(bright music)
Welcome to, "Hadley Presents."
I'm your host, Ricky Enger, inviting you to sit back,
relax, and enjoy a conversation with the experts.
In this episode, Hadley staff join us
to share their favorite, impactful,
and accessible technology.
Welcome to the show, everybody.
Hey. Hey
Hey, everyone.
Wow, this is amazing.
I can honestly not think of anything better
than spending time with a few of my favorite people
and discussing one of my big passions, which is technology.
So before we kick things off
and get into everybody's favorite picks,
we'll do just quick intros for each of you.
So first we've got Douglas Walker,
who is our director of research and development,
and he might sound kind of familiar to anyone
who has checked out our Apple workshops.
So welcome to the show, Douglas.
Thanks, this is gonna be a lot of fun.
Great, next up we have Jennifer Ottowitz,
who is learning expert
in the adjustment, independent living and recreation team.
And you'll also be familiar
with her from a few, "Hadley Presents,"
whatever the plural of that is.
And also from the Resource Roundtable discussion group.
Welcome, Jennifer.
Hi, happy to be here.
Great to have you.
And next up then is Tiffany Mpofu,
who is learning expert in assistive technology,
has joined our team fairly recently.
She used to be on the adjustment, independent living
and recreation with Jennifer.
And now we are happy to have snagged her
for ourselves on the assistive technology team.
You'll also know her from Get Up and Go!
and Travel Talk discussion groups.
Welcome, Tiffany.
Hello, hello, I'm excited to be here.
Great, so good to have you.
And finally, Steven Kelley,
you've been on a, "Hadley Presents," or two.
Also learning expert in assistive technology.
And people may have heard you on Get Up and Go! with Tiffany
and our new Book Nook discussion group.
Welcome, Steve.
Hey, everyone, delighted to be here.
All right, so with those introductions out of
the way
we get to move on to the fun bit of the program,
which is to talk tech.
It is so, so amazing to have you all here.
We thought about doing this
because we all have a lot in common,
but we each approach things differently as well.
And some of us love technology for its own sake.
We love playing with all of those gadgets and gizmos
and jumping right into the software and hardware.
And some of us use technology
because it's sort of a necessary thing
and it finds a place in our lives.
Even though we may not be in love with the concept
of technology, the things that it can do for us,
you know, that's where technology really shines.
So I thought it would be really nice
to just get everyone's perspective
on how they use technology and what kinds of things
each of us chooses to pick up on a daily basis.
Kind of the things that we just adore
and can't live without.
I happen to know what each person
has chosen for their favorite technology,
but no one else on the panel here knows
what each of the others has chosen.
So, it'll be kind of a fun reveal here.
First, I think, let's start with Tiffany.
What did you choose for your can't live without technology.
What did you choose and why did you choose it?
How do you use this technology now.
Well, Ricky, this is the hard part
that I had with doing this
because choosing just one favorite technology
was so hard to do.
I will say that my smartphone is one of my favorites.
And it's my favorite
because I can do so many things with it.
I don't have to carry around so many other devices.
I have an iPhone 8 Plus.
So in the Apple world it is a ancient, but it works
and it does what I need it to do.
And with my phone, other than making phone calls
and text messages, there's a few things
that I enjoy doing on it.
And one of them is doing online banking.
Just being able to do that on the go is really nice.
Also too, I use the camera.
And not just to take pictures of scenery or selfies,
but I use it for a mirror.
Sometimes when you're out at a public restroom,
like inside the mirror is mounted up on the wall
and then there's maybe a sink in front of you.
It's hard to get up close.
So, I'll use the camera on my phone.
I'll use it as a mirror just to make sure
my lunch isn't showing in my teeth.
My other go-to app is Visor.
Visor is a, it's a magnifier app.
And this app is my lifesaver.
Like it turns my phone into a digital magnifier.
So I can contrast the colors, adjust the magnification
of course, and it also has a light function on it
if I need to read printed material on the go.
