ATU624 – TimeTimer with Heather Rogers

Hi, this is Heather Rogers. I’m the Co-president of Time Timer. This is Your Assistive Technology Update.

Hello, and welcome to Your Assistive Technology Update, a weekly dose of information that keeps you up to date on the latest developments in the field of technology designed to assist individuals with disabilities and special needs. I’m your host, Josh Anderson, with the INDATA Project at Easterseals Crossroads, in beautiful Indianapolis, Indiana. Welcome to episode 624 of Assistive Technology Update. It’s scheduled to be released on March 12, 2023. On today’s show, we’re very excited to welcome Heather Rogers, Co-president of Time Timer. She’s here to tell us all about Time Timer and how it can assist individuals with disabilities with time management. We’ve got Amy Barry from BridgingApps on with an app worth mentioning, and we’ve got a couple of stories concerning accessible beaches in Greece, and the new Barbie representative individuals with Down Syndrome.

As always, thank you so much for taking time out of your day to listen to our show. If you’d ever like to reach out to us, you can send us an email at tech@eastersealscrossroads.org, call our listener line at 317-721-7124, or shoot us a line on Twitter @indataproject. We always love your feedback, your compliments, your questions, your criticisms. Hey, we’ll take it all. We also always need your help to find new guests. So if there’s topics, guests, other things that you might want to hear here on the show, please, please, please do pass those along. Some of our best guests come from recommendations of our listeners. Thank you again for listening. Let’s go ahead and get on with the show.

Listeners, as I’m recording this, it’s still a bit cool here in Indiana. It is springtime, for sure. Everything’s turning green, looking beautiful, those beautiful smells of grass, everything else, so those with allergies are starting to feel the effects. But it is not what I would call beach weather. Now, I am pretty landlocked here in Indiana, so beaches are a bit hard to come by. But when I read a story about the beach, and especially about the beach becoming even more accessible, well, I get a little bit excited and a little bit of spring fever. That’s for sure. Well, our first story today comes to us from the Greek Reporter. It’s titled “Greece Makes Hundreds of Beaches Wheelchair Friendly.” The story talks about something called the Seatrac system for wheelchairs, says that they’re installing these on hundreds of different beaches, says the system is a free service that offers unassisted sea access to people with disabilities and motor issues.

There’s a picture of it here on the website. I will put a link to this so that folks can go look at it, but just to describe what is going on, it’s almost like a ramp system, like you pull up your wheelchair. It looks like there’s a way to transfer into this thing that will actually just slide right down straight into the water. I know we’ve had stories on here before about some different kinds of mats and walkways and other things like that, that can help individuals in wheelchairs and with other mobility challenges be able to access parts of the beach. But there haven’t been as many to really get you in the water. So very, very cool that they really thought about that.

Says that speaking at a press conference about the project, officials said that a total of 287 beaches across Greece will be fully accessible to people with mobility challenges. It says they’re doing this by just the cool tech that I talked about a moment ago, but also by just making sure that their parking’s fully accessible, their bathrooms and changing facilities, ramps and corridors to sun loungers, refreshment bars, all these things can be accessed by not just able-bodied individuals, but by anyone with really any kind of mobility challenges. It says they’ve already made this transformation to 147 beaches, which is a lot. But I think Greece does have a ton of beaches.

What’s really nice is, as you read down the story here, it even talks a little bit more about how this is beneficial not just to the individuals with disabilities, but to their families, to their friends, to the other folks who want to go to the beach, and they want to be a part of that. But also, on the economic impact, because if we really think, the stats are usually that about 25% of the population of the world has some kind of a disability. Many of those are mobility kind of challenges and needs. So if you’re keeping those folks away from the beach, well, then all your businesses there are not benefiting from the dollars that they really want to go there and spend and be a part of it.

It also talks about the benefit of individuals with disabilities being able to swim and go around and really contribute to their physical and mental health, also. They really looked at the whole person, or the whole reason for them actually doing this kind of project. As I read down in the story, it has a little bit more information about Greece and just trying to become more wheelchair friendly as a country. It talked about, A, a lot of things in Greece are pretty old. Let’s not lie. You have a lot of things made out of stone. Not only that, but the topography of the country itself is a bit rocky and mountainous.

It sounds like this has really been a push ever since the 2004 Athens Olympics. They’ve really been doing all that they can in order to make the whole country a little bit more accessible. So if folks want to go see some of the ancient Greek statues, buildings, and things like that, they’re trying to make new ways for folks to be able to take a wheelchair, a walker, a cane, other mobility devices, and use those to actually see this history of the country. But now they’re actually trying to make all of their beaches accessible as well. I’ll put a link in this over in the show notes. But if you’re starting to get some spring fever and really want to get to the beach, it looks like, if you’re looking for an accessible beach, Greece might just be the way to go.

