Let's Blog Ability

Everyday Tools for People with MS

MS can manifest with a variety of symptoms depending on the person, but some of the long term effects include:

• Numbness
• Muscle weakness, lack of muscle control
• Vision loss
• Hearing loss
• Difficulty with walking/balance

Many products are available to help cope with these symptoms and make daily living easier for people with MS. Some of the favorite products of people with MS include:

Magnifiers:

Vision loss can come and go with MS, and for some it gets progressively worse over time. Coping with vision loss, especially when it is sporadic, can be difficult. Handheld video magnifiers are convenient: they can be carried in a pocket or purse and used for everyday reading and viewing. Desktop magnifiers are also popular but cannot be transported easily so they are better if you frequently read or view items at home.

Portable Personal Amplifiers:

Hearing loss is less common but still occurs with MS. Hearing aids are sometimes used, but because MS affects the central nervous system, hearing aids are not as effective for MS-related hearing loss as for people with hearing loss from another cause.

Mobility:

Dragon NaturallySpeaking is a voice recognition software that is popular for people with Multiple Sclerosis. For some, the loss of mobility and muscle control can be devastating in their personal and work lives. With Dragon software, the user speaks into a microphone connected to their computer, and the speech is turned into printed text.

For those with less severe mobility restrictions, the Magic Wand Keyboard is an alternative to regular typing and mousing that can be a lifesaver for people who lose some of their fine motor control with MS. With this unique keyboard, a pencil-like wand is held either by hand or in the mouth, and activates keys on contact without any strength or pressure required. It can also be used to perform normal mouse functions to click, drag, and double-click.

2010 EnableMart Catalog is Mailing Now!

After many long hours, a lot of diet Coke and tons of research, I am happy to announce that our 2010 catalog is finally ready here! Of course, there's no way that we could show everything we have to offer in one little book but we have compiled a comprehensive collection of our best selling & most requested items from each of our categories into one easy to use guide available in print or as a downloadable PDF.  The new catalog contains 36 pages of Assistive Technology with vivid full-color pictures and simplified descriptions & explanations, making it a great tool for educators, therapists, non-profit assessment centers and home users.

Download the PDF or request your copy by mail today:
http://www.EnableMart.com/Catalog-Request

Stimulus Package Saves Schools?

How many special needs teachers were already facing dire circumstances such as layoffs, budget cuts, etc even before the economy went kaput? Here are some quick facts about the stimulus that may be heartening for teachers and educators:

• $91.3 billion going to health, labor, and education departments . $600 million 
• $29 billion of that designated for "Education Programs" 
• $600 million which may be available specifically for Assistive Technology upgrades 

In spite of the No Child Left Behind Act passed in 2001, the Bush administration has increasingly moved away from federal support for schools and school programs - opting to leave the responsibility with State and Local governments. The stimulus package changes the course of the federal government by increasing the involvement of federal monies in primary and secondary education.

What does this mean for the teachers? For starters, it means relief for those who are worried about massive layoffs. Some of the money can be used to prevent downsizing school staff. Teachers and other staff will also receive further training including proper use of the latest technologies. And money can go to maintaining and expanding the current Assistive Technology tools and programs available to students with disabilities. 

If you would like to read more, there is an article with details about the education aspect of the stimulus package at eschoolnews.com

Kindle 2 Has Text-to-Speech!

As if we weren't already crazy about Kindle, Amazon came out with Kindle 2 on Monday and it is full of all sorts of extras that the first didn't have. For starters, it's lighter, sleaker, and more modern looking than the original. It holds more books and it has a longer battery life to give you more reading time between charges. 

But the really exciting part is that the device comes with Text-to-Speech built in! You can have any part of your Kindle books read back to you by a male or a female in one of three speech rates. We haven't been able to take it for a spin yet, since the new Kindle isn't coming out for another week and a half. I can't wait to try it out and see whether the text to speech will be helpful enough to use constantly or if it is the old, robotic voices that are not useful for reading more than one or two words back. 

Could we have competition for other Assistive Technology for reading such as Daisy Players? It's too early to say (Amazon does carry a lot of books, but it is still up to them to make a book available for Kindle), but it is exciting to have such a hugely popular, mainstream product come out that incorporates Assistive Technology. 

