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Your weekly dose of information that keeps you up to date on the latest developments in the field of technology designed to assist people with disabilities and special needs.
Show Notes:
SPEAK MODalities with Oliver Wendt www.speakmod.com
Blog posts on Quad Stick and Woof to Wash from Laura Medcalf: www.EasterSealsTech.com
Apple’s WWDC kicks off June 2: What to expect – CNET http://buff.ly/1k1qKME
Google’s New Self-Driving Car Doesn’t Have A Steering Wheel http://buff.ly/1gAXnjt
Using your iPad as a wireless keyboard and mouse Benzle Inc http://buff.ly/1gAV2Fc
RESNA Conference: www.resna.org/conference
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OLIVER WENDT: Hi, this is Oliver Wendt, I’m an assistant professor and speech, language, and hearing scientists are Perdue University, and I’m also the chief science officer for SPEAK MODalities, and this is your Assistive Technology Update.
WADE WINGLER: Hi, this is Wade Wingler with the INDATA Project at Easter Seals Crossroads in Indiana with your Assistive Technology Update, a weekly dose of information that keeps you up-to-date on the latest developments in the field of technology, designed to assist people with disabilities and special needs. Welcome to episode number 157 of Assistive Technology Update. It’s scheduled to be released on May 30 of 2014. My guest today is Dr. Oliver Wendt who has a new app that’s research-based for augmentative communication called SPEAK MODalities.
We have information about what we expect from Apple when they do their Worldwide Developer Conference next week. Cool little excerpt from Google’s new self-driving car video that’s fascinating. And a way to use your iPad is a wireless keyboard and mouse on your computer. We hope you’ll check out our website at www.eastersealstech.com. Check us out on Twitter at INDATA Project, or call our listener line, 317-721-7124.
Are you going to be at the RESNA conference in Indianapolis this summer? On June 13, in the morning, we’re going to have a meetup of Assistive Technology Update listeners. If you like our show, come and hang out with us. We’ll talk about assistive technology and gets know each other. Check out www.eastersealstech.com/meetup to register.
Laura Medcalf is our new social media content specialist. Laura, how are you?
LAURA MEDCALF: I’m doing well. How are you?
WADE WINGLER: Good. Hey, I know you’re working on a couple of cool stores for the blog and the next week. What have you got?
LAURA MEDCALF: First up I have the quad stick which aims to afford people with quadriplegia the ability to play videogames.
WADE WINGLER: Awesome. And?
LAURA MEDCALF: The next one is called the woof to wash washing machine, which is bark activated.
WADE WINGLER: What?!
LAURA MEDCALF: It sounds pretty cool. It allows service dog to do the dirty work.
WADE WINGLER: That’s amazing. So if you guys want to check out Laura’s stories, tune your web browser over to www.eastersealstech.com and you can read some of these barking, video gaming stores that Laura is working on. Laura, thanks for stopping by.
LAURA MEDCALF: Thanks for having me.
WADE WINGLER: Shortly after the release of this podcast, Apple will have their annual WWDC, Worldwide Developers Conference. It’s going to kick off on June 2, and there’s always a keynote where the big announcements are made. Some of the predictions that are happening this year is that iOS 8, the iPhone operating system, will be updated from Version 7 to Version 8. OS 10 will hit 10.10, so probably some new software for the Mac. Lots of predictions about mobile payments, but one of things I find interesting is that people think they’re going to announce home automation software that would allow your iPhone and iPad to do things that control a home’s lights or security systems or appliances or things like that.
I’m excited as to what that might mean for people with disabilities. Having the ability to do some significant home automation from your iPhone and your iPad can mean a lot for individuals who have different kinds of disabilities. After June 2, we’ll know a little bit more about what Apple is going to say. In the meantime, check our show notes and I’ll send you to an article that tells you about those predictions.
