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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.
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Steve Sutter:
Hi, this is Steve Sutter, president of CreatAbility and this is your Assistive Technology Update.
Josh Anderson:
Hello, and welcome to your Assistive Technology Update, a weekly dose of information that keeps you up to date on the latest developments in the field of technology designed to assist individuals with disabilities and special needs. I’m your host, Josh Anderson with the INDATA project at Easter Seals Crossroads in beautiful Indianapolis, Indiana. Welcome to episode 512 of Assistive Technology Update. It’s scheduled to be released on March 19th, 2021.
Josh Anderson:
On today’s show, I’m excited to have a longtime friend of the show Steve Sutter here in the studio. He’s here to talk about CreatAbility and some updates to a couple of their programs, including Evalu8Now, Flourish and to some other technology that they’ve been working on. And we’re also joined by Amy Fuchs from BridgingApps with an app worth mentioning. Don’t forget, we always love to hear from you. So please give us a call on our listener line at (317) 721-7124. Send us an email at tech@EastersealsCrossroads.org, or hit us up on Twitter @INDATAproject. You can send us ideas for guests. Some of our best guests come from ideas that you send to us. Also, if you have questions, suggestions, comments, anything, we always love to hear it. So feel free to reach out. Or if you’re listening to us on different podcast services, you can always like us, rate us or send us comments through those as well. We thank you for taking time out of your day to listen to us. So let’s go ahead and get on with the show.
Josh Anderson:
Are you a developer interested in learning more about web accessibility? Well, join renowned web accessibility professional [Dennis Lambri 00:02:00] for a full day of training. This webinar training begins with a background on disability, guidelines and law. Many techniques for designing and developing an accessible website are then explained. Basic through advanced levels are covered. The main topics include content structure, images, forms, tables, CSS, and [ARIA 00:02:20]. Techniques on writing for accessibility and testing for accessibility are also covered. If you’re involved in web designer development, don’t miss this wealth of practical knowledge. This webinars put on by the INDATA project in Indianapolis, Indiana, and will take place on May 12th, 2021 beginning at 11:00 AM Eastern time. So again, if you’re a developer or involved in web design or development, don’t miss out on this wonderful training to learn how to make sure that everything you create is a little bit more accessible. We’ll put a link to the webinar registration over in the show notes.
Josh Anderson:
If you’re interested in learning more about the accessibility features of virtual meeting tools, individuals with disabilities, educators, parents, students, and professionals can benefit from our accessible tele-health webinar training. This free assistive technology training will educate participants about the accessibility features used an online meeting tools that can be used for tele-health. We’ll put a link to the registration over in our show notes for the training, which will take place on Thursday, April 8th from 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM Eastern and will be hosted by our own, Brian Norton. Please join us for our accessible tele-health webinar.
Josh Anderson:
After all these months of lockdown, maybe you’re looking for some new podcast to listen to. Well, make sure to check out our sister podcast, Accessibility Minute, and ATFAQ or Assistive Technology Frequently Asked Questions. If you’re super busy and don’t have time to listen to a full podcast, be sure to check out Accessibility Minute, our one minute long podcast that gives you just a little taste of something Assistive Technology based so that you’re able to get your assistive technology fix without taking up the whole day. Hosted by Tracy Castillo, this show comes out weekly.
Josh Anderson:
Our other show is Assistive Technology Frequently Asked Questions, or ATFAQ. On Assistive Technology Frequently Asked Questions, Brian Norton leads our panel of experts, including myself, Belva Smith and our own Tracy Castillo as we try to answer your assistive technology questions. This show does rely on you, so we’re always looking for new questions, comments, or even your answers on assistive technology questions. So remember, if you’re looking for more assistive technology podcasts to check out, you can check out our sister shows Accessibility Minute and ATF FAQ wherever you get your podcasts now, including Spotify and Amazon Music.
Josh Anderson:
Next up on the show, we’re happy to welcome back Amy Fuchs from BridgingApps with an app worth mentioning. Amy, take it away.