Or maybe I'm at a family member's house
and I need to heat up something in the microwave
and their microwave doesn't look like mine
and it's not set up like how mine is,
I can use my magnifier or Visor to adjust the settings.
My phone is one of my favorites, but I do have a few others.
So, next up is my iPad.
I have a iPad Air, fourth generation.
It has a 10.9 screen.
So of course the screen is bigger
and I'm able to do different things on my iPad.
I use the Zoom feature on it and also on my phone too.
I use Siri, Zoom and VoiceOver.
So it kind of depends on what I'm doing on my phone.
But on my iPad I mostly use Zoom.
And I mostly use it for entertainment purposes.
So like if I'm just kicking back, I'll be on social media
or streaming Netflix and Hulu
or playing a game or something.
So, that's what I mostly do on my iPad.
And I also do internet searches.
But if I want to be more productive
and really focusing in on what I'm doing,
like if I'm doing more extended tasks, like extended reading
and writing activities, I like to use my desktop computer.
I have a 32 inch monitor, so I can split the screen.
I also use my video magnifier too.
So like when you were mentioning, Ricky,
like about the discussion groups, sometimes we have learners
who may make suggestions or provide resources
or some helpful information
that I can quickly jot down using my video magnifier
and then be able to provide those and the resources.
So, that's my technology.
That's my favorite.
What I so love about this is that you have
all of these different devices
and they all serve a different purpose.
So, the larger screen for the iPad
is great for entertainment or for,
if you're doing a little bit of reading
and you're using that larger screen
and same of course for your computer.
And then the phone, being able to use it
as a magnifier is super cool because like you said,
you don't have to carry around multiple devices.
You can do a lot of things
with this one single device in different apps.
So very, very cool.
I love it.
I'm not sure why I think this,
but something tells me that Doug Walker
may have (chuckles) some similar things on his list
being a self-professed Apple fan boy.
Self-professed.
Yeah, and I think everybody points at that.
It's probably no surprise to anybody
that my devices today are Apple devices.
So the first one that I want to talk about
is fairly new to Apple and this is the Apple AirTags.
If you don't know what an AirTag is, it's Apple's device
that's made for finding lost stuff or missing items.
It's about the size of a quarter.
It's really small, but Apple and lots of other people
sell all these different accessories
that you can buy to put your AirTag on or in.
Like I have this thing
that I put one in my wallet clips in there
and I can slide it in my wallet.
I also have a key chain that I can put one in.
But they're kind of pricey.
I mean you can get one for I think $29,
but I went ahead and splurged for the four pack.
Still not enough. I need more of them.
So I have one in my wallet, one on my keys,
I keep one in my backpack
and then I have one on my white cane
'cause I'm always putting my cane in a corner somewhere,
propping it up in a, it's like, which corner is that?
So it's really cool because you can use your Find My app
then if you start missing one of these devices to find it,
you can actually say, "Hey," or you can use Siri.
So you can do the whole Siri thing and say,
"Hey, find my keys," right?
And then it starts chirping or playing a sound,
so you can locate it.
So a lot of times I don't have to go beyond that,
but if you open your Find My app and you find that item,
you can get it to play a sound from there.
Or if you still can't hear it,
there's a find button there that you can tap.
It'll pop up on the screen and visually
it sort of points an arrow to in the direction
that your item is and says it's like 15 feet away,
10 feet away as you get closer to it.
Or if you happen to have VoiceOver running,
it actually speaks that it's to the left or to the right
and it's 10 feet away now it's eight feet away now.
And then when you get close enough to it,
you can have it play the sound and pinpoint it right there.
So yeah, we have three workshops there.
One that shows you how to set it up.
So, no worries.
It's super simple to set up.
And then one that shows how to find items nearby
and then one that shows how to find items further away
that you can actually get walking
or driving directions to find it there.
So, it's pretty cool device.
My other thing, Tiffany kind of hit on this already
and it was so hard, Tiffany, for me too
because I'm like, everything on the iPhone
is my favorite thing, right?
