all social media, but really anywhere you go out on BridgingApps.org. There is a help button. Our address is listed, our email. As soon as you hit that help, it brings up a form and that goes straight to me. You can contact us through. Or just through Easter Seals, greater Houston. Part of our website and links are listed on the Easter Seals greater Houston website as well.
WADE WINGLER: I guess I’ll throw in one. You can also listen to this show because almost every week we have somebody from BridgingApps doing a review or covering it up on our show. We appreciate your doing that for so many years.
CRISTEN REAT: Thank you. We really appreciate the opportunity of getting the word out. We love this collaboration and hope to continue to do it for many years because there are many apps to cover.
WADE WINGLER: Couldn’t agree more. Cristen Reat is the cofounder and program director at BridgingApps, is our colleague, our co-conspirator in sharing information about apps, and a friend of mine. Thanks so much for being on the show.
CRISTEN REAT: Thanks so much for having me.
WADE WINGLER: Do you have a question about assistive technology? Do you have a suggestion for someone we should interview on Assistive Technology Update? Call our listener line at 317-721-7124, shoot us a note on Twitter @INDATAProject, or check us out on Facebook. Looking for a transcript or show notes from today’s show? Head on over to www.EasterSealstech.com. Assistive Technology Update is a proud member of the Accessibility Channel. Find more shows like this plus much more over at AccessibilityChannel.com. That was your Assistance Technology Update. I’m Wade Wingler with the INDATA Project at Easter Seals Crossroads in Indiana.
***Transcript provided by TJ Cortopassi. For transcription requests and inquiries, contact tjcortopassi@gmail.com***
In episode 155 of assistive technology update, we talked with Sam Schmidt of Indy Motorsports fame who is a person with quadriplegia who drove a Corvette over 150 miles an hour around the Indianapolis motor Speedway. It looks now according to Tech news world that he has been issued a driver’s license in the state of Nevada, heavily restricted. He can drive a particular car, that Corvette he drove in India, with no ice or snow, only with another driver in the car and was the lead vehicle out and about. But it’s the first person that a person with a spinal cord injury or quadriplegia has been issued a driver’s license to drive a semi-autonomous vehicle on public roads. It’s a fascinating article. There’s a lot of technical details about what is allowed and what is not. It’s worth taking a look at because this could mean a whole lot of things for folks who are leading on the future of technology as it comes to some autonomous vehicles and what that might mean for folks who have disabilities. Congratulations to him on your driver’s license and I’ll encourage our listener to check out the show notes. I’ll pop a link in there.
***
Not long ago there was an electronic show in Tokyo called CEATEC where Japanese companies show off some of their coolest big screens, robotics, and fastest computers. One of the things that interested me was a product called Ontenna, which is something that is helpful for people who are deaf or hard of hearing. It’s basically – get this – a hair clip that someone wears in their hair and they will let them know that there is noise in the environment. Example, if the doorbell rings, it would vibrate in such a way that you would know that was the doorbell; or if you are sweeping the rug, and the vacuum cleaner comes unplugged, it would stop vibrating to let you know that the vacuum cleaner had stopped working. It basically amplifies our house a microphone that takes sound in the environment and converts it to a vibration so you know there is an auditory queue in the environment. Quite a simple device but it got it built up so it looks sort of like a hair clip they can wear in your hair. One of the reporters that reported on this was a gentleman without hair and they say they’ve thought about that too. Fujitsu is the company making it. They are going to make a version that works as an earring. Sort of a fun thing but I think very practical. It’s a prototype device right now not currently available but coming soon. They are predicting a US price title of around $60-$70. I’ll pop a link in the show notes over to PC World where you can get some pictures of this device and a video showing how it works. Ontenna the vibrating hair clip for somebody who is deaf or hard of hearing. Check our show notes.
***
Each week, one of our partners tells us what’s happening in the ever-changing world of apps, so here’s an app worth mentioning.
AMY BARRY: This is Amy Barry with BridgingApps, and this is an app worth mentioning. This week’s app is called Simply Sayin’ Medical Jargon for Kids. Simply Sayin’ is a valuable resource to help medical professionals explain common procedures and surgeries to patients and their families. Straightforward and easy to navigate, Simply Sayin’ can also help parents prepare their children for doctor’s appointment and medical procedures, easing children’s fears and anxiety. Simply Sayin’ features for menus to choose from. There is enough of it has glossary, preps, drawings, and pictures. The glossary of terms menu links to simple explanations, illustrations, and photographs. Some of the terms also link to anatomical images where drawings can be added and include the necessary preparations for procedures as well as photos. The preps menu links to easy to understand explanations of the procedure, why the procedures necessary, what will happen during the procedure, what your job is during the procedure, and things that can help when having a procedure. The drawings menu links to illustrations that can be used to help explain a procedure. A favorite feature is the freehand drawings that can be added to the illustrations. The pictures menu includes photographs of actual procedure rooms and equipment also linking to explanations of the procedures, why it may be necessary, and things that can help during the procedure.