Amy Fuchs:
This is Amy Fuchs with BridgingApps, and this is an app worth mentioning. This week’s featured app is called Easy Scroll Automatic Scrolling. Easy Scroll app for Android devices helps make scrolling and swiping much easier for users who find it difficult to swipe or scroll on a touchscreen. After downloading this free app, the user can customize a scrolling bar on the screen. The scrolling bar consists of buttons with arrows that you push for up down left, right, pause, et cetera, similar to what you see on a TV remote. Placement of the scrolling bar is always at the top of your screen that you are on and can be easily moved around the screen so it does not get in the way of your view. Customizing goes even farther, as you can program your buttons to the speed that works best for the user. You can also add additional buttons.
Amy Fuchs:
The Easy Scroll app was trialed by a non-verbal young adult with cerebral palsy that uses a Microsoft Surface for language, schooling, work, entertainment and social apps. She accesses the Microsoft device with a Tobii eye gazing camera because her cerebral palsy does not allow her fine motor control to access her device. As eye gazers already know, this is very labor intensive. She linked her Android phone to her Microsoft Surface device and uses the Easy Scroll app to access all the features of her Android phone with much less effort from her eyes. This is a game changer for high level eye gazing users who would like to be able to access apps that their other language devices do not allow. Users who would benefit from Easy Scroll are people with high cognitive functioning, but limited fine motor control. For example, those who have had a stroke, cerebral palsy, MS or Parkinson’s disease. Easy Scroll is available for free on the Google Play Store and is currently only compatible with Android devices. For more information on this app and others like it, visit bridgingapps.org.
Josh Anderson:
Well on today’s show, I am super excited to welcome back longtime friend of the show, Steve Sutter from CreatAbility to talk about some of the new technology and accommodations that they’re working on to help individuals with disabilities. But I’m even more excited because he’s actually here in the studio and not joining via Zoom. So Steve, a very socially distanced welcome back into the studio.
Steve Sutter:
Thank you. It’s always a pleasure to be here. Our new office is just a stone throw away, but we ask that you don’t.
Josh Anderson:
I completely understand that. I can’t wait to actually… I haven’t got to come see it because while you guys kind of moved in and got it all set up, and then everything kind of shut down. But as we get back out, I can’t wait to kind of come check it out. For folks who haven’t heard you on here before, could you tell us just a little bit about yourself?
Steve Sutter:
Sure. Well, I’ve always dreamed of helping people with special needs using technology. And I was with Hewlett Packard for a number of years. And one day I had this divine intervention to just do that Nike moment, just do it. And so I left my career at HP and started CreatAbility in 1997 and then actually made it formal in 2001.
Josh Anderson:
Nice. And what is CreatAbility?
Steve Sutter:
Our mission is to create innovative products that not just help people be more independent, but to actually help them flourish.
Josh Anderson:
And that leads me into the first thing that I wanted to talk about today. And that is Flourish.
Steve Sutter:
Yeah, we kind of ran with that motto there. Flourish is a person centered planning tool. And you might ask, “Why do we need another person centered planning tool?” Well, it really helps in that it’s always with them. It’s accessible. They can tap on any of the different areas and it speaks to them and talks to them. So it always reminds them of what their plan is. So it’s much more than the required annual review process of a person centered plan, but it actually becomes a living document.
Josh Anderson:
How does that work to help the individual being served?
Steve Sutter:
Well, first off it’s theirs and it becomes part of them. So they could actually put in information such as their likes, dislikes, what’s unique about them. And it’s all done in a very fun and engaging way. So beyond that requirement of periodic reviews, it’s an active tool that the individual keeps with them all the time and can update it as they go and staff can remotely review this and update it remotely for them.
Josh Anderson:
Nice. So it keeps the person at the center of the person centered plan. And then what are the benefits for the direct service professionals and support staff?
Steve Sutter:
Well, so one of the goals of the project was what if we actually made the goals trackable? What if we could actually look at and focus in on the accomplishment factor? To say it differently, why have goals if you don’t track the accomplishment? So there isn’t just the long-term goals. I want to go to Disneyland. I want to get married. I want to get a job. I want to get a license. But it breaks it down into, what are the midterm goals and what are the near term goals? And of course there’s goals set by others. And those, once they’re SMART, they’re specific, they’re measurable, they’re tied to the individual’s attainment, it’s something that relates to them in their specific situation and you put a time on it. So once you do that, it really helps our system then track where they are in the accomplishment.
