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Panel – Brian Norton, Belva Smith, and Josh Anderson and Tracy Castillo – Q1 – time management solutions, Q2 – Mic options for classroom, Q3 – Google Home Speech Recognition, Q4 – App for making change, Q5 – free screen capture apps, Q6 – Inspiration brainstorming software alternatives, Q7- Wildcard: I can’t do without technology
————–Transcript Starts Here——————————
Speaker 1:
I have a question.
Speaker 2:
Huh?
Speaker 1:
Like, what?
Speaker 2:
I’ve always wondered.
Speaker 3:
What about… Do you know?
Speaker 4:
I have a question.
Speaker 5:
I’ve always wondered.
Speaker 1:
Like, I have a question.
Speaker 2:
I have a question.
Speaker 6:
I have a question.
Speaker 7:
I have a question.
Speaker 8:
I have a question.
Brian Norton:
Welcome to ATFAQ, Assisted Technology Frequently Asked Questions, with your host Brian Norton, director of Assisted Technology at Easter Seals Crossroads. This is a show where we address your questions about assisted technology, the hardware, software, tools and gadgets that help people with disabilities lead more independent and fulfilling lives. Have a question you’d like answered on our show? Send us a tweet with the hashtag ATFAQ, call our listener line at 617-721-7124 or send us an email at tech@eastersealscrossroads.org. The world of assisted technology has questions and we have answers. And now let’s jump into today’s show.
Brian Norton:
Hello and welcome to ATFAQ episode 115. My name is Brian Norton, and I’m the host of the show. And we’re so happy that you’ve taken some time to tune in with us this week. We have a great line up of assisted technology questions for you today. But before we jump in, I just want to take a moment to go around the studio and introduce the folks who are here with me. First is Tracy. Tracy is in data program manager.
Tracy Castillo:
Hey everyone. I’m Tracy.
Belva Smith:
I think we’re supposed to wait for him to finish.
Tracy Castillo:
I was ready.
Brian Norton:
Nice. The other person here, a couple people here, are Belva Smith. Belva, you want to say…
Belva Smith:
Hi everybody.
Brian Norton:
Belva is our vision team lead with our clinical assisted technology team, and then we also have Josh Anderson. Josh.
Josh Anderson:
Hi everyone.
Brian Norton:
Josh is the popular host of AT Update and then also he is the manager of our clinical assisted technology as well. So thank you guys for being here with us today as we try to get through these questions. Just want to make sure folks are aware of how this show works. The first thing is we come across various feedback and assisted technology related questions throughout the week and then we sit around in a group here and we try to answer those as best as we can. We have a few ways for you to get ahold of us to give us your questions or to provide us feedback. The first would be our listener line, that’s 317-721-7124. You can email us at tech@eastersealscrossroads.org or send us a tweet with a hashtag ATFAQ. Those are all ways for you to get ahold of us and just to let us know what you might have as far as feedback and to provide your questions.
Brian Norton:
Another thing I just want to mention quickly for folks who are new to the show and maybe want to let other folks know about it, there are a variety of ways to find our show. You can find us on iTunes, you can go to ATFAQshow.com, which is the website set up for our show. You can go to Stitcher, Google Play Store and find our show there. So share that around if you’d like. We’d love to be able to reach more folks.
Brian Norton:
Without further ado, we’re going to jump in today.
Belva Smith:
Wait a minute. Let’s just say welcome everybody to ATFAQ. First show of 2020.
Brian Norton:
I know. Yes. 2020.
Belva Smith:
2020.
Brian Norton:
I think we’re all back at it here inundated with emails and other kinds of things trying to dig out of our workload that piled up on us the last couple of weeks.
Josh Anderson:
Tracy, I don’t know what he’s talking about. We’ve been here the whole time.
Brian Norton:
That’s right. Some of us have been off.
Tracy Castillo:
Yeah. It was really-
Josh Anderson:
I think you were always off.
Tracy Castillo:
I was so happy when everyone showed up. I could stop talking to myself.
Josh Anderson:
I know. I know. It’s been pretty much Tracy and I on this entire floor.
Tracy Castillo:
Okay. I’ve been pacing, haven’t I? I’ve been walking back and forth looking for people just like, just want to stop by.
Brian Norton:
Just think of all the time you guys have off coming up because you didn’t use it over your holiday break.
Josh Anderson:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). Starting now.
Brian Norton:
Exactly. Exactly. Well, hey, I just want to-
Tracy Castillo:
That was me walking out.
Brian Norton:
Excellent.
Brian Norton:
So we’re going to jump into the questions that we have for today. The first question is, “Hey, Brian.” This was a question I got asked in the hallway the other day, but, “Do you have any recommendations for students who struggle with time management? Are there any good apps out there?” So I know personally there are a lot of good time management apps, quite a few that I’ve used in that past. I’ll just mention a couple real quickly.
Brian Norton:
The first, Cozi Calendar. I use that personally and professionally. What I love about it, it’s a shared calendar, and you can connect parents with guardians or do peer-to-peer edits and additions to calendars. So for instance, in my family, our whole family’s on that and so my daughters, I have two daughters, and then I have my wife and myself. We all have our own individual calendars, they’re all Gmail calendars. We’re able to connect all four of those together through Cozi Calendar to be able to see them all in one place and then be able to figure out what our schedule is day-to-day and what everybody else is doing. So it makes it real simple to go ahead and just figure out what everybody’s doing and make sure we’re all on the same page. So it’s super useful. Cozi Calendar. It’s free, but if you want some of the advanced features, and it does have some nice to-do lists, some grocery lists and shopping lists and things like that that you can do. But that’s going to cost you a little bit. I think it’s like $30 a month for the premium version. So it’s a little more-
Belva Smith:
$30.
Brian Norton:
Maybe it’s for a year.
Josh Anderson:
$30 a year.
Brian Norton:
Maybe it’s $30 a year.
Belva Smith:
Okay.
