ATU633 – QMinder with Steve Sutter from Createability

Hello, this is Steve Sutter and this is your Assistive Technology Update.

Hello and welcome to your Assistive Technology Update, a weekly dose of information that keeps you up-to-date on the latest developments in the field of technology designed to assist individuals with disabilities and special needs. I’m your host, Josh Anderson with the INDATA Project in beautiful Indianapolis, Indiana. Welcome to episode 633 of Assistive Technology Update. It is scheduled to be released on July 14th, 2023. On today’s show, we are super excited to welcome Steve Sutter from CreateAbility back on the show so he can tell us all about one of their new accommodations called QMinder. We’ve also got BridgingApps back on the show with an app worth mentioning, as well as a story about some of the coolest stuff to come out in AT and accessibility so far in 2023.

Listeners also have to let you know that here on the show I have promoted, we had a training coming up on July 27th on AT 101 Apps and Tools for Everyday Living, and I have to let you know that unfortunately that training has been canceled. So please, I offer my apologies to anyone that had signed up for that. We do hope to be able to offer that training here sometime in the future. Unfortunately, due to schedules and some other things beyond our control, we did have to cancel that training. But enough about all that. Let’s go ahead and get on to the show.

Folks, today’s show is scheduled to come out on July 14th. That’s about a little over half way through 2023, something which seems almost impossible, but it is. Well, I found a story over at Mashable, and it’s titled The Biggest Assistive Technology And Accessibility Triumphs Of 2023 (So Far). It was written by Chase Dibenedetto and it just talks about some of the tech advancements and things to help expand accessibility that have come out in 2023 so far. So I’m sure this list is not probably all-inclusive of maybe some of the things, but I think it’s important things to look at, especially as we look to where the year may go and what might happen in the remainder of 2023.

So the first thing it talks about is GIPHY adding alt text. So GIPHY is the one of the main places where you go to get gifs or gifs. I’ve never figured out how to pronounce it, but those short little tiny, I guess, you could say videos, but they’re only a few seconds long, that you use to maybe expand a point or something. A lot of times you send them in text messages, emails. Social media, of course, is another place where you see a lot of them. But they actually partnered with a company called Scribely, and I may be mispronouncing that, it’s S-C-R-I-B-E-L-Y, and they contacted him about writing alt texts for more than 10,000 of their most frequently shared gifs on their platform. What’s really cool is they didn’t go and use artificial intelligence, but actually made these human written alt text. So very, very cool thing because yeah, sometimes with the auto-generated alt text, you may or may not get the right information, but it’s nice.

I mean, it’s definitely a step. I mean, 10,000, I’m sure there’s oh, countless gifs out there, new ones being made every single day, but this at least is a step in the right direction and something that they’re really trying to do to increase accessibility. The fact that they actually had real humans write them is another great step in the right direction. The next thing that it mentions is Netflix, and Netflix launched custom subtitles. So what this means is that you can change the font size, style, color, appearance, and all these other things of your onscreen captions. If you’ve ever really looked, a lot of places do offer captions, usually in different languages depending on where you’re located, but you’re just going to get what they got as far as where they are on the screen, the size, the color, the contrast. All these different things are just set for you. You can’t really change anything.

But with this you can do a lot of different things. You can do light, which is black text on a white background, something called drop shadow, which is white text on a black background and contrast you can get yellow text on a black background, as well as just full on customizable text, not just text zooming, but really something that can really help you be able to access it. Just because I need captions because I have a hearing impairment, there could be a visual impairment, other things going on there, and this can just increase accessibility for everyone. We’ve talked about it here and it’s a big thing in the news is gaming, getting expanded gameplay for users with disabilities. We all know from CES Convention that Sony unveiled its Project Leonardo, which will probably be renamed, but that’s their customizable controller to work with the customizable controllers made by Microsoft for Xbox, Logitech and all their different switches and things that they can do.

But back in April, PlayStation also launched accessibility tags on all of its offered game. So these tags include notes on relevant visual, audio, control and gameplay features for each game. So not only these things actually being built in, in some video games in order to increase accessibility, now you can actually get that information right there without having to do all the research to find out, can I actually play this? Also says that in May, Xbox announced new features for the Xbox app on PC, such as the ability to reduce visual elements, a new tagging and search feature to support users looking for accessible games. Even talks about some of the bigger games coming out that had expanded accessibility settings, including Street Fighter 6, The Last of Us Part 1, and just some other ones. There’s this wider industry shift to really make sure that universal design is built into the earliest parts of game development.