Listeners, we’re going to move from the beaches of Greece to the kids’ toy box. I’ve got a story from over at the Associated Press or apnews.com. It’s titled “Mattel Introduces First Barbie with Down Syndrome.” The story’s about a new product from Barbie. Barbie, of course, is the doll that’s been around in America for, oh, gosh, what seems like forever. All of my lifetime for sure, and probably most of my parents’. It was always criticized for just having unrealistic body proportions and things like that. Barbie essentially didn’t look like anyone. But in order to fix that, Barbie over the last few years has tried to introduce Barbies that look more like, well, real people and to try to represent more of the actual population. But this is the first time that they’ve actually introduced a Barbie doll representing a person with Down syndrome.

It says they actually collaborated with the National Down Syndrome Society to ensure that the doll accurately represents a person with Down syndrome. It actually says that “not only does it portray some physical characteristics of an individual with Down Syndrome, but the clothing and accessories also carry special meaning.” She’s wearing a blue and yellow dress with butterflies, which represent symbols and colors associated with Down syndrome awareness. There’s three chevrons on the necklace representing how individuals with Down syndrome have three copies of their 21st chromosome. Not only that, but she also wears ankle foot orthotics. So they really not only are trying to show a little bit more representation in their toys. They were actually smart enough to partner with the National Down Syndrome Society just to make sure that they’re not just doing this willy-nilly. It says, “This is part of their 2023 fashionistas line, which is aimed at increasing diversity and inclusion in the toys.”

Now, this isn’t the first time that Mattel and Barbie have tried to be a little bit more inclusive to individuals with disabilities. In the past, they’ve also introduced a Ken doll with a prosthetic leg, as well as a Barbie with hearing aids. It’s a very cool story. I’ll put this down in the show notes so that folks can go look at it. But it looks like Barbie’s trying to be a little bit more inclusive and represent individuals with disabilities, and not just seven foot tall blonde women with completely and totally unrealistic bodies. So good on Barbie. Hopefully, they will continue this and even represent more and more of the individuals who want to buy their products.

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

This is Amy Barry with BridgingApps, and this is an app worth mentioning. This week’s featured app is called Ring Always Home. The Ring app works in conjunction with the Ring Doorbell and camera security system. The app is free with the purchase of the doorbell or security cameras, and it’s available on iOS, Android, and on PC devices. The product can be connected to the existing wiring at your house or business, or you can use it with a rechargeable system. The system is as simple as when there is motion in front of the doorbell or the button is pushed, the device turns on a camera and speaker. Then a notification is sent to your device. With just a small delay, you can be talking live with whoever is in front of the camera.

Adding accessories like the Ring chime can also contribute to the accessibility of ring devices. While a simple addition to one’s home security setup, it can make a big difference. The Ring chime connects to a customer’s Ring video doorbells and security systems so they can hear real time notifications in their home, like when someone triggers the camera’s motion sensor or presses the doorbell button. By placing multiple chime devices around the home, you can hear notifications from compatible Ring devices when you’re in different rooms. Customers who also own an Echo Show or Google Home can access their Ring video doorbell or security camera live view just by using their voice. A command as simple as, “Alexa, show me the front door,” is all it takes to see who is at the doorstep. This feature has been especially helpful for customers with motor and physical disabilities. There is an optional paid service that keeps record of the videos. You can download and delete the videos. For more information on this app and others like it, visit BridgingApps.org.

Independent time management. Now, who out there in our listening audience can really say that they’re a master of this? What do I need to be doing? How much time should I spend on it? When should I stop? How long have I been working on this? A myriad of other anxiety inducing questions come to mind when I think of time management. Well, for me, it’s definitely something that I’ve worked on over the years and, who knows, maybe even shown a little bit of improvement. But for individuals with disabilities, time management, especially managing time independently, is a very common goal and sometimes a pretty big barrier. We’re very excited to welcome Heather Rogers, Co-president of Time Timer, onto the show today to tell us about their solutions for independent time management and all that they have to offer. Heather, welcome to the show.

Hi. Thank you for having me.

Yeah, I am really excited. We got to see some of this stuff at ATIA, and I’m very excited to get into talking about it. But before we do that, could you tell our listeners a little bit about yourself?

Well, my name is Heather Rogers. As I said, I’m the Co-president of Time Timer. My fellow co-president is my husband. Time Timer is actually a second-generation, family-owned business. My husband’s mother started the company almost 30 years ago.

