Coming in September 2012 - All Accessible iPad from Ablenet

(below is directly from the Ablenet website.)

Keynote™

Enabling the iPad for everyone.

Product will be available September 2012
AbleNet’s Keynote access solution unlocks the power of the iPad mobile device for users with significant physical disabilities. Keynote provides cutting edge accessibility, brilliant sound and exceptional design to create a one of a kind solution for the iPad.

• HiFi stereo amplified sound output
• Wireless and wired switch access with scanning capabilities to control the iPad and apps supporting VoiceOver controls
• Sleek outer casing protects against moisture and impact
• Integrated battery, charging and iPad syncing
• Updatable firmware to add new features as they are available
• MSRP $349.00

Ablenet Acquires Madentec

Ablenet, having acquired Tash April 2008 and SoftTouch in January 2009 Ablenet has now accquired the exclusive rights to manufacture and sell the entire line of Madentec products.   (Madentec retains the brand and will provide engineering support.)

Madentec (some of us old timers will remember this) once upon a time took over making the Discover line of products from Don Johnston (and in a move that happened to hit a student of mine pretty hard at the time dropped the Discover Ke:nx product and did not offer Morse Code on newer products, but that is a story for another time).

Madentec is best known for its head tracking device the Tracker Pro (people usually say, "Is that the one with the dot?"  Yes, it is.  Meaning the user wears a reflective dot for the camera to follow, often times the dot is worn on the center of the forehead.)  Other products include a head worn cheek switch (the IntelliWisp), a switch interface