Simply Sayin’ incorporates teach back techniques to reinforce understanding of the medical information provided. All of the menus and content are available in English and Spanish, and we found that the app proved to be a necessary and useful tool for medical professionals and parents, preparing a patient, child, family for medical procedures and surgeries. Simply Sayin’ Medical Jargon for Kids is available for free at the iTunes Store and is compatible with iOS devices. For more information on this app and others like it, visit BridgingApps.org.
***
WADE WINGLER: If you listen to the show at all, you are familiar with the term BridgingApps. BridgingApps is a group that is one of our most regular providers of the app worth mentioning segment. Amy Barry, Cristen Reat, there are others that you hear on our show representing BridgingApps. I’m going to get in the nitty-gritty with them today about what’s going on about BridgingApps. I’m super excited to have my friend and colleague Kristin Reed who is the cofounder and program director of BridgingApps which is out of Houston. We’ll get into that stuff. First and foremost, hey, how are you?
CRISTEN REAT: I’m great. Thanks so much for having me.
WADE WINGLER: Always good to hear your voice. Great that you back on the show. It’s been a while since we’ve had a chance to sit down and talk about what’s going on with BridgingApps. I’m excited to do that. Before we talk about BridgingApps, what you tell my audience about yourself and why you started caring about assistive technology.
CRISTEN REAT: Thanks. I’m a parent of two boys, and my younger son Vincent who now is 13 – it’s hard to believe – he was born with Down syndrome. He also has what the doctor called an autistic flavor. He has a visual impairment and a lot of medical issues. I really got into this, and to assistive technology. I do not have assistive technology background. My background is in language is. I’m actually a veteran. I served in the military as a translator. I had nothing to do really with the technology world, but when my son was born, and as he began to grow and was moving from preschool into a kindergarten program with typically developing children, I knew that technology was going to be a great assistance to him; however, he had difficulty navigating a regular computer, a laptop. He needed a lot of assistance to use it. We tried all different things that we could find for access points for a computer, like a joystick and different adaptive mice. None of them he could really do independently. For a few years, I know speech therapist had been using the iPod touch as an assistive device and speech therapy. In 2010 when touched tapas started coming out, notably the iPad and android tablets, I knew that that touch technology would be key for him because immediately he could do it independently. There was a whole new market for educational games and just the accessibility features that are built into the devices and operating system were just wonderful for him. That’s how it started, and we started as a support group of parents of young children with all types of disabilities, not just Down syndrome, and speech therapist and occupational therapist. Started in the clinic and we began meeting and swapping notes and sharing information and “ooh-ing” and “awe-ing” over the amazing things that we were able to see our children be able to do.
WADE WINGLER: I have always been shocked at how many programs that are wildly successful and quality programs like yours are sorted by what we call the mama bears around here, a group of parent advocates to get together on behalf of kids with disabilities and get with professionals and do something amazing, which is certainly what’s happening with BridgingApps.
CRISTEN REAT: Yes, we were really pleased that it was the therapist to were very eager to do this because, again, like I said they were using the iPod touches and speech therapy with apps that works necessarily made with children with disabilities, just regular apps, and that continues. Out of necessity is born some things that we hope are useful for other people. That’s the whole point to BridgingApps, is a community of people to share information. That’s how we started and that’s what we continue to do.
WADE WINGLER: That’s great. I sing your praises all the time. I’m not having that I’m a fan of what BridgingApps does. When I talk about your organization in the value you bring to the community of people with disabilities, the thing I talk about most is BridgingApps is a resource for finding apps. Can you talk to me a little bit about how folks might find apps using your service and your website?
CRISTEN REAT: Out of the support group meeting that we began, it became very inefficient to swap notes and write down all of the different apps and the ways we were using them, so we began a website way back when, about five years ago. It was called special needs apps for kids. Since then we’ve rebranded to BridgingApps.org, and it’s a free resource. We put all kinds of information on the website that’s surrounding and supporting people with disabilities and technology, specifically right now with mobile devices. I say just right now because we don’t know what’s going to be around in two years and three years and five years, so we focus on mobile devices.
We found as parents and also as therapist that, at the very beginning with all of this amazing app development, that it was hard to find apps for special needs. We find that parents type in their child’s diagnosis, so I would type in Down syndrome and get no results in the App Store or Google play store. Or I would type in cerebral palsy or motor skills. What became very frustrating and a barrier to finding things that were useful was the search process. It was cumbersome, time-consuming, and frustrating. Instead of going to the App Store, instead of going to Google play, we thought was we would vet apps copies of look at apps and create our own database and our own ways of search for apps on both iOS, which would be for Apple products, as well as android, tablets and smartphones.
