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ATFAQ041-11-07-16 – Panel – Belva, Josh, Wade Q1 Alerts for visitor gate Q2 Stop camera on slide with iOS10 Q3 Switch Access for Assistance in Home Q4 Teaching Communication through Switch Access Q5 Answering and Hanging up without swiping Q6 How do you search all your video/audio streaming services
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WADE WINGLER: Welcome to ATFAQ, Assistive Technology Frequently Asked Questions with your host Brian Norton, Director of Assistive Technology at Easter Seals Crossroads. This is a show in which we address your questions about assistive technology, the hardware, software, tools and gadgets that help people with disabilities lead more independent and fulfilling lives. Have a question you’d like answered on our show? Send a tweet with the hashtag #ATFAQ, call our listener line at 317-721-7124, or send us an email at tech@eastersealscrossroads.org. The world of assistive technology has questions, and we have answers. And now here’s your host, Brian Norton.
BRIAN NORTON: Hello and welcome to ATFAQ episode number 41. My name is Brian Norton and I’m here in the city today with Josh, Wade, and Belva.
BELVA SMITH: Hey everybody.
JOSH ANDERSON: How’s it going everybody?
WADE WINGLER: Hello, hello, happy Monday. We are recording on a Monday today.
BELVA SMITH: It’s election week.
WADE WINGLER: It is. Tomorrow is National Cappuccino Day, November 8, in case you wondered.
BRIAN NORTON: Not even a regular Monday. This is the Monday after daylight savings time. We gained an hour yet I’m still twice as tight as I was yesterday.
WADE WINGLER: And tomorrow we have to get up early to stand in line to vote because that’s going to take a long time.
BRIAN NORTON: Crazy, crazy, crazy. I wanted to jump in. For new listeners to our show, this is ATFAQ, assistive technology. When the asked questions. Our show works in this manner: we receive feedback in various assistive technology questions throughout the week from all over the place, and then we set around in a panel and go over those questions and try to answer those as best we can.
In the studio today I have Belva. Belva is our vision team lead here at Easter Seals crossroads. And Josh and the studio is our manager of clinical assistive technology. And also Wade Wingler who is with us. He host the popular show AT update which is a news and information show. I’m really excited about the list of questions we have today and we will jump on in.
WADE WINGLER: Probably worth mentioning that we record the show on a different day it releases, so there will probably be people who are good at math and say this show came out on a different day – the election is already over and the drama is over, those kinds of things. We record one Monday and we release the next Monday. That’s inside baseball of the production side of ATFAQ.
BRIAN NORTON: Record the first and third, release the second and fourth Monday.
WADE WINGLER: If all goes well.
BRIAN NORTON: As you listen today, I want you to know that there are several ways to get a hold of us. If you guys have questions or feedback regarding a question that we are trying to handle today and maybe have a really great solution or answer, there are a variety of different ways to get a hold of us. You can give us a call on our listener line at 317-721-7124. Or you can email us at tech@eastersealscrossroads.org. And also send us a tweet. If you are on Twitter you can send us a tweet with hashtag ATFAQ and the monitor that throughout the week as well.
I will say, from a personal preference standpoint, I would love if you guys use the phone so that we can get your voicemail and play your voice on the show.
WADE WINGLER: Because you are tired of making up voices?
BRIAN NORTON: We get lots of emails. In fact I got several comments today via email. No one wants to listen to my voice all day. It’s just better to hear other people. Definitely get a hold of us, let us know.
BELVA SMITH: It’s always interesting if you include where you are calling or treating us from. It’s exciting to know where our listeners are at.
WADE WINGLER: Hi, this is Bob, calling from a rest stop in Pennsylvania.
BRIAN NORTON: We do have a couple of questions from a lady from New Mexico today.
BELVA SMITH: Awesome.
BRIAN NORTON: We are super excited about that. As you, I’m sure, are going to run out and tell all of your friends about the show, you can find us in a variety of different places as well. You can find us on iTunes, ATFAQshow.com, on stitcher, or on our website which is www.eastersealstech.com. Variety of ways to find and reach out to us, let us know you’re thinking, send us your questions and feedback as well.
Before we jump into questions today, I do want to do a little bit of comment and feedback section of our show. We got a couple of comments this past couple of weeks about some previous questions. I think in our last show, we had a question about accessible podcasts. Someone from our own staff named Anna chimed in and send me an email. I’ll read it to you. She said, I heard from the previous ATFAQ show that you are looking for an accessible podcast app. WeCast has done very good reviews, cost $1.99, and is fully accessible. You can check out the link below – and we will try to include in our show notes. By the way, don’t forget that InclusiveAndroid.com is a good resource for all things android. If you’re interested in android information, you can go there. Just a couple of really good resources for folks.
WADE WINGLER: Thanks, Anna.
BELVA SMITH: Way to go, and up.
BRIAN NORTON: This is a comment I said for me, maybe a comment I had. We were talking a lot about accessible phones that work smart phones. We had a caller who called in and was looking for a phone that would allow him to be able to hear as he dialed , he didn’t want a smartphone. He didn’t want something that had a built-in screen reader or those kinds of things like voice over for Apple or talkback for your android smartphones. He was in for something a little bit more traditional like a flip phone or something like that. I was struck. I was talking to different folks. The phones are making their way back into the mainstream of what folks get instead of getting a smartphone. I was told that –
BELVA SMITH: Really?
BRIAN NORTON: That’s what I heard so I was a little surprised by that. I thought I would chime in with that. Someone had come up to me in reference to that question and said did you know flip phones are making their way back in to what people are wanting instead of getting these smartphones? I thought that was fascinating.