Josh Anderson:
I think that’s… Wow, Brian is trying to pocket a little extra money.
Tracy Castillo:
You know what, give me $25 and I will remind you.
Brian Norton:
True. True. But super useful calendar. We use that quite a bit in my family, but then also presented on that a little bit too. And it’s a super, really useful calendar that folks can use.
Josh Anderson:
So a couple I’ve used. I’ve used Multi Timer quite a few times, and I think it’s just called Multi Timer. It’s free. There is a paid version, but I don’t know what you get from the paid version. But what’s nice is you can set up I think six or eight timers at a time. So you can have do this task for 15 minutes, take a five minute break, do this task for… And name them however you want, but it’s really good for queuing and just keeping up on a lot of different things.
Josh Anderson:
And then another one I use is Forest, and Forest is a little bit better for just staying on task kind of stuff because what it is, you open it up, you set your timer. I think it goes from five minutes to two hours, and then it plants this nice little tree. And then if you open up a different app on your phone, your tree’s dead. You have to stay in that app. So it keeps out because a lot of us, especially students and stuff, they want to maybe check… I don’t know. I don’t know what kids do anymore. Check Facebook, do that kind of stuff. But anyway, if you go to a different app, this little thing will pop up and be like, “Oh, go back to Forest or your tree will die.” So you have to actually sit there and let it grow. So it’s nice just because it helps keep you on task.
Josh Anderson:
But really any of the ones that we talk about for any student, most of these, if they aren’t free, they have a free version. So download the free versions, try them out and see what works best for that person might be the best way to go.
Brian Norton:
Right. When I was going to mention Multi Timer, I’ve used that for routines before. So morning routines, got to brush my teeth, put my deodorant on, grab my backpack, grab my lunch, do those kinds of things. All those different things that I got to get done during the day, and you can set timers for each one of those particular tasks and then set them up as a string, like you were mentioning, for prompting and queuing, that’s always useful.
Brian Norton:
And then I do love the simplicity of Forest, just having a visual timer a lot of times can be helpful for folks, letting them know how much longer they have to wait before they can move on to the next task or just how long a particular task is going to take for them. So I’ve enjoyed that Forest calendar as well.
Belva Smith:
I personally don’t have much experience with these types of apps, but I did find a website that has the top 14 time management apps for students just released for 2020. And I was surprised. Some of them are free, some of them do have a small cost. By the way, Brian, I did look up Cozi is $29.99 for the year.
Brian Norton:
For the year, not the month.
Belva Smith:
But if you go to edarabia.com. That’s E-D-A-R-A-B-I-A.com. They have a whole list of the 14 that they feel like is the best, and to my surprise, Evernote popped up as the number one.
Brian Norton:
Yeah. I love Evernote. I use Evernote a lot.
Tracy Castillo:
Well, guys, I’m a little bit more simple than that. I use-
Belva Smith:
Me too. That’s why I don’t use them.
Tracy Castillo:
Exactly. Well, I do use timers, and I do use alarms. But I use my Siri.
Belva Smith:
Yeah.
Tracy Castillo:
And I also use Alexa quite often. I don’t think that would work in the classroom, but those are the apps that I go for.
Brian Norton:
So you just set timers, or-
Tracy Castillo:
I set timers and reminders, and then sometimes I can hook my calendar into Siri but I haven’t done it with Alexa. We’re not that close just yet.
Belva Smith:
And you can do that with Outlook too. If a student is using Outlook, you can still do the journal where you can set the timers and be reminded as a class or a project should be completed to go onto the next one. But I think probably having an app specifically for time management would probably be a better option than trying to use Outlook or something like that.
Brian Norton:
I’ll go back to Evernote. Evernote for me isn’t necessarily a time management app, but it’s maybe more of an organizational app for myself where I’m able to capture information. I might be able to do different to-do’s or put a task-
Belva Smith:
Inspirations. That’s one of the things that they’re saying is as you’re putting together your plans, you can also include inspirations. I’ve actually been using my A lady to do that every morning. I ask her to inspire me for the day.
Josh Anderson:
I feel like you’re swearing every time you call it the A lady.
Belva Smith:
Well, I’ve tried to not wake everybody up. I actually now have a new one in the house. So now it’s name is Amazon because I’ve already got the other A lady, and I’ve already got the E lady. So now I have-
Tracy Castillo:
And you can use computer now.
Belva Smith:
Yeah. I don’t feel right using computer yet. But when I get another one, I guess I will have to.
Brian Norton:
That’s funny. Hey, I’m going to throw out two other ones real quickly. If you’re looking for simple prompting and queuing apps, Aida Reminders. I’m sure I’m not saying that correctly, but it’s A-I-D-A. Aida Reminders is what I call it. And then Alarmed is another one. And what I love about these two apps is they’re very simple. You can create a list of different things you need to do throughout the day. You can set a particular period of time. It will prompt you to either start something or stop something. It gives you the opportunity to snooze it too. So if you’re not quite complete with a particular task, you can hit the snooze button. It’ll give you five more minutes, 10 more minutes, 15 more minutes to be able to finish up that task before moving on. You can set voice reminders as well, which allows you instead of having some sort of auditory alarm that may not be ambiguous to you about what it means, you can have just a voice come across. It could be your mom, a teacher, or something that might be helpful to trigger the individual that’s using it to be able to stop or start a task. So voice reminders is really useful.
Brian Norton:
And then what I love about these two is I believe both of them will actually show your lists of tasks in a calendar view as well. So on different dates. So you can set recurring reminders, daily reminders, those kinds of things. And I’ve had some success with that because it’s just real simple. It’s very visual, and with the voice reminders, having that person’s voice come across rather than just an auditory alarm can be really helpful in being able to trigger an activity, whether you’re trying to start or stop something.
