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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:
Partnership on Employment and Accessible Technology (PEAT) with Loren Mikola – www.peatworks.org
Email Heidi Walters at the AFB with your experiences using AT Telecommunication Devices: HWalters@afb.net
Is Kindle Unlimited worth it? – The Washington Post http://buff.ly/1lX9Rz9
Speech Generating Device – Information Required for Coding Verification Review http://buff.ly/1lX7iNs
App: Kindle App www.BridgingApps.org
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——-transcript follows ——-
LOREN MIKOLA: Hi, this is Loren Mikola, and I’m the project director of PEAT, the Partnership on Employment in Accessible Technology, 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 150 Assistive Technology Update. It’s scheduled to released on August 1 of 2014.
Today my interview is Loren Mikola who’s with RESNA and talking about the Partnership on Employment in Accessible Technology. We have a question about Kindle Unlimited and is it worth it. An app about the Kindle. And information about Medicaid, Medicare funding for speech generating devices. Give us a call on our listener line at 317-721-7124, or shoot us a note on Twitter at INDATA Project.
I’ve got an email here from the American Foundation for the Blind about the fact that they are gathering information about your experience using communication technologies like cell phones, tablets, computers for email, text messages, and so forth. They are gathering information to share with the FCC for a report to Congress on the extent to which the communications industry is complying with the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act. Heidi Walters is the person whose gathering that information and they asked that before Monday, August 11, you send her a simple email and tell her what your experiences are using things like Apple devices, Android devices, Windows devices and when you’re talking to her tell you how you are accessing the Internet, reading emails, text messages and those kinds of things. It’s an email address. It’s hwalters@afb.net. Email Heidi Walters at hwalters@afb.net. Heidi is gathering information and would love to hear more about your experiences. Check our show notes and I’ll include the email address there.
A lot of our listeners are users of the Amazon Kindle for reading books. Amazon recently introduced a new subscription service is called Kindle Unlimited, and it’s $10 a month and kind of gives you sort of a Netflix version of accessing e-books. So for $9.99 a month you get access to a collection of over a half-million, I guess over 600,000 e-books. It doesn’t include everything. It includes a lot of the classics and some of the most famous series, things like Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings. Also a lot of self-published books, but it doesn’t include some of the things. I’m looking at an article here from the Washington Post where they do kind of a deep dive on this. They talk about what’s included in this subscription service and also talks about whether or not it might be a good deal for you depending on the kinds of books you read and how frequently you read. Obviously, they say that if you’re a heavy reader and read multiple books in a month, then you’re probably going to do well with this service. But they also mentioned that the average American reader reads only five books a year and that may not be a good break even for your investment in the service. There are also some challenges sometimes with accessibility and the Amazon Kindle devices. I know there’s been some improvements made in that area recently. Regardless, I’m going to pop a link in the show notes and let you make a decision about whether or not Kindle Unlimited, this new service from Amazon, is worth it for you to read more books. Check our show notes.
Our friend Andrew Liebs at about.com has a blog post this week that’s entitled, “Nuance Dragon naturally speaking 13 for the PC.” The subtitle is voice recognition software now works in seconds, no headset required. Dragon is a system that’s been around for many years. I’ve used it for a long time. It’s a speech to text system that’s pretty sophisticated. In fact, version 13 had just come out in the last few weeks and Andrew talks about some of the details in his article. Some of the things that he mentions is the fact that it has improved out-of-the-box accuracy and get smarter as it automatically learns the words and phrases and adapts to each individual user’s writing style and preferences. Dragon has been learning as it goes for a long time, but apparently that’s been stepped up quite a bit in this newest version. Other enhancements that he talks about our it gets better with speech recognition for people who have accents and are English-language learners. Again the out of the box accuracy is supposed to be pretty good. It works without some sort of the special microphone. The install, language selection, and other startup tasks when you first install take less than two minutes and it leverages some of the World Wide Web Consortium’s Web aria standards which is the Accessible Rich Internet Application specifications, basically makes it work better with websites to handle components like contact list, proper names, email addresses and those sort of things and Outlook. I’m going to pop a link in the show notes over to about.com where you can learn more about what Andrew is saying about Dragon naturally speaking version 13 for your PC.
A lot of my friends and colleagues who work in the field of augmentative and alternative communication have been having lots of huge conversations about how Medicare pays for augmentative and alternative medication devices. I’m looking at a press release here on the Meridian healthcare solutions website. It’s within the durable medical equipment Medicare pricing data analysis and coding section. It’s talking about the difference between dedicated and non-dedicated communication devices. I’m going to read a little bit here for the website because it’s interesting.