WADE WINGLER: That’s interesting –
BRIAN NORTON: Have you heard that?
WADE WINGLER: I haven’t. I think about the fact that I have a smartphone. The thing I probably do the least on it does make a phone call. I’m always texting and emailing and doing those kinds of things. It’s a present a little bit. I guess if folks really are into making phone calls all the time and are going to use the data and that kind of thing, it makes sense.
BRIAN NORTON: I wonder, what is the new generation out there?
WADE WINGLER: Millennial’s?
BRIAN NORTON: There is a newer one that start with an “I”, and it’s all about them being into their devices. Nosedown into the devices, not having interpersonal communication with folks. It’s all through texting or apps or other things. I wonder maybe for those folks , as we dig into the technology – I love my smartphone but it takes me away.
BELVA SMITH: I’m just trying to think of the last time I saw someone pull their phone out and it was a flip phone.
WADE WINGLER: I see it sometimes.
JOSH ANDERSON: I see it. There is a member of our staff that still uses a flip phone.
BELVA SMITH: Really?
BRIAN NORTON: I go back to the accessible piece of that. Traditional flip phones, you didn’t have any accessibility issues. You knew where the buttons are, learned the buttons and use your phone however you want.
BELVA SMITH: Or you just didn’t text. You just used it to make a phone call.
BRIAN NORTON: Correct. That was a comment from me. My two cents for that.
***
BRIAN NORTON: Our first question is I’m working with a client that has an entry gate to his property, and I’m looking for a solution for an alert. We don’t need an intercom, just an alert, a doorbell type signal. Visitors would get out of their car and press a button to signal that they are here and then the client from with inside his home with an open the gate for them. I know we’ve talked about entry systems for folks before , the new security camera doorbells and things like that , are available. One of the stipulation he mentioned was it was quite a distance , 150 feet or 250 feet to be able to get from the gate to the house. Something that could wirelessly communicate back and forth between the two. I thought I would throw that out and see what folks have on that.
WADE WINGLER: A clarifying question: as you are looking at this question, we are just looking to get the alert. We are not trying to open the gate also car right? We are just trying to get the alert?
BRIAN NORTON: Right , because I believe the guy actually has a gate opener that works. You just want to be alerted that somebody is there, whether that is the person getting out of their car or some sort of trigger but the car pulls up in some alert goes off inside the home , just letting them know that they are at the gate and he can open it with a right controller.
BELVA SMITH: But isn’t it saying that the visitor would get out of their car and push?
BRIAN NORTON: Right. That’s what they suggested. For instance, a visitor would get out of their car , push a button on the gate. The Mac but it says we do not need an intercom , just an alert.
WADE WINGLER: So they don’t need to have a conversation with the guy. They just need to let the guy know that somebody is there.
BRIAN NORTON: It’s like a doorbell. Ring the doorbell, a rings in the house so you know someone is there. He can then press the gate entry door to let them in.
BELVA SMITH: So why not just a wireless doorbell?
WADE WINGLER: That may be the answer. The one question I have is they said it’s pretty far away. I don’t know what the range is on some of those. We’ve had lots of job accommodation where we have used those wireless doorbell that are made for RVs where you plug the ring apart inside the RV into an outlet and then the button that activates it is just a battery-operated thing, usually double-sided sticky tape that you can glue anywhere within – I don’t know how far is the thing.
JOSH ANDERSON: Most of them are about 100 feet. I think it’s about 100 feet for normal on those alert systems. You might need something special that will go further.
BRIAN NORTON: I know you can get systems that are more powerful than that. I think you are right, the systems you buy at the big box stores right now are probably 100 feet or something like that. They are wanting to get at least 150 feet out of it, is what they mentioned. There are wireless doorbell systems that go 2500 feet if you just Google it and look for it. I found one at gadget shack.com. Dakota alert, goes about 2500 feet. You have a huge distance. I believe it also looks like you can connect it to other systems and have multiple servers and other kinds of things. Quite a range on that one. There were a few other ones as well. What I was always wondering is, I’ve seen some security systems – in fact I think a coworker of ours had one. When they first came out, someone would come up to the door and the camera would then alert them. I know I use drop cam at home. Whenever someone pulls up to my front door, it sends me a notification on my phone or send me an email or something like that. I’m sure they could use systems like that
WADE WINGLER: I’m a big fan of drop cam, which are now known as the nest cam. They got bought by Google. I thought about that as well, because they have a new one that I am Joan thing for, I want one of these. It’s a $199 camera that can plug in outside, so it’s weatherproof. As long as you can plug it in, get power to it, you can mount it and it has to be on Wi-Fi. It would have to be close enough to pick up the Wi-Fi signal as well. That might mean it gets mounted outdoors near the gate or might even mean that gets mounted outdoors on the house or the apartment or whatever so long as it can see the gate. The thing I like about it is you can draw sort of a trigger zone on the image of the camera. You get the camera positioned card draw a square around the gate, and anytime the car would pull up to the gate, it would pull up the camera and give you an alert. I know it does alerts. I don’t know if it is text messages or does the app get notifications. I know there are some configurations that you can do there to make those nest cam’s alert. I think I might be a good solution.
BRIAN NORTON: I would be really concerned about safety in a situation like that. If anybody can come up to the gate, it will notify me, and I find that having a conversation – they mention it doesn’t necessarily have to be one that has an intercom to it, but I would at least want to have a conversation or be able to see who it is at the gate before I let someone in.
BELVA SMITH: It almost defeats the gate if you’re going to let anyone drive in.
