ATU717 – ATIA25 Follow Up with INDATA, ATLAS and Clinical AT – Part 1

Hello listeners. Today we are going to listen to some of our staff, some of our folks from our different teams, from INDATA, from Atlas, and from our clinical assistive technology staff as they talk about their experiences attending the ATIA Conference here earlier in February. We hope you enjoy their perspectives. And I am Josh Anderson, Director of Assistive Technology here at Easterseals Crossroads, and this is your Assistive Technology Update.

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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 717 of Assistive Technology Update. It is scheduled to be released on February 21st, 2025.

On today’s show, I have the unique pleasure of welcoming some of the folks from our team here at Easterseals Crossroads, that’s INDATA, Atlas and our clinical Assistive Technology staff, and they’re going to come in and talk a little bit about some of their experiences at the ATIA Conference here earlier in the month.

They’re going to talk a little bit about some of their favorite sessions they attended, some of their favorite tech they saw, and just some of their experiences from the conference. So we’re very excited to have them here in the studio and a few online as we go through some of the really cool things that we were able to see while there.

Listeners, did any of you attend ATIA? I know that some of you did because we met you while you were down there and it was amazing to get to meet listeners and just other folks in the field. Always just such an amazing joy. If you happen to have been there, let us know what you really liked about it. Shoot us an email at Tech@EastersealsCrossroads.org or call our listener line at (317) 721-7124. We’d love to hear your thoughts. Was there a session that you really enjoyed? Was there a piece of tech you saw in the vendor hall that really just kind of caught your eye? We always love to hear from you, so please, please let us know. Listeners, as always, we thank you so much for listening. Now let’s go ahead and get on with the show.

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All right, listeners, our very first guest on our ATIA follow-up show is Raine. Raine, can you introduce yourself and tell our listeners what you do here at Easterseals Crossroads?

Hi, I’m Raine Sims. I’m an Assistive Technology specialist focusing on autism and sensory needs here with the Atlas project at Easterseals.

Yes, and Raine accompanied us to ATIA this year. Now was this your very first time at ATIA?

It was, yes.

So what was kind of your initial thoughts or your first impressions as you saw everything?

Well, it was pretty overwhelming at first, honestly, but in a great way. There was more information in that one building than I maybe have ever been exposed to about assistive technology. I think it was just such a great resource that there was so many smart people with so many experiences in one place.

Oh, yes. And that’s always my, probably, I don’t want to say least favorite part because that makes it sound bad, but it’s how do I choose? How do I choose which ones to attend, which ones to go to? How can I keep up? Am I making the right choice? What if I go to kind of the wrong one? So along that, did you have maybe a favorite session that you attended?

Yeah, I really enjoyed the sessions more on the programmatic side of things. Of course, seeing the new tech and everything is always super cool, but as Atlas is a fairly new program here at Easterseals, I think that it’s great to figure out what are these best practices for running our program? How can we serve the most people in the best way we can?

And that’s probably one of my favorites, is just getting to talk to people and see what they do. Like, wow, I’ve never thought of that. Or, oh, we’ve been struggling with figuring out how to do that. Oh, that worked for you, or Oh gosh, don’t do this. We tried this and this didn’t work at all, so that’s always great. Speaking of the vendor hall and all the neat stuff, did you have maybe a coolest piece of tech or one that you really liked or even a person maybe that you met in there?

Yeah, there were a couple things I was really impressed by. When I stopped by the Tobii Dynavox booth, I was really impressed by their eye gaze software. It was amazing to just be able to just walk up to it and it works. I was really surprised by how low the barrier of entry is to it. And then another smaller piece of technology, I think more up and coming. It’s called the Tactonom. It is a blind low vision device that provides visual graphics and it just seems like it’s just such a great academic resource for students to use.

Yeah, yeah, those are both super cool. So did you have a best part of the trip?

I think just being around so many smart people, and if someone is interested in something that I’m interested in, they would come up to me and they would talk to me about it and it was just really great to get to talk to so many people who are so experienced in this field.

Awesome. Now I know it was a great time, it was amazing, but if you could maybe improve something, would you have any suggestions for improvement or maybe something that could have made the experience even better?

