Smart Home Technology: Leading to Independence

foreign my name is Miriam Aliso I'm from race and I am welcomed you to this webinar Smart Home Technology leading to Independence I'm also walk you through how to interact with the zoom features go to the next one yeah so please uh for questions and answers please use the Q a feature to ask questions to the presenters and use a chat box if you have any technical issues to communicate with us um interpretation interpretation Again original audio is German uh for American Sign Language um we have our interpreter pinned here but you can do some go to uh Dina Hazen and pin over there you click on the three dots over there and how you can that's how you can uh yourself but we already have it have a dinner pin for you next slide yeah the floor is yours you'll see on the presenters apologies after two years in covet I'm still looking for the mute buttons um welcome everyone it is so great to have you joining us my name's Josie Badger I'm the director of the race Center and today um we're talking about a topic that's near and dear to my heart Smart Home Technology um this is an issue that I believe is more important than ever as we're moving into a society where we can learn and work from home in in many different environments and job requirements but this is also a topic that's becoming more importantly focused on transition so we'll be exploring that with you as well um and so I'd like to turn it over to Susan tactile who is a great friend of mine and who has been working in assistive technology for a long time so Susan the floor is yours thank you very much and um thank you Josie again as we go through this presentation please put your questions in the Q a because my colleague Karen is going to be reading them to make sure that we don't skip over I hope this front slide is enticing you about Smart Home um my name as Josie mentioned is Susan taka and I was the chief executive officer of Pennsylvania assistive technology Foundation I am now the Innovation officer and um patf created a wonderful resource around smart home and we're delighted to share that with you today you'll see on this slide Michael who is the man in the bottom picture with the yellow shirt and that's Michael is my son and that is what brought me to kind of understanding the power of assistive technology and in particular Smart Home Technology in addition uh to hearing from me you're also going to be hearing from Alexa Brill Alexa would you like to introduce yourself I I I'd like to do the cake who thank you for God as well as of the world thank you and Alexa's going to tell her story and I just want to make sure everyone understands that um both Michael and Alexa were fully included in schools and so kind of understand what some of you were trying to do is provide resources for parents and Technical assistants to help people who are transitioning transition age and Alexa works for the Arc of Pennsylvania and then she is president of the board of self-advocates United as one um Karen would you like to introduce yourself thank you Susan excuse me I'm Karen Hassett and I am the financial education director at patf and Susan is the person who brought me to patf we both share a passion that Financial education is important it's necessary and it should be available and accessible to everyone so I'm very excited to participate in this and you'll see me in in future webinars so Susan I think take it away sounds great okay next slide please so before we get started I want to introduce Pennsylvania assistive technology Foundation patf we are a Statewide non-profit organization that's based right outside Philadelphia um the majority of our board and staff are individuals with disabilities or immediate family members and we are in that way similar to centers for Independent Living where the majority of their boards board members and staff are individuals with disabilities what makes us unique are the next two bullet points one is that we are a community development financial institution a cdfi we do consumer lending and throughout the United States there's really only a handful of us who are focused on the disability community um and in Pennsylvania we're the only ones and then we're also Pennsylvania's alternative financing program as it is defined in the brand new 21st century assistive technology act and if you go to our website patf.us and like who are we you can see a listing of all of the alternative financing programs there are approximately 42 in the country um so whether you're from Minnesota or which their program is sleeping right now but Wisconsin has a great program Washington Oregon Puerto Rico Florida you can get the listing of the contact information today's program is very important for a number of reasons including um as Josie kind of mentioned trying to you know be current and offer you helpful advice the uh 21st century assistive technology Act was reauthorized in December and if you it's it's difficult to kind of find it it was reauthorized within the Department of Defense budget but there is a new emphasis within that act that is placed on transition age Youth and so right in the very beginning of the new act where it talks about the purposes it says under B increase the ability of individuals with disabilities to secure and maintain possession of assistive technology devices as such individuals make the transition between services offered by educational or human service agencies and in between settings of daily living so I think Josie for this opportunity to present today and help all of you next please we at patf do three things as do all the other alternative financing programs we talk about information and assistance about assistive technology funding resources and vendors we provide financial loans for assistive technology