Wow. Oh, wow. Well, that’s really cool. But tell us, what exactly is Time Timer?

Time Timer is, like the name implies, a visual timer that is a visual representation of time going away. If you can imagine a 100% pie chart representing one hour of time, and envision that chart disappearing in a clockwise fashion for 15 minutes, then you have a 75% pie chart. That’s what 45 minutes look looks like. Then the disc continues to disappear, so you can literally see, in a very concrete way, time going away. So it’s a very intuitive way to understand when you have a lot of time versus when you have just a little bit of time.

Oh, for sure. I guess it gives a little bit more concreteness to it. Time is abstract if we’re just talking about 15 minutes, 45 minutes. So I guess that gives you an idea of, especially when you get to the halfway point, I’m halfway done. I can see where I am, where I’ve been, and maybe how much more I have to do.

Yeah. You’re exactly right. It’s a really great resource for anyone who struggles with numbers, anyone who hasn’t learned how to tell time yet, anyone who the hands of an analog clock are confusing. When you said it’s a concrete representation of an abstract concept, you hit the nail on the head right there.

Yeah. We talk around here about, especially since COVID and everything else, how time is just abstract. Nobody really understands it anymore. So having anything that can help these days is absolutely so darn helpful. Well, now you described it really, really well in detail. Are there different kinds of Time Timers available?

Yeah. We have a whole range of products that vary in size. We have smaller one-hour timers that are great for an individual person to use, or a small group, or that are easily portable. We have larger format timers that are great for a classroom setting or a conference room or a large work area or cafeteria. We also have a line of timers that are for different durations, anywhere from five minutes up to two hours. We try to cater to all those different needs for managing different chunks of time. We even have one timer, we call it The Max, that will count down from 24 hours.

Oh, nice. I’m sure that just helps individuals with, as you’re doing time management, it’s usually a task-based thing to work on different stuff. So that’s nice that you have different kinds of accommodations available just so that I have different timers for different tasks, or I don’t always have to try to set the hour timer to five minutes or something of that sort, which could be a little bit challenging. So I like that you have those different kinds of options for folks as they’re trying to learn new skills in the time management space.

Yeah. I spoke to one educator at a conference where I was attending. He told me that he had a student who was a maximizer of time. So when he set the hour Time Timer for five minutes for this child, she did not like that she just got five minutes scaled to an hour. So I showed him our five-minute timer, and I said, “She can have all of the time on this one.” He was thrilled because this was a time where that really met the student’s need.

Oh, definitely. It didn’t become a bigger barrier or a bigger problem. It actually solved the need. That is absolutely awesome. Now, Heather, I know you said that your husband’s mama started the business. Why did she start Time Timer?

My sister-in-law was always late. She missed the bus. She didn’t get her homework done. She couldn’t get her cleats together to go to soccer practice when she was young. Not only that, the concept of time was really frustrating for her. The kitchen timer was meaningless. The digital timer on the microwave was meaningless. Then, if you use the old method of back when cartoons came on at certain times of the day, you can watch one more SpongeBob, and then we’re going to go. The end of the cartoon came really quickly, and you still had to hustle.

My mother-in-law, who founded the company, she thought that if she could show Lauren, my sister-in-law, what time looked like as it was going away, she might understand it better. So Jan, my mother-in-law, created the first prototype out of two paper plates and some scissors and some markers, and basically did a manual mock-up, and tried it out on my sister-in-law, and it really worked. Then Jan started talking to educators in early education and then just found that this was a need. Literally, I could not be more impressed with what she achieved. She founded the company, manufactured the first ones herself, found a manufacturer to fabricate the pieces. She assembled it together at night and then literally sold them out of the trunk of her car.

Did she just show up at schools and say, “You need this”? Because I can imagine teachers just flocking, almost, to be able to do it, especially something that’s … Not to make it sound easy, but, I mean, something that’s simple, simple to use, simple to understand, and simple to relay to the folks that it can actually help. I’m sure that educators were pretty excited to have that. Not just educators, but I don’t know, that’s where I would’ve parked my car, probably.

Yeah. Every once in a while I’ll hear stories about a Time Timer being stolen out of a classroom. It always makes me smile just a little bit. I don’t condone theft, but the fact that my product is valuable enough to be stolen, it tickles me.

You know you got something good if somebody wants to steal it, I guess. That is a very, very good way to look at it. Well, as we’re talking about this, just for our listeners to get a better idea, what are some disabilities or needs that can be helped or maybe assisted by Time Timer?