Brian Norton:
But I think, Josh, you mentioned earlier, and I’ll just wrap this questions up with this. Considering an evaluation. There’s a lot to this stuff. There are lots of things to consider. Where the person is, are they in school, are they doing work, what’s their particular situation like, what kind of device do they use, do they have a phone, do they have a tablet, is it IOS, is it Android, is it Windows, those kinds of things. So there’s a whole lot to consider when doing these kinds of things. So having some sort of an evaluation would be helpful to be able to help vet out certain products or certain apps based on a particular situation and what might be merited in that situation.
Brian Norton:
The other thing I would recommend too is you could also contact your local assisted technology act. I know we have a lot of mobile devices here in our program within our loan library that you can borrow for 30 days that have apps on them. Many of these apps are things that we have available that can be preloaded onto an iPad and for you to be able to try out for a little bit of time because although some of these are free apps, it would be helpful just to make sure they’re really going to fit. They’re going to fit your situation, they’re going to be something that you’ll use longer term instead of spending the money, even though it’s relatively low, the expense is relatively low. Might be something to consider trying before you buy it as well, and you can find your local AT act by going to eastersealstech.com/states and looking up your local AT act there. So just some things to consider as you look at these particular products.
Brian Norton:
All right. So our next question is, “I’m seeking suggestions for a Bluetooth headphones with a mic for use in a classroom for a text to speech with voice input. Looking for a noise canceling mic because I think what’s happening with them is they’re picking up other speech in the environment.” Maybe there’s kids in the classroom talking next to the individual and that’s being heard and being basically transcribed onto whatever they’re typing into. They’re also looking for headphones on both ears, but not noise isolating so that the individual can still hear the teacher. So they don’t want it to completely isolate the person. They want to be able to still hear the teacher as they talk. Any help would be appreciated.
Belva Smith:
I’m wondering why they want Bluetooth because it’s like everything that I’m hearing in this question says that speech to text probably isn’t going to work because they’re in a noisy environment. They want to use a Bluetooth microphone and they want over both ears so that they can still hear what’s going on in the classroom. So that’s a tough situation. And I don’t know. What’s your guys experience with a Bluetooth headset like dragon?
Josh Anderson:
I’ve had good luck with some. I mean, one of the questions, and Belv, I’m with us, is what are they using this for? Because if they still need to hear the teacher, if they’re using it to take notes, then there’s other options out there that are probably going to be a whole lot better than trying to dictate your notes while listening to the teacher. Now if they’re dictating papers and stuff and they’re in the classroom and it’s still a noisy environment, that one’s a little bit easier I guess to do. There’s all kinds of different ones that I’m sure Brian probably has some. I can actually say that the trucker headsets, Blue Parrots I think.
Brian Norton:
Blue Parrots. Those are really great mics.
Josh Anderson:
And yeah, they’re great, and they’re what truckers use.
Belva Smith:
And they’re Bluetooth?
Josh Anderson:
They’re Bluetooth. They stay connected.
Belva Smith:
Oh, okay. I thought they were wired. Okay.
Josh Anderson:
They have both kinds, but they do have Bluetooth ones that really work pretty well. They’re pretty noise canceling. I mean, you think they’re used to being in a semi truck with all that background noise and everything and still picking up everything the individual says. But again if it’s for note taking, then maybe some sort of software that can record, like an audio note or something like that might be a little bit better. I mean, even if you would use Sono Send, it can actually transcribe everything that’s recorded. So if it’s for that, then there might be some other things. But I know there’s definitely some decent Bluetooth that has the noise canceling. I would worry about the over the ear headset and still being able to get enough information coming back.
Belva Smith:
I know.
Josh Anderson:
Being over both ears, but, I mean, it could also be just from reading the question the fact that maybe they just want to know when the teacher says, “Okay. Put your pencils down,” or, “Okay. Let’s move onto the next thing.” So that can make a difference too.
Brian Norton:
Two things, I would venture a guess that this is for note taking because they still want to hear the teacher. If they weren’t hearing the teacher or worried about that, well then really any headset could work. But if they’re worrying about hearing the teacher, they’re probably taking notes in class. And I would just say Bluetooth headsets are probably the preferred headset just simple because they’re wireless.
Belva Smith:
They’re not tethered.
Brian Norton:
There’s less in front of you to be able to either work a textbook or do something else. So those would be my two venture guesses on why the question was asked as it was.
Brian Norton:
The other one I’ll mention, this is not Bluetooth, but there’s the Steno Masks. So Steno SR is basically a privacy microphone. It doesn’t involve headsets at all. It actually something that fits over top of your mouth, and basically you can talk into it and it keeps everything private. It keeps people from around you, whatever they’re saying, from being transcribed, but you’ll still be able to hear the teacher. Now I don’t know why she wanted one that had a double headset, double earphones, but-
Josh Anderson:
And Brian, the Steno, what’s nice is no one else can hear you speak either, which if it is during note taking, that might become an issue for the students in the area if they’re listening to the teacher and-
Belva Smith:
Now how’s that going to work? How’s that going to work? How’s it going to pick up what I’m saying but not let other people-
Tracy Castillo:
Right. I’m a little confused on this situation.
Josh Anderson:
It looks like a vacuum cleaner just put on your face.
Tracy Castillo:
Really?
Josh Anderson:
I mean, to describe it to a podcast audience, it looks like putting a little vacuum cleaner around your mouth kind of thing or-
Tracy Castillo:
And I’ve seen this done [crosstalk 00:18:03].
Belva Smith:
Do we know, is that compatible with Dragon or-
Josh Anderson:
Yes.
Belva Smith:
… compatible with… Wow. Interesting.
Josh Anderson:
In fact, because a lot of times what it’s for is medical transcription. So if I work in a doctor’s office, I need to use Dragon.
Belva Smith:
How expensive is that, Brian?
Josh Anderson:
$17 million. It’s less than that.
Tracy Castillo:
And $0.50 plus tax.
Josh Anderson:
Plus tax, yes.
Belva Smith:
We should probably get-
Brian Norton:
I don’t have the price right in front of me, but-
Belva Smith:
We should probably have one of those in the lending library.