BRIAN NORTON: I’m sure for home health aides, he is probably expecting someone around that time. It’s probably more secure than I’m getting credit for.
WADE WINGLER: The nice thing about the nest cam is you can use it as an intercom, see can have a conversation with a person back and forth. For a monthly fee, you can subscribe to a recorder so that you can wash the last one day or seven days or 10 days or whatever so you can look back and see who came to the door, who came to the gate.
BELVA SMITH: I know I worked with folks in the past that have had some sort of indication when people pull into their driveway, like it does make a sound. It doesn’t announce anything. I would be sitting there working with them and all of a sudden I would hear a doorbell, and they would say my son is home, and then you just from the sound. But it was something they had.
JOSH ANDERSON: An infrared style system?
BELVA SMITH: And indicated they had in the driveway.
BRIAN NORTON: We used to have one in the door of our AT lab here. Welcome to the assistive technology lab. Though systems are out there as well. Interesting. Hopefully that is good information and can steer this person in the right direction as far as the different types of things they are looking for.
I would encourage our listeners, if you guys have run across this situation or have other comments or suggestions, let us know. You can give us a call at 317-721-7124, or you can send us an email at tech@eastersealscrossroads.org. I would love to be able to include that. Again, the whole purpose of the show is to get information out into the people who have those questions. I just want to be able to get them as much information as we can.
BELVA SMITH: I think it would be good to encourage this person to let us know what they end up going with.
BRIAN NORTON: That would be another piece of this whole puzzle. If a solution works for you, give us a call back and let us know how it went.
WADE WINGLER: ATFAQ Update. It’s sort of like “Shark Tank.” I love that show when they show you later how it went. We would love to do that. That’s interesting.
BRIAN NORTON: Don’t they do that – what’s the show, house hunters? They do follow-ups as well when they are remodeling and stuff like that. That would be fun.
WADE WINGLER: Call us back, let us know if anything helped at all.
***
BRIAN NORTON: Our next question is, I am working with a consumer who is used to unlocking his iPad using the slider method. On the new iPad – and I am assuming with the new iOS update – sliding takes him to the camera order notifications. Does anyone know of a way to disable this offhand or set it to the previous method. It can become confusing and upsetting for him when that doesn’t work for him. I had to chime in and tell you a story. My wife updated her iPhone to the new operating system. She was unaware of any of the changes it would bring. She was in a conference call with people in Boston at that time with several other folks at her office. She was having the phone sit there. She actually had a speaking part, there are going to switch the line to her so she could talk and present on something that she was going to be covering in an upcoming conference. It came to her and it was crickets because she couldn’t get it to unlock. She didn’t understand exactly what this person was doing. It wasn’t working. Three other people from her office had to be like, Leah, are you okay? What’s going on? It took a while to be able to figure that out. This is a really confusing thing if you’re not used to it and don’t know what it is doing.
BELVA SMITH: I’ve updated to the latest iOS on my phone and all I have to do, pick it up, it wakes up — oh, yeah.
BRIAN NORTON: Now you have to use your fingerprint to unlock it.
BELVA SMITH: I’m using my fingerprints.
BRIAN NORTON: You’re not sliding it anymore.
JOSH ANDERSON: So if you don’t have one with the fingerprint enabled, you have to push the home button, then enter your password.
BELVA SMITH: But you can skip the passcode. You do not have to put the passcode on. When you set it up and it asks you if you want to use it, you can choose not to and it’s going to say are you sure you don’t want to? You can say yes, I am sure I don’t want to. It should be with the iPad the same thing. You should be able to just press the home button and wake it up, right?
BRIAN NORTON: I believe there’s a new setting in iOS 10. If you go to the accessibility setting, there is a way to rest finger to open. So you hold your finger on that button and it will automatically bypass all that stuff, unlock it, open it.
JOSH ANDERSON: That’s only if you have Touch ID. If it’s older and it doesn’t recognize your fingerprint, you also have to push the home button. Everything I found, there is no way to get that slide back, at least that I have looked into. I haven’t seen any way to get the slight feature back on.
BELVA SMITH: I want to make sure that this person is aware that they can just press the home button to wake it up. The home button –
BRIAN NORTON: Not only to wake it up but to unlock it.
BELVA SMITH: It will unlock it. It should be unlocking it, not just opening the camera. Also, I just set up a brand-new iPad last week – I think I already told you this this morning in the meeting. Out of the box, voiceover is on. You have to disable voiceover if you don’t want it. Which is nice.
BRIAN NORTON: Especially if that is something you use and need. Very interesting.
WADE WINGLER: I’m looking online and found an article here that does discuss how to do this. I think it is a workaround. If you go into your settings and go to general, there is a category called restrictions. Under restrictions there is a bunch of stuff, Safari, camera, face time, and those kinds of options. It says that you can enable restrictions and turn the camera off and it will no longer activate from the lock screen with a swipe. I think it is restricting the camera in general. I haven’t had a chance to try it yet. If you go into your settings, general, restrictions, you can toggle the camera off and on and it will keep you from doing that. I’m going to check as we are conversing here to see if that is exactly what it does.
BRIAN NORTON: One of the things when I updated to iOS 10, that was one of the biggest things I was confused, I couldn’t figure out how to get into my phone. I still struggle compress in my home button four or five times before it gets in there. Maybe I’m just having a brain fight.
BELVA SMITH: Are you not using your thumbprint?
BRIAN NORTON: I am. Maybe I’m so ingrained with the slide and how my finger use to slide across the screen, I don’t know.