Really and truthfully, especially for gaming, I just feel like this is just plain smart business because it evens up that playing field. But I feel like it’s a great space to be able to play games with other folks regardless of ability or disability. It goes on to talk about live entertainment and sports getting accessibility up upgrades. It starts by talking about the Academy Awards in 2023, which introduced red carpet sign language interpreters for deaf attendees, live captions and audio descriptions for video feeds and an ASL livestream available on the show’s YouTube channel. So no longer is it just the one interpreter over to the side maybe for the folks there, but actually getting that information out to folks, not just in captions, but for those folks who rely on ASL and it’s their preferred means of communication, they now have that accommodation.

Also, the Grammy Awards in 2023, also built in live audio description, assisted listening devices and even sensory bags for attendees with a newly accessible stage. So the world of sports was working on as well with the live ASL interpreters for the annual Super Bowl halftime show and an introduction of live AI generated captions for ESPN broadcast and other Disney owned live programming. Moving on to probably one of the biggest, I guess, stories in technology probably of the year would be OpenAI and ChatGPT. No matter what you want to talk about AI and what it can do, what it can’t do, the problems, the issues, we’ve all seen the movies from the eighties and know the fear and everything that goes with it. But with the release of GPT-4, which is the newest version of that OpenAI program, they’ve made its tech available to third party companies and with this just a few things that have come out.

Probably the biggest one is Be My Eyes. So Be My Eyes as many folks know is an assistant app for users who are blind and low vision. They essentially may need some sighted assistance and they would open up the app, ask for sighted ed assistance. A whole giant pool of volunteers is available, but they’re not always available. Sometimes it might take you a minute to be able to get that volunteer there. So Be My Eyes has used GPT-4 to create a virtual volunteer and AI powered chat assistant that will help with visual identification of objects and text, and even route navigation and some other things. So very, very cool. Plus also, we’ve had folks on here, it mentions the Envision smart glasses, and we just had them on not long ago talking about integrating that GPT-4 into their Ask Envision program.

Last but not least, it talks a little bit about Apple and these things will be coming out very soon, but all the different tools that Apple is going to be offering in the new operating system and devices. We’ve already talked about the cool things coming out in iOS 17, and we will definitely talk about them more as they come in. We’ll put a link over to this in our show notes, but also listeners, I ask you, what do you think are the coolest and maybe most accessible things to come out in 2023? What are you looking forward to and where is the world still behind in these things? Shoot us an email at tech@eastersealscrossroads.org and let us know your thoughts.

Listeners, up next, we are very excited to welcome back Amy Barry from BridgingApps to the show with an app worth mentioning. Take it away, Amy.

This is Amy Berry with BridgingApps, and this is an app worth mentioning. This week’s featured app is called BARD Mobile. BARD Mobile is a service of the National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled. NLS provides free audio and braille reading materials to residents of the US and American citizens living abroad who cannot read regular print. If you’re blind or have temporary or permanent low vision, or a physical or reading disability that prevents you from holding or reading the printed page, you may be eligible for this program. Using the app, you can access tens of thousands of books from current bestsellers, to much loved classics, popular magazines and music instruction and scores, in audio and electronic braille, with new selections added daily. BARD Mobile is a great app that offers hundreds of hours of entertainment and education.

NLS offers a wide selection of titles that are completely free to download and read. Since the app is available on Amazon tablets, this means a person could spend around $100 and have a very capable reading machine with thousands of titles to enjoy. BARD Mobile is currently available for iOS and Android devices, and it’s free to download. For more information on this app and others like it, visit Bridgingapps.org.

Listener Steve Sutter from CreateAbility has been on the show many times to talk about their solutions to help individuals with disabilities become more independent. He also happens to be local, so that always helps as I actually get to talk to a real life person in the studio, which is always nice. Well, we’re excited to welcome him back to the show today to talk about a new solution they’ve developed that was just released called QMinder, and we are going to learn all about it. Steve, welcome back to the show.

It’s always a pleasure to be here, thank you.

Yeah, it is always great to have you on. Now, before we get into to talking about Q Minder and everything else, could you tell our listeners a little bit about yourself?

Oh yeah, just briefly, so following a divine intervention moment years ago, I left my career at Hewlett Packard where I’d been working for 18 years and thought I’d retire from, but then I started CreateAbility. That was 22 years ago now, so I started all this when I was four, I think.

Yeah, that sounds about right.

Yeah, but I’d always dreamed of helping people using technology and CreateAbility as a way to help realize that dream.

Awesome, awesome. We are so glad that you did. So tell us just big picture, what is CreateAbility as a whole?

Well, our mission is to create innovative products that help people with intellectual disabilities and the people that serve them. Our goal is to help the person served be more independent and to have the best life possible.

