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JAN
CREATING ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS IN MINUTES
OCTOBER 14, 2014
1:30 P.M. ET
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>> LOU ORSLENE: All right, good afternoon, everybody I'm Lou Orslene one of
the co-directors of the Job Accommodation Network and I you welcome you to JAN's
monthly webcast series as many of you know quarterly during the series we focus on
best practices out in the field of workplace accommodations. Today's program features
a very special guest, Therese Willkomm who will teach us how to create assistive
technology solutions in minutes but before I introduce Therese and start the program
let's go over a few housekeeping items, first if you experience technical difficulties
during webcast, please call us at 800-526-7234 for voice and hit button 5. Or for TTY
please call 877-781-9403. Second towards the end of the presentation we'll have a
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We really appreciate your feedback so please stay logged onto fill out evaluation
form.
And now let's meet our speaker. Therese Willkomm, PhD, ATP, is the Director of
New Hampshire's State Assistive Technology Program with the Institute on Disability at
the University of New Hampshire. And is Associate Professor in the Department of
Occupational therapy. Dr. Willkomm is known nationally and internationally as the
MacGyver of assistive technology and has designed and fabricated thousands of
solutions for individuals with disabilities including her patented AT Pad Stand, a
multi-use assistive technology mounting device.
She is also known throughout the country for her trainings on awesome iPad apps
and adaptations. She has presented her work in 42 states, 7 foreign countries and 3
U.S. territories.
Has written 22 assistive technology related publications including her new book
entitled "Assistive Technology Solutions in Minutes - Book 2 Ordinary Items,
Extraordinary Solutions" and has a appeared on RFD TV, CNN and most recently NPR
Science Friday.
I had the pleasure of participating in a workshop Therese conducted at last year's
rehabilitation engineering society of North America conference. And they are
otherwise known as RESNA many of you know will -- will know them as that name
Therese was very dynamic and the session was knowledge filled and I'm really honored
that Therese was willing to share this information and knowledge with our webcast
audience, welcome, Therese.
>> THERESE WILLKOMM: Thank you, Lou. And it's an honor to be a featured
speaker with the Job Accommodation Network. As Lou was introducing the topic,
assistive technology solutions in minutes this presentation is really focused more on
"Low Cost Worksite Accommodations in Minutes". And Lou, the next slide, please.
Regarding levels of work site accommodations or work site modifications. So back
in 1984, part of my masters thesis is I developed this whole thing based upon four levels
of work site adaptations I just want to go through the four levels and also want to talk
about some of the adaptations that you will see is based upon if you only had five
minutes to make a difference in somebody's life, what could you do in five minutes using
ordinary items and ordinary materials.
Other reason that this whole thing about in minutes is so critical is that when a job
becomes available, it's the often filled very quickly.
There's little time to lose on waiting around for the right solution to come about.
And it's about the importance of thinking quickly on your feet. And creating
solutions on the fly.
So, first of all, when we look at level the 1 accommodations, we're looking at the
environment in another way.
So we are often looking at no cost solutions, maybe rearranging work site or figuring
out how to complete that task in a different way or a job restructuring.
Next slide.
Here is an example of an assembly line plant. And you'll notice the scale that this
bin is on. Prior to this scale being placed under bin, workers were carrying these heavy
40-pound bins of materials over onto a scale to weigh it to see how close it was to 40
pounds. So is they were doing lifting, bending and I had suggested why not just put the
scale right underneath bin so as the parts are coming off the assembly line it drops into
the bin somebody can monitor it so when it reaches 40 pounds they can turn off the
machine and better yet we discovered that 384 equals 40 pounds.
So we were able to do away with the scale all together.
But doing this particular accommodation involved all of the workers coming together
and quickly figuring out a very simple solution that benefited all workers, not just the
worker with the back injury.
This became a very interesting labor saving solution that benefited all. Next slide.
One of the things that we did discover was that as the parts were coming off into the
bin that it caused vibration and causing some challenges with the scale. But I
discovered sorbothane and that comes in A, B and C in terms of it's density to absorb
vibration. And just placing that onto absorb the vibration, that's what that blue pad is.
Next slide.
This is a gentleman I worked with in Wisconsin who happened to be blind. And
looking at user orientation around farm. And simple things like wind chimes by the
house so he knew where the house was. He would have NPR radio out in the machine
shed. In the dairy barn it would be a rock and roll station. And then in the morning,
the dog, he would follow the dog and listen to the dog because the routine was to go
into the mill cows open the door let the dog out the back the dog would bring the cattle
in to be milked so again simple everyday kinds of things.
Also he discovered that if you put a radio next to the hey mound chute so you don't
fall out. So a lot of different strategies if you're visually impaired and farming also
simple things putting different tags on different chains, ropes, materials around the
different cows necks so he could simply identify one cow from another.
Next slide, please. So Level 2 is commercially available items. And the majority
of assistive technology solutions used in the workplace are not labeled as assistive
technology solutions. They are actually labeled as labor saving devices.