Steve Sutter:
So today, a typical process is you go through the half inch thick paperwork and review, “Hey Johnny, would you like to go to Disneyland still?” “Yep, still would.” That becomes the next year’s goal, but no real tick marks in between that and now as to how we’re going to build that. Let’s go to Kings Island first. Let’s go to a local circus event.
Josh Anderson:
Yeah.
Steve Sutter:
When it’s socially available to do that. So yeah, that really helps break things down into bite size increments that can be tracked and engaged with the individual.
Josh Anderson:
Definitely. I can see how that can be super helpful because as an individual, having that big goal out there, yeah that’s great. And it’s great whenever I can kind of get there, but if I can see those little measurable goals along the way, then yeah. That feeling of accomplishment I’m getting there. I’m almost there. I’ve got these things kind of going. So Steve, and you kind of mentioned this a little bit, but why do you think this is important and whom all can this help?
Steve Sutter:
Well, anyone who is required to have a person centered plan, but it turns out that even people that have a short vocational goal or a goal for some aspect in their life. Could be independent living related chores, responsibilities, and those kinds of things, or even I want to get married someday and have a family. Well then, let’s think about hygiene. Let’s think about dating those kind of things. It could be wherever that person’s at so it was really rather universal in the format.
Steve Sutter:
Since people have started using the Flourish product, we found that the goals have really changed. Some of the organizations actually changed some of their culture. Goal setting is not something to be dreaded or feared like, “Oh no, we have to do performance evaluation kind of thinking and fears.”
Josh Anderson:
Yes.
Steve Sutter:
But it’s now an active process where, “Hey, we could actually know who’s involved in our staff that might actually be in assistance of that individual in reaching the next level in their goals.”
Josh Anderson:
Nice.
Steve Sutter:
So it’s really had some great impact on the organization. Goals now are nice and crisp and clear and actionable. And like we said, that’s the key, when we can have goals where we can track their accomplishment, then magic happens.
Josh Anderson:
It really does. And I know not just individuals we serve, but for me, for, for anybody. Yeah. If you can accomplish things, you get that feeling of accomplishment and you just want it more, just want it more. So I can really see how that can help folks. Now you’ve also made some updates to Evalu8Now. So let’s start by just telling the listeners if they don’t know, what is Evalu8Now?
Steve Sutter:
Well, Evalu8Now is a product that, well, about 50% of people with intellectual disabilities actually have behavioral health challenges as well. And so our apps use interactive avatars that interview the individual on their physical and mental wellbeing, and then play interventions based on their scores. Let’s say that they rated high in depression or anxiety. It would then give them interventions assistance on things they could reframe the problem or think differently about their situation and it becomes an active tool that they value.
Josh Anderson:
Nice. Very nice. And what is new in Evalu8Now?
Steve Sutter:
As people became more familiar with the use of the tool, and this is the app that sits on a tablet or a mobile device, some of them ask for, “Is there a quicker way I can get through some of the assessments now?” And for them, we gave them checklists in the form of kind of like a SurveyMonkey, only simplified using error minimization principles where we reduced the amount of clutter and difficulty and different items on the screen. It’s very clean and very crisp. So now they can go through these assessments without all of the struggles of getting to the right URL or entering the right login and password and all those things. It just takes them right into these assessments, but yet still some people wanted another alternative.
Steve Sutter:
So that’s what our new chat bot is, is basically we’ve heard a lot about Telegram. Well, it’s all based on Telegram.
Josh Anderson:
Really?
Steve Sutter:
And the advantage there is that it’s a standard product that’s isolated. It has a lot of anonymity. You can’t find out who the actual user is until they actually say they want to be identified. And by building it on top of that, it’s much better than an SMS platform in that we don’t need cell service. We don’t need to have any special operating system. Then Telegram service runs on just about every device on the planet and allows us to set on top of that structure. So it’s a system they may already be using to chat with their friends and relatives or groups. There’s group chatting, those kinds of things.
Josh Anderson:
How is this beneficial to the user, to the client?
Steve Sutter:
Well, they may already be using Telegram right now. So they just invite our chat bot to their group and it would then periodically interview them on how they’re feeling emotionally or physically and then offer the same kind of interventions, but now just via a chat bot.