which we will talk about at the end and we provide Financial education we will be presenting and this Karen will be taking the lead on this about financial education in the next couple of months one next month and one I believe in June or maybe it's March and June next please so what exactly is smart home technology and how did we get into it we are very interested in smart home because it falls under that umbrella as assistive technology and we received a grant from the Pennsylvania developmental disabilities Council to try to get the word out about smart home so often people with disabilities and their families lag behind others in accessing technology and so we're focused on mainstream off-the-shelf technology and we think it could be beneficial for you in this picture you see two people um the little girl Penny on the left is using her iPad to access both communication but communication to Smart Home and the young man on the right he is looking um at a camera at his front door so that he knows who is at his front door and whether he can safely let them in next please for many of you you know what assistive technology is but I want to make sure that we're leveling and making sure everybody understands that assistive technology there's a good Federal definition but essentially it's any device or service that can help a person with a disability do the things they want to do and this uh array of photos six photos you'll see assistive technology from being a hearing aid to hand controls and driving a vehicle to being able to access a smart home to Recreation and sports um rowing and having especially adapted uh shell using wearable assistive technology Smart Home Technology and finally having a smart display helping these young people learn how to cook and see a recipe next please and of course assistive technology devices also you you need to have services and in the federal definition they are folded together and it's certainly in school in vocational rehabilitation and our waivers it is understood that services are necessary in order to optimize using assistive technology so it includes evaluation and assessment the selection and procurement designing installation and setup training and repair and in these two pictures you will see on the left hand side um and um a man teaching a woman who's an occupational therapist how to use a 3D printer and on the right hand side there's a woman who's an occupational therapist showing a young man um who has autism uh how to set up and use his smart home devices next please um there is there are lots of resources to help you learn in different ways what exactly smart home devices are one of our partners just received a grant a year ago from the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services about Wireless technology and I would um recommend that you go to their website and kind of join them so that you too can get kind of updates it's at the University of Pittsburgh the rehabilitation engineering Research Center on wireless Technologies for people with disabilities and on the right hand side of this slide you will see a video that they've made called Smart Home Tech and disability series and actually I think this is the first of their Series where they kind of explain what is smart home and and um kind of in graphics lead you through a home of how it can be useful their materials are accessible and you can use them on a smartphone and an iPad a tablet and all of that kind of stuff so I highly recommend that they have a brand new series um Lindsay is one of the investigators and she's an occupational therapist and she is going to take questions and answers uh and post answers so if you have a question about smart home I would invite you to go on to the University of Pittsburgh site and sign up because you will see that Lindsay is going to be very available to all of us next please and this is what we have created patf so um we have created a couple of resources and the overarching name is called Smart Homes Made Simple your guide to Smart Home Technology it includes a self-assessment tool how to you know what your team should look like that people are not expected to kind of do this by themselves of figuring it out and how to set it up but who who might be important members of your team a description of how smart home devices work like what do you need um how to choose your smart home technology how to set it up how to maintain it and troubleshooting because you know there you will need to do that and again I'm talking about security and privacy and those issues have been coming up more and more so we have written information in our book about this and I'll talk about our blogs later you can download a copy of our Smart Homes Made Simple Guide it is fully accessible it's in English and in Spanish um and the links if you want to just um get it if you download it or or or just look on our website you'll see the links are live and we also have a companion website which I'll talk about in a second called smarthomesmaidsimple.org both of these are resources that we work with together what's wonderful about a website is you can update it all the time next please so this is our Smart Homes Made Simple self-assessment and the goal of the self-assessment is to get you to think about um what are you trying to do rather than um you know get curious about my neighbor or my friend has a smart speaker that's what I want you're trying to First focus on what are you trying to do and then where do you want to do this like in your bedroom or your living room um your front door and this self-assessment tool will help guide you in figuring out which is the most appropriate technology for you um you will note in this self-assessment tool that we touch on remote supports and we talk we touch on this both in our website as