And as far as assistive technology solutions and finding a Web site, I mean there's
a bunch of different Web sites. Georgia Tech had a database. There was AbleNet.
AT tech connections. And what we're finding is is that the area of assistive technology
can continues to expand. And best thing you can do is when you're looking for a
particular gadget, gizmo or device, Google it. That's one of the best resources for
finding just about anything.
Next slide, please.
So some of the labor savings devices in the previous slide you would have seen it
was a trimmer but nice back saving solution but in this slide you see a hammer. We
have come a long way with hammer designs and this is a stilettoed hammer that has a
groove cut out on top with a magnetic nail holder if somebody has had a stroke or arm
amputation you can start a nail very quickly.
But the other interesting thing in the center you'll see this little triangle a new way of
removing nails versus a claw, a new removal. And the other part is that the head of the
hammer is a titanium hammer making it very lightweight but yet a very powerful
hammer.
I show this as an example of just because you can make something or make do
with what you have isn't always the best choice. Sometimes it's important to find a
commercially available tool that will reduce the repetitive stress injuries to the elbow,
shoulder and neck area. And this titanium hammer is a well-balanced very effective
tool.
However, it is also very expensive. It's about $100. But I always advocate
always, always, always select the appropriate tool for your task. For example, you
wouldn't give somebody a ball peen hammer to go frame a house. A carpenter needs
a good framing hammer not a ball peen hammer.
Next slide, please.
This is a little panel toter that is used for moving drywall and it uses these roller
skate rubber wheels to roll it around again maintaining a neutral body posture and
wheels always come in handy for a variety of things I particularly like those crates on
wheels that you can pick up at Staples or Office Max. Great, great labor saving device.
Next slide, please.
Okay, the sure foot cane. All-terrain cane. And I spent a lot of time looking at
outdoor mobility to reduce slips and falls. Because falls and injuries as a result of a fall
is the No. 1 cause of secondary injuries among agricultural producers with mobility
impairments.
So local at strategies so first look at what's out there that's commercially available
we're looking at the surface area this has springs on it sometimes people use dandelion
cutters for stability also as they are walking on rough terrain. Next slide, please.
This happens to be a path lighter cane. My thought was if we could light the
pathway as people who experience mobility impairments are walking at night, we could
reduce the potential injuries.
Unfortunately this commercially available cane is very problematic because as soon
as you drop cane, the flashlight -- the light bulb breaks even though it gives you a
second one all it takes is dropping it again and it breaks. So I recently discovered -next slide, please -- is this little pink little bug light and I found it at Eastern Mountain
Sports and L.L.Bean were carrying these lights very lightweight very durable very bright
LED light has three different settings on it but the grip twist material that you can get at
Home Depot, you just attach this right to the cane, it drips on to the cane and the light
angles downward to light your pathway as you're walking at night. Next slide, please.
So here is an example of it shining down and you can see how bright it is on the
cane. Again, a very low cost inexpensive way to provide light to your cane. Next
slide, please.
Sometimes just providing an armrest, something to lean against as you're
assembling tasks and doing forward-motion tasks can be really effective. So this is a
portable armrest that just hooks onto any table surface. But then I started exploring
about other armrests that I could possibly create. Next slide, please.
So here is an example again, this is a particular task they have to put powder on.
Here is our portable armrest. Do you see that red shop rag right next to it? Next slide,
please I'll show you an example of how you can take that red shop rag and around a
some pipe insulation and create your homemade armrests this is what I call
repurposing. This gray object was originally designed as a device for opening up pill
bottles. But I discovered that workers who were trying to grip onto three of these
copper connections at this electric company, by using this particular tool, this was far
more effective and again it benefited all the workers, not just the person with the
grasping impairment. Next slide.
You know those retractible tags that you can get when you're skiing for your ID tags
or sometimes also Staples sells these retractible tags. They become a great solution
for putting your keys on and this gentleman this employee happened to have cerebral
palsy and he was struggling trying to turn the remote control for his van.
And just by putting a retractible key chain thing, he can swing around, grab it, pull it
toward him and hit the remote control button. Next slide, please.
Now we're at Level 3 modifications.
And Level 3 is when you can't find anything commercially available -- I'm sorry; you
find things that are commercially available but they are not perfect. They have to be
adapted.
So for example, these are jellybean switches or spec switches. They are a
momentary switch but this woman was unable to lift her arm up to hit it if it was
positioned horizontally on the table.
So I took a piece of acrylic and with a little microtorch just heated both pieces of -both ends. And mounted them vertically and then attached it to her tray and now she
just slides her hand to the left and to the right to activate the two different switches.
Next slide, please.
Here is that armrest that I was going to show you on how to create your own
armrest. And just turning the parts and keeping a bin at about a 30 degree angle really
maintained a neutral wrist posture and it benefited again all the employees.
Next slide, please. This is an example for a receptionist and this receptionist
experienced a cognitive impairment that prevented her from being able to read names.