Tracy Castillo:
The one that he just showed us looks a lot better than what they used to look like.
Josh Anderson:
Yes, yes. Yeah, they used to be a little closer like the Darth Vader mask.
Tracy Castillo:
Exactly.
Josh Anderson:
Yeah, it was almost like a full headgear thing.
Brian Norton:
Right. It looks like they’re about $260. So not-
Belva Smith:
But it’s comparable because the Blue Parrots, what? It’s at least $200.
Josh Anderson:
Yup.
Tracy Castillo:
I did find on High Tech Wireless, I did find a mic that was noise canceling, but it didn’t offer the other things that she wanted. That’s where I got confused at. Why are we needing all of the other things?
Brian Norton:
It boils down to particular situations need particular things, and we’re all… I mean, there’s a lot of different solutions out there. These things would be… You’re right, Belva, we probably should get that added to our library so that folks can borrow it here at least if they’re in Indiana. But you may also check other AT acts to see what they may have because they are a popular… They’ve been around for a long time, those Steno masks.
Belva Smith:
That’s funny because I’ve never heard of them. But I would say that this is a great question to throw out there to the audience. So if you are a teacher or a user of speech recognition and you’re using some sort of a Bluetooth, especially with the double ear, let us know what you’re using. What’s working for you?
Brian Norton:
Yeah. That would be great. Yeah, definitely do that. You can do that in a variety of ways. You can give us a call on our listener line. That’s 317-721-7124 or you can send us an email at tech@easterseelscrossroads.org. Love to hear from you. Thanks.
Brian Norton:
So our next question is, “I bought a Google Home for my daughter. She has cerebral palsy and is looking… And I’m basically looking for help to get it to recognize her voice. It recognizes the command, just not the ‘Hey Google’ so the activation command. Any help would be greatly appreciated.”
Belva Smith:
Well, I will tell you that in my research on this, this is a question that is coming up and has been coming up over and over and over. But to my knowledge, at this time, it’s either, “Okay…” or “Hey Google.”
Brian Norton:
Hey Google, Okay, Google.
Belva Smith:
Right. It’s got to be one of those two.
Josh Anderson:
So if you can’t say Google, you’re-
Belva Smith:
You’re kind of in trouble. And I will say that the Amazon devices are the same way. They do have four options, but you do have to use one of those four options. And I will say too that I would say, and Brian, I think you mentioned this in your answer. I would say just try to get it to recognize it at some point because Google is more forgiving than the Amazon devices as far as understanding and recognizing. My granddaughter’s been talking to Google since she was like two, and we all know how difficult a two year old is to understand. But the only thing that I could think of is possibly you might try using some sort of a digital recorder, and maybe have someone else say the command and then maybe just have one button that the person would press to play that because I know mine will respond if it hears the certain wake up word from the TV. It’ll wake up and start listening. So I don’t think it has to be a live spoken wake up command, but it does have to be one of those two specific commands.
Tracy Castillo:
So I have an idea.
Belva Smith:
I see the light bulb.
Tracy Castillo:
Wow. There it came. It went away. Anyhow, so with Alexa or the A girl, you can use the tab to Alexa, which brings up couldn’t you use a button.
Belva Smith:
Well, you can tap Google.
Tracy Castillo:
You can tap Google. Could you add a button, like a switch, switch access?
Belva Smith:
I don’t know. I really don’t know.
Brian Norton:
Yeah, I don’t know. I know-
Belva Smith:
I’m going to guess on, but maybe.
Brian Norton:
I know on the Amazon products, you can get a Echo button to run a routine for you. So you can definitely do that. And you can also have tap to Alexa, and I do, like you said, with the screen, what do they call them? Google Home.
Belva Smith:
Yeah. There’s something different now. I just bought-
Josh Anderson:
Hub.
Brian Norton:
The Google Home Hubs, they have screens, and you can simple select things there as well. So definitely possible.
Belva Smith:
But with my Google device, I can walk up to it and just tap it and it’ll wake up. And then I can give it the command. But I don’t know if they’re all that way.
Tracy Castillo:
Right, and they do have the BIGmacks, is that what it’s called? The-
Josh Anderson:
The big buttons.
Tracy Castillo:
The big button.
Belva Smith:
Yeah, but how would you connect it? I don’t know.
Josh Anderson:
Well, you can record your voice.
Tracy Castillo:
You can record [crosstalk 00:23:28]
Belva Smith:
Oh yeah. There you go.
Tracy Castillo:
Record it, smack it, and then there you go.
Josh Anderson:
Yeah. With cerebral palsy, there could definitely be some fine motor control issues. So yeah, a bigger button where you just tap it and you can keep it and be able to get that.
Belva Smith:
That’s probably the best solution.
Brian Norton:
BIGmack communicators are what those big red buttons are.
Belva Smith:
And how much are those, and where do we get one?
Josh Anderson:
They’re not much.
Tracy Castillo:
I know we have one in the library.
Brian Norton:
We actually use them all the way throughout our lab just simply because they basically can give tours on their own. If you go to different area of our lab, you can press a button. It’ll tell you what that area is all about. But if you’re looking for the… They’re called BIGmack communicators.
Belva Smith:
I think that’s probably our best solution right now.
Brian Norton:
Those are about $138.
Belva Smith:
Oh, I was hoping they would be cheaper than that.
Brian Norton:
I do know you can go to Amazon, they have simple ones on Amazon. They’re not quite as big as the BIGmack. The BIGmack’s are probably about five inches round, and you can get smaller ones. And they’re going to be a lot less expensive. I think you can get a pack of five for $10-$12 from Amazon.
Josh Anderson:
Yeah, and you don’t need… I mean, the BIGmack and record quite a bit of recording, and really all you need is just that keyword.
Belva Smith:
So maybe a $20 digital recorder would be better. But I will say too that-
Tracy Castillo:
I did also find on Adaptive Tech Solutions they have another one called The Talk About communicator, and it’s running at $23.95.