So, but I have one thing that I've actually probably used
a half a dozen times already today.
And that's the built-in magnifier that's on the iPhone
and it's also on the iPad and on the iPod Touch as well.
And it uses your devices back facing or as of late,
your front facing camera too, to enlarge image images
that are on your screen just like a magnifier would.
The magnifier has actually been around for a while,
I've been around with it.
So I've been able to constantly see it
improve over the years
and it's really just gotten better and better.
And iOS 15 just came out and had a lot of improvements.
One interesting thing with iOS 15 is that it's no longer
in the accessibility area of the phone.
Apple has actually placed it right there
on your home screen as an app.
It's kind of crept outside of accessibility
and sort of become a mainstream app
on your home screen then.
Yeah, and you can just open it right from there
instead of, okay, I gotta go to settings
and then I gotta go here and then I gotta go there.
So, now you can still set the
accessibility shortcut,
you know, the triple click to the side button if you'd like
to pull it up, which is what I do.
And I use it from everything.
This morning I checked the thermostat
and it's gotten chilly here, so I turned the heat on.
I use it for things like checking menus
and price tags and signing receipts.
And again, like Tiffany mentioned this with her app
that she uses has a flashlight
and all kinds of cool color filters in it.
One thing that I don't use much,
it has people detection in mine
'cause I have the LiDAR sensor in it
and I guess that would be good
for social distancing and stuff.
With iOS 15, if you have VoiceOver running now
and you pointed at something in the view area
and you touch that view area,
it's going to do artificial intelligence
and start trying to recognize that object
and tell you what the objects are.
It's doing a better and better job
with recognizing the text that's there.
And so, but if it won't read all the text,
I've found that if I share it or save it
to my camera roll like Tiffany's talking about,
that it'll pretty much read all the text right there.
So, I'm using my magnifier tons and tons.
So yes, Apple products for me today,
AirTags and the magnifier app.
Not a surprise to anyone, but I love hearing how
both of you use the same devices
for similar things and for different things.
So I mean it really speaks to the versatility of some
of these smartphones and if you're listening
and you have an Android instead of an iPhone, fear not,
a lot of these features are also in Android phones.
Next up, Jennifer, share with us your words
of wisdom on your favorite tech.
Okay, well first of all, I have to say that
I'm more
of an average technology user and an as needed user.
So I like technology, I value all that it could do,
but I honestly get kind of intimidated by it.
Once I get over that initial anxiety,
I find that I'm using it more and more in my everyday life,
even if it's just to get started with things,
'cause I do like to be off the grid,
but it can be really helpful to just get started.
And so my first pick is a good example of that
and that's a money reader.
And there are different options for this.
I wanna talk about the iBill.
Here in the U.S., our paper money
does not have any actually distinct characteristics, right?
It's all the size, same size, same shape,
nothing super special that makes
any one type of bill stand out.
So these money readers and the iBill in particular,
you just slide the end of your paper money into it,
hit a button and it'll tell you what it is.
And it'll say's a $1 bill, $5 bill.
It has AAA battery and it's just a separate unit,
it's not a part of a smartphone.
So, it's really portable and nice to use
if you don't have your smartphone with you.
You can even get it to announce
what the denomination is in a pattern of sounds
or a pattern of vibrations.
If you want some privacy or if it's a really noisy area too.
It's available commercially, you can buy it.
But if you're a U.S. citizen or a legal resident of the U.S.
or U.S. Citizen living abroad,
you can actually get a free iBill through a program
offered by the US Bureau of Engraving and Printing.
And we're actually gonna have a link to the application
for this in the show notes for this podcast, right, Ricky?
Yeah, absolutely.
And if you don't have one, even if you do have a smartphone,
I still carry mine because for me,
it's quicker and easier honestly
than unlocking the smartphone and making sure
that there's enough light and all of that stuff.
So, what a great tool.
And if you are already using the
Talking Book Service,
you're automatically eligible to get one.