She became very, very anxious when somebody would call the she would just yell down
the hall, Mary, Line 1. And so we had to stop that. We had to figure out, get her
comfortable with transferring a call.
So because of all of the black buttons that had white markings it just was
overwhelming I turned the transfer button to a go button then I took a picture of
everybody in the office and put their picture next to their name and put their name on
the button so she could get used to seeing the word Frank and seeing Frank's name so
she would get the call and she would say hold please and then she would find picture
and she would push their button and then she would push the go button. So this really
increased her employability. Next slide, please.
Rapid prototyping. Now, research shows that assistive technology has about a
35% abandonment rate. But when I look at -- when I look at selecting assistive
technology and doing the problem solving I would be willing to bet that assistive
technology has a 90% failure rate right off the bat. And what I mean by that is just
because you order something, just because you get something in, just because you
made something, there's no guarantees going to work. In fact it's -- it probably isn't
going to work.
And so if you understand that and you understand oh, you know it has to be
tweaked or it has to be one inch longer or one inch shorter then you don't give up. And
if you can figure out a way to create solutions in five minutes or less using rapid
prototyping techniques, if you fail, no big deal. You just do it again.
So on the left you can see these are two different rakes for raking parts out at this
particular plant. And what they were using is they were just using this one little rake
and everybody was complaining about their hands and their wrists hurting.
Well, I happen to have one of these forearm garden hose and a material called
polytape it has no adhesive on it whatsoever it's a self adhering silicon tape so by just
taking that and inserting it and wrapping it up, I then gave it to Betty in the bottom
picture and I had Betty try it and Betty said you know it seems like it's two inches too
long no problem because all you do take a utility knife make a slit slide it back in rewrap
it and then she said, you know what, Therese, this feels really good. Perfect. Then
we take it to Tim and he's in the upper right hand corner picture and we say, Tim, don't
you have some reroute around there in the back and Tim quickly fabricated these rakes
for all of the employees. Again, maintaining a neutral wrist posture and reducing
injuries.
Next slide, please.
This was a job at the YMCA and the gentleman experienced a mobility impairment
and any time you gave him a broom he would start holding the broom up in the air
versus on the floor. So I quickly ran out and got some PVC pipe and two Swiffer mops
from the grocery store and Velcroed those and slid the ends into PVC pipe and turned it
into somewhat of a walker so that as he's pushing and he turns, all three mop heads the
two Swiffer mops and central mop head all pivot to the left or right depending on where
you're turning so this worked out very well. So here is another picture of the Swiffers
attached to the main mop. Next slide.
Sorry the blue mop.
Okay. Now the next slide, you're going to see a blue two-way radio.
This worker needed to be able to alert her supervisor when she needed assistance
when she needed more materials. This was something made very, very quickly using
a $4 two way radio and lining up a little round rubber bumper you get in the house
wares department with the call button on the radio and the mounting system is just
made out of PVC pipe with winged elbows and dual lock so it can retract up and down,
back and forth, it can be positioned wherever she needs it. And she moves her head
slightly back, hits the paddle and alerts her supervisor.
And it can transmit about two miles away.
Next slide.
Pink board is a fabulous material when you're doing rapid prototyping. I fabricate
thousands of jigs and fixtures just using pink board and tape and a utility knife this
comes in half inch, three quarter inch one inch and two inch pieces.
Quickly you can fabricate a ton of material. I don't like using glue because glue
takes too much time and has too much toxicity and that's why I love using lock lip rubber
tape which is this yellowy bees wax tape you tear it off with your hand put it between
pink board sandwich it and make something very, very quickly here is an example of
putting pink board inside of a neoprene computer case. The worker just was having a
hard time getting up and needed two inch rise just something to bring him upright I
discovered you know what there's lots of material you can slide into these neoprene
bags just to help raise the person a little bit higher recently we bought a bunch of
computers and it had some of this soft foam material so we stuffed that all into one of
the computer bags for one of the workers. Next slide, please.
Recessing an iPad. Is -- can be done very easily into two layers of corrugated
plastic. And an iPad is the same thickness as corrugated plastic you can get
corrugated plastic at Home Depot. I make thousands of things out of corrugated
plastic.
First I trace two squares into the corrugated plastic and I use the utility knife to cut
out the hole so I can drop the iPad in. In the picture on the right what you don't see is
everything is all assembled and attached to the pink board using lock rip rubber tape
and then this tray latch is attached using Velcro an industrial Velcro to lock line material
that's that black flexible material which is then clamped on to the arm are rest but
armrests are padded first so that we do no harm to anybody's equipment and we don't
want to damage the armrest. So this became a very simple access solution for this
gentleman using the iPad. Next slide, please. Acrylic. I love rapid prototyping with
acrylic. Acrylic takes ten seconds for it to heat so you can sketch it, bend it, it takes
five seconds for it too cool off.
A very, very fast material. You just use an acrylic cutter which is this little Jackknife
kind of thing. You score and snap it.