So I’m fascinated with the idea of driverless cars. Google just announced this week that it has a workable prototype that is lacking a steering wheel, lacking breaks, lacking a gas pedal, you basically get into this little bugs looking car and you tell it where you’re going and it takes you there. Now, it’s not ready for prime time. It’s not available for purchase yet. It’s limited to 25 miles an hour and they say they’re going to take a couple of years prototyping it with people and testing it to make sure it’s going to be safe than. What you’re about to hear here is a little snippet of Google’s clip where somebody who is blind is checking out the chart for the first time.
>> Our lives are made up of lots of little things come and a lot of those little things for most people have to do with getting from place to place in order to connect and do things, be with people, go places they need to go, do things. So there is a big part of my life that’s missing. There’s a big part of my life that a self-driving vehicle would bring back to me. I love this!
WADE WINGLER: So I encourage you to check our show notes where I’ve got a link to that video. Really it’s great to see folks who are line or visually impaired or for whatever reason can benefit from an autonomous automobile get in one and riding it around. It’s fun to think about this futuristic stuff and really, I’m personally excitement about with assistive technology might lead. Check our show notes.
We sometimes get calls on our listener line where people have assistive technology questions. Here’s one of those calls.
>> Hi, my name is Anne Pierce from Manhattan, Kansas. I’m working with a person who would like to use their iPad as the keyboard for a PC. I researched this and I came up with a couple of apps that would work; however, the apps use Wi-Fi for the connection, and this particular room there is no Wi-Fi. I’d like to know if you have any suggestions. Thanks, and I really enjoy your podcast.
WADE WINGLER: Well, Anne, thank you so much for your question. I don’t have the best answer in the world for you. I will tell you — and I’ll pop a link in the show notes — I’ve had a pretty good app called wireless remote mouse. It requires that you install an app on your iPad and also on your Windows or your Apple Computer, and it does just what you said. It allows you to use your iPad as a keyboard and a mouse or touchpad for your Mac or your Windows computer. The challenge is it works on a Wi-Fi network. I actually tried this while I was sitting at a McDonald’s one afternoon doing some reports, and I tried to use the McDonald’s Wi-Fi, and their firewall is configured in such a way that it didn’t allow this app to work. However, I popped out my iPhone, and I turned on the Wi-Fi hotspot, the data connection on my iPhone, and it did allow wireless remote mouse to work. So I was able to use my iPad as the keyboard and the mouse for come in that case, my MacBook.
So I know I haven’t totally answered your question here because you’re looking for something that doesn’t require Wi-Fi come and I don’t have that. I will pop a link in the show notes over to this free resource from benzle.com, wireless remote and mouse, which would work if there is Wi-Fi in the area where you want to use that, and then I’m going to put a call out to our listeners to make suggestions. Are you guys aware of apps that do what Anne is asking? Do you know about an app that will let your iPad be the keyboard and the mouse for your computer without using Wi-Fi? If so, call our listener line and let us know what you know. The number is 317-721-7124. We’d love to hear your answer to Anne’s question or any questions or comments you might have.
Each week, one of our partners tells us what’s happening in the ever-changing world of apps, so here’s an app worth mentioning.
SCOTT DAVERT: From AppleVis.com, I’m Scott Davert with this week’s app worth mentioning. This way, we’re talking about an app called YMANO. YMANO is a service that takes articles from all over the web and many different categories, everything from travel to technology to use headlines to science and politics, pretty much everything in between that, and what happens is people, in other was human narrators, will read the articles out loud and post them to the side.
The service is voice over accessible and it’s great for those who don’t wish to read articles with a synthesized voice or even for people who just want to listen to something on their commute from point A to point B but actually has a live human being reading it. The app is free and available in the Apple App Store as well as the Android Google Play store. However, there is a premium version of this product which allows you to download whatever playlist you create so that you don’t have to be on a data connection while you’re listening to it. The free version, you have to stream the content.
For more information from a voice over user’s perspective on this app and many others, you can visit AppleVis.com. On this particular app, we have both a podcast as well as an interview with the developer of the YMANO. From AppleVis.com, I’m Scott Davert with this week’s app worth mentioning.
WADE WINGLER: It’s hard to be in the world of assistive technology these days without seeing apps related to augmentative communication, autism, or other kinds of disabilities. Today I have a friend and colleague on the line, Dr. Oliver Wendt, who is an assistant professor of speech, language, and hearing sciences at Purdue University and also the chief scientific officer for SPEAK MODalities. Oliver, are you there?