You still need to fill out the application,
but you just mark that on and you're good to go.
Otherwise you can get a doctor
or a vision rehabilitation professional to sign off
that you're legally blind or visually impaired
and they'll send it off to you.
Just to note though, 'cause I know Doug
did a wonderful workshop for Hadley on the Seeing AI app
and that does have a money reading feature
also built into it.
And I use an app called the LookTel Money Reader
and there may be some other apps out there too,
but they're really, it's a really great option
for technology.
My second choice I think is just revolutionary.
It really is in, in terms of managing health
and that's a continuous glucose monitor.
And my husband actually uses it,
but there is a part that I use too
that I'll talk about in just a sec.
This technology will let somebody know
their blood sugar levels throughout the day
and night without having to stick their finger
to get a drop of blood that they put on a strip
that then they get those results.
And it is truly liberating for anybody
who uses insulin to treat your diabetes.
Insurance will cover the cost of it.
There are a couple different companies that offer products,
but how it works, it has a sensor that's a little wire
that inserts under your skin
and that's held in place with an adhesive patch,
that connects to a transmitter
that's gonna rest on the surface of your skin.
And it's about maybe an inch and a half by half an inch
and about a quarter inch high.
So, that's how high it would stick up.
And you can put this sensor transmitter kind of combo,
insert the sensor itself maybe in the back of your arm
or in your abdomen and then you're gonna change that sensor.
And where it's located about every 10 to 14 days,
depending on which brand of CGM you're using,
then that transmitter sends a signal to a receiver,
which is a separate unit or to your smartphone.
And those, the apps used for whichever company's product
you're using are accessible with VoiceOver,
which is really cool.
So I can actually go on my husband's phone
and check his readings,
but even better they make companion apps.
So I have an app on my phone where he shared his data
with me and I can check his blood sugar levels.
And you not only get the blood sugar reading,
you get trend information.
So are you steady, are you slowly rising,
slowly falling, rapidly rising or falling
and you can get set alerts to let you know
if your blood sugar's too low or at a certain low point,
a certain high point.
And I'll get those alarms on my phone too
if his blood sugar's at a certain low point,
so I can help support him in whatever he needs.
It's just so great because it really helps people
make more informed decisions about
how they're treating their condition.
What's cool is with the one he has, he can even say,
"Hey Siri, what's my blood sugar?"
And she'll say, "Your blood sugar is," (chuckles)
and let him know.
So, it really is a game changer.
Just one real quick disclaimer, we really encourage you,
we're gonna share some links
to learn more about the two different companies.
Check with your doctor to make sure
that this is an appropriate choice for you
and to learn about the different options,
maybe get a demo of them
and definitely for training on them.
Absolutely, and you're right when you
said revolutionary.
Just the ability to independently check your sugar
and to do it easily and like literally painlessly.
I mean that has to be so, so nice.
All right, Steve, you are last but certainly not least.
So, you're up to talk about your favorites.
I loved the iBill when it first came out
a couple of years ago, I got one.
It seemed like I got it right through Talking Books.
It was just so easy to get and it was great
to share with clients.
And the magnifier. I haven't tried it
with the latest upgrade.
I just upgraded yesterday on my iPad,
but I use the magnifier all the time too.
It is terrific and it's just gotten better
and I love the fact now
that it's right there on the home screen,
so that's gonna make it so much easier.
But with all that said, my top pick,
and it's not gonna be a surprise to any of you guys,
is actually kind a low tech device.
It's the Talking Book player that you get free from NLS
and that's one of the reasons I just love it.
If you have a disability that affects your ability
to read print, it's, you can get it at no charge.
And if you don't mind, I'm just gonna give out the number.
It's 888-NLS-READ, R-E-A-D.
And that's 888-657-7323.
And the great thing about the Talking Book player.
It's not real high technology, but it's so cool
because not only is it free, it is just so easy to use.
I mean, you can pull it out of the box
and in a couple of minutes you can get it going.