Then if I have to create something very quickly, this was in the upper left hand
corner this woman worked as a greenhouse she needed to put dirt inside of these pots,
plants and I needed to whip up a tray very quickly with a hole in the center for the dirt to
slide into so she could push her hands over to push the dirt into it and the co-worker
would take the containers and put the seeds into it. Next slide, please.
Level 4, this is where we're talking about fabricating a new solution.
What it means is that we can't find any other solution out there or we did find a
solution and it's way too expensive to buy and we think that we could make it cheaper
perhaps.
So this is taking an ergonomic wire stripper and flipping it upside down and inserting
it into this material is called epoxy putty it has a very high tensile strength, will withstand
4,000 pound tensile strength after it hardens. And so by mounting it onto a base and
having it upside down, it eliminates the need to squeeze the tool to strip the wires. All
you do is just push on the top the of the tool and push straight down and it will strip the
wire. Next slide, please. Here is an example of the white material is called model
magic. A lot of times I will prototype stuff using model magic because I can get a
package of model magic for like 50 cents. Whereas the epoxy putty material that gray
material on the bottom will run me like $4 so if the workers are fine with the handle that I
make and build up for them for the brush I will then go back and make it out of epoxy
putty I've had things I made two years ago with epoxy putty it's still holding up really
strong material whereas model magic that white material will only last about 6 months
and it will start breaking up on you but it's a really good prototyping material.
Next slide, please.
This is something very simple. We needed to create an accessible workplace
accommodation for this young lady. And the fastest thing to do was I saw a couple of
desks and I thought hey can I make an accessible station where she can just roll her
wheelchair in. It just so happens that a standard cut at Home Depot is a 2 foot by 4
foot sheet and they make tile board which is 2 foot by 4 foot and underneath the tile
board is a 2 foot by 4 foot piece of half inch plywood I wrapped up in contact paper no
sanding no staining no varnishing no gluing. This is a five-minute solution that can be
quickly assembled.
Yeah and no cutting. All right. Next slide, please.
All right. So this is a worker who is working out of her home for an insurance
company. She works for a call center. So if people have questions about their
benefits, et cetera, she takes those calls.
She needed a very fast accessible workstation. So one of the things is I found that
Rubbermaid makes a flexible -- it -- a telescoping table that goes from 19 inches to 29
inches. And it also folds in the center, fits in the car, so it's lightweight, durable, really,
really fast product. And then I found for 50 cents a lazy Susan bearing which I then
took a piece of acrylic bent into a triangle and attached a book holder on both sides
using a material called BHB tape to make a lip you can go to the hardware store to the
wallpaper department and get corner guard just to put a lip to catch the books or the
binder then with the lazy Susan she just twirls that around also different adjustable book
holders there's a bunch of things that can be made in about five minutes. Next slide,
please.
All right. So we have the iPad. But sometimes people don't think about creative
things they can do with the built-in features of the iPad. For example keyboard
shortcuts with auto text.
If -- you have to understand that keyboard shortcuts is not found under accessibility.
But what you have to turn on under accessibility for keyboard shortcuts to work with
auto speak is you have to turn speak auto-text on. Next slide, please.
So then you type in the phrase. And your shortcut has to be at least two digits.
So now whenever you're in any application or you're in the Notes page or whatever,
whenever you hit the HY it speaks it outloud, hello, how are you today?
So creative uses of that is a person that works for the Postal Service. He happens
to be deaf. And his shortcut is MM, and he hits MM and all of a sudden the iPad starts
saying, hi, I'm Mike, I happen to be deaf, I have certified mail for you today. I'm using
the voice recognition system so if you need to ask me a question just press the
microphone here and it will type out what you are saying.
So it was a really cool way to use the iPad to be able to communicate with his
customers.
Next slide, please. Decibel. That was another thing that Mike used. Is when he
would ring the doorbell, he would watch the decibel app on the iPad and when dogs
would bark, that needle would go up consistent rhythm. Or as somebody was coming
to the door, that needle would start going up. He was able to distinguish that hey
somebody is home and they are coming to the door.
Next slide, please..
This is called Ears & SoundAmp but write down ear machine. Fabulous, fabulous
app. Because you can customize for your unique hearing loss.
So you have -- you dial in for the left ear, dial in for the right ear. Based upon what
the frequency that loss is. And then down below you increase the volume to the left
ear and the right ear to whatever your desired volume level. So this happens a ton of
bells and whistles in this particular app.
Next slide, please.
So this is just showing you touch that -- the left and you move it around until you get
the sweet spot that you can hear. Again, you need a headset on to be able to listen but
then what's great is you've got the iPad or the iPhone in the room, the classroom, the
workplace and you lay it down on the table and it amplifies what people are saying at
the desired frequency levels and amplification levels. Next slide, please. Here is an
example of using the iPhone very creatively as an amplifier. So what we're doing here
is using the built-in microphone on the iPad. Along with a 20 foot cable to an external
speaker to the student who happens to be deaf.