BELVA SMITH: I don’t miss it at all. It does irritate that every time I pick the phone up it wakes up. I wish it didn’t do that.
JOSH ANDERSON: I actually kept turning mine off for the first week because I’m used to picking it up and hitting the power button on the side.
BRIAN NORTON: One of the things in addition to this question that made me start to think, this is something that’s confusing and upsetting for folks and can create problems for folks, I think there are some other things including that race to wake feature. That’s something that takes battery power and limits things. What a confusing change, how to turn that stuff off and make those changes. I think something I’ve been trying to get used to, I got a new iPhone so I’ve got the new touchscreen that is pressure sensitive. When I want to select something or delete an app or do something else, you now can press and hold and push hard, harder you push opens up different features. If I am looking at an email, I can hold it harder and it will open up a small pop-up window with the whole email so I can see everything and I can take it away. That’s confusing to me as well.
BELVA SMITH: The one thing I’ve noticed that I’m still figuring out: you’ve always been able to put your finger on the screen and hold it down and it pops up with the select all, copy, speak, all that. But when I do select all, that goes away. I can’t tell it to speak. I can’t tell it to copy. It’s all selected, but there is no way for me to now speak it or copy it.
JOSH ANDERSON: All you have to do is tap it again. Once you select all, just tap it again and it should bring up the things.
BELVA SMITH: “OMG.”
BRIAN NORTON: Josh, you are amazing.
JOSH ANDERSON: Magic. It was a great show, folks. I’m done for the day.
BELVA SMITH: I’m sitting here trying to touch it differently, in a different spot. Okay. I hope that helps other people and not just me.
BRIAN NORTON: Something that confused me a lot: we had a news team come out here and cover an iOS 10 update. The accessibility features of it, we had a couple of our local news stations interview us and talk to us about that stuff. One of the great new features of the iPhone and the new iOS operating system is now you get voicemail to text. That’s just helpful for a variety of folks who are deaf or hard of hearing car being able to see the gist of what the message is about. I think that’s helpful in a universal design way for everybody to see and use. One of the things – I couldn’t figure out how to get it on. I kept sliding up and down my message list and saying where’s my text. Again, Josh, just like you did today, you said press it. When you press it, it comes out. I wish I would’ve known that.
WADE WINGLER: Bad news on the camera swipe thing. You can go into restrictions and restrict access to the camera. There are a bunch of things you can restrict in there. You can set it so people can install apps or use the web. It takes it away for the entirety of the iPhone. It takes it away from the lock screen but your camera is gone. Probably not the solution folks are looking for.
BRIAN NORTON: Interesting. It would be good for my daughter.
WADE WINGLER: You can go in and delete her access to do a lot of things on that.
BRIAN NORTON: Interesting. For questions like that, about the iPhone and other kinds of things, I wanted to throw out a couple of resources for folks. Obviously here and other places around the country, there are folks who specialize in assistive technology and doing accommodations and training and other kinds of things. If you are looking for a local resource, contacting your local assistive technology act would be a good option to be with the figure out who provide services in your area. I also want to throw out, Apple has an accessibility and assistive technology dedicated support line. That phone number is 1-877-204-3930. This isn’t your typical support line where they are entering general Apple questions. This is very specifically for folks who are using the accessibility features of their devices and the assistive technology that goes along with it.
BELVA SMITH: I just want to say when I wake my phone up, if I swipe to the left, I’m getting my camera. If I swipe to the right –
BRIAN NORTON: You get notifications.
BELVA SMITH: Is that because I don’t have to swipe to unlock?
BRIAN NORTON: It’s because they took that away. You don’t get swipe to unlock anymore. You have to have your finger recognized by touch ID or press a button till the passcode comes up.
BELVA SMITH: Okay.
BRIAN NORTON: They completely got rid of it, and that’s what’s so confusing to this individual. Why would they do that? He is asking if we can get it back. You can’t.
***
BRIAN NORTON: This next question is from Carol in New Mexico. Her question is, thank you for your great ideas on switch access with YouTube. We answered that question a few months ago about using switches with creating a YouTube video. Her question is, now I have a question about switch access for a speech output speaker that can be used remotely. The situation – I will read this because there is a specific stuff here. The situation is a student can find in bed who is nonverbal but can activate switches with his hands and feet. When he is in the room alone and may need a family member to come into his room, how can he call them using switch access? The family does have access to an iPad mini. What sort of ideas can you guys come up with?
I thought about this a little bit. Since you have access to an iPad mini, the iPad is fully accessible using a switch. You simply do need a Bluetooth switch to be able to connect to the iPad. If you have Wi-Fi in your home, you can connect the iPad mini to the Wi-Fi and can send text messages back and forth for folks and notify folks. If you are looking for a real intercom device or some way to be able to see someplace, you can maybe possibly activate face time with it as well. I don’t think there are a lot of things you need to do. There are some dedicated environmental control units and other things you might be able to use to communicate back and forth. I’m sure there are augmentative communication apps and other kinds of things that you can sit and place by maybe using a dedicated augmentative communication device with some sort of intercom and adaptive switch that’s been designed for you. Maybe if you had an iPad Mini, you could connect together.
BELVA SMITH: I’m going to go with a ring the doorbell?
JOSH ANDERSON: Like we were talking about earlier.
BELVA SMITH: You could connect that, wired or Wi-Fi, directly to the iPad. She says he can use his hands or feet to push.
BRIAN NORTON: That would work.
BELVA SMITH: $200.
BRIAN NORTON: I’ve had a couple of switch situations come up in the past. I had a person who wanted to switch activate a digital recorder, a switch activated electric pair of scissors, and other kinds of things. If you can find an electrician or electrical engineer, they can read those pretty easily and pretty and offensively from what I’ve found.