I know that one of your new solutions is based to help that. So the real reason we had you on today was you’re launching a whole new app called QMinder. So tell us all about it.

Well, let me start with the problem we’re trying to solve. We’ve been in the task prompting arena for years with our headliner product, MeMinder. And as many of have observed people with IDD, that is intellectual developmental disabilities, they not only can use technology, they blossom with it. They just thrive with it. It’s just so wonderful. But this tech only works if someone takes the time to set up the different prompts. Although we’ve tried to make that easy with MeMinder, we found that with the increasing DSP shortage, some of these individuals just don’t have any time to do their job, let alone take extra time to create prompts. So meanwhile, we looked around and we saw people are using TikTok and they’re communicating and having fun making short little videos. We thought, hey, what if we made a task prompter that was as fun as TikTok? That’s what QMinder is.

Nice. Now here in my head, I’m just picturing scrolling through different cues on a TikTok, but I know that’s not what it is. So can you tell us how QMinder works?

Okay, well, the Q in QMinder is a play on words queue like in queuing or prompting as well as the queue in a QR code. So the prompt creator associates their cue that they just recorded a little video, let’s say, and they then associate that with one of our special QR codes. There’s up to 600 QR codes per individual served, and then they stick that QR code in the context of where that individual might need a prompt or might need a cue. Now these can be not just videos, they could be text and then we’ll automatically speak that text in the text to speech voice that’s in that cue users app or phone. It could be audio. It could be just the pictures. We see people using it in all kinds of really creative ways so far.

Awesome, awesome. Well, what are some of those creative ways, Steve?

Well, it’s just a really wide variety of applications. Let me first point out, they love the ease of use and that it can be used without internet. So in those situations where the individual is going to be moving into, let’s say a custodial capacity in a hallway like the big Fort Benjamin Harrison finance center, none of that has any internet or wifi access or cellular internet. So if you don’t have the cues already on your phone, it’s not going to work. Well, now you could pre-download those ahead of time in your little room that they’re using as their prep room for the day, and now they’re good to go for the whole day. So some of the applications though that people can use it for, how do I use a appliances? How do I use equipment? Or what chemicals are safe to use with other chemicals? Or in a warehouse it’s been used for wayfinding or location referencing.

So from where I am right now in front of this QR code, how do I get to the loading dock again? Or, how do I get back to the main office? Or, who has the tape for the box cutter? Or, the latest thing they need to move a pallet, let’s say. It’s used a lot in home settings and typical ADLs, medication reminders, those kinds of things, workplace settings, as I mentioned. It could be used out in the community anywhere that they can put a QR code to help remind them. Now our QR codes are different. It’s unique to the QR code scanner that’s in our QMinder system. But what that means is that they can be very small because the size, the density of dots you see on a QR code is directly related to how many characters are we encoding in this thing. So our strings are really short. So get this, you can even put these QR codes on someone’s fingernail and put a little layer of acrylic on top of it, and now it can be a find me, I’m lost, please help me get home again, kind of thing.

Oh, wow. Wow, that is cool.

It’s just a wide variety. Even staff came up to us at ANCOR conference last month and they said, “Gee, we’d like to use that for policies and procedures for our staff.” I just think I witnessed something and I’m not sure what our policy on that is because I’m new, can you remind me real quick? This can point them to a little link that explains that for them really quickly.

Nice. Yeah, and you mentioned just to go over those things, I love that you don’t need internet because here in Indiana, we’ve had lots of storms lately, people been without power for 18 hours, two or three days. So yeah, if that’s telling me how to use something or how to do things that I need to do on a daily basis, that’s great that I can still get that information. Yeah, anytime I think about… Because I came from the job coaching world, so anytime I think of something that can fill that gap when I’m not there, just that little reminder because most folks, oh heck, all of us probably, remember most of the things on our job, but there’s always the, oh, crap, how do I get to point B? How do I get to point C or something? So just that little tiny reminder can… Even if you don’t need it’s that comfort of just having it there and being able to use it, especially when the job coach, other person, support staff, or somebody can’t be right there every single day.

Yeah, good point.

Yeah, that is great. Unfortunately, I don’t do the job coach thing anymore, but we can always help them out and be able to do those things. Steve, you mentioned this a little bit, but the caregiver, the treatment team, the job coach, the person making the videos, the cues or whatever, do they need to be a videographer or anything like that or have advanced IT knowledge? Or is it pretty simple to walk through and set those things up?

