Visual scene layouts can be great tools for some children and adults with communication difficulties such as autism, traumatic brain injury, and intellectual disabilities. A photo of one's own kitchen, for example, with photos of food the person eats and the very...
Do you forget to turn your phone to vibrate when you get to work, text a loved one when you leave the office, or turn the wi-fi on so you do not go over the data limit? Maybe you remembered at first, but once you unlocked your phone and saw the bright shiny lights,...
Can you imagine being without a voice for 1 ½ years? Me neither! Well, that is what happened to Chris, a 40-year-old Fargo man with cerebral palsy. His voice output communication system that he had been using since the summer of 2000 broke down, and due to...
Like many people, my schedule is a “little” hectic, and I am always looking for ways to be more productive, stay organized, and to remember to do certain tasks, like “write this blog!” After finally joining the millions of fellow techies and diving into the android...
In earlier blog posts, we discussed medication dispensers, alarms systems, and phones with picture dialing to help people in the early-moderate stages of dementia stay in their own home. Here are a few more items to put in your toolbox! Door Murals In addition to...
An Android or Apple mobile device with a communication app for people who have difficulty speaking, such as an iPad with Proloquo2Go, is not a new concept anymore. However, insurance paying for a mobile device with this type of software is not as commonplace. A...
Last December, I reported on a few text-to-speech (TTS) apps with Optical Character Recognition (OCR) for Apple (iOS) mobile devices. On the Android side of the planet, there is an app called CapturaTalk from Iansyst Ltd, whose main feature includes TTS with OCR....
Are you using Google Docs in school or on the job? TextHelp has released a free Google Chrome Browser app to aid people with reading and writing disabilities, Read&Write for Google Docs™. Not to be confused with the full version of Read&Write Gold, this...
Life doesn't always turn out like we planned or ever wanted, but sometimes a much-needed gift can turn things around for the better. Sue, a former Fargo-Moorhead business woman, shares her thoughts below after receiving equipment from the IPAT Pedaling for...
The old We have been using the LiveScribe Smartpens at IPAT since they came out approximately 5 years ago. I have to say that they are a game changer for many people who have difficulties with auditory comprehension, reading, writing, attention, memory loss, and...