WADE WINGLER: Even that battery operated RV style one that this person has pretty good articulation in their feet for switches. It could be that extra switch, you hit the button, and it rings the doorbell. A couple of other ideas that come to mind when I think of the nerdy, high-tech side of things, you could install a Bluetooth speaker in the other room and have an audio file played or even a song played so that the person in the bed could just fire up iTunes and play a song that plays in the other room on a Bluetooth speaker. Or you could even do something visual with a Phillips lighting situation where you could fire up your Philips app and turn the light bulb green in the living room or whatever. There are so many different options when you talk about having access to an iPad. The question for me would be how quickly and efficiently could you do that? Is it something you hit once with your toe, like Belva is suggesting, and it rings the doorbell in the other room, or are you doing something that requires several different steps to fire up an app and push play on it or whatever? Even in that situation, you could use an app like workflow which is a scripting app for the iPad or iOS to turn it into an icon where you just click an icon and it does three or four commands which is open up iTunes and hit the playlist that is the song that says come give me a hand. There are tons of options depending on how articulate that person’s toe is for switch access and tech tolerance and skill level is like.
BRIAN NORTON: You mentioned workflow. I looked at that app before. Is that in line with if this than that?
WADE WINGLER: It’s basically a macro program for iOS. It lets you create scripts that – it gets used a lot in photographs. Open an app, open the most recent photograph that was saved, crop it by 50 percent, recited by 50 percent, and share it to dropbox. It lets you take a sequence of actions that you would do on iOS and put them under one command so that you can speed things up.
BRIAN NORTON: That’s great.
BELVA SMITH: I would probably need to have a rest stop after that. For me, the doorbell would work.
BRIAN NORTON: We all need rest stops every once in a while.
***
BRIAN NORTON: Our next question is also from Carol. This was a two-part question. The question was tacked onto her other one.
WADE WINGLER: Carol is the unofficial guest on our show.
BRIAN NORTON: The question was what are some good reading resources for teaching communication through switch access? I did quite a bit of research on this. I didn’t seem to find a whole lot of material for switch access for communication, but there is a lot of material about using switch access. The only thing that stood out for me was a blog post from AT classroom, “Switches: What are they and how do I use them?” It specifically got into some information about how to use that with communication and how you can do that kind of stuff. In my experience, a lot of times with switch access, there are a few types of switch access. There is single switch which is a linear scanning, one item at a time, moving through information. When you get to the piece of information you want, you press the button. There is two switch scanning which one controls movement, one control selection. You can even do four or five switch scanning if you need to. A lot of that might be dependent upon the person’s abilities to be able to access switches and use them. I find switch access in a lot of trial. I spent a lot of time – there are thousands of types of switches out there. Any type of movement, you can use with that. When it comes to communication, you need to have pretty good awareness about where things are happening with your communication device, that eye hand coordination to hit the selection you want. Personally, in this type of situation – again, I’m not sure what your profession is or what you do. I will be talking to your local AT act project about resources in your area. Specifically looking into local speech language pathologist or augmented communication specialist that have expertise in this area, because they are going to help drive you to the right types of devices, the right types of switches, often times involving an occupational therapist and finding a good switch selection placement for the person. With switches, you want to be able to have that person performed a consistent movement or a movement consistently over a period of time. You want to make sure they have the right range of motion, can do something consistently over a long period of time, because that will be their main method of access. There is lots of information to dive into. Perhaps someone, a professional in the area, might be helpful.
WADE WINGLER: These switch access questions depend so much on the context. What is the age of the person we are talking about? What kind of communication are we talking about? Is it interpersonal, email? And then what is their learning? What is their level of intellectual capacity? Are they looking for yes/no responses to questions, or is this someone like Doctor Stephen Hawking who is going to be writing scientific feces? There are so many variables we need to consider. Brian, one of the things you talked about I think people miss when it comes to switch access is their ability to consistently and constantly access that switch. One of the things I’ve learned through the years is fatigue is something that we often forget, because a lot of times people will target and hit a switch very accurately and reliably for a while, but depending upon their disability, a lot of other factors, they make it tired after a while. What was a good switch access but at 9 o’clock in the morning is totally not doable after lunch when someone is tired or worn out. There are so many variables which I think also speaks to the need for assistive technology evaluations. I always squeeze that in because they are important, but there is a lot of stuff that goes into that situation.
JOSH ANDERSON: Along with that evaluation is training. Not just how to use the switch, but if you’re using it for communication – Brian, you mentioned having the speech language pathologist involved as well, learning language skills, other things, that really need to be taught to be effective with the device.
BRIAN NORTON: To tie into both of your comments, you mentioned the fatigue factor. When you go out and do an evaluation, and evaluation is typically a few hours. Fatigue may not set in within the first couple of hours. It may be the six or seven hour of the day when they need to be able to communicate something for health and safety reasons or what not, and they are unable to do it at that point. There are lots of assistive technology loan libraries and things like that where you can get access to different types of devices, assistive technology devices, including switches so you can try something out for prolonged periods of time to make sure they work.
Josh, you mentioned the training piece. Switch access is one of the things where it is just methodical, slow, the slowest method of input that is out there. I would consider it one of the more reliable methods of input because there are so many things that need to happen before you actually select something on the screen. Oftentimes it is very reliable, but it is really slow. That training time automatically increases. You’re going to take time; simple tasks can take much longer. You have to prepare for that and be ready for that stuff. Hopefully we answered the question. I don’t know if we did. Carol, if there are more specifics about that specific switch situation you are looking for, if you can pass those along we would love to listen to those and reconsider some of our answers and find some of those for you. Quick question.