Belva Smith:
Okay. There we go.
Tracy Castillo:
$23 and some change.
Belva Smith:
And I will say that as much as people want them to open it up and let us basically name our personal assistant anything we want, I don’t think that’s ever going to happen. But I do think that the possibilities for additional names will come about. But it’s always going to be a limited selection that we’re going to have.
Josh Anderson:
It definitely is, but I know just in some of the stuff I’ve read, Google is aware of this.
Belva Smith:
Oh yeah.
Josh Anderson:
Because I know they’re taking information from individuals with Down Syndrome right now. They’re actually talking to or having them record a lot of different voices and stuff so they can make their artificial intelligence understand just folks with different kinds of speech a little bit better. So it is definitely something that they’re looking into, and you might even want to look up because the individual with cerebral palsy might be able to even help out. Record their voice and stuff in order to make the AI work better for everyone.
Brian Norton:
Well, and they do have voice matching with the Google Home. That’s something to look at as well. If you open up the Google Home app, you can go to the bottom. There’s a little house. You can tap on that, and then you can tap on device settings. And then you can tap on voice match, and then you can add, there’s a plus button to be able to add somebody. I guess it gives you some phrases to say, and it tries to help understand you.
Belva Smith:
Yeah. It’s like the training section of your voice recognition. Yeah. And that’s definitely a good place to start.
Brian Norton:
I did look up on Amazon, there’s a company called Learning Resources, and they have recordable answer buttons. And so you can get a set of four for about $16. So those would be pretty inexpensive.
Tracy Castillo:
And there’s different colors.
Brian Norton:
There’s different colors, yup.
Josh Anderson:
That might be fun to put in your office.
Brian Norton:
Yes, no. Yes, no.
Josh Anderson:
When people walk in, just, “Go away.”
Brian Norton:
So there’s that. The other thing I’ll tell you as well is there’s a lot of augmentative communication apps. So Proloquo2Go, Proloquo4text. Any of the voice generating apps that are out there would be able to do that for you as well. So depending on if you have a mobile device, you can make it happen with something like that as well. There’s lots of varieties.
Belva Smith:
Well, even with your smartphone. Even with your smartphone, you could just… Yeah. [crosstalk 00:27:13]
Josh Anderson:
Say it.
Belva Smith:
Absolutely.
Brian Norton:
Right.
Belva Smith:
Yeah, that would be simple enough. Yeah. Have anybody say it and then just touch-
Josh Anderson:
You do voice menu or just have someone type it into your-
Belva Smith:
Okay. So we’ve given all kinds of good-
Josh Anderson:
[crosstalk 00:27:27] speak screen.
Belva Smith:
Yeah, all kinds of good options there.
Brian Norton:
Yeah. So yeah, think about those kinds of things. Let us know how it goes if you end up trying one of those options. Would love to hear from you figure out if that’s worked for you. You can give us a call on our listener line. That’s 317-7124 or you can give send us an email at tech@eastersealscrossroads.org. Love to hear from you. Thank you so much.
Brian Norton:
All right. So we’ll jump into our next question. This is, “Does anyone have a suggestion for a tool or app that a person can type in an amount of change they owe a customer, like $0.83, and it will tell them what coins make up that amount? We’re not looking for apps to practice making change but rather a tool that could be used at an actual job at a cash register. Thanks so much.”
Josh Anderson:
So there used to be a great one in IOS called Get Change, and you just punch in whatever amount up to $5000 or however much, and it would actually show you a picture of how many dollar bills, what kind of bills, and what kind of change you needed to make up that amount. But it isn’t available anymore, and it doesn’t work any longer since the newest IOS update.
Brian Norton:
Probably a 32 bit app.
Belva Smith:
That’s what I’m guessing. So maybe if you could find an older iPod that hasn’t been updated and just don’t do the update, you might still be able to get that app. But they’re probably not making it anymore to be honest.
Josh Anderson:
I don’t think so. It was free, but it worked great. I mean, it was very simple. It’s exactly what you’re looking for. Just put in $0.83 and it’ll show you a picture of three quarters and one nickel and three pennies.
Belva Smith:
So note to all of the app developers that are listening to the show right now, make a new app that will do that because honestly I don’t know… As we’ve discussed this question a little bit before we went live, and I first came back with the Cap Tell Talking cash register, but it is not going to tell you-
Brian Norton:
Show you the actual coins.
Belva Smith:
Right. It would just tell you that you need to give back $0.83 or whatever. And then Square, also the same thing. It’s not going to tell you how to give the change back. But then I also thought about the gas station, the Speedway gas station that I stop at every morning and get my energy drink. When I hand them my $3, they don’t count my change back to me. It just gets shot out into the little change collector thing. So that’s part of their POS system. I’m not sure what that’s called. But that is part of their register. So that might be something to look into. And then of course you still have to count back any of the dollar bills that would have to be given back. But as far as the change, change goes, it just automatically spits that out.
Tracy Castillo:
I did locate an app called My Change. It tells you how many coins you would need to have to add up to a certain total. But the thing it looks like it’s keeping a running total. So it wouldn’t be on demand. It’d just be if you added your money to it, how many pennies would you have now.
Belva Smith:
Well, and I think if you’re going to use an app or something like that, it’s going to have to be something that’s pretty quick because you don’t want to add too much of an extra step to the process. I don’t know what kind of an environment you’d be using this in. But most people are in a hurry to get their change so that they can rush out the door to get to work or get back from lunch or whatever. So it’s going to need to be something that is pretty simple.
Brian Norton:
Very cool. Tracy, does your app play music with it too?
Tracy Castillo:
It looks like it was a free app. It was free with ads. I won’t tell you the ad.
Brian Norton:
I’m not sure if anybody heard that on the show, but it just started playing music automatically after we shut that down. Yup.