Well, one of the things that I really like about our product is that managing time is a universal need. It doesn’t matter if you have special needs or some type of a disability, or you’re typically developing. Everyone has to manage time. You cannot escape it. So Time Timer is something that we’ve been talking about education. It’s very at place in a classroom that has all types of students in it. It’s also very in place in a classroom that is dedicated to the needs of students that have a particular disability.

In all of our products, we try to incorporate universal design because we know that not only are young people, while they’re students, will be in a classroom setting and learning, and they need time management and that, but we wanted products that could follow those students through their college or vocational education and then into their careers after their education is done. Really, I don’t have an answer for what particular disability is best. My own daughter has ADHD. She uses Time Timer to avoid losing track of time and getting sucked into video games. She also uses it to make sure that she is doing her homework for long enough and setting focused time to do her homework. So it’s pretty universal.

Yeah. We did focus on education a little bit. I think it’s probably because I saw it at ATIA, so that always seems to skew it that way. But yeah, in employment, I know a lot of folks on my team, we work with folks in an employment setting, and sometimes one of the big issues we have with individuals, just depending on disability and need, is not so much staying on task, but knowing when to move to the next task can be a little bit of a challenge. I can see where this could be a huge help on that. Again, just knowing how much time I have, how much time I’ve spent, and how much time I have left, in a visual representation, not just the counting down clock on my phone or my watch or something like that, but actually having something I can really relate to a little bit more has to be helpful for folks, like you said, of really all kinds of skill ability levels, and with or without disability.

Yeah. Anticipating transitions is a huge use for Time Timer. We’ve had peer-reviewed study done by Florida Atlantic University a few years ago. That focused on preschool-aged children that were at risk for developmental delays. They found that Time Timer really facilitated an increase in self-regulation. So it helps with just that anticipation, knowing what you’re doing, staying on task, being able to move through a process and move from one thing to the next.

You brought up a great point there. I have a four-year-old at home. I was just sitting there thinking. I joke with my wife because we can say, “Oh, we have to go to bed in half an hour or a few minutes.” She doesn’t know. She can’t read a clock. She doesn’t know time. But I can see where this would be so helpful when, “No, we’re doing this in five minutes, 10 minutes, half an hour,” to actually be able to have that representation there, at least until she figured out how to move the dial. Then it would all be over. But we could always start somewhere, at least, to give her that. Well, Heather, you touched on this a little bit. I’ve talked about these throughout this. But can you tell me a story or two where someone’s used Time Timer to assist them in their daily lives, maybe one that surprised you or just sticks out to you?

Oh, gosh. I was at a conference. We do a lot of conference exhibition in the Expo Hall. A woman came up to me and gave me a huge hug. So I was very curious what her story was. She told me that she had suffered a traumatic brain injury. She had lost the ability to perceive time. She had no idea what was an hour, no idea what was five minutes. She had no ability to recognize that anymore. The reason why she gave me the hug was because she retrained herself to know what the passage of time feels like using the Time Timer. It brought tears to my eyes because her life was way more challenging than it needed to be. It was hard to manage. She relearned this thing that a lot of us take for granted. This is why I love working for Time Timer, because our goal is to help everyone conquer time. I know when you can make someone’s life, somebody’s day, just a little bit easier, that’s a big deal. That’s what gets me going in the morning.

Oh, that is awesome. That’s awesome. Yeah. Like you said, it’s not something that you even think of as you’re talking to folks and bringing it out there to them. You don’t even really think about that kind of need or just that it can do that, that it can actually be able to make that big of a profound difference in someone’s life. That is awesome. Did I find something that you guys have an app available, too?

Oh, that’s right. We do. Time Timer is available on the iPhone. It’s also available on Android. We also have software that you can download and put on a Mac or a PC.

Nice. Do those work the same concept, the same way as the physical device?

They work the same way. You can pick your duration. They have some additional benefits where you can run multiple timers at the same time. You can name them. You can give them colors. An educator could use it to run a classroom, doing small groups for differentiated instruction. A high school student could use it to prepare to take one of those standardized tests like the ACT or the SAT. You can project it up on your dry erase board in a classroom so all the kids can see a really big one up on the screen. There’s a lot of ways you could do it.

Nice. Very cool. If our listeners want to find out more about Time Timer and everything that they have to offer, what’s the best way for them to do that?

Our website is the best place, and that is timetimer.com.

Well, that’s super easy. I think the folks will remember that, but we’ll put it in the show notes just to make sure, in case they want to want to check that out. Well, Heather, thank you so much for coming on today and telling us all about Time Timer and just the great things that it can do to help, really, any of us, probably, manage time a little bit better.

Thank you so much. I enjoyed it.

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