I’ll include the link to that blog post that I mentioned earlier about switches and communication. I think that would be possibly helpful to read down through and find some information.
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BRIAN NORTON: Don’t forget. If you guys have feedback or information you want to share color other questions you’ve been thinking about as we’ve been going to the show today, give us a call at 317-721-7124. Or send us a tweet with the hashtag ATFAQ. We would love to hear from you.
Our next question is in line with the other iOS question we had today. It reads: I have recently switched to iOS and really like it. One thing I struggle with is answering and hanging up the phone due to dexterity issues. With my Samsung, you could answer the phone by pressing the home button and hang up the phone with the power key. Is there something similar on the iPhone?
BELVA SMITH: No, not that I’m aware of. I know you can use the power button to hang the call up. We have set around and try to figure out how to answer the call and have it come up with a good solution; however, one of the things I was thinking about is what if you had a Bluetooth –
BRIAN NORTON: Headset. That would answer and hang up.
BELVA SMITH: You could probably do one of the standard phone headset or even one of the over the ear with the new button. You would probably be able to answer and hang up that way, would be easier than maybe trying to get to the little button on the side.
My next piece of advice is, since we don’t have an easy way to answer the call, is to use the assistive technology tech support number that Brian provided earlier. I’m sure you will put that in the show notes.
BRIAN NORTON: We will add that in.
BELVA SMITH: I’m not going to say to this person, if you do come up with a good solution, let us know so we can share with everybody.
BRIAN NORTON: That’s great.
JOSH ANDERSON: Something else you can use the side power button for is if your phone is ringing, press it wants to silence it, press it twice to ignore the call.
BRIAN NORTON: To the wired headsets – I know on the iPhone seven they don’t have a headset jack. On the old iPhones, don’t they have an access button?
WADE WINGLER: There is a push button – the volume up, volume down has a switch button —
BELVA SMITH: That’s what I was talking about.
BRIAN NORTON: You can do that with a Bluetooth headset you’re talking about. That may be the best option at this point unless Apple has another suggestion for that.
WADE WINGLER: Depending on this person’s dexterity issue, you can do it with an Apple Watch, see you can answer the phone on the watch. There are also Bluetooth speaker phones that work pretty well. A lot of the Bluetooth speakers you use just for listening to music also have a speakerphone option on them and a bigger bun on that. Depending on the use case, if you’re out and about walking around you don’t want to carry a Bluetooth speaker with a big button on it. I’ve got one at home that has a pretty big button on it like the snooze button on an alarm clock. You walk over to that and answer it and you’re using the Bluetooth speaker as a speakerphone as well.
BELVA SMITH: How do you answer it with the Apple Watch?
WADE WINGLER: It comes up on the watch and is ringing, and there is a decline or answer button. When you do that, it enters it on the watch so you are talking right there on the watch as opposed to the phone. You can pass it back to the phone but you’re answering it on the watch.
BELVA SMITH: But it is not a physical button you are using?
WADE WINGLER: It’s still a touchscreen, but it’s a tap not a swipe. It’s a smaller button and that might be tricky depending on the person’s ability.
BELVA SMITH: If you turn off autolock, you get answer/decline which is a tap, not a swipe. That might be easier.
WADE WINGLER: There should be an option for that. I think probably Bluetooth interface is where you’re going to find most of your options.
BELVA SMITH: From what I understand with the accessible Apple tech support, not only is a great because they are trained to help people with the accessible questions, but they also note the questions that come in. When they don’t have a suitable answer, that becomes a topic of let’s figure out how to do this. That’s another great reason why this person should go ahead and give them a call, because it may be hasn’t been something that has been brought to their attention, or maybe it has been something that is been brought to their attention and they are in the midst of working on it.
BRIAN NORTON: Definitely use the phone number. It is a great resource. It puts you directly in touch with folks.
WADE WINGLER: The last thing I’ll go to is I would be looking at Bluetooth headsets because they are some to have big buttons in different options. It is pretty easy to go to your local electronics store and try a bunch of them out. That might be the best solution for now for a workaround.
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BRIAN NORTON: I have another question, came in through email. I’m looking for an accessible app for the iPhone that will track bills in Congress by specific bill numbers and get a listing of members of Congress. I had an app that was called Congress on my iPhone that in late August stopped updating the daily activities of what is happening. I should also add that I’m a regular listener of accessibility minutes, assistant to budget update, and ATFAQ.
BELVA SMITH: Thank you.
BRIAN NORTON: Thank you very much. I did a little bit of digging on this. The Congress after you had to stop updating in August. That seemed to be one of the more popular ones cost so I’m wondering if they will continue to update it and maybe at a later date. I didn’t find one that specifically listed the bills themselves and the members of Congress and things like that, but there were certainly some apps that you might want to check into an might want to find out more information on. The first was the Congressional record. The Hill is another one. Roll Call News was another one as well. Those seem to be three other popular apps that update folks what’s happening in Washington with different types of bills and other stuff that’s getting put through Congress and the House.