Belva Smith:
So I think this is a good question to throw out to our audience if anybody has any idea about an app that could actually help an individual make change in a work environment.
Brian Norton:
Did you mention the Speedway?
Belva Smith:
I did mention the Speedway.
Brian Norton:
I wasn’t sure that was said. I dazed off there for a little bit. Sorry about that, guys.
Belva Smith:
Well, even like at Meyer, when you go to Meyer-
Tracy Castillo:
Meyer does it.
Belva Smith:
Yeah, when you go to Meyer and you buy your groceries, if you put in $10 and you’re getting back $2.02, it spits it into the little tray. So dollars and all.
Brian Norton:
It’s got to be something tied to the point of sale system. So probably depends on what that employer uses for a point of sales system. But that’s certainly-
Josh Anderson:
I would think because that’s always kind of extra thing. So that would be probably a reasonable accommodation for an individual if they did have the job and was something they needed. The problem you run into is that what happens when it fails.
Belva Smith:
So here’s-
Josh Anderson:
Then you have to count it back yourself.
Belva Smith:
So here’s what I would suggest because I did say that the first thought I had was the talking cash register. I would suggest contacting CAPTEK, C-A-P-T-E-K.net. They actually have a toll free number. Contact them and tell them what you’re… Ask them what you’re looking for and see if they have… Since obviously they’re in the business of making accessible cash registers, they may have a solution for you. I don’t know. But it’s worth trying.
Brian Norton:
Great. Excellent. So yeah, we definitely want to open this up to our listeners. If you have any feedback, maybe been in a situation like this and have something to add to the answer there, please do. You can give us a call on our listener line. That’s 317-721-7124 or you can send us an email at tech@eastersealscrossroads.org. We’d love to hear from you. Thanks.
Brian Norton:
All right. So our next question is, “Hi. I have a question for ATFAQ. Would you know any software to take screenshots that works with a keyboard shortcuts, a part from the built in Windows tool? It would be great if it worked okay with Zoom text. Many things for your great show and happy holidays to everyone. Claire.”
Belva Smith:
It’s like all these questions, every one of these questions today-good job, Brian-made me question. F12. F12, isn’t that your print screen or your print screen key. Why would you not just use that?
Brian Norton:
I don’t know.
Belva Smith:
I don’t either.
Brian Norton:
Well, that’s the one built into Windows.
Belva Smith:
Is it?
Brian Norton:
I don’t know.
Belva Smith:
No, I would think that-
Brian Norton:
No, the new one in Windows is the clip it tool.
Belva Smith:
Snippet tool.
Brian Norton:
Snippet tool or something.
Belva Smith:
Something like that.
Tracy Castillo:
Snipping tool.
Belva Smith:
That’s totally different because that’s a-
Brian Norton:
But you’re right, F12 used to do that.
Belva Smith:
I still do. I use that a lot. But the thing is you don’t get to see it until you go and paste it somewhere. So maybe they need to see it before it’s pasted? I don’t know. But that’s what I do is the print screen key.
Josh Anderson:
Which is F12.
Belva Smith:
On my keyboard, it’s F12. But I think Brian, what is it on your keyboard?
Brian Norton:
Well, I have a Mac, so I don’t know if it’s-
Belva Smith:
It’s on there though. You got a print screen on a Mac.
Brian Norton:
I do?
Belva Smith:
Somewhere.
Brian Norton:
Well, I’ve got that crazy touch panel thing. So it doesn’t have it immediately available for me.
Belva Smith:
Well, you got a keyboard in front of you.
Tracy Castillo:
Right there.
Brian Norton:
Oh, I do have a keyboard in front of me.
Tracy Castillo:
Right above your directional keys.
Josh Anderson:
It does not have a print screen.
Belva Smith:
It’s got a print screen on-
Brian Norton:
I got an F12 key, but I don’t think it has a print screen.
Belva Smith:
On mine, it’s F12, but on some of them, print screen will be in what I call the six pack. But all the Windows keyboards, 100% sure have a print screen button.
Josh Anderson:
And you might on a laptop, you may have the function button. The function F12 or something like that. But yeah, you can be able to do that.
Brian Norton:
That’s a good point. Yeah, I didn’t think of that one. But the built in tool I think is either snippet or something to that effect. And it’s usually a point and click type of a thing where you’ve got to bring up the tool to get it to work, and then it doesn’t stay there. It goes away after a period of time. I do know there are a couple other ones out there.
Brian Norton:
If you’re looking for a Windows system program, Greenshot is a free app. Basically puts a tool down in your system tray, and then you can choose between screen, window, or selection. So you can actually just cut and paste certain areas of the screen if you want that, or you can do a select window, maybe your active window there or you can do the whole screen if you’d rather that as well. And you can tie all of those to key strokes. So look up Greenshot. That would be an option for you.
Brian Norton:
The other ones are a little bit more sophisticated. There’s one called PicPick. P-I-C-P-I-C-K. And then there’s another one called Snagit 2020. PicPick is a full Windows program and let’s you take multiple screenshots and provides a built in editor. So it comes up in its own window and then allow you to edit it. It’s not necessarily as discrete as what Greenshot would be. And then Snagit 2020, that’s going to cost you some money. It’s about $50, and it does provide a lot of nice editing tools for the picture if you need to crop it or do something else with it. It gives you some editing tools, comes up in a window as well. But again, it’s $50. So you may be looking for a free tool.
Brian Norton:
The only thing I don’t know is if Zoom text would play with any of that stuff.
Belva Smith:
Well, yeah. I mean, if you’ve got… Yeah. If you do a print screen and you’ve got your colors reversed or whatever, you’re going to get that. It’s going to come out with the reverse.
Brian Norton:
What about when it’s magnified? Do you know if it would just grab what’s magnified?
Belva Smith:
I don’t know. I don’t know about that. But I did just look it up, you guys, on the Mac, it’s command shift three to do a print screen. And on Windows, the print screen button on the keyboard that they’re showing me is-
Brian Norton:
It worked.