well as this book remote supports um which is becoming increasingly popular um in Pennsylvania and I know in many other states is two-way communication using Smart Home Technology so say um your home and uh by yourself and you really don't want attending care you don't really need attendant care but you want the security that if in fact you fall someone will be able to help you or say you want job coaching and you don't need it all the time but you want to be able to have access to someone that's two-way communication we recommend that you make sure that the end user the person with a disability has fully consented to having remote supports um so job coaching isn't necessarily a good example of remote supports it is a good example of two-way communication remote supports would be cameras sensors on doors and windows and just know that we're talking about ensuring that the end user is aware and agrees to having these types of smart home devices in their home next please this is um what are smart homesmatesimple.org website looks like again it is fully accessible you can get it on your computer your tablet your smartphone I get excited about it because we can add new information very easily so we we have blogs on there um a couple of articles about security and privacy and we have examples of where Smart Home Technology might rest within your home and where there are examples both the book and the website have stories of end users you will hear from Alexa today Alexa and Michael are two of our six or seven stories um of why they're important to them and how they can improve them again um what also is helpful with both the book and the website is that some of the forms are fillable out so that if you're working with somebody and you're trying to figure out your goals or like are you using Smart Homes uh like a smart speaker to hear the weather to read audible books to you to be able to communicate and make phone calls you can check that off you can download it and you can keep a record of it um anyway uh please feel free to go on our website and um send us feedback if there are things that we've missed or new things you would like to get and we will do our level best to do that we also have other resources on there so that we know we're not the only ones that are focused on Smart Home although we are the only ones that are really focused on smart home for people with disabilities and their families um I am seeing a question in the chat about um will these resources be emailed to you yes um this deck will be uh available to you if it's not already sent out it'll be sent out immediately after this presentation yes before you go on yes we I I think the uh the question in the chat this is Karen a question in the chat was can we email them and um Rena will we have your email address and um we can we can definitely do that as well if you can't access our website the other question is um and I think this is a good time to ask uh is there a smart home device that can open and close a door and the answer to that is it kind of depends on what you mean by open and close but yes so there are smart locks and smart bolts so that a person um can control who enters and leaves their home but enters their home and then there are other types of technology that helps open up a door so the answer to that is yes there are smart door locks smart bolts um and if you go on to our both our book and our website talk a little bit I think our website might be a little bit better at giving you examples and links to where you might find this my personal favorite and I'm saying this as uh someone who is not as techy as you might imagine I am um I happen to like wire cutter from The New York Times um they are listed on our website as one of the resources just like PC and several others um but if you ask them a question or look under smart door locks smart bolts and door openers there will be an answer there and Susan it's Karen again and we did drop a link in the chat uh that actually links to um our website Smart Homes Made Simple automatic door openers oh great um and things are changing all the time so while we know what is available today for example I Got a notification that now there are ways to identify birds who come to a bird feeder there's a new camera that immediately identifies the bird and sends you a message so I think that this world is evolving quickly and the University of Pittsburgh with their rerc that is what they're trying to do is make sure that some of the smart home devices that are being you know developed in an explosive way are accessible to people with disabilities and their families um so again they're one of our partners I would encourage you to sign up and Alexa is on their advisory committee next please so this is what we are recommending um and you will see us say this in a couple of different ways in our materials we're focused on mainstream off-the-shelf smart home devices we want we find that those mainstream devices whether you get them from Amazon or you get them from Best Buy or Bed Bath and Beyond wherever you go that if they're off the shelf um and not so customized they're easier to repair they're easier to install what's wonderful about smart home devices if you get the off the shelf the customization comes with the setup and so you're using regular devices that you can install and then it's the setup and the training that can be customized to the individual with a disability so our key advice is please use off-the-shelf mainstream consumer products whenever possible um by the way they're also less expensive so start small and build out so as I said many people with disabilities lag behind others and even adopting technology so don't overwhelm people get for example a smart speaker and see how that works for someone and when they're comfortable