It says that devices that do not meet the definition of speech generating devices and therefore do not fall within the scope of the Medicare Act are characterized by devices that are not dedicated speech devices. That means they are capable of running software for the purposes other than speech generation. For example, they can run word processing, accounting software, or those kinds of things. Additionally it lists laptop computers, desktop computers, or personal digital assistants which may be programmed to perform the same function as a speech generating device. They aren’t covered because they aren’t primarily a medical device in nature and don’t meet the definition of a DME. It also talks about devices that are useful to somebody without severe speech impairments not being considered a speech generating device for the purposes of Medicare coverage.
I paraphrased a few things in there and I’m going to stick a link in the show notes so that you can read this directly, but it really is talking about the fact that things that aren’t dedicated speech devices may not be covered by Medicare and there is some more details in there. I know this really comes up in the world of iPads and tablet computers and smartphones because those are devices that are multipurpose. They certainly can serve communication needs but by the definitions clearly aren’t dedicated devices. I know this a bit of a controversial issue. It’s hotly contested in the industry right now and the best I can do is stick a link in the show notes so that you can read more information about this clarification on what is and isn’t a dedicated device and how that may or may not be covered by Medicare. Check our show notes.
Now here’s an app worth mentioning.
>> This is Amy Barry with BridgingApps and this is an app worth mentioning. Today I’m going to share the Kindle app. Downloading the Kindle app gives you the ability to read Kindle books, newspapers, magazines, textbooks, and PDFs on your mobile device. This is a very popular reading apps due to its accessibility to over 1.5 million books and numerous features.
The Kindle app provides many learning opportunities for students with special needs including visual formatting, text to speech, and even a dictionary feature. The Kindle app has recently been enhanced for the blind and visually impaired. Users can now hear many books read aloud and use features like zoom and assisted touch to more easily see and navigate text. Amazon’s whisper sync feature automatically syncs the last page read with bookmarks, notes, and highlights across devices. So you can pick up your e-book and begin reading where you left off on another device.
For students that have difficulty flipping pages or holding open books, the Kindle provides a convenient alternative. By pushing a button, students are able to flip through pages and chapters. Additionally, for students with more severe physical disabilities, there may be some potential of connecting a switch to the Kindle. Kindle’s text-to-speech audio function can help address the challenges of ELL students as well as those who struggle with reading fluency. A helpful suggestion for these students is to allow them to choose a font size and color that they feel comfortable with.
We trialed this app with elementary and high school students of all ability levels. Using the app, they were more motivated to read and notably engaged for longer periods of time. BridgingApps highly recommends this app for everyone. The Kindle app is free at the iTunes and Google play stores. This app can be used on iOS and android devices. For more information on this app and others like it, visit BridgingApps.org.
WADE WINGLER: I’m excited today to have a guest on our show that’s going to talk a little bit about accessibility and employment and work, and he is somebody who works for RESNA. Loren Mikola is the PEAT Project director there and he and I actually bumped into each other a few weeks ago when the RESNA 2014 conference was here in Indianapolis. Let me first check. Loren, are you there?
LOREN MIKOLA: Yes.
WADE WINGLER: Good, I’m glad that our Skype connection didn’t break and we’re still able to talk and get the interview taken care. Loren, I’m so excited to have you on the show today. I appreciate you taking time out of your day. I wonder before we kind of jump into the nuts and bolts of talking about the PEAT Project, can you tell me a little bit about yourself and why you’re interested in employment in accessible technology?
LOREN MIKOLA: Certainly. Thank you very much, Wade. I do sincerely appreciate the opportunity to speak to you and your global audience here today. My name again is Loren Mykola. I was actually born blind. Grew up in the Midwest myself actually. I’m from suburban Detroit. I was pretty mainstream through my school years in public school, then I went to community college for a bit in Metro Detroit, then I got my Bachelors of Science in Computer Information Systems at Arizona State University outside of Phoenix. After that, I went to the Pacific Northwest where I went to work for Microsoft Corporation for a number of years, almost 13 years actually, from 1999 to 2012. After that I worked briefly at an NAB organization, Seattle Lighthouse.
At Microsoft, I did a variety of technical and support roles, everything from a little bit of database administration, audio testing for Windows media player, as well as working on the global diversity and inclusion team as the disability inclusion program manager where I managed Microsoft’s disability efforts internally as well as our external outreach efforts with national and to some degree global disability related organizations, focusing on employment and people with disabilities. I worked at the Seattle lighthouse briefly as a project manager for rolling out Windows and Office upgrades, managing some training and accessibility efforts as well as helpdesk management. So it was a nice grab bag of items. A much smaller organizations than Microsoft as you can imagine. Then just this past November 2013, I relocated again from the Pacific Northwest to the other Washington, the DC area. I live in Arlington, Virginia, currently where I work at the RESNA offices. I’m now the product director of the partnership on employment and accessible technology.