Belva Smith:
Yeah. The print screen button that they’re showing me on this particular keyboard happens to be in the six pack, but it also says, which I did not know this, that if you do the Windows with the print screen, you can actually then save that screen to any file you want. I usually just do the print screen, open up Word, and do a control V to paste it. But yeah. So both options are there and available. Like I said, maybe they’re needing to do more than one screenshot at a time because I do know with print screen, it’s just one shot, and then maybe they need to see it. And maybe some of those apps or programs that you were talking about, Brian, do allow you to get a sneak peek at it before you actually print it or whatever.
Brian Norton:
Right. I’ll mention if you’re using a Mac, I know that wasn’t necessarily the question. But if you’re using a Mac, I use a program called Grabit and Grabit works really well to be able to either grab, again, those different types of views. So I can grab the whole screen. I can grab the active window. I can do my own selection, just draw a square or a box around something and it’ll capture that information. And then I can paste it anywhere, and I can tie that to key strokes as well. So Grabit if you’re looking at a Mac solution for the same question, check out Grabit. I believe I paid something for it. I can’t really remember. It’s been a while since I’ve been using that one. But it’s a really useful application. It just sits up there on the menu bar at the top of the screen, and you can just click down or tie it to a key stroke to be able to grab that information.
Brian Norton:
But folks have anything to contribute to that question, we’d love to hear from you. You can give us a call on our listener line. That’s 317-721-7124, send us a tweet with the hashtag ATFAQ or send us an email at tech@eastersealscrossroads.org. Love to hear from you. Thanks.
Brian Norton:
All right. So our next question is, “Looking for a substitution for Inspiration which no longer works on Mac computers or online. The feature that was a favorite was the availability to flip from the mind map to an outline view. Any thoughts?”
Brian Norton:
And I don’t know a whole lot about this program, but I do know MatchWare is a company, and they make a program called MindView. And we’ve had lots of conversations. They’ve done some demos for our staff. But I believe you can switch it between an outline and the mind map, is that right?
Tracy Castillo:
Exactly. Back and forth this much.
Josh Anderson:
Yup. You can go back and forth. In fact, if you’re using… I know it does say you’re using a Mac, but if you happen to be using Office on there as well, you can also change it to a Word document, you can make it into a PowerPoint presentation very, very simply and quickly. It really integrates with Microsoft Office really well. But it does have a Mac version that’ll still work on the Mac computer. It still does have those features. So if you happen to be using Office and that. But it’s a very, very robust, it’s a very good program. I think it’s got a lot to it.
Tracy Castillo:
I thought it was pretty cool. There was a lot of things going on in it.
Brian Norton:
How much does it cost, do you know?
Josh Anderson:
I knew you’d have to ask that.
Brian Norton:
It’s affordable, right?
Josh Anderson:
It depends on how much you make, Brian. I don’t know. I’m just stalling for time [crosstalk 00:40:16]-
Tracy Castillo:
Didn’t we buy some for the library at one time?
Brian Norton:
So it looks like it’s a subscription, $15 a month or $99 a year. Is that right?
Josh Anderson:
Well, you can also buy for the Mac version in English, $349.
Brian Norton:
Okay.
Josh Anderson:
For a single user.
Brian Norton:
Forget what Inspiration used to cost. I thought it was a little less expensive. $100, maybe.
Josh Anderson:
Inspiration. So I mean, I’ve always used the app. It used to have lite version. You could use the app for free. Then it’s one of those I think changed. Maybe it was like $10 to buy it, then it was $5 a month. I’m not sure exactly how the price went with that. But yeah, MindView is again, it can do a lot more than just mind mapping. It can definitely do what you need, but it can do a whole lot more and integrate a whole lot more as well.
Tracy Castillo:
And I believe what they were saying last time we talked to them is that they can integrate into the Office Suite. So you can use it inside Office.
Brian Norton:
So directly in Word or some of your other programs. That’s great.
Brian Norton:
I use a couple of programs for Mac. MindNode and SimpleMind. But I don’t believe those flip back and forth between an outline and the mind map view. It’s just simple mind mapping. So that’s not necessarily something that you’d probably be looking for. But if you’re looking for some simple just mind mapping tools that only do the mind mapping piece, those are two that I’ve used in the past. And they seem to work pretty well. MindNode and SimpleMind.
Brian Norton:
Would love to open it up to folks who are listening. If you know of other programs, I know we’ve done a lot with MindView, and that seems to have met a lot of the folks that we have worked with, the needs that they have. It’s pretty useful because it does integrate into a lot of different products, and it does provide a lot of different tools for folks to get into and to use. But if you have other products that you’ve used, we’d love to hear from you. You can give us a call on our listener line. That’s 317-721-7124 or you can send us an email at tech@eastersealscrossroads.org. Love to hear from you.
Josh Anderson:
And now it’s time for the wild card question.
Brian Norton:
All right. So our next question is the wild card question, and this is where Belva has a question for us that we haven’t had any time to prepare. So Belva, what’s your wild card?
Belva Smith:
This is an easy question. So of all of the technology that you have access to on a daily basis, what do you use the most of? What could you not get through the day without?
Brian Norton:
Of all the technology I have, what’s the thing I couldn’t do without?
Belva Smith:
Correct.
Tracy Castillo:
I would say my phone, but I’ve gone without my phone. But my phone is my miniature computer. It’s there all the time.
Josh Anderson:
Yeah, and I guess I’d actually agree. I take my laptop with me a lot of places, but if I’m at lunch or in a meeting where I can’t have it, I can still answer my emails, text messages, phone calls, check the internet. I can do almost everything from my phone. Plus I use it for directions. Heck, I use it for directions in places I know how to get to just to see if there’s traffic.
Brian Norton:
It’s kind of the Swiss Army knife of the technology that I have. Yeah, so I would be in agreeance.
Tracy Castillo:
Our miniature computers in our hands.