And he's not deaf. He's hard of hearing.
So whatever Stacy says and she's pointing out something on the screen, whatever
it is then being transmitted to the speaker that he is sitting next to.
So that's a very low tech way of turning your iPhone into a portable PA system with
an external speaker. Next slide, please.
I'm looking at how do we communicate with one another spontaneously and as
quickly as possible.
If you can see in the center of this particular slide, you will see that the handle of
this case is bent at 90 degrees and slid over something that sticks out. I made a
special clip that clips onto your belt buckle or the waistband of your pants and slides
right into the center hole of the handle on the iPad case. And then I used a material
capped rapid strap it's a double face loop material. And so that goes around her neck
and she's able to type with one hand and able to quickly communicate on fly. And is
able to quickly lift up the iPad and throw it over her shoulder and move on.
The public bells watch is an amazing, amazing watch and these smart watches are
incompetent credible for individuals who experience functional impairments attention
deficit disorders you can have infinite numbers of prompts sent to your watch and your
watch vibrates and all of the text messages, people calling, but one of the best features
I love about the watch is I'm always losing my iPhone. So if I press the center button
three times my iPhone wakes up and starts playing music the iPhone can be in vibration
or sleep mode but it wakes up and plays music and I can quickly locate the iPhone
rather than somebody call me or be quiet I'm trying to listen to it iPhone the Apple watch
is coming out in January and I can't wait because I think there are a ton of different apps
because I think there will be a number of apps that will help a number of people with
disabilities.
Next slide, please. This happens to be an employee working at Sears in the shoe
department and she has to quickly communicate with her customers because she's deaf
and she has to be able to show them the different shoes and again using the built-in
voice recognition or using photo albums where albums of kids shoes, adult shoes,
men's shoes, women's shoes, sport shoes, et cetera and she can communicate with
them. So this is the -- it's attached to her belt. And her belt is a double face loop
material made by Velcor next slide, please. Here is another product for somebody with
a stroke that has a hard time holding an iPad with two hands. On the right-hand side
these white dots is a new material called sticky back to fabric that goes to a smack and
having some Velcro on the back of the iPad mini she can attach it and do inventory
control, et cetera.
Next slide, please.
Here is the iPad stand. So I invented this a couple of years ago. I called it AT
Pad Stand because if we take that iPad off, you can use the setup for over we're up to
38 different assistive technology solutions that the stand can be used for, anything from
a sandwich holder to a virtual personal care assistant to a cup holder to an iPhone
holder. I mean you can virtually -- a switch holder put just about anything in because
this lock line material is flexible bendable you can move it to the right to the left, et
cetera, you can use it in so many creative ways. Next slide, please.
Here is an example when we talk about video modeling or teaching skill tasks.
While this is a picture of this iPad is incompetent side of a one gallon Ziploc bag
because Ziploc bags are very durable, the plastic is nice and tight it doesn't interfere
with the conductivity when you're touching it but I took a series of step-by-step clips on
washing hands.
And so the worker just reaches up with their finger they swipe to the next clip to the
next clip so again it's the creative uses of albums that are built into the iPad. And using
a technique of video modeling in which you're filming through the eyes of the -- the eye
of the doer, versus the eye of the observer.
So always make sure that the camera on the iPad is over the right hand shoulder of
the person performing the task. And then chunk it down into a series of step-by-step
tasks.
We also use this approach in a salad bar for food preparation at a restaurant for a
worker trying to remember the steps to prep a salad bar and to make certain salads.
Next slide, please.
This is called the back buddy. Something that you can add to a hoe. It's
commercially available. But I discovered there's other materials that you can add to a
hoe to make it easier to maintain a neutral body posture. Next slide, please.
So this is an example of a $1 side pole bracket with two cable ties I've discovered a
new material called InstaMorph I can wrap around it making it even more secure. Next
slide, please.
Here is another example. Now we have InstaMorph inside the bottom of the
flagpole bracket and it is secured to the shovel using Velcro run wrap and then a double
faced strap for the forearm support and then an InstaMorph cup that an elbow slides
into so you're displacing the force across the entire arm. Next slide, please.
This is showing keyboard shortcuts but I've created a flipper so you know that when
you flip the iPad, it rights itself unless you set up the control that doesn't let it right itself.
So this way when you're communicating back and forth, you easily flip it one way, flip it
the other way, and the a cool way of quickly communicating with one another. Next
slide, please. I've been creating a lot of -- I've been creating a lot of different cup
holders. This is a cup holder made of Velcro run wrap I've come up with different
securement methods but any cup that's tapered meaning it's smaller on the bottom than
the top when you fasten the one wrap around the midway down you drop the cup in it
can't fall any further because it's a tapered cup you can put it on crutches, canes,
walkers, et cetera.
Next slide, please.