And if you're not able to get it going,
I know where you can get a little bit of training on it.
We have two workshops on Hadley
for both the standard player and the advanced player.
And what's really cool I think for a lot of learners
is maybe they don't have access to the internet.
Maybe they're having difficulty seeing the computer screen
the way that they used to.
So, the whole internet thing
is not available to 'em at the moment.
And the cool thing about the Talking Book player
is because it uses audio cartridges that are pretty simple,
you just slip them in, you push the play button,
you can get a lot of the workshops
from Hadley on the Talking Book cartridges sent to you.
So I see it as kind of a basic technology building block.
The next device, which is kind of similar
is the Amazon Echo.
And I'm surprised none of you mentioned the Echo
just because again, it's kind of, you know,
once it's connected, you've gotta have Wi-Fi in the house.
If you're not a technology person,
just get that 12-year-old grandson
or granddaughter in there to get it set up.
And once it's set up, everything can be done by voice.
And once you have the Amazon Echo set up,
you can do so much cool stuff.
I mean you can do the reminders and you can do the timers
and all that other stuff.
But one of the things that I really love about
the Amazon Echo is that you can do things
like get radio reading services
and if you don't know what a radio reading service is,
you are in for such a treat because oftentimes volunteers
or human beings that read the newspaper
or magazine in your local area or national area,
and sometimes they even read books or play podcasts,
but there's probably about 10 or 12 of them out there
that broadcast on the internet.
So, you can get those with the Amazon Echo.
If you go to the section in the Hadley technology workshops
and look up the Alexa.
In one of those workshops, I believe it's the last one,
it's the one on music podcasts and radio reading services.
You'll find a great handout
in addition to a wonderful workshop,
but click on that resources section and you'll get a handout
that lists all of those cool radio reading services.
So you can just have your digital assistant start one up
and you can listen to it during the day.
So if you want to catch, The New York Times,
Wall Street Journal or maybe your local paper,
you can do that all with the Amazon Echo,
which I just think is so cool.
And last but not least, it's the Voice Dream Reader app.
I'm a real reader and I use that app all the time,
just about every night I have a book that's open
and I'm using Voice Dream Reader app to read it.
It's so cool because it's not just book share
that you can use.
You can use a wide variety of things.
You can drag in a webpage, you can drag in a PDF file
or a Word document or pretty much anything that you want
and just have Voice Dream Reader read it to you.
And the cool thing for low vision folks like myself
is you can just change the background and foreground color.
You can change the font size change, the speed,
the voice, all of that stuff.
And I think it's a $10 app.
So, I cannot believe the value
that I personally have gotten out of it.
So, those are my three.
Great choices I think, everybody.
Yeah, I would agree.
I love, Steve, how all of yours are related to books,
which is no surprise given
that you're a co-host of the Book Nook.
So it's great to hear so many versatile choices
for technology and just how each of you
is using those things.
I'm happy to have gotten the chance to listen to you all
because even though I knew what your choices were,
I didn't know exactly how you would explain those things
and talk about how you use them in your daily lives.
So it's been really, really nice.
Any final words from anybody as we kind of wrap up this?
I'll tell you what's fun for me
is that I learned a lot today from Tiffany in the app
that she mentioned, the magnifier app
and the glucose thing that Jennifer shared.
And, Steve, the Voice Dream Reader app
is one of my go-to things too.
So, a lot of fun.
Well, and just to throw out
and everyone else on the panel, including Ricky,
is a testament to this,
but for anybody that's a little intimidated by technology,
just dive in, explore, figure things out
from trial and error.
They are just experts at it.
They have a real passion for it.
But even if you're not, you're just an average user,
a little intimidated, technology can be
a really helpful part of your everyday life.
All right, thank you, everybody
for spending a little bit of your time with me.
It has been a delight, it's been a lot of fun
and it's been really informative.
So, thanks again for joining me for this.
Great pleasure.
Thanks, Ricky.
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