That’s a good question. I think given that everyone is so good at disability work and inclusion, and I think that it was a lot on the sensory system. I think that it would’ve been great if there were additional spaces that were maybe a bit more sensory friendly, to be a little bit less overwhelming perhaps. I’m not entirely sure how they would achieve that, but I think that it would be great to kind of reduce that cognitive overwhelm feeling.

I am with you. I have no idea how they would do that, but you’re right. Just so many people, so much, so many folks moving around and just so much going on. It can be really, really tough. Well, Raine, thank you so much for coming on the show. Thanks for going to ATIA and thanks for being a part of this team.

Perfect. Thank you so much for having me.

All right, folks, our next guest is Brian Norton, who probably needs no introduction, but Brian, go ahead and tell the listeners who you are, what you do?

Yeah, so yeah, my name’s Brian Norton. I’m VP of Adult Services here at Easterseals Crossroads. In my prior life, I was a part of our assistive technology team, and so super glad that I continued to get to work with them and was able to attend ATIA this year.

Brian attending ATIA every year was a condition of my employment.

That’s right. That’s right.

I was not allowed to take over this position unless he was always allowed to go, but no, it’s always good to have him there and everything. Now, Brian, this was not your first time. You’ve been to quite a few. This was the second year at the new place. Tell me just your thoughts on having it at the new place. Maybe some things you like or how you think it sort of helps ATIA.

Yeah, yeah. No, I love the new location. Obviously it’s a lot bigger than it used to be, and that just offers something for the conference to grow, which it has. I believe it’s gotten bigger each of the last two years with more attendees, gets us the opportunity to meet with new people. It’s a big facility, which makes it a little challenging to get from one place to the other. I think I walk six or seven miles a day, but it does give ATIA a space to grow and I think when we talk about accessibility and assistive technology and what they’re really trying to do and bringing everybody together, I think it’s an ideal space for them.

Yeah, I definitely agree. There was, I want to say 400 sessions this year, which is just a mind-boggling amount. Did you have kind of a favorite session that you attended?

Yeah, ATIA is a great chance to just catch up with folks and to kind of learn what other folks are doing. I did several sessions for older adults looking at technology for older adults. But also I really loved a session that Bridging Apps, our Houston Easterseals affiliate. I think they’re occasionally on this podcast talking about different things that they’re doing and apps, app reviews and those types of things. But anyways, I thought it was really fun to be a part of their session, learning about different apps for different aspects of a person’s life. They have a really cool tool. It’s called Insignia. It’s a search tool for apps, and I thought it was really fun to kind of learn a little bit more about it and to be able to see some of their app favorites that you can kind set up to be able to hopefully hone in on the ones that you like on their site and keeping a couple of lists for different needs that you run across in your work.

And I really enjoyed theirs too. Learned about a new app, that it was funny, I knew someone on our team was looking for something like that, so just sent it to them right there. I was like, well, I think it was the first session I attended. I was like, oh, I already found something. Okay, well, this was a success right off the bat. What about, did you have a coolest piece of tech or even person that you got to meet kind of in the vendor hall? Something maybe that you saw or somebody you talked to?

Yeah. Well, my favorite place in the vendor hall is actually the snack areas. But no, I’m kidding.

The guy that handed me the ice cream sandwich was my favorite.

That’s right, that’s right. That’s right. No, there was a lot of interesting technology things that I had not seen before. I mean, obviously there was a lot that I had seen before, but there was something interesting to me. There was a keyboard, I forget the name of the actual product, but it was actually, you could plug any standard keyboard into it and would make that keyboard talk for you.

Oh yeah.

So whether you’re learning to-

What’s that called?

When you’re learning to type or you’re maybe blind or visually impaired, you just need a little bit of auditory assistance when you’re using the keyboard. I thought it was a pretty cool tool and it doesn’t require a special keyboard. You just plug your keyboard into it, you plug the device into the computer. It kind of acts as a intermediary device for your keyboard, and it just talks every key that every key you press.

Nice, nice. Very, very cool. What about the best part of the trip? What was the best part of the trip for you, Brian?

Well, that’s pretty simple. For me, the best part of the trip for me is just being around, hanging around with my other staff. So we get a little bit of chance to get off site, spend a little bit of time getting to learn together, share together, and just getting some free time to spend and catch up with folks outside of the busy work pace that we keep here at Easter Seals Crossroads. So I love time with staff and just getting to know them and them getting to know me and just kind of hanging out and having some fun.