Josh Anderson:
Nice, nice. And how is this beneficial to the providers?
Steve Sutter:
Well, they still get the same method of dialing into our web cloud-based tools just as if they did with our chat bot or our forms or our interactive apps with the avatar. It all reports to the same structure. We call our cloud service, BEAM. And BEAM is the service that you log into does for those who gave you the right permissions to do so, you can then review how they’re doing and track them. And this can be part of the plan of care or the treatment plan, whatever that individual needs.
Steve Sutter:
As you know, a lot of times in the vocational arena, people might have these behavioral health challenges or challenging behaviors. And sometimes they’re not diagnosed or caught early in the program. So 60 or 90 days into the employment after the job coach has started to fade, we see these various things emerge that were really fear-based or concerns or just challenges that they have they’ve been dealing with, kind of like when I was dating my wife. I was able to fake it for about two weeks. And as things got more serious, I realized I either need to up my game in the deception department or just come clean. So I chose the latter, but that was 10 years ago. And so it’s going well, but the idea is everyone try to fake it a little bit and you can get away with that for a while, but eventually let’s just assess what are those underlying emotional issues. And that’s what the chat bot or the forms or our interactive avatars can do.
Josh Anderson:
Very nice. And just because, you kind of brought it up and for folks who haven’t really listened, kind of describe BEAM to me just a little bit, just so that the folks can kind of understand what all that is.
Steve Sutter:
Right. Well, BEAM originally started for Basic Everyday Activity Monitoring, but it grew beyond that much more than what’s going on in the home, are they taking their meds kind of thing. But our task prompting tool or flagship product called MeMinder reports into there on how they accomplish various tasks they were to do that day. All the reports from the interactive chat bot or the interactive avatar, all reports into BEAM. And it’s a cloud-based service with documentation export capabilities into whatever format you might need, but it gives you charting and graphing, tracking of different measures across different individuals in your person served base or client base. And it lets you really simplify your documentation requirements, as Flourish reports into this as well. So for those individuals that are using Flourish, they can also track how does this relate to the different goals and activities in that person centered plan?
Steve Sutter:
So it all becomes one stop shopping for the provider, for the agency or for the clinical team. They can just go to one spot and look at the different aspects that they’re being tracked. Again, it’s all tailored and customized for that individual.
Josh Anderson:
Definitely. And I love the way that it just kind of gives you a snapshot too, of just up-to-date information and everything. And BEAM’s really cool. If you folks haven’t checked it out, definitely check it out because it’s great, the information you can get all in one place. Well, Steve, tell me a story about someone who’s used these programs and how it’s help them.
Steve Sutter:
Well, there’s a grant right now in the Department of Justice in Florida that does called Second Chance. And we’re rolling out this program to a group of individuals. And unfortunately even at ages 14 to 18, these kids have already had a felony. And the goal is to try to reduce recidivism. In other words, reduce their ability or their need to re-offend. And oftentimes, according to the neuropsychologists and so on that are on the team, there’s 23 different people with alphabet soup behind their name. I wonder why I’m even on this teams sometimes, but it’s a really wonderful group.
Steve Sutter:
And the goal is to actually engage with these individuals who often prefer texting over any other method and it’s integrated into their school programs. So there’s an IEP factor in BEAM. There’s different elements that would help track these individuals if they’re getting off track or if they’re getting off course from their desired plan, because we can not only save lives. I mean, this life could be wasted if led to their normal path that they’re on, but by just changing 10% of that population is over a hundred million dollars.
Josh Anderson:
Oh sure. Wow.
Steve Sutter:
So it’s a huge thing, but the priority, of course, is the individual. We can save people’s lives and put them on the right path.
Josh Anderson:
Oh, excellent. Yeah, and especially with being able to see those behaviors kind of coming back in real time and not having to wait until they re-offend to find out that something’s went wrong, but being able to have those interventions right at that time. That’s great. That’s great. I didn’t realize you were working with them. That’s a great program and something that hopefully can expand even a little bit more because I know that’s a huge problem here in America and elsewhere also.