Really simple and fun, and there’s no harm, no foul if you make the wrong video, you just record over it again. Matter of fact, you can remotely update a video prompt you already associated with that QR code just by doing an update in the app that the cue creator has. It’s always free, by the way, to the cue creators and anybody could download the app off either the Apple or the Android store for either phones or tablets. The cue users, the individual served that would get getting these prompts, that is a $19.95 per month use and that’s usually paid for by the provider or parents or staff, that kind of thing.

Oh, very cool. So you said you can update the video, so if the individual doesn’t need as much cuing, maybe it used to be I needed a three-minute video or something to show me something, but now I just need a few seconds or a couple little cues, I can get in there and change that without even having to touch their device or be on site to do those things, right?

Yes, absolutely.

Oh, very cool. Very cool. Well, you mentioned a couple of these to me, but can you tell me a story about a use case for the QMinder app? I know you mentioned a couple, but do you have another one in there?

Well, so let’s say Johnny, he wants to get married, but when asked like, “Oh, so are you dating now?” “No.” Well, maybe we should do that, but let me ask first about some personal hygiene questions because frankly, you might need to work on a little bit on odor control.”Let’s start working for the next few days on personal hygiene. Let’s up our game in that area. Then we’ll work on dress. Then we’ll work on appropriate behaviors. Yeah, we can get there, but let’s take these baby steps, in other words, along the way. That’s one example. Others have to do with medication adherence. Sometimes they may start out with a very high level of prompting, like you mentioned before. Eventually they’re going to get to just daily quick reminders, and that could be done very simply. But one of the areas I thought was the coolest was just personal self touch messages. Love you, honey. Proud of you. Have a great day. See you later stuff, whatever it takes to just increase that person’s sense of confidence that he’s surrounded by people that love him and support him and he can do this.

Yeah, and I think we all need that in some way, shape or form, for sure, for sure. So Steve, I have to ask you every single time you’re here, just you’re always working on new things and is there something, any juicy inside gossip or anything you can share with us that CreateAbility and you are working on?

Yeah. Matter of fact, one project involves assistive technology group here at the Easterseals Crossroads. So we just were lucky to get two phase one grants from NIDILRR, the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research, NIDILRR.

Say that again. No, I’m kidding. [Inaudible 00:22:24].

Anyway, the whole idea is one of them was to help in employment settings. So extend the number of different examples we could show the individuals so they could do their own career discovery to see if they would like that job, and then add to what assessments they might need. And then a reverse model of showing where there might be a gap in their skillset when they’re selecting certain things is to generate a resume. So imagine, here’s the things that I’m good at, and it actually would be produced by the system. That project’s underway that’ll involve your team here. And another project we’re working with Agape, for those who don’t know that it’s a horse riding studio not far from here that helps kids with special needs or kids who’ve witnessed trauma in their lives.

These 2000 pound horses that have been retired from their normal life, but now are really understanding kids. There’s just something amazing about these large animals that they get that someone has autism or that they’re different. They settle down and they really support that individual. Well, there’s a very low proximity to horse riding, and it’s also expensive. It’s sometimes $200 or more an hour just to do that horse riding episode. So for reasons of access and cost, we’re looking at a virtual horse environment. So we’re working with Agape and St. Mary’s College up near Notre Dame, and they’ll be helping us assess how has this experience helped the individual, and this would be kids between eight and 12, to see if it really helped them get some of the same benefits that they’ve received from a real horse. So we’ll emulate that horse experience. Not all the smells of course, but some of the visuals, some of the motions, some of the control aspects.

So it turns out horses are very mindful creatures that if you’re just gazing around having a great time, they’ll start doing the same thing. But if you’re mindful, if you’re present, the horse stays with it and stays with you. So it’s just, who’d have thought that these large animals would be the great mindful experience manager.

Yeah, I remember the first time I ever heard about equine therapy for kids with autism. I was like, I don’t see these two animals behavior, humans and horses, really working well together. I just feel like, what if someone has an outburst? But there’s so understanding and it’s just absolutely amazing. Usually for the kids, it makes a huge difference too, just having that… I don’t know if it’s the calmness of the riding or anything, but I guess you’ll find some of that out and see what we can do virtually.

We hope so.

Yeah, and like you said, just increasing access because goodness knows trying to even get to services sometime can be a huge challenge, and then paying for them another one, so very, very cool. Well, Steve, if our listeners want to find out more about QMinder, about CreateAbility and all those things, what’s the best way for them to do that?

Our info@createabilityinc.com or at (317) 728-6670.

Awesome. We will put all that down in the show notes so that you folks can definitely check it out. Steve, thank you so much for coming back today. It is always an absolute pleasure, and we cannot wait to, well be working with you on some of these new projects and hear all about the new ones as they continue to come out.

Thank you.

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