Yeah, could not agree more. Would you have any suggestions or maybe anything that ATIA could do the place or anything like that or anything that could have made the experience even better?

Yeah, I don’t know. Teleportation from one end of the vendor hall, I’m sorry, from where the vendor hall was to the very far reaches of where some of the educational sessions were. It’s a long haul, but really honestly, it’s a well run conference. They did a really great job this year placing people at strategic places as people get off the elevators and helping them find where they’re wanting to go. I thought it is just one of the best run conferences that I’ve been to and just really get to enjoy what David’s done over there. David Dichter has done over there with that conference is pretty amazing.

And I just have to reiterate that, and the folks they had helping out from the registration booth to the elevators at the hotel with a little sign that just, you need anything, we got you. And I’ve noticed when I first even went and registered, I kind of just walked around and I mean, I was just looking because taking it all in and she’s like, “Oh, are you here to register here? Come on over here.” And walked me right up. Help me with the whole darn thing. It was a minute and a half process and it was so easy, but also you felt welcomed as you walked in. They do such a good job with that and really kind of helping out the folks. Well, awesome. Well, Brian, hopefully we’ll have you on here again next year. Maybe we’ll let you go another year and-

Please, please.

… have you down there. But thank you so much for coming on and telling us about your

Experience. Sounds good, thanks. Thanks, Josh.

Listeners, our next guest is Blake. Blake, go ahead and introduce yourself to the listeners and let them know what you do here.

Hi, my name is Blake Allee. I’m the demo and loan lead here at Easterseals Crossroads with the INDATA project. And yeah, you want me to go more into detail?

Nope, that is absolutely perfect. If we all went into detail for what we do, it’d be the show would go on forever and ever. But Blake, this was definitely not your first time at ATIA, so you’ve definitely been there before. Just I guess some of your thoughts on it being the second year at the new place. What do you think about it?

I mean, I love the new place. I think it is very large, so there’s a lot of walking involved, but it’s cool because the largest Marriott in the world, so that’s kind of neat. But I think everything, once you get to where you’re supposed to be, where all the sessions are and the vendor room, I think that it’s really just set up pretty well and it’s big and yeah, I’m a big fan of it.

Awesome, awesome. What was maybe your favorite session that you were able to attend?

My favorite session, that’s a good question. I always like the Google sessions just because I’m an Android user and most people I work with are Apple users. So just to try to keep up with a little bit what’s going on in the Google Pixel world. So probably one of the Google… I went to two different Google sessions, so one of those most likely.

Awesome. Awesome. Now what about there in the vendor hall? What was maybe the coolest piece of tech you might’ve seen in there?

So there’s a couple different things that I really enjoyed, but in the end of the day, I think the Lotus Ring ended up being my favorite. I just liked that it was… You don’t have to have a smartphone, you don’t have to have an app, you don’t have to have WiFi, so it’s offline. It’s just a simple design, and I think that that was just probably my favorite piece that I saw there.

Awesome, awesome. We’ve had them on the show before, but yeah, I love the, oh, just the barrier to entry so low for that. If I’m somebody that needs something that can do that, it’s so easy to just put it on click and that’s it. Power goes out, no big deal. Everything else, nothing’s going to disconnect it. Just keep it simple.

Yeah, exactly. I think that that’s what really made it stand out actually in a weird way, is how simple it was. You don’t have to worry about somebody hacking into your system. It’s not running any Bluetooth, just you basically have this piece that connects over a light switch and you have a ring and you wear the ring and you press the ring and it turns the light switch on and off. It’s really as simple as that. I know they did speak a little bit about how you’re able to maybe turn on a TV and control fans and other appliances, but for me, just the light part was enough to make me really enjoy it.

Yeah, yeah. Super cool. Do you have kind of a best part or favorite part of the trip as a whole?

Favorite part. Well, I always just kind of getting to know the team a little bit more outside of work. That’s always nice. The weather’s nice. But I think overall, just being around so many people that are kind of in the same field and you have people that are there to learn and people that are there to teach and people that are there to show you their new devices and just being around that environment, I think kind of get your wheels turning a little bit and you get to make some connections and just kind of ask questions that maybe you don’t have anyone else to ask. So yeah, just kind of a little bit of all that I would say.