OLIVER WENDT: Yes, I’m here. Thank you for having me on the show.
WADE WINGLER: Good. You’re more than welcome. Thanks for taking time out of your afternoon to spend some time talking about this interesting research that you are doing. You and I have — since we’re both from Indiana, we have bumped into each other a handful of times over the years and spent some time at a conference together in California once. I was recently reintroduced to some of your work that has to do with a particular app and some research in the field of augmentative and alternative communication. Can you tell us a little bit about the work you’re doing in that area?
OLIVER WENDT: Yes, I can. So as you probably already know, in the area of autism spectrum disorder, there has been a huge increase in numbers. About one out of 68 children these days is impacted by an autism diagnosis. And with that autism diagnosis comes the need for speech and language training and language intervention. Many of these children are nonverbal, actually up to 66% of the about 2 million children, individuals, on the autism spectrum have some larger type of speech and language impairments so they cannot meet their daily communication needs.
In my research here at Purdue University, for many years we have been doing research on effective strategies in the area of augmentative and alternative communication to help these children to become better communicators and to help develop their speech and language skills. One approach that is very common that is probably the most well-known, the most commonly used intervention strategy in this area, is called Picture Exchange Communication System.
For many years, we have been looking at different strategies, different protocols, how to use the Picture Exchange Communication System effectively with children on the autism spectrum. And if you know this approach, it’s called PEXS for short, if you know just a little bit, you will probably have seen that these children are using large communication books that are filled with picture communication symbols. The child has to go through that communication book, find the right symbol, and then exchange that with the trainer in return for a desired item. The goal is to teach requesting, to get the child to understand when I make that picture communication simple exchange, I get another item in return.
We thought we could do this much easier. We can facilitate these very functional communication skills and teach those more appropriately through an iPad app. We have a fantastic program here at Purdue that’s called Engineering Projects In Community Service, EPICS for short. The students that are in this program, they come from all disciplines. Some are electrical engineers, others are graphic design students. We pair them up with the computer science students and programming students, and they’ve developed an early prototype of an app that we called Speak All.
The purpose of Speak All is to teach the child these emerging, these simple communication skills. The focus is on functional communication, learning, requesting, but also moving up to the point that the child can construct simple sentences on that app. We use it very effectively. We have done four or five different studies now that are showing this is an effective new technology that is often preferable over the old-fashioned picture communication book. It make things much easier. It’s more motivating for the child to use this app. It also helps not just with teaching them a functional communication scale, but we’ve also observed that it increases in natural speech and language, and for those who have problem issues very common in autism, some behavioral disorder, it also reduces those behavior problems.
WADE WINGLER: So it sounds like there’s a whole lot going on here. Let me ask a couple of questions to clarify to make sure I understand. So we’re talking about an app that’s designed primarily for children. Is that right?
OLIVER WENDT: We’ve used it most often with children. We’ve also had a research study where this was being used with adolescents and young adults on the autism spectrum. The platform of the app is designed in the way that it’s highly customizable to what the individual learner user’s needs are. You can put on graphic symbols that are more appropriate for a child audience, but you can also equip this with graphic symbols that are more adult oriented.
People here, clinical colleagues in the produce speech and language clinic, have used it beyond the purpose of communication. We are very popular for our social skills training programs. Those have older adults with autism as well. In those contexts, we have used it for example for people to talk about what their hobbies are, what their favorite activities are, and young adults with autism have exchanged what music they like to listen to, what’s currently on their MP3 players, what songs do they listen to on the daily/weekly top 10 list of songs has been playing in iTunes.
WADE WINGLER: So it sounds like it’s a very flexible system since it works with different kinds of ages. You mentioned autism spectrum disorder a number of times. Is that the primary kind of disability that we are accommodating with this app, or does it extend beyond that?