WADE WINGLER: One of the things I know a little bit about is there are a lot of paid services that do lot of this customer if you are a lobbyist you are probably paying a monthly subscription to get access to this curated information. You mentioned our other shows. If you listen to assistive algae update, you know probably once a month, Audrey Bush who is the director of policy and advocacy at ATAP, the Association of assistive technology act programs. She does the legislative update. I bet Audrey would have some suggestions for apps as well. Her contact information is posted publicly, so if you go to ATAPorg.org and click on the “About” button and down to staff, or just do ATAPorg.org/staff, will find Audrey listed there. You might shoot her an email and ask her what she uses. Her job is to keep tabs specifically on disability and assistive technology issues. She’s probably the person I know who is among the most up-to-date in terms of what’s happening in DC and she might be able to make some suggestions for you. I happen to know she’s an iPhone user.
BRIAN NORTON: Excellent. Hopefully those will get you closer to that information. Who knows, maybe the Congress app, the folks who developed that will update it and continue pushing information out to you here soon. Maybe touching bases with Audrey to figure out what apps are out there and looking into those other ones I mentioned might be a good start to be a stopgap for the information you’re looking for at this point.
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BRIAN NORTON: Another question from the Donna. Hi Brian, I think I may have talked with you in the last few months. I wonder if you have ever heard of these glasses, and if so what you think of them. The glasses were the eSight glasses. I know we’ve talked about the eSight glasses before.
BELVA SMITH: We had the guy here to demo them for us.
BRIAN NORTON: He actually brought them in and worked with them a little bit. She was referencing a story about an Anchorage, Alaska, sixth-grader who they said sees clearly for the first time thanks to new tech. She’s interested in hearing our opinion of those glasses and wanted to know what we knew about them. She didn’t seem to have any information.
BELVA SMITH: Obviously I am sighted so I can’t speak as to how good or how bad they might really be for someone who is visually impaired. I was a little disappointed to hear that they are not really recommended for individuals with RP, retinitis pigmentosa. My boyfriend has that. I call it RP. I was very disappointed to hear that they are not recommend it for those individuals. Because to me, that takes someone who can’t see and makes them see. I don’t know exactly what kind of visual impairment they would be appropriate for. I still have to say that I feel like right now they are a dream car because they are just so expensive. The price point is right at $15,000. Granted, if they could make you see, the price shouldn’t be that big of a deal. I just feel like for technology that we want to make available for individuals that could benefit from it, it needs to be more affordable. I think you contacted them, they would probably more than happy to come out and demonstrate the glasses to a small group for you. I can’t member where the gentleman was from that came here to show them to us, but I know he did make several stops here in Indianapolis that day. I will have to say, out of the 15-20 people I know, some visually impaired, some normal sighted, absolutely no one was totally impressed with them.
WADE WINGLER: They are headquartered in Canada, so I don’t know how local they will be. For folks who aren’t familiar, these are magnifiers. It’s a headmounted, glasses-based system that’s using video to magnify and enhance an image. It’s a lot like the first one that did this, Jordy, that magnified your live video. It’s that same kind of technology. There are a number of products on the market that do that kind of thing.
BRIAN NORTON: There is a product called NuEyes which does similar stuff. The difference between the old technology and new technology as they are using high-definition screens. It’s more crisp, clear, they are higher contrast levels. You’re getting the better ability to see things and understand what you’re looking at versus the old technology. Again, Belva, you mentioned it: the cost is probative for many folks. I want to say it’s $15,000.
BELVA SMITH: The autofocus, from what I experienced, I try to put them on and look at one of our conference room windows to focus on something as far away as I possibly could. The autofocus on them was not very good at all. I think that would probably be more of a problem than anything for anybody trying to use them, just keeping your head still and waiting to get focused.
WADE WINGLER: I think it is important for us to say we are not endorsing or commending or reviewing a product. It is so important for an individual to have the opportunity to try technology and make sure that it’s the right thing for them. Belva, you had some negative expenses but I also know that there are people who have very positive experiences. I think the answers you have to try it. That’s what you’re getting at. Can you get them to come out, find it in your local library? How can you try this on your own and make a decision about whether or not it might be worth the investment for you.
BELVA SMITH: One of the first stories I read about these glasses was about a mother who was getting to see her baby’s face. That’s wonderful and great. If it works for you, like I said, the price tag isn’t that big of a deal if you can figure out how you’re going to get it funded.
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WADE WINGLER: And now it’s time for the wildcard question.
BRIAN NORTON: So our next question is the wildcard question. Wade?
WADE WINGLER: Wildcard is the question that the group in the studio doesn’t get in advance. We pitched it to them and see what can happen. This weekend, we were hanging out at home and decided that we wanted to watch a movie. For people who care, it was Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, the one with Donny Osmand in it, because really that’s the best version. My wife hadn’t seen it before. I said it’s great, you have to see. She said okay, surely it on Netflix or Hulu or Amazon or one of those. Similarly this weekend, I said have you heard this great song, and she’s like I haven’t, send it over to me. I use Apple music and she was a Spotify cost when you the name of the song, and I knew that the video probably is streaming somewhere. My question for you guys is it seems everything streams these days, videos and audio and music and books and all the stuff. How do you find it? What I ended up doing was logging into Netflix, searching for Joseph and the amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. You don’t want to type that in 1 million times. Then I logged into Hulu and Amazon and was trying to find it. Have you guys found any services or systems that help you find some content across all those different platforms? I hear the stuff is coming but I haven’t found one that help me find the movie. I think it’s important for folks use assistive technology. You can spend all your time looking for the content instead of enjoying it. I would if you guys found anything that makes that easier or are you struggling with that.
BELVA SMITH: That would be a great app for someone to invent. What I would do, and I looked at Josh. I would start with Google. I would Google it and find out where I can find it. More than likely I would find out if it is on Netflix. By the time I search to, three places and didn’t find it, I would get up.