Definitely. Would you have any suggestions maybe for improvement or what could make the experience even better?

Let’s see here. I love a AC apps. I think they’re great. But sometimes I do feel like there’s a lot of that. So maybe a little bit more stuff like a lotus ring or hardware, equipment, stuff I like. Once again, I don’t want to say anything bad about AC, I like them, but just there’s a lot of that and you go from booth to booth and you’re seeing a lot of very similar apps.

Sure, sure. So maybe just some variance, something different, something a little bit different for people with different needs.

Yeah.

Excellent. Well, Blake, we’re looking forward to it again next year. Thanks for going with us, and thanks for coming on this show to share your experiences.

All right, thank you Josh.

Listeners, our next guest today is Lindsey Wells. Lindsey, tell our listeners just kind of who you are and what you do here?

Oh, hello. I work for Easterseals Crossroads and I do training on assistive technology. I’m going into places like work or schools to help those with unique abilities use the technology that we train and provide services for.

So she’s on our clinical team here at Easterseals Crossroads, and this was Lindsey’s very first ATIA. So I guess just initial thoughts when you first walked in and saw, what were your first impressions of it?

I was amazed at how big it is and how many sessions that were offered. And just the diverse topics that they covered from things that can be used in preschool all the way up to seniors and the variety of technology from low tech to high tech. It was really neat to see everything that was offered, plus just the amount of people that were there and doing that work and being involved and very interested in those things that help people with unique abilities. Just foster those things and be in our community, work in our jobs, participate in our school, everything like that. It’s really great to see.

Yeah, it always is. Did you have maybe a favorite session that you were able to attend?

I had a couple favorite sessions. I really enjoyed learning what Apple has done with iPhones and iPads and what they have already included and updated in their accessibility features. I think that those are things that are in most people’s hands right away. And learning that they’re something that is already there provided for them is extremely useful. I also found the same thing with the Microsoft Copilot session. Doing the same kind of thing in work, using computers already available on a lot of those Windows computers already and something that can easily be used by anyone, not just people with different abilities, but everyone can use a lot of these things to work better, to work more streamlined and make those tools and functions that we need easy to access.

Yeah, and I love that. I always feel like there’s much more acceptance by the general public, especially if well, it’s a tool you already use, just going to use it in a little different way.

100%

Never really thought of that. Or maybe they do think about that so they can look and be like, “Oh, you know what? That one person I do work with has been kind of struggling. Here’s something that might be able to assist them.” It’s built in. Maybe they don’t even know that it’s there.

Exactly.

Yeah, I always love that too. The vendor hall, of course is just a giant jump in place. Was there a really cool piece of tech, maybe a favorite one that really caught your eye that you really thought was neat or maybe a few?

Yeah, the IRI, their CCTVs were very cool, very sharp images. The cameras were amazing. They moved 365 degrees. You can add an additional monitor so that you can see in distance while you’re also seeing on another monitor close up whatever you’re trying to view, like paperwork wise, which I thought was a pretty cool thing. Also, they had really neat Braille displays that had a lot of features that were already built into the product, so that just makes it so much easier to use less software to buy. And I believe that they’re a small business as well. So that’s just kind of cool to know that it’s just also giving back to a small business.

Most definitely. Most definitely. What was your favorite part of the whole trip If you had to pick?

Well, hanging out with my coworkers was really fun. We are a great group of people and it was wonderful to be able to spend that time together. And for me, I was an educator for 16 years working with people with unique abilities, and then now I’m doing that with older people who are in workplaces and in seniors and vets and all that kind of stuff. And so just to see the full circle of knowing that the people who were my students at one point in time are being serviced in all these neat ways, and that is also happening and running into their life outside of education and doing whatever they want to do. And being able to see the amount of technology, low tech, high tech, that is available now just really gives me a great peace of mind knowing that they are helped and getting so much new things to advance them in their ability to be a part of what everyone else is doing every single day.

Yeah, most definitely. I know I always love getting to meet all the people there and be like, oh, thank God you’re using your intelligence for this or your life experience for this to keep it going. Well, I guess just to kind of finish up, do you have any suggestions for improvement or maybe something that could have made the experience even better?