Belva Smith:
So I’m going to add a part B to that question then. So everybody said that it would be their phone because it would let them do all these different tasks with their job. But what about you personally? Personally, for your personal life, what do you use?
Tracy Castillo:
I would use my personal phone.
Brian Norton:
You don’t use your work phone for personal use?
Belva Smith:
Well, I’m adding the personal use on there because primarily Josh, I’m thinking of you. You use your phone for way more than just work but as important
Josh Anderson:
Oh yeah, true. So I’ll use my (A) to text my wife cute emojis during the day. But then where my daughter goes to daycare, I can actually watch a live video feed of her in daycare, which is really cool. It makes it a whole lot easier to leave her there during the day.
Tracy Castillo:
I have my cameras.
Belva Smith:
Right. So that’s where I was going with it. I think that I remember the iPhone 4S I believe was the first iPhone that I started using. And I really did not want to make the switch. I remember standing at the AT&T store switching out thinking, “I’m never going to get used to this.” But quickly found myself, just like you were saying, Tracy, my phone was my biggest tool because yeah, it gets me wherever I got to go. But now I find my phone is my biggest personal tool because it allows me to be in touch with my own home, my own security wherever I am, no matter where you are in the world. If you’ve got your smart cameras, you can always pop in and see what’s going on at home.
Josh Anderson:
And not only that, I mean, you can video chat through them. My dad moved to Florida, and he doesn’t even have an iPhone. So we use Google Duo because you can use it for free with him having an Android. So yeah, I mean, just all the different kinds of communication it opens up. But yeah, Belva, like you said, all the other different things you can do with them now.
Belva Smith:
So I think it’s funny how phones have made such a big impact in the world of technology.
Josh Anderson:
And I’d say that even calling them phones anymore-
Belva Smith:
… is almost not even doable, right?
Josh Anderson:
Yeah. Because 10% of the time, if you’re using it 10% of the time as a phone, you’re part of the minority there because I doubt many people are using it even that often to actually make real calls.
Tracy Castillo:
Hey, guys. My dad has this one phone, it opens up.
Josh Anderson:
Right.
Tracy Castillo:
It’s like a flip phone.
Belva Smith:
Yeah, but you know now even, what is it? The Jitterbug. They still have the flip phone, but it’s doing more than making phone calls. You can text on it. You can see pictures on it. You can email on it, even though it’s still the old fashion flip phone.
Brian Norton:
It’s a smartphone.
Belva Smith:
Yeah.
Tracy Castillo:
It’s a smartphone. Yeah. I even notice too, so if someone was calling my phone, the iPad rings. So it’s like wow.
Josh Anderson:
And my MacBook rings too.
Belva Smith:
My watch rings.
Tracy Castillo:
Right. So it’s not even just-
Josh Anderson:
Belva, your watch rings when my phone rings? That’s weird.
Belva Smith:
No, no. When my phone rings, my watch rings.
Josh Anderson:
Good.
Brian Norton:
She’s always listening in, Josh.
Josh Anderson:
Somebody is.
Tracy Castillo:
And I even use my phone to turn my lights on sometimes when the switch isn’t working.
Belva Smith:
So to wrap up 2019, while I was off, one of the things that I did was I went through because I do have so much information on that phone. I went through and changed all of my passwords. And I just wanted to say as we wrap up this podcast that if you haven’t recently changed your passwords, you might consider sitting down and changing your password. I do use LastPass, which creates my passwords for me. But there’s still a reason to change them from time to time.
Josh Anderson:
So from password one to password two.
Belva Smith:
That’s correct.
Brian Norton:
Excellent. Excellent. Well, great question, Belva. I’m totally in agreeance that phones are almost irreplaceable. In fact, I think not only just for us but the folks that I work with, clients and other folks, they would be hard pressed to argue, and I think they do argue that if we would ask them that question, that their phone is what they use. That’s what their number one accessible tool for them is going to be their phone. So great, great question.
Brian Norton:
Hey, I just want to thank everybody for listening to us today. Want to make sure that you do know that we love your questions, do want to get your questions. We also love your feedback. In fact, without your feedback or questions, we don’t really have a show. So be a part of it. You can give us a call on our listener line. That’s 317-721-7124. Also, send us a tweet with the hashtag ATFAQ or send us an email at tech@eastersealscrossroads.org. We want your questions, and in fact, without your questions, like I said, we don’t have really a show. So be a part of it.
Brian Norton:
Want to thank to folks here in the room with me. Thank you, guys, for being here. Tracy, you want to say goodbye to folks?
Belva Smith:
No, don’t say goodbye, Tracy.
Tracy Castillo:
I’m not. I’m holding it in.
Brian Norton:
She just wants to stay on the air. Tracy’s here to answer your questions anytime.
Tracy Castillo:
Okay, fine. Bye.
Brian Norton:
And then we also have Belva. Belva.
Belva Smith:
Thanks everybody. See you next time.
Brian Norton:
And Josh.
Josh Anderson:
Thanks for listening everyone.
Brian Norton:
All right. Take care. Have a great start to 2020, and we will see you next time. Bye, bye.
Brian Norton:
And it seems like every week we have at least one blooper. So here you go.
Belva Smith:
Somebody’s not muted.
Brian Norton:
I screwed it up.
Belva Smith:
Oh my god. Can you imagine it trying to describe…
Brian Norton:
Wait, wait.
Josh Anderson:
Not in a…
Belva Smith:
Oh my gosh.
Brian Norton:
Information provided on Assisted Technology FAQ does not constitute a product endorsement. Our comments are not intended as recommendations, nor is our show evaluative in nature. Assisted Technology FAQ is hosted and produced by Brian Norton, gets editorial help by Josh Anderson and Belva Smith, and receives support from Easter Seals Crossroads and the INDATA Project. ATFAQ is a proud member of the Accessibility Channel. Find more of our shows at www.accessibilitychannel.com.
Brian Norton:
(silence)