go out a little bit and maybe get that door opener um the Smart Lock small smart Bolt the camera um we work with someone who has a camera in their closet so that they can help direct um what their attendant gets out of their closet for them to wear as opposed to kind of well whatever comes today that's what I'm wearing so start small build out remember that installation setup and training are separate activities so for example if you put in a Smart Switch um that means whatever is connected to that switch will work as a Smart Switch as opposed to um just a smart plug but the electrician who is putting in that switch may or may not be able to set up and coordinate that device on your smartphone and the actual device so that's what I mean that the installation and setup are different activities and then of course training is a different activity helping the end user and their support people learn how to use this device and then again establish a support system for the end user so that if anything goes wrong that you don't do without that you're not abandoning this technology that's not what it's for so for example um if you know I'm sure we're not alone in this but every now and then our internet goes out it's always a mystery to me but sometimes we have to then restart our smart um our Smart Hub and at first I didn't know how to do it so I happened to ask our neighbor who is an 11th grade and he's a very techy guy and that works pretty well so just be aware that you it's a good idea to be thinking of who can provide the support next and secondly remember to think about what it is you're trying to do what it is that the person with a disability that you're working with whether it is your family member a student uh your neighbor choose your goal think about the goal is it to communicate control your environment meaning turning on and off lights changing the temperature in your home turning on a fan whether it's Safety and Security being able to control that front door whether to open it up see who's at the front door whether to put sensors on your windows Community engagement Mike you want to be able to listen to the news or you want to know the bus schedules or what is the weather because you're going out whether it's Telehealth and health monitoring which certainly we found during covid to be very helpful to be able to stay in your own home and connect with a health professional to be your personal assistant make reminders um you know remind me of a doctor's appointment or that I have a work call or tomorrow I have a test or make a shopping list whatever that personal assistant does and then lastly remote supports and that is you know to help you live safely and independently in your own home next please so here's an example we get asked um as assistive technology isn't this like someone else's responsibility is so what we have found is that often there are many good people who just don't realize that they can be part of the solution so whether you're in school um you're talking about transition age youth so the school has a part Vocational Rehabilitation has a part um here are some ideas of how um Smart Home Technology can help people in this transition period so you could set up a smart speaker with reminders of when to catch the bus to go to school or do they have an internship at the end of the day or on the weekends listening to audiobooks um sometimes it's just really really hard to get as much reading done as much as possible most tech school textbooks are now on audiobooks and certainly all of those books um that you're reading for your various classes setting your smart watch to help you with reminders of when to make a phone call or take a medicine or you know take your medicines or you're beginning to feel anxious are you in fact or you can even get one that tells you to you know listen to that App application that tells you to take a deep breath this is Smart Home Technology of course and we'll use this example in a minute using your smart speaker to check the weather so that you are leaving your home prepared for the day you can also use it to lock and unlock your door which we've talked about cameras in your front door for people who have sensory disabilities there's all kinds of Smart Home Technology whether it's um you know the flashing you can set off the flashing detectors whether you can get bed shakers um smoke alarms you know sensors that will send alerts to your smartphone and again all of the environmental devices such as your lights and your fans and your temperature controls next please so Alexa is a long time user of technology and also of smart home so Alexa let me see if you can get pinned can you tell us how you began with smart home and some of your Lessons Learned well I would agree to be being independent and do as much as I said so when I was like like my sisters do they live in the apartment so I wanted to do basically the same thing so my god well wait just a second let me make sure everybody's hearing because what you're saying is great Alexa is very independent if I can say so myself she lives in her own home and she also has two sisters and wants to do everything her sisters are doing not let being left behind and being able to live as independently is that right yeah all right go ahead [Music] and he uh I'm curious about technology too so you would looking for a way to do that yes so what Alexa is also saying is that first of all she's lucky because she has a dad who likes technology and is curious yes um which is unlike our family we're not very techy but I think um you also said something very important that your Mainstay technology is your smartphone yeah and so what um Alexis dad was trying to do was figure out some technology that she Alexa could control through her smartphone yes so excuse my interruptions