Individuals who have Parkinson's often have a hard time holding a newspaper to be
able to read a newspaper or any materials. So I discovered Ottlite. And again, using
some lock line material I'm able to slide that into a five pole bracket that I have attached
using InstaMorph and Velcro one wrap so I can put it on, take it off very quickly. And
that black material is a little clip that you can make in under 20 seconds using
corrugated plastic.
Next slide, please.
>> LOU ORSLENE: Therese, could you just talk about the Ottlite for a minute
while -- why you chose that?
>> THERESE WILLKOMM: Yes, the Ottlitings the reason I like the Ottlite and the
Ottlite stand is the Ottlite is a very broad spectrum light. And this broad spectrum light
really helps all people, it really helps the text jump out on the page. But I thought yeah
on Ottlite is fine but what are you going to have to hold up the paper so I thought hey if
the Ottlite is on a paper I can just use a pole and attach the arm that pivots outward it
can hold a paper, can hold an iPad can hold a variety of different things. Next slide,
please.
Magnification. So an iPad can magnify only ten times but if you want to achieve
100 times magnification, you can achieve that very simply by buying a $99 LCD monitor
at HDMI monitor, all monitors now are HDMI or all TVs are HDMI. And Best Buy cells
for $19 an HDMI adapter that plugs into your iPad. And then you can use an app
called Vision Assist and you're able to zoom in and move around. It's really a great
app. Making a low cost homemade CCTV. Next slide, please.
We've been doing a lot with virtual students, virtual employees, people who can't
make it to work, can't make it to school. Just taking the AT Pad Stand that I had
invented, putting a shirt on it. And using FaceTime or Skype. And having the person
participate in the classroom that way or in the workplace. It's been quite popular
because especially because on The Big Bang Theory with Sheldon and virtual presence
has been quite popular. Next slide, please.
I love an app that is called text scriber and I also like DocScan and it's a very quick
way you take a picture of a document and it converts it into text and it can read it back
to you using VoiceOver. Next slide, please. Here is an example of someone wanting
to go bird watching and for $12 you can get a monocular and you can take that and
position it right in front of a lens on the iPad and now you have a really great
magnification device to be able to see birds up in the trees. But if I rotate this 90
degrees, I can turn it into a microscope, too.
So very, very creative. Again, it's another use of the AT Pad Stand
Next slide, please.
So here is an example, the gentleman at the front of the classroom wrote hello on
the board. You can't see hello. But in the back because of the monocular which is 55
times magnification, you're able to zoom into it just fine.
Next slide, please.
Portable podium can be made in five minutes or less. Again using the AT Pad
Stand but on the right do you see what I'm putting down the center that's half inch PVC
when I drop it in and drop the top on it makes whole center rigid so it's not going to bend
on you. Next slide, please.
Traveling Eileen is another one of my inventions out of corrugated plastic. You'll
see it's attached to her leg using Velcro one wrap to keep it secure so she can push
wheelchair. This particular case is called end case it has a little rubber band on it
which attaches to the Eileen. And you can travel with the Eileen on your lap and
interact with the iPad.
Next slide, please.
Here is another example of taking this AT Pad Stand and using it as an a
magnification device to be able to read a book. For somebody with a low vision.
Next slide, please. Lightweight, affordable, portable at the Web site there's step by
step instructions on how to make this as well as in my new book on AT solutions in
minutes Book 2 next slide, please I call it the Traveling Eileen because it folds up we've
been using it a lot in the classroom. Any iPad, any case can just rest and drop right
into it. Again we're using corner guard from the wallpaper department as a lip to keep it
from falling and some non-slip rubber bumpers or rubber material or foamys on the
bottom of it to grip on to the tabletop surface. Next slide, please.
This is a portable scan and read box. For those who are visually impaired. It can
be quickly collapsable, assembled, fits in a backpack and it is designed so that it can be
used by somebody who is blind. So you can be independent in using it. You can put
menus in there. You can put anything in there. You can put it sideways you can put it
upside down doesn't matter it's going to read it it's going to scan it and read it. So
that's the portable scan and read station.
Next slide, please.
This is a multi-sensory approach for cognitive impairments and this particular
company they had to assemble these med kits. They were having lots of errors and I
chunked it down and used pink board to mount everything on so the black things are an
auditory message that says put the plastic tube in the aluminum tube and put the cap on
it and then go to the next one put these three pieces of paper together and they are all
three different colors. Then next one is roll this around tube and put it into the white
tube just by chunking it down and usually visual, tactile and auditory cues can increase
productivity and decrease error rate. Next slide, please.
Color coding, I you love doing colors, colors are really awesome because you can
put them on a number of different things. One of the most creative things with the color
flags was a worker who was photo copying for people -- people in the office kept
screwing up. We gave everybody their own color flags on the color flag they would
write down how many copies they needed. They would peel it off. Stick it in the upper
right hand corner of what had to be copied of the lady would take it to the copier, take
the pink thing off, put it on the copier, make the copies, and put the pink flag back on.
Again, it increased productivity and decreased error rate for her.
Next slide, please. Color bins.