WADE WINGLER: So folks in my audience tend to be fairly technical. Loren, by listening to your introduction there it sounds like you certainly have your geek credit especially where it comes to assistive technology.
LOREN MIKOLA: I try. I think I do have a little bit of street credit.
WADE WINGLER: That’s great. So when we bumped into each other at RESNA, I know you were about to do a presentation on the PEAT Project. I think the time was right about the same time I was giving a talk there. I didn’t get to hear your presentation there but I’m fascinated about what’s happening and what if you can give me a little bit of an overview of the PEAT Project and what it is and that kind of thing.
LOREN MIKOLA: Sure. I’d be happy to. It stands for the Partnership on Employment and Accessible Technology. It’s actually a grant, a cooperative agreement, between the RESNA folks and the federal government Office of Disability Employment Policy which is under the US Department of Labor. Kathy Martinez is the assistant secretary over the entire initiative. We are one of the projects under that initiative.
PEAT is actually focusing on employment of people with disabilities, using the lever of accessible technology. What that really means to your audience, and I think this is an important distinction because it’s really one that ODEP really hits home almost every time we speak, is unlike some of ODEP’s other technical assistance centers, the PEAT Project is really focusing on the universal design side of technology. So rather than assistive technology or what I like to think is technology really tailored very individually or historically tailored to a specific person or accommodation, this is really trying to get technology providers and employers or businesses large and small to really incorporate technology into their products at a much earlier phase of development. Really, by doing that, we’re hoping to actually move the needle of employment of people with disabilities by using that lever of accessible technology rather than just trying to bolt it on or treating it as a special shelf, as Kathy Martinez likes to say.
WADE WINGLER: I’ve been doing assistive technology for a little over 20 years and it usually is a retrofit sort of situation. I spent countless hours in call centers doing screen reader programming for example and dealing with applications that haven’t been developed in an accessible way and then bolted on afterwards. I think most folks in our audience understand why that’s needed, but can you elaborate more on why the bolt on afterward approach isn’t working.
LOREN MIKOLA: Well, there’s a few reasons. It’s actually—if you do your research, and I’m probably preaching to the choir here, but that’s okay. It costs more to actually add it on later. It’s also, as we’ve seen especially with the explosion of mobile technologies and mobile devices from tablets to cell phones, developing for the mobile space has really proven to benefit accessibility because it’s very stripped-down as opposed to some of the bells and whistles that you really don’t need to be accessing on websites.
It’s important, I feel, to do it earlier on because it can actually save a business money and can actually help more than just the “disability community.” And there’s so many examples of that or something was assistive at one time where now it’s just in the mainstream. Things like talking books. They’ve been around for 50 years or more. Now there’s what’s called audible.com and there’s the commuters that commute how many hours a day and they love listening to books on tape or on audible. Is that an assistive technology? Well, not really. It’s mainstream. It’s just that next evolution of really bringing more the technologies that we use every day into the wider landscape or the wider of just making them accessible to everyone out of the box.
The other interesting thing is that it’s a very situational type of scenario. If someone is in a loud environment, they might want to have something displayed visually. So basically if someone is driving, they might want to also hear something announced to them so they don’t have to take their eyes off the road. So captioning isn’t just for people that are deaf and audible feedback isn’t just for someone who is blind or low vision. These things can apply universally depending on the situation someone is in.
The project initiatives and folks that are on the project really feel strongly that this approach is much better and will really help people in the long run. As I heard Senator Tom Harkin say recently at a conference here in Arlington Virginia, you can do well and also do good. So in other words you can be successful in a business, profitable standpoint, but also be a good citizen to the world and the community at large.
WADE WINGLER: I think Senator Harkin’s words are well taken in the situation. I couldn’t agree more. You mentioned ODEP, you mentioned RESNA. Who else is involved in the project?
LOREN MIKOLA: So we have quite a few very interesting partners that we are dealing with. At our car, we have Inclusive Technologies. Jim Tobias runs that organization. He has literally decades of experience around the independent living movement, around the technology movement, around the disability movement. He’s also partnered with the Global Public Inclusion Infrastructure, GPII. The Raising The Floor Project with Greg Vanderheit, another person very well known to RESNA and folks that know about RESNA. We also have partnered in the past with the Burton Blatt Institute at Syracuse University. Our communications and marketing is somewhat spread out between internal RESNA staff and an organization called Concepts Communications that’s worked extensively with ODEP over the years, so we get a nice inroads that way. We’re also partnering with Bobby Silverstein who many folks may know as just a very well-seasoned disability lawyer and advocate. He’s doing some great research around public policy and his current project is researching various states of the United States to see if they have some diamonds in the rough around employment and accessible technology and if that’s true, he’s going to compile that and possibly create model legislative language that other states can insert to try to move the needle forward and make it as easy as possible for other states to adopt some of these practices that we are researching.