just go ahead go ahead and so we we had this other vegetation that that I need I I hope sister but it was it was in of the show technology like it is now it was called UFC and it was so complicated system so it was really going on Friday ah so your first technology was not just off the shelf it was more complicated yeah and so that made it difficult if it didn't work not everybody could try to figure out how to fix it but but I will say this is the advantage I mean this was the evolution of smart home so what your dad was doing was when you were moving into your apartment using what was available and that technology took a lot more customization than the newer stuff today yeah but tell us about your technology today because I think you've swapped out most everything right yes because I like to pick into my phone it's too much noise anything and and so that we they either obviously because that's really yeah let me interpret for just a second so um I think that's that's a good point of what Alexa was saying is so then she swapped out all of these devices and one of her co-workers was concerned that everything that Alexa could was doing was what she could operate through her joystick and thinking that there's got to be more more options and so she started getting some of the Amazon products and again this is where you can customize it when you're setting it up she does not call her smart speaker Alexa since that's her name and it would probably be going off all the time right yeah yeah and to like be like a TV please is the only because I use my voice if I was something but it also has a lot of pizza which means you could communicate to everyone in the house with your voice foreign I think that's that's really important and I think that is also uh both an independence and a safety issue of being able to use the smart speaker to call someone even if it's in another room or in another home that um the smart speaker learns Alexis voice and responds to it and is efficient and very effective um Alexa it turns out that I'm getting a message that we're supposed to hurry up so can I just mention a couple of other things about what I think is different about the technology that you have yeah yeah one um so Alexa is able to um use her smart speaker as she's talked about but also control her door who's coming and going in the camera and I think aren't you doing something so you can use your back door or you're going outside that way oh because it thinks it's a switch well how about that and then the other thing that Alexa cares about and my son does not care about so again it's all individual uses Alexa has smart blinds gives her a little bit of privacy um which clearly is very important to people um both privacy but also if it's you know you want to sleep Beyond six o'clock in the morning it's nice to be able to have a dark room um Alexa is there anything else um that we should mention before we move on and I could think of as you've really had any questions but please yes so please um since we're moving on if you have a question for Alexa please put it in the Q a or in the chat um and we will be delighted to answer you and we will forward these on to Alexa thank you um so moving real quickly since it looks like we have about uh 16 or 17 minutes left on the right hand side of this picture Alexa being on the left by the way with her smart blinds behind her um we have Lucy and um Lucy which is a a new name for the person who worked with us um they have an intellectual disability and they don't talk very often and instead they use Prolo quote to go so in their transition plan from their school district they use Prolo quo to go to talk to a Smart speaker with a display and Lucy was to ask what is the weather and then dress appropriately going out the front door if Lucy took the time and was patient enough to hit on Prolo quote ago the graphic that would ask the smart speaker um what is the weather and then Lucy got on whether it was a jacket a raincoat or nothing then Lucy could do what she really wanted to do which was find out the sports the sports score from the night before so that was kind of the carrot so um let's go to the next slide and we'll show you how it was put into the IEP so in Pennsylvania there are opportunities in various places to put in a vision statement in that IEP whether it's even in on the parent comments so in this case Lucy will be a tax paying citizen that is pretty powerful in itself she will live independently in the community with the supports she needs and she will have meaningful relationships with family members and Friends to work towards these goals Lucy will be an active member of her school Community by being supported in regular education classes including government and social studies impact and by participating in school activities with her peers such as in field hockey and Key Club next please and then it is written up in her IEP Lucy using her smart speaker at home to learn the day's weather will arrive at School wearing or caring appropriate outer clothing 85 percent of the time the data will be recorded daily by the teacher and Lucy on her chart at school and just to be clear this is a real goal and Lucy the school paid under the rubric of assistive technology for the smart display the smart speaker display just as the school had paid for Prolo quote to go on their smartphone next please so I hope that's helpful then for others of you um and you may find this is that it's one thing to talk about smart home devices and the magic of smart home devices but it's important that you know that how do you get them paid for so we have a funding resource guide that you can also download from our website we say is because we're from Pennsylvania that it's funding your assistive technology resources in Pennsylvania but in fact