Very, very useful. And color measuring tools. When you're organizing things, the
much easier to organize colors than trying to organize things by letters and numbers.
And Target I found was one of my No. 1 favorite places for all different color coded
measuring instruments and bins.
Next slide please so these are the resources I love the Job Accommodation
Network they are very, very responsive. There's also a link for employers at AT
Connects and then of course my book next slide please. "Assistive Technology
Solutions in Minutes - Book 2. And there's the Web site you can get it from the Institute
on Disability. At the IOD bookstore and also Amazon.com and I want to thank you
again. And I was supposed to go for 45 minutes and it's 2:46 and Lou what are we
doing.
>> LOU ORSLENE: Perfect timing; perfect timing first of all I want to thank you
very much Therese for challenging us to be creative about thinking about
accommodations. I think that five-minute goal is really quite a goal. And forces us to
be creative. I also like the idea of many of the accommodations that you offered really
can be replicated or used for other people in the workplace to make them more
productive. So always like to see that. And I think employers always like to see that,
as well. So thanks very much for all of these ideas and your energy, as well around
these issues.
So now, let's open it up for question and answers.
You can still send me your questions at any time during the webcast or to the email
account which is question@askJAN.org or use the question and answer pod at the
bottom of the screen to use the pod type in the question and click on the arrow to
submit the question queue.
So, let's see our first question is this has to do with the slide that you had featuring
the iPhone used as an amplifier, can this be used on Android phones, as well?
>> THERESE WILLKOMM: You would to check your machine, the -- the app I was
using on the iPhone was your machine. So you'll have to see if that's also available on
Android. If it is, yes, you would just -- the earpiece on the iPhone or the Android
phone, you would plug in a 20 foot audio cable into that. That's then plugged into an
external speaker. These external speakers I've been able to pick up fairly
inexpensively as low as $50.
So I hope that answers that question.
>> LOU ORSLENE: It does, great, thanks very much. Then we also have a
question about your book. And we just want to offer we pulled that up on the Web site.
And we see that the cost is -- there were questions around cost of the book. And we
see that is at $35.
>> THERESE WILLKOMM: No that's the wrong one.
>> LOU ORSLENE: Oh, I'm sorry; there is -- right. Exactly. The copyright -- the
2005 book $35. And then the new one "Assistive Technology Solutions in Minutes Book 2 Ordinary Items, Extraordinary Solutions" is $50. Yes, sorry about that.
>> THERESE WILLKOMM: Yeah so that's $50. And it includes there's a DVD in
the back of it. And what's great about the DVD, it has 115 how-to video clips.
>> LOU ORSLENE: Oh, wow.
>> THERESE WILLKOMM: And in addition on that DVD, you get a PDF sheet of
every recipe of every -- because it's usually the recipe format that shows the tools,
materials and then methods for creating the solutions that's throughout the book. And
so it was designed also like let's say you saw a really good idea and you wanted to send
it to a friend. You would pop in the DVD, find that PDF of that tip sheet and you could
just email that particular document.
And then it also includes a chapter called mushroom patch of secrets and that's
about where is the best place to go to get all of this stuff for free or donated or low cost.
So it's a good investment.
>> LOU ORSLENE: Yes, it certainly sounds like it and I know we had purchased it
and our consultants were marvelled at again all of the low-cost solutions which is of
course where we always have with employers, too, ensure it's effective of course but
again try to do the low cost solutions.
Another question here, do you have other examples of adaptions for Postal Service
employees.
>> THERESE WILLKOMM: The adaptions is one of the issues is reducing slips
and falls, different types of footwear and then also carrying things using the rapid strap
kit from Velcro. So just reducing back pain, back injuries and reducing slips and falls.
>> LOU ORSLENE: And then a similar question, do you -- in the book or can you
offer any ideas for housekeeping?
>> THERESE WILLKOMM: For housekeeping we have different jigs for folding
towels, how do you fold a towel real fast there's a bunch of different folding jigs for
towels and housekeeping with the iPad mini or now I'm looking at using the iPhone 6
plus. And to be able to be sequencing a task for housekeeping and then to alert okay
did you do this one, this one and having a picture of what's the next task what's the next
task. And so but doing that similar to foodservice prep of just doing sequencing of
housekeeping tasks just to be able to speed up the particular process.
>> LOU ORSLENE: Great. Another question, does your book address lifting
restrictions for physical jobs?
>> THERESE WILLKOMM: No, it does not.
>> LOU ORSLENE: Okay.
And then another question, with regard to employees that have been impacted by
Parkinson's and have to dial the phone, that's one of the challenges that this employer
faces. Do you have any discussions for what could be implemented to assist with that?
>> THERESE WILLKOMM: Yeah. So now with iOS 8 what's really great with the
iPad, as long as the iPad is plugged into the outlet, if you can say, hey, Siri call and you
can say the number if you're able to speak that number clearly, Siri is going to
automatically dial it. So that's been pretty cool so not having to hit any buttons on the
phone and using the voice recognition. Or creating larger buttons for dialing in terms of
the speed dialing.