As a side note, there is some controversy coming out of the text-to-speech announcement for the new Kindle. The Author's Guild is claiming that text-to-speech on Kindle 2 infringes the copyrights on audiobooks. There is a big difference between the voice coming from the Kindle; nobody would argue that it replaces the voice of an author or performer reading a text. Text-to-speech is already available for free with many operating systems, and that hasn't caused any uproar either (yet). 

What's your take on it? Are you as excited as I am about the Kindle 2? 

Bookshare Brings Books to You

If you aren't already reading books using Bookshare, or telling your clients or family members with disabilities about it, you need to start. I read about Bookshare a month or two ago, but I was reminded of it reading an article in Lon Thornburg's No Limits to Learning blog. 

We are really excited about Bookshare because it promises the most comprehensive, easy to search library of books that you can access in large print, audio, and braille. The book collection on bookshare now includes over 43,000 

Benetech is the non-profit behind Bookshare.org, which is run by the creator of Arkenstone reading machines. Bookshare currently has funding from the Department of Education, and the team is planning to expand the service significantly in the next few years with a goal to have over 100,000 books available in the next few years. 

Assistive Technology Assists Everyone

There was a New York Times article last week about T.V. Raman, a blind engineer who works for Google. Raman has developed several items for himself and for Google with the motto that technology that is helpful to him is helpful to everyone. One of his many current projects is a cell phone that doesn't require sight. He refuses to call it "a cell phone for the blind," because he says the phone would be great for a lot of people without disabilities. Drivers, busy administrative assistants, and others would benefit from the safety and convenience of a cell phone that you don't need to look at to use. 

Raman is a power-user of Assistive Technology; his screen reader is set to 3 times the normal pace of the human voice. But with all the product enhancements out there, he is concerned about the current shift of cell phones and other devices to touch screen technology, which is notoriously difficult for people with disabilities to use. 

The key to Raman's insight about technology is that not everybody uses it in the same way. When products are being developed, Raman asks that developers continually remind themselves to make the products easy for anyone to use in any situation. So, for example, instead of thinking about how to make a product accessible for someone with limited mobility, an engineer might ask, "How could this product work for me if I didn't want to use my hands?" 

Raman is an advocate for change that works for everyone. He insists that technology should be developed with a variety of uses in mind, and that will result in positive changes to benefit everyone. Part of Raman's goal is to get more engineers excited about Assistive Technology. Raising awareness about AT will result in more great products on the market. He says, "If I can get another 10 engineers motivated to work on accessibility, it is a huge win." 

Do you have any ideas for technology that could be improved for people with disabilities that would also help other users? 

$50 Off on ColorMouse RM-RCA at EnableMart

ColorMouse is a handheld video magnifier from Bierly. It looks like a mouse but you connect it to your TV. ColorMouse then projects whatever image you roll it over onto your TV. With the RM (reverse mode version) of ColorMouse, you can choose to display images in full color negative or positive - switching backgrounds and texts from black to white to accommodate any vision impairments. 

ColorMouse RM-RCA scrolls smoothly across labels, books, recipes, and more to give anyone the freedom to read for themselves. The ColorMouse comes in low magnification or high magnification versions. 

ColorMouse is on sale right now at EnableMart for $50. Regular price is $439, so that's $389! 

People With Disabilities Contribute to Record Voter Turnout

Many states across the country reported record numbers of votes cast in the presidential election yesterday. With the election over, many people with disabilities were just grateful for the opportunity to vote. 

At EnableMart, we are happy to have contributed to the electoral process in Oregon wit accessible voting stations.

The Help America Vote Act, HAVA, was passed by President Bush on October 29, 2002 - just over six years ago today. HAVA's goals include making the voting process more accessible to people with disabilities. To comply with the act, states are finally implementing assistive technology at the polls.  

Oregon is one such state that came to EnableMart to update the process to include all of their voters. Our sales rep, Cristian, spent a few weeks this past summer setting up voting stations for people with disabilities at polls throughout the state. 

The updates make it possible for people with disabilities to vote from home and to vote at polling places without an assistant. 

Each voting station consists of traditional computers components including a mouse, keyboard, printer, as well as specialty items for accessibility like a trackball mouse, joystick, Intellikeys custom keypad, and USB switches. The set up gives those with low vision, limited muscle control, and other disabilities an easy alternative to traditional voting methods.

The stations are used at polling places but are also portable so many people were able to vote from home this year. This easy access for people with disabilities contributed to a record voter turnout in Oregon with over 80% of those registered actually voting.

EnableMart commends the state of Oregon for creating accessible voter stations that helped many Americans cast their votes this year.