most of our chapters and resources are National and scope so we talk about what is assistive technology how do you develop a plan a strategy of the appeal process and also then some uh of the grants that are um are available so we talk in general about schools and how schools can help provide assistive technology through the IEP or 504 plans all states have waiver programs this is the link so you can go to your state and find waivers Pennsylvania and this is part of our job as an assistive technology program we make sure that all of our waivers include assistive technology and in fact all but one do um including smart home vocation Rehabilitation there are private grants able accounts a safe way to save and this is the link so you can find your able program and then again the alternative financing programs um that are available in 42 of those States next please and I did see a quick question come in about Alexa does Alexa use her voice or an intermary app to control the echo we've been trialing the app Voice it Alexa uses her own voice right I used they would that you can also use that yes either one it doesn't maybe it doesn't mostly and my son also has cerebral palsy and fines that his that the smart speaker learns his voice and it's easier than voice it yes yes um so in the last couple of minutes I wanted to give a couple of examples of what the alternative financing program can do for you in your state because we are charged with being an alternative to a bank so providing financing at low cost or no cost and in fact our mini Loan program from a hundred dollars to seven thousand at zero percent interest zero fees and the maximum repayment period is 48 months um and we also have a low interest Loan program which I can go into later but you'll get copies of this slide next please so here's an example of John who's 18 who has cerebral palsy and um he's a wheelchair user and he wanted to purchase a smart speaker with a display and a smart thermostat um he and why did he how is this assistive technology to him he wanted to control his environment he wanted to listen to audiobooks in the news so he went through Amazon and um the total cost was 530 and he could with zero percent interest and zero fees his loan payment was 26.50 a month for just under two years

uh next please yeah and the next is Macy and this is again a choice Macy is 10 years old and he she doesn't use words to communicate um her mom Lindsay was very concerned that Macy was falling behind in her schoolwork she knew about trying to get a a tablet through her IEP but it was going to take six months and so she chose to come to patf to be able to get a loan we were able to help her with a partial grant that we knew about so her loan for the iPad with the bumper and the software she needed was 332 dollars zero percent interest no fees out less than a year for 33 dollars and 20 cents a month so again this is a choice um Macy might have been able to get this technology through her IEP but her mom did not want to wait that long so she came to us and this is how alternative financing programs work next please and going back real quickly to Smart Home devices of why they're so important and why going with mainstream just off the shelf how this can make a difference in your life here are four quotes from people who have received smart home devices the echo makes me feel more independent and secure um I didn't expect Alexa to have personality while I was on bed rest she really helped offset my loneliness and depression sometimes I just talk to her to see what she has to say and if any of you go on and look at YouTube and look at smart home gray smart home silver smart home you will see a Saturday Night Live sketch sketch about Smart Home Technology and how people of all ages are using it and really in fact they are very very helpful and then our last slide is our contact information and I hope you will feel free to reach out to us um Karen the next slide please yeah and we do have um a question I I know we're saving time but we might uh we have plenty of time we have so five minutes yeah we're good um so the one question and thank you for being patient um are there smoke alarms for sensitive hearing especially for children with autism so they aren't too loud I think there are um if you go to our funding guide there's a couple of funding resources for people who have autism and I would ask them so there are foundations we've listed a couple of them in our funding guide foundations that support people with Autism including like with weighted blankets and I suspect that there are I don't personally know and just I did do a little search again this is Karen there are some smoke detectors that speak instead of that Blair so you can actually they actually will will talk instead of making that big siren sound so um and I and I will put that in or we'll send that that link in the um we can send that maybe in in an email oh and yes and I actually do have a talking smoke and carbon monoxide alarm and it is it is wonderful it really is wonderful as opposed to that blaring um siren that a lot of smoke detectors have um and another question my son has an Alexa however um however has disconnecting or acting funny is there a place to get it fixed um the Alexa comes from Amazon Amazon has a wonderful um uh a customer service line I would ask customer service on doing this now one thing I should caution you about and we put it in our book uh it just is something to remember it's very difficult to reuse someone else's equipment because it is so ingrained on your passwords and clearing up all of those passwords so I would call the customer service and see if they will send you a new one or whether they want you to ship it back but I would not recommend going to the marketplace and trying to get a new one that way um