But the voice activated dialing by just saying the number outloud. And by just
saying hey, Siri it wakes up all by itself and you can give the command is pretty darn
impressive but again the person has to have a consistent articulate speech.
>> LOU ORSLENE: Right.
How about any ideas for people who have a hard time holding the wait of their head
due to a neck disorder but are otherwise able bodied; neck braces they found do not
work. And immobilization is not necessary. But just help holding the head up against
gravity.
>> THERESE WILLKOMM: Yeah. So here is something simple. So you take a
baseball cap and you take a set of suspenders and clip the set of suspenders on the
back of the baseball cap and on the person's belt buckles the and tighten them
accordingly just to give a little bit extra support holding the head. The issue though is
that everybody's needs are different. I did this approach with a gentleman that had a
ALS he was having a hard time holding his head up so I you tried that just using some
springs just using suspenders and clipping it in. Low tech simple thing that could be
tried.
>>DR. BETH LOY: Therese this is Beth and I have a couple of questions from the
technology standpoint here.
Would the Pebbles watch would it be appropriate for someone with narcolepsy.
>> THERESE WILLKOMM: If so the part is about the vibration. And it is -- I have
been really impressed with the significance of the vibration. I use it as far as for waking
up.
But everybody is different. You know so it's like what do you need? That whole
thing on how strong is the vibration. So you could give it a try and see how effective it
is.
>>DR. BETH LOY: Okay. Let's see here. Recommendations for different types
of keyboarding limitations?
>> THERESE WILLKOMM: If it's a keyboarding limitation for an iPad, I do a whole
workshop on 50 ways to adapt the iPad. But my you two favorite things for keyboards
for an iPad if we just talk about the iPad, the big keys LX, what's great is that keyboard
will plug directly into the power supply on the iPad. There's like four other keyboards
that will plug in so you can plug alternative keyboards into an iPad. There's another
one called TacType I love TacType $35 you can get it from Amazon it has sticky stuff on
the back of it and the bubbles for the keys and you just put that over the virtual
keyboard on the iPad. So that's really cool.
But in terms of keyboarding in general, I can tell you, I've been using voice
recognition for a long time. And now the new Dragon 13 pro. Oh my gosh I am so in
love with it it's a game changer because I no longer have to wear a headset anymore
with typing and even using voice recognition the other thing is when you have
somebody that has speech impairments you can do utterance mapping so as long as
the utterances are consistent, you can program it so you can set it up that if you go out
store means I went to the store or file open or print or whatever. And doing macros to
speed things up for keyboarding. Really great if you're using a PC. If you're using a
Mac, there is if you hit the function key twice, you turn on the voice recognition. That's
built into the Mac. They also make Dragon Dictate for Mac, too.
But the new 13 pro is knocking my socks off.
>>DR. BETH LOY: Great. That's good to hear and then one more from my bin
and I'll give it back to Lou to wrap up the session. One of them I got said are your
adaptations tested for safety?
>> THERESE WILLKOMM: No. So that's the whole thing is that when you're
doing rapid prototyping, nothing -- in the regular field of engineering, products are tested
for five years before they are ever released to the public.
So when you're creating solutions very quickly on the fly, there is no testing. It's
person because you're creating one of a kind solutions for one of a kind type of needs.
So therefore, these products, these ideas, really don't go out to any -- they are not
really commercially available. And so they are created for particular needs. And one
of the things I look at is is it lasting for a year. If it lasts for a year without incident, then
it's pretty effective. Or we have also sometimes we do the what's called the fourth floor
test where we open up the window and throw it out the window and see how it does
when it hits the floor and we do that sometimes on different keyboards. Types of
things.
A lot like with Velcro, you know the big thing is looking at do no harm. So you have
to take a look at what's the risk of somebody getting hurt.
Now, putting a magnifying glass -- I'm sorry; a monocular in front of the iPad the
chance of somebody getting hurt from a monocular is very little versus when you're
doing something with machinery. Where somebody could get caught or entangled, et
cetera.
A lot of these are just like low tech simple holding solutions.
>>DR. BETH LOY: Lou that's all from my bin.
>> LOU ORSLENE: All right. Well, thank you. That's pretty much all the time we
have everybody. Thanks very much for attending. Therese, thanks so much for a
great presentation. We've had so many comments already outstanding and awesome
and all sorts of complimentary additives so we want to just thank you very much. We
also want to thank Alternative Communication Services for providing the net captioning.
If you need additional information about anything we talked about today, please let us
know. And if you want to discuss an accommodation please feel free to call us here at
JAN we hope the program was not only useful but inspired you to creatively tackle that
next accommodation challenge. Therese has certainly inspired us. As mentioned
earlier an evaluation form will automatically pop up on your screen in another window.
As soon as we're finished. We appreciate your feedback. So we hope that you'll take
a minute to complete the form.
Again, thanks very much for attending and we'll see all of you next month.
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