JOSH ANDERSON: Whenever I’m looking on any of those, it does start auto filling. Usually you just have to get the beginning out. It’ll come up with everything. As you narrow it down, eventually when you get no search results, you know you’re looking in the wrong place. You probably don’t have to get the entire thing out.
BELVA SMITH: If you’re using Apple TV, you can also speak it. You can ask Apple TV to find it.
JOSH ANDERSON: Fire stick and Amazon fire TV does that. They have a voice controlled remote.
WADE WINGLER: But are they searching across all of your accounts? Are they smart enough to know you have Netflix account and search there and you also have a Hulu account?
BRIAN NORTON: Apple TV will look in iTunes and Amazon will look and Amazon.
BELVA SMITH: They are all going to look in the one place.
WADE WINGLER: I understand that in December – we are in Apple TV family so we have the new Apple TV in our living room. There is a new app coming out called TV that is supposed to do that. It was ironic because at the recent keynote where they said this new app will be like your TV Guide and look across all of these platforms for you, the very next day they announced it, Netflix came out and said but we are not going to be on there. Now I would have to search the Apple TV app and log into Netflix. I have found some things on Google but I did that last night. With that particular movie, when I googled it, I googled it by itself and found people wanting to sell it to me on a DVD. Then I put in the name of the movie and the word streaming and that that might come up. You know what I got? All of these pirated sites where somebody has taken the video and screen captures it or whatever.
JOSH ANDERSON: Videotaped their television from 1986?
WADE WINGLER: BobsIllegalTV.com or whatever, trying to find a movie. I couldn’t find a legitimate place to find that movie. That may be a bad example. That movie may not be streaming and I just don’t know it.
BELVA SMITH: What about the Samsung Smart TV? Can you ask them and will they search?
BRIAN NORTON: They still tie into apps. They are using apps like Hulu and other types of things. You just download the app to the TV instead of to a streaming device like Apple TV or Fire Stick. That’s a really great question.
WADE WINGLER: I know the guys at Comcast who do their accessibility stuff, so maybe I should give Tom a call and see if he has solutions for that. That might be something. I’m not sure Comcast is going to certain ethics and Hulu for you.
BELVA SMITH: I don’t think you’re going to find that they want to play well together.
JOSH ANDERSON: They’ll search all the channels you get cut but they are not going to tell you – although Comcast is supposed to be doing something with Netflix where they offer it through their system?
BELVA SMITH: It’s tossing back and forth right now. They are in the works for something.
JOSH ANDERSON: I cut that cord a while ago so I’m not sure.
WADE WINGLER: As I was doing that, I was thinking I’m sitting here fully sighted, full use of my thumbs, on my phone, on my Apple TV, trying to find that stuff. I thought for assistive technology users who take longer for that, that could be a real downer. I just know you guys would have a great example. Belva, I figured you would say what you don’t know is – and then tell me something that I didn’t know.
BELVA SMITH: I can’t even tell you the last time I watched a movie.
JOSH ANDERSON: Unless it was a kids movie.
BRIAN NORTON: That’s a million-dollar idea.
JOSH ANDERSON: We could open up a store where you could get videos –
WADE WINGLER: We did that back in the 90s. I don’t think it’s a technical issue as much as it is a business issue because those are all competing services. We have Sling; we have Amazon; we have Hulu; we have Netflix. Why would anyone of those be motivated to help you –
BELVA SMITH: Watch it someplace else?
WADE WINGLER: Exactly. It may be more of a business thing than a technical thing. I don’t know.
BELVA SMITH: Again, they could use it to better themselves that they found if you’re searching for something and you find it on Netflix but it is not available on Hulu, they could say we better get over here.
BRIAN NORTON: You know it’s going to happen? It’s going to be one of these Travelocity or Expedia sites that says I’ll go out and search everybody. You could maybe create a website that searches all of the other places.
BELVA SMITH: Remember how you used to call someone and their phone would be busy, and it would say this number is busy. How about we call you when it is not busy? Just do your search and it says we will give you a text when we find it.
WADE WINGLER: If anyone in the audience has cracked this nut, call us and let us know because I would love to know how to find a movie and not spend so much time frustrated.
BRIAN NORTON: Perfect. Great show today. I wanted to make sure that folks know how to find our show. If you want to find out about our show, you can search assistance technology questions on iTunes. You can find us on stitcher or ATFAQshow.com. If you have any questions or want to send us feedback, you can call our listener line at 317-721-7124. You can also send us a tweet with the hashtag ATFAQ for an email at tech@eastersealscrossroads.org. We definitely want your questions, we definitely want your feedback, we rely on those things is without them you wouldn’t have a show. Be a part of it. We would love to hear from you. I want to thank the folks in the studio today. Thanks cabala.
BELVA SMITH: Thanks guys.
BRIAN NORTON: Thanks, Josh.
JOSH ANDERSON: Thanks for listening.
BRIAN NORTON: Thanks, Wade.
WADE WINGLER: Thanks, everybody.
BRIAN NORTON: We will see everybody in a couple of weeks.
WADE WINGLER: Information provided on Assistive Technology Frequently Asked Questions does not constitute a product endorsement. Our comments are not intended as recommendations, nor is our show evaluative in nature. Assistive Technology FAQ is hosted by Brian Norton; gets editorial support from Mark Stewart and Belva Smith; is produced by me, Wade Wingler; and receives support from Easter Seals Crossroads and the INDATA project. ATFAQ is a proud member of the Accessibility Channel. Find more of our shows at www.accessibilitychannel.com.
***Transcript provided by TJ Cortopassi. For requests and inquiries, contact tjcortopassi@gmail.com***