I would look at sometimes um if if it's not worth the hassle looking on Prime day or other days there have been some amazing sales sales most recently they were selling the dot for twenty dollars and the dot um the difference between a DOT and a big tower is really about sound and the dot works well in our house so I don't get too frustrated see what other alternatives are but I would definitely call their support line and you can find that right there on Amazon okay and that is that is all we have so but if anybody does have oh and she says thank you if anybody does have a question if you want to type it in I think we still have a few more minutes and then I'm going to you bring in Miriam I think at this point yeah thank you thank you for um your presentation thank you so much and uh yes once we closed the the session um I guess I'd like to say one thing Johan mentions that is true that you can get some credit by sending your old Alexa in for your new one so I would just you know don't stay frustrated with your device uh call the customer service that's what they are all about because they want you to buy more so they're going to make sure that they are friendly to you and you can ask them multiple times the people we find who are learning more and more about smart home devices are occupational therapists and we hope that our book and our website are helpful in getting people to understand the whole world of smart home what it is how there is new stuff about thread and matter so that under matter devices will talk to each other whether it's from Alexa or Google um and that you in some areas that don't have strong internet some devices are no longer requiring internet or a very thin band so good and thank you Miriam for this yes I was going to say that yeah technology is here to stay with us and it has gone a lot cheaper with uh with time right so something that 10 years ago were super expensive now are much more affordable and uh yeah we I think we learn a lot about that today um we actually oh interesting well a follow-up to that question again it's Karen whoops was what if it was one at the at what if you didn't purchase it what if it was a gift or it was one oh and you said you already answered that Susan the answer is yes Amazon will help you very good okay are there any last questions as we close out this wonderful session I highly recommend that you visit the patf website great information um and um Josie yeah can I answer one more question which I think is feeling relevant Julie asks I'm curious to hear how Alexa and Susan's son trained Alexa for their speech pattern are students with similar speech struggle uh to get to understand them um I think the newer machines are are just better able to understand them and if you say it over and over again sometimes I tell Michael say it again or be clearer um and they surprisingly pick up is Alexis still on Alexa can you answer that question is will you do it between because there was as I said well I didn't speak to you yeah I still understanding me the ones I opened it was here already yeah and some days are better than other days right yeah so one of the things Michael does is he turns on an office television by himself using his voice with the fire stick and then he gets very excited like with those Eagles and he turns the volume up really loudly and then he has trouble lowering it because it's hard for the difficult for the fire stick to hear his voice again so I think there's a lot of training involved but it's success and that I think you're driven towards working towards that because of your Independence yes um little little Side Story and then we'll wrap stuff up because I think I require maybe um but it also is a fun little tool if you're parenting so I have a foster son and he plays um fairly graphic music in the bathroom on the Alexa but I can control the Alexa throw the other Alexa and I'll have it play Little Mermaid or something and turn the volume to 10 and he can't be loud enough to turn it off so we'll often go through the Disney Princesses while he's in the shower so there are a lot of fun ways to use it um you know follow my Facebook for more parenting tips um but yeah thank you and did I hear someone else speak up I I it's Karen and Josie that's awesome wish I had that advice when my kids were living home um but we didn't have Alexa back then but we do have a couple more questions so and I know we're running out of time so do we want to answer them and if individuals can hang on then we'll we'll do it that way does that work for you go ahead and answer I have to jump off actually but um thank you guys so very much and folks that need to jump off we'll keep this recording going for just a few more minutes okay if you want the answers then you can also watch it there so thank you all so very much and you can reach out to us there was a question about is there a similar program in New Jersey that is comparable to patf there's National disability Institute um we're we're better um so we would be happy to make you know give the referral but depending on what it is you need um maybe we can help you okay and it does Susan it does look like you were answering those questions as um but just to say them out loud uh does Alexa work with smart watches and Susan your answer was it depends on the smart watch but it can yes they can often link up completely okay and then yes the assessment is available in Spanish that was a question and then the last thing is do you have information on national funding sources and we do have some yes indeed I'm sure you can you know some of you can see these but I think that was it thank you very much everyone thank you so much for your presentation I really appreciate it thank you Miriam

2023-01-30 10:17

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