Josh Anderson:
So Steve, I always have to ask, and you don’t even have to answer this question, but what’s next? You have any juicy inside gossip that you can share about what you guys are working on?
Steve Sutter:
Okay. Well thank you for that opportunity. You’ll have to cut me off though at some point, right?
Josh Anderson:
No, no. We have plenty of time.
Steve Sutter:
So our flagship product, MeMinder, is a task prompter that has video modeling as well as audio prompting or just talking pictures, whatever that individual needs. And that helps them not only at home, but in their workplace. It can be use on their bicep jogging strap. So it’s hands free and they don’t look odd. They don’t look like they’re doing something special from the other employees. So it really helps them. And of course, then we talked about the Evalu8Now that would help them stay on track from the behavioral health aspects or identify those things early so we can deal with them. But we didn’t have anything on the front end.
Steve Sutter:
And that’s what’s new, is Employment Pathfinder. Employment Pathfinders is a series of assessment tools that can be done by the individual themselves or with the assistance of DSP or staff or anyone. And while it’s not restricted to just people with intellectual disabilities, it’s simplified to that level so that anybody could really use it. These assessment tools cover things such as work readiness. Can you work with others? Do you have proper hygiene? Do you know how to do laundry or make sure you have clean clothes, get transportation or arrange transportation? All the different factors you would need for work readiness. Then it moves into job interests. So there’s 15 different categories of jobs that it exposes you to, that you then choose between to determine which ones you have interests in. You rate those as either, “No, I’m not interested” or “I might be interested” or “Yes, I’m definitely interested in this job.”
Steve Sutter:
Then it moves to the skill assessment phase based on those job interests. So we’re not going to test you about air, airplane mechanics if you’re not interested in that category.
Josh Anderson:
Sure, sure.
Steve Sutter:
But if you’re interested in, let’s say, custodial work at a hotel, maybe light construction work, maybe working in a retail outlet, you would then go into. And now here’s some of the things, some of the skills you might need, depending on your job assignment and is categorized into sub categories, such as, are you going to be using a point of sales terminal? Can you use power tools safely? Safety is a big factor flavored throughout all of these different assessments.
Steve Sutter:
So it then results in a score, but it doesn’t just say, “ell, you only made it 39% of being ready for, let’s say construction.” But it says, “To get there, here’s what you might need. Here’s some of the training. Here’s some of the skill building you might need. And here’s some of the assistive technology that might help bridge those gaps in those areas where you’re lacking.” So that’s what we’re up to.
Josh Anderson:
Oh, that’s really cool. Yeah, and that’s great. I like the way that it doesn’t just give them a hard no. It actually says, “Here are some of the ways to fix that, to get to where you want to be.” And that is awesome. Well, I know that you guys always have new stuff coming out and I know the we’ll definitely continue to have you on, especially since you’re just a stone’s throw away and we can get you on here kind of as needed. But if our listeners want to find out more kind of between your times on the show, what’s the best way for them to do that?
Steve Sutter:
Info@createabilityinc.com. So that’s the C-R-E-A-T-E-A-B-I-L-I-T-Y-I-N-C.com. Or you can reach us by phone at (317) 728-6670.
Josh Anderson:
Excellent. We’ll put that all down in the show notes so folks can easily get over there to you. Well Steve Sutter, thank you so much for first of all, coming in the studio and socially distancing here with me that we can actually talk in person. But also thank you so much for coming on the show and talking about all the great things that you guys do to really help this population.
Steve Sutter:
Thank you so much.
Josh Anderson:
Do you have a question about assistive technology? Do you have a suggestion for someone we should interview on Assistive Technology Update? If you do, call our listener line at (317) 721-7124. Shoot us a note on Twitter @INDATAproject, or check us out on Facebook. Are you looking for a transcript or show notes? Head on over to our website at www.EastersealsTech.com.
Josh Anderson:
Assistive Technology Update is a proud member of the Accessibility Channel. For more shows like this plus so much more, head over to accessibilitychannel.com. The views expressed by our guests are not necessarily that of this host or the INDATA Project. This has been your Assistive Technology Update. I’m Josh Anderson with the INDATA Project at Easter Seals Crossroads in Indianapolis, Indiana. Thank you so much for listening and we’ll see you next time.