We also are partnering with a local DC firm called Ethos Consulting. They are really spearheading some efforts around the employment lifecycle, particularly around the accessibility of online job applications. Just to sort of circle back to PEAT goals, our target audience are technology providers, employers, and end-users. Specifically to the end user standpoint, the employee lifestyle is so critical. If an end-user cannot even apply for a job, than the rest of the cycle is moot. So we’re really devoting a lot of energy and time and resources to investigating how we can help systems integrators, online job application developer such as Oracle and IBM and others, as well as third-party consultants that customizes applications. How we can really guide them and really partner with them and show them sort of where the problems lie, where the sticky points are, and then really provide some guidance about how they can actually improve these types of scenarios.
So we have webinars planned in the future to engage some of these folks and engage audiences around these topics. We also have a series of webinars that will target each of those individual three audiences, employers, tech providers, and end-users, and really talk to them about why accessible technology matters to them, specifically, and what PEAT can offer them and what people can do for them. So we’re going to talk about things like the PEAT Network which is a group of partners that continually is growing. We have folks like Oracle, AT&T, DQ systems, Ernst & Young. It’s growing all the time. We’re going to have Canon USA shortly. We’re really trading this network of partners that we can pull from and can really use us to move the bar and raise the bar.
WADE WINGLER: It sounds like there are a lot of big players involved. It sounds like you’re putting together a strategy that makes sense. You’re involving people who have been in the business for a while but also those who are doing with cutting edge technology from the development side and really the Zeitgeist of what’s happening in the field. This is a national, international, worldwide project?
LOREN MIKOLA: Because it’s federally funded, we are primarily focusing on the United States. That’s just because the way the federal government works. Our website which is www.peatworks.org. We’re hoping to launch that later this summer or early fall. That will be accessible to anyone with access to the web. Even though our primary constituencies are going to be in the United States, there’s nothing to stop folks from learning about us and utilizing the resources that we will have other websites to include success stories from these PEAT networkers that I discussed, links to content that’s targeted for those three specific audiences that I mentioned already: employers, tech providers, and end-users with disabilities.
And also a tool that Jim Tobias is spearheading which will really use the accessibility maturity model to — it’s a benchmarking tool that employers can actually use. They’ll answer some questions about their accessibility initiatives, if any, and then they’ll be able to get a detailed report at the end that will tell them how they can move to the next level depending on where they are a long journey of accessible technology and really give them some concrete things that they can do, some really actionable things. PEAT really wants to keep things action oriented so that people will come away either if they read something, if they attend a webinar, etc., that will really help them know, okay, what do I do with this information afterward.
WADE WINGLER: It sounds like there’s a whole lot going on there. Loren, we’ve got about less than a minute left. Tell me five years from now if this goes really swimmingly, what will you be bragging about? What will this look like five years from now if it’s a success?
LOREN MIKOLA: It is a five-year grant, so I guess number one I’m hoping that we get extended for another five years.
WADE WINGLER: Right.
LOREN MIKOLA: But really I’m hoping that we have a very robust website, that we had a very robust group of partners, and that we really almost equally as important have a real dialogue. One of the other things that I will mention in conclusion is that part of what we really want the PEAT website to do is really encourage business, tech providers, end users, people in academia, does anyone that’s interested in this topic to engage with us. That’s why we are going to have a Twitter presence, a Facebook presence, hopefully as the years go by other social networks as well. And then we will have opportunities to directly comment on our articles and profiles and spotlight pieces on the website, as well as to conferences that we attend in person. Because we really want to move out of the “choir.” We really want to engage with folks in the general community. So that things like human resources conferences, HR technology conferences, and others.
What I hope to do in five years is that we really have a robust group of core people that are very deeply involved in the disability and accessible technology community, but also equally as robust of a group that may be wouldn’t be the traditional folks or traditional players that would really be folks that we have influence over the years that will really be able to see the value of why it’s important to employ people with disabilities, the skill sets they bring, and also the ability of technology to level the playing field and allow these folks with disabilities to perform at their absolutely highest level and their absolutely highest potential.
WADE WINGLER: Loren Mikola is the project director for the new PEAT Project. You can find that online at www.peatworks.org. Thanks so much for sharing your information with us today.
LOREN MIKOLA: Thank you for the invite.
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.