OLIVER WENDT: That’s where it started. The research in my lab is all focused on kids with severe autism that are minimally verbal. However, over the last years, the program has been adopted by various other communities. Down syndrome is one of them. Developmental disabilities in general, clients with some type of intellectual cognitive delay or disability are using this quite a bit. Most recently one of our partner clinics in Seattle informed us that they are using it successfully with child clients that have some type of apraxia of speech. So there is some motor speech disorder going on that prevents the child from producing natural speech, and then the app can be used as a replacement to give them a voice.
WADE WINGLER: I think those of us who work in the field of assistive technology find pretty routinely that sometimes a tool is developed for one can of disability in one situation, and when it works well, then it gets use in other situations as well. You’ve identified several kinds of communication. I’m kind of assuming that this is more rudimentary communication. Is that true or does it get use for more sophisticated communication as well?
OLIVER WENDT: The primary purpose is to use this for the emerging speech and language learner, for someone who has no speech and language to start out with who then needs to be moved to this level of symbolic communication, understanding that symbols can stand for different words. You can use it up to the point that the child can construct simple sentences, such as, “I want cookie.” “I want the big versus the small chocolate chip cookie.” “I want the blue verse of the yellow gummy bear.”
WADE WINGLER: So what platforms does the app work on?
OLIVER WENDT: So currently only on iOS, but we have plans to also make this available for android and it would be posted on Google Play.
WADE WINGLER: And the cost?
OLIVER WENDT: So there is an initial free version that is completely sufficient to do an entire AC intervention. Once you have completed this emerging AC intervention, you might want to upgrade to our professional version which is $24.99. For institutions and clinics, there is an even larger version available that allows you to manage multiple learners. For example, you have a classroom, you’re not having just one client that you’re working with, but you need to put on profiles for half a dozen or 10 or more kids that are in your setting, and this version is $39.99.
WADE WINGLER: And so are those upgrades handled through in app purchases or are they separate download?
OLIVER WENDT: That is correct. Those are in app purchases. You can download the free app first and then within the app you can upgrade to the professional, the premium plus version.
WADE WINGLER: Excellent. I know that there are a lot of apps that work in the area of augmentative and alternative communication that are available in all the different app stores that are out there. Tell me a little bit about what makes this one different.
OLIVER WENDT: So there are a number of very important differentiators towards those other apps. First of all, Speak All is one of the few apps that really are supported by strong, rigorous, scientific research. We have done a series of behavioral studies looking at what are the actual effects for the child in terms of beefing up their functional communication skills, what effects are there to teach them speech and language, reduction of problem behaviors, and on top of this, you’ve also done neuroimaging studies that are comparing the autistic brain before and after intervention with Speak All.
Now, I’m not saying that Speak All directly produced an impact on the autistic brain, but it helped in the larger sense of an intervention to make changes at a neurophysiological level. So those brain scans, they showed improved brain activity when you compare the status before the intervention to the status after the intervention.
On top of this, Speak All allows a very easy transition from this early approach of exchange based communication using a picture communication book to using a tablet device. If you look at the Speak All interface, it very much resembles those picture communication books so that all of the students that are currently using the picture exchange communication system in their classrooms, for them it’s an easy transition to move up to an iPad or another tablet device and continue communicating through that divides fairly easily.
Another important differentiator is that Speak All is a very autism friendly app that reduces cognitive load and minimizes sensory difficulties. If you look at the large pool of apps that are out there, they can easily be overwhelming for the learner with autism. The learner with autism cannot handle too much stimuli at one time. Many of these other apps come with lots of bells and whistles that, when you do autism intervention, actually prove to be counterproductive because it’s too much for the child to process. The display is overloaded with a variety of stimuli, whereas Speak All is kept very simple, very easy to process after the principle less is more.
WADE WINGLER: That makes a whole lot of sense. It really does.
OLIVER WENDT: The last aspect I like to mention is Speak All can easily be integrated in parent intervention. In autism, we know the interventions are more sustainable, they stick longer with the child, if we can actually make parents our partners and involve them in intervention efforts. Speak All comes with a manual. It comes with a lot of parent support that are on our YouTube channel. We currently are doing studies where we are training parents to be partners in crime, to be involved in the intervention. It’s very intuitive for them to master Speak All, to put symbols that are appropriate for the child and use that in their home environments. Many good reasons. I hope I’m giving you not too much here.