Sure. The thing I would improve is that I would’ve loved the opportunity to kind of work a little more hands-on with that Apple product with an iPhone. I do have my own iPhone of course, but it would’ve been nice to have almost even an additional hour to have that product in my hand to be walked through a little more touching my own device or a device to practice on. Just to see it to it being done is different than to actually have the walkthrough for it. And so I would just love maybe a couple sessions where you’re with devices, and sharing that kind of knowledge that other people have on how to use that assistive technology on those devices and how they use it themselves. So being able to say, okay, here’s a person that is using this in their job. How do they use it? Those things help me make better decisions on when I’m doing evaluations, what products might be useful for that person.

Definitely, definitely. Well, thank you again so much for going. Thank you so much for coming on the show and telling us all about your experience.

Yeah, it’s wonderful. Can’t wait to go again.

Listeners. Our next guest is Marini Marini. Welcome to the show.

Hello. Hello.

Can you introduce yourself to our listeners and maybe kind let them know what it is you do here at Easter Seals Crossroads?

Yeah, so my name is Marini Johnson and I’m an AT trainer.

Awesome. Awesome. So Marini, this was your very first time at ATIA. When you kind of walked in there and just saw it, what was your first impressions of ATIA?

It was wonderful. Everybody was warm and welcoming, and I was a bit overwhelmed with the size. There were rooms everywhere, people everywhere, but everyone was very helpful and directed you exactly where you needed to go, especially if you looked like you were lost.

It’s so funny, I was talking to somebody else as we were doing these and I was like, yeah, I was just walking around looking around to see it all. They’re like, “Oh, have you checked in yet? Oh, come over here.” And a minute and a half later I had my badge and I was done and on my way I was like, oh, so easy. So nice. Awesome, awesome. Did you have maybe a favorite session that you were able to attend?

I did. There were a lot of them that were really good, but I really enjoyed the AI and writing for students.

Nice. Why’d you enjoy that?

I work with a lot of college students and I enjoyed the way they explained things. It was very easy to understand and follow, and they gave great examples of how to use AI to benefit students that are writing.

Awesome. Was there a cool piece of tech or maybe person you were able to meet in the vendor hall also?

Again, there were a lot of amazing things that were there, but I really enjoyed the be there robot.

That thing was cool.

That was pretty fun. And there was someone on it and it was moving around, and so I really liked that one.

Nice. Yeah, I want to start using telepresence robots as we go to different floors, but I have not figured out how to make them push the button for the elevator yet. As soon as we get there, we’re definitely there. So those were all kind of great parts. If you really had to sum it up, what was the best part of the trip in your opinion?

Oh, the best part. That’s really hard. I think just meeting all of the people that were there and getting a full picture of how many people across our country are just there helping and providing services, and I really enjoyed that. Thanks.

Excellent. Excellent. If you could make any suggestions for improvement or something that could make the experience better, what would those be?

Yes. I guess the one thing that I would improve, which to have a bigger room for Apple for their demos, that was a little bit difficult. It was a little chaotic, and maybe a little more structure with it so that you weren’t trying to run to one device and then run to another device because everyone’s talking at the same time.

That that’s definitely been kind of something a lot of folks in here said. So hopefully they’ll get a little bit bigger room for those kind of things. Maybe a few more devices to be able to help with folks. Well, awesome. Marini, thanks for taking time out of your day. Thanks for going, and thanks for telling us all about your experience.

Yeah, thank you. Thank you.

Well, listeners, that is all the time that we have for today, so thanks so much to all of our guests today as they talked about their ATIA experiences here in 2025, and join us next week as we talk to the rest of the team that was able to go down there with us and get their thoughts and opinions on everything that happened down there. So thank you so much for listening. Can’t wait to see you back here next week.

Do you have a question about assistive technology? Do you have a suggestion for someone we should interview on assistive technology update? If so, call our listener line at (317) 721-7124. Send us an email at Tech at Eastersealscrossroads.org, or shoot us a note on Twitter at INDATA Project. Our captions and transcripts for the show are sponsored by the Indiana Telephone Relay Access Corporation or InTRAC. You can find out more about InTRAC at relayindiana.com. A special thanks to Nicole Prieto for scheduling our amazing guests and making a mess of my schedule. Today’s show was produced, edited, hosted, and fraught over by yours truly. The opinions expressed by our guests are their own and may or may not reflect those of the INDATA Project, Easterseals Crossroads, our 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.