What you’ll find on the BridgingApps website are how-to videos and articles and products, but the heart and soul of the website is really apps and reviewing the apps. What some people have described it is as the Yelp for apps. It’s a free creation service where you about 3500 apps in our database now. Some of those were apps that were specifically designed for special needs like vision impairment and autism. Other apps are just regular apps that are not designed for disability in mind but that some additional like a speech therapist has found a real creative way to use that app and speech therapy. We asked them to write about it. Out of those 3500 apps, not quite half of them are now reviewed by some kind of professional. You can come into the search tool, into apps search, and you can type in cerebral palsy and actually get results. You can type in visual impairment or phonics or reading or assistive reading. You can search all types of ways because we know that parents and professionals and other groups of people all searched differently. We have different ways research. A lot of teachers and search by whatever is free because they have no budget, so you can search by all the free apps that we have on our site. You can search by category such as adults and seniors. I thought about that in a minute. You can search by math, by grade level. All types of ways that you can search to find results.
We try to have our reviewers who are all different types of professionals tag of those app reviews with as many tags relevant as possible so that you get a lot of great search results. But it’s going to be different from when you go into the App Store where you might come up with nothing if you type in the word cerebral palsy or ADHD. Many different ways of typing and finding out that you need. They range from free all the way up to several hundred dollars and are available for both platforms.
WADE WINGLER: When I first started dealing with assistive technology and apps years ago, sometimes I would find a situation where I would put a keyword into the App Store or iTunes Store and not find anything. Sometimes I would find the opposite. If you put the word autism in the App Store and the people by autism apps or apps for $.99, I would sometimes find a whole bunch of them and be totally confused as to whether any of them were any good. I don’t know, is your experience that that is getting better? Obviously the tool you provide segments that, but for a while that was the problem I experience.
CRISTEN REAT: I totally agree. I think that continues to be a problem because now that the app market has matured a bit, developers are very savvy and want to sell their apps. If you are a one off for developer and you haven’t made a whole lot of apps, you are not one of the big companies, if you put one of those keywords in such as autism in your title, you will have people by that app and spend that the $.99 or $2.99 because it has autism in the title. We do try to do is put a lot of apps on the website, but again, the people are reviewing the apps are all professionals. That does not mean we don’t value what parents and other people who are not professionals need. We want information from everyone. There are ways to comment, ways to rate apps. Parents and go in today and pick their favorite apps and rate them to help other people. It’s sort of like a crowdsourcing system. Only speech therapist and occupational therapist – we even have a dietitian and psychologist – they are all reviewing these apps for the best, most high-quality app that can help someone. Those are marked specifically as an officially reviewed app. In some ways it’s getting better, but in other ways they figured out that certain words will sell.
WADE WINGLER: That’s one of the things at the INDATA Project we get a lot of questions about. We routinely refer back to your website. The question we get is, I know I need it but which is a good one in a particular category. This is a great way for people to find that, but lots of categories.
CRISTEN REAT: It certainly is. What I would say especially to all the parents out there, parents and caregivers and you know a lot of the grandparents. We know grandparents are caring for grandchildren with disabilities. What I would say is you know that child the best and what may have network for somebody else may work for you, so that’s when we try to put a high quality narrative in there that you can read to see if that might be Apple for your child. Many of the apps now, not all of them, but many of them do have a free version you can try first. We try to push people to those first to try something where it’s no cost to you. You can just download something for free, try it out. If it doesn’t work then try something else. People are constantly asking is what are the best apps. My answer is always best apps for what? Or best apps for whom? What may work for one child — one child with autism may love trains, another child with autism may hate trains. That train app that works for one child minute work with another child. Just like typically developing children and adults. We all have our preferences. We just hope that out of 3500 apps in a large majority of them being vetted by a professional, hopefully parents can find and professionals can find things to start with and trial with their child.
WADE WINGLER: But you’re doing more than just helping people find apps in an online tool. As a look at your website, I see there are a lot of things going on there. Tell me some of the other things BridgingApps is working on outside of the search app engine.
CRISTEN REAT: We are really excited. As I mentioned before, because we started in a therapy clinic with our young children, obviously we did not want to limit ourselves to that. By trialing a lot of the apps in therapy, we discover that a lot of the same apps work for children work equally well for teens, young adults, adults, and even seniors. Though you will find many apps for the preschool level and young children, you’ll find quite a few apps are appropriate for all the ages. About a year and a half ago, with the support of the Consumer Technology Association Foundation, they helped to start a seniors and caregivers section. You’ll find on the website if you’re poking around in the community section a whole section devoted to seniors and caregivers, because we know there are millions of caregivers who are unpaid who are struggling every day with things. When we find solutions that are helpful with some of the app reviews that we’ve done, we try to put that together in a resource that usable. We’ve got how-to videos, print out sheets of instructions for using specific apps.
We are really excited about that because we’ve had a lot of positive feedback on how, especially from caregivers but also those who are trying to work with seniors, who really want to know about the technology but may need a lot more support at the beginning using the technology. That’s one of the things we are very excited about. You’ll see all kinds of that review is coming out of the website in the search tool, and we’ve been able to work in an assisted living facility here in Houston, a dementia care facility, as well as classes at YMCA with different groups of seniors. I am defining seniors as anyone 50 years old or older. We found a lot of people don’t identify as senior but we are working with a lot of different age groups.
Something else that we are really excited about – and Wade, you’ve probably seen this by your show, is the explosion in healthcare at market.
WADE WINGLER: Yeah.
CRISTEN REAT: We see that as well, and because we are situated in Houston with a very large medical center here, we are very excited to be doing a project at a local children’s hospital, Texas Children’s. We are doing a project that is helping families who are in an inpatient revocation unit with their children, doing a little bit of training with them to see if some of the training and apps that we recommend are helpful for navigating their hospital stay and once they are discharged. You’ll also be seeing a lot more health related apps for medical records and medication compliance and health plans and things like that that, even though we are trialing them with children, have applications for young adults, adults, and even seniors. That something else we are working on that we are really excited about.
WADE WINGLER: When do you rest?
CRISTEN REAT: Exactly. That’s just the beauty of this job. Because I just love exploring and discovering new things – all of us here do. So many of us are test with disability. They either have a disability themselves or are caring for someone or living with someone with a disability. I get to work every day figuring things out that potentially could help not just my son but other people. It’s really exciting and also very exciting in the whole health market. There is one app in particular that you’ll always see at the top of our list because I think it is so revolution, which is called Caresync. That’s an app that can be easily used by most adults, but many people have been very excited because it’s a medical records management app where you can put information about immunizations and appointments and actually have that at your fingertips on your smartphone so that when you go to a doctor’s appointment for yourself or your loved ones with a disability, you can ask better questions. In some cases, I’ve had better information and records than the specialist I’m seeing. We think those things are really important for families, especially as healthcare gets more expensive and more complicated.
WADE WINGLER: It got about a minute left in the interview. Give us another app you’re excited about these days and then we will wrap up.
CRISTEN REAT: Another app I’m excited about is Pillboxie. That’s another health-related app that is kind of like a virtual pillbox that most people can use. We’ve actually used it as a training tool for people recovering from a stroke where they are learning to use their medication and become compliant with that medication. It has a picture of a pillbox and you can take pictures of your actual medication and it is an organizational tool and also give reminders within that app. A caregiver could use it, child, or even an adult with cognitive difficulties could be taught to use that app so that they are little bit more independent. We are really excited about that. That’s been out for a while and was just updated.
WADE WINGLER: If people wanted to learn more, if they wanted to find apps, wanted to learn more about the training and other things you are doing over there, what would you recommend in terms of contact information?
CRISTEN REAT: We are on all social media, but really anywhere you go out on BridgingApps.org. There is a help button. Our address is listed, our email. As soon as you hit that help, it brings up a form and that goes straight to me. You can contact us through. Or just through Easter Seals, greater Houston. Part of our website and links are listed on the Easter Seals greater Houston website as well.
WADE WINGLER: I guess I’ll throw in one. You can also listen to this show because almost every week we have somebody from BridgingApps doing a review or covering it up on our show. We appreciate your doing that for so many years.
CRISTEN REAT: Thank you. We really appreciate the opportunity of getting the word out. We love this collaboration and hope to continue to do it for many years because there are many apps to cover.
WADE WINGLER: Couldn’t agree more. Cristen Reat is the cofounder and program director at BridgingApps, is our colleague, our co-conspirator in sharing information about apps, and a friend of mine. Thanks so much for being on the show.
CRISTEN REAT: Thanks so much for having me.
WADE WINGLER: Do you have a question about assistive technology? Do you have a suggestion for someone we should interview on Assistive Technology Update? Call our listener line at 317-721-7124, shoot us a note on Twitter @INDATAProject, or check us out on Facebook. Looking for a transcript or show notes from today’s show? Head on over to www.EasterSealstech.com. Assistive Technology Update is a proud member of the Accessibility Channel. Find more shows like this plus much more over at AccessibilityChannel.com. That was your Assistance Technology Update. I’m Wade Wingler with the INDATA Project at Easter Seals Crossroads in Indiana.
***Transcript provided by TJ Cortopassi. For transcription requests and inquiries, contact tjcortopassi@gmail.com***