WADE WINGLER: No, that’s good. I’m glad you mentioned the parent involvement, because I know in the past, traditional augmentative mitigation devices have been complicated. I know parents have been hesitant to get in there and dig around.
OLIVER WENDT: Absolutely. AC devices can be overwhelming for parents. Parents need something that they can put on simply that is intuitive to use that doesn’t overburden them with too much additional effort. They have to read through a lengthy manual, they have to learn how to program the device.
WADE WINGLER: So, Oliver, we’ve got about a minute or so left in the interview. To me a story about somebody whose life has been impacted by Speak All.
OLIVER WENDT: All right. We are working closely with a speech language pathologist in the Kentucky school system. This person has just posted an amazing and very heartwarming story about one of his students by the name of Jason that he has been working with. Jason has been in a classroom in a more integrated, inclusive classroom, and his classroom teacher could not deal with his very aggressive, unpredictable behavior which included hitting and headbutting.
The student, Jason, had previously been using the picture exchange communication system as I mentioned, and his speech language pathologist now was trying to move him to a tablet device. He tried many different apps come and eventually stumbled across Speak All. Speak All allowed exactly to do what I just mentioned, that easy transition from a picture communication book to using the tablet device.
When Jason, that student with severe behavioral disorders, began using the tablet as the speech enabling device, his speech language pathologist and his classroom teachers learned so much more about him that they previously did not know. They learned that he liked certain items, that he enjoyed cleaning up. He like stories involving pizza eating. His entire aggression and behavioral problems began to subside, and his classroom teacher was now more reenergized and more optimistic. She was no longer so pessimistic about him moving on to another classroom.
By the end of the school year, Jason was now being able to move onto the next setting and make the transition to middle school. It was a very successful event for everybody involved. They had almost given up on the student and haven’t seen this perspective for him to move to the next level of schooling. Now, after he had been in this intervention, his entire personality started to unfold. He was a much more fluent communicator. Aggression and behavior problems are being reduced, and now he can make that transition onto the next level of schooling.
WADE WINGLER: I think it’s important that we talk about stories like that. It’s easy for the more technical folks in the audience to get tied up into the bells and whistles, but really it’s about impacting lives. That certainly a story for that. Oliver, we are out of time for today, but would you provide us with some contact information so that if folks want to learn more about the app or the work you’re doing, they might be able to reach out to you?
OLIVER WENDT: yes, absolutely. We like for the audience to come to our website, www.speakmod.com. Please Google us. On Facebook if you put Speak Mod, you can get to our Facebook site. We like for people to follow us on Twitter. If you put Speak Mod on Twitter, you can find us there. There’s a nice blog out there, practical.org. If you Google Speak All, you will find a variety of different stories about how Speak All has been used in practice, what individual clients have made in terms of progress, how speech in which pathologists are using this.
I will also later on send you a link to a YouTube channel and to a video that highlights the important features of the app and talks about how parents use that successfully in the home environments.
WADE WINGLER: Great, and I’ll put all those links in the show notes that listeners can get to them. Dr. Oliver Wendt is an assistant professor in the speech, language, and hearing sciences area at Purdue University and the chief scientific officer for speak modalities. Oliver, thank you so much for being with us today.
OLIVER WENDT: Yes, thank you so much for having me on the show. I could go on a talk forever about this, but time is limited. Thank you so much for having me. Best of luck in communicating this to your audience. Keep up the great work you’re doing. I think it’s a wonderful resource for everybody and the assistive technology community.
WADE WINGLER: Do you have a question about assistive technology? Do you have a suggestion for someone we should interview on Assistive Technology Update? Call our listener line at 317-721-7124. Looking for show notes from today’s show? Head on over to EasterSealstech.com. Shoot us a note on Twitter @INDATAProject, or check us out on Facebook. That was your Assistance Technology Update. I’m Wade Wingler with the INDATA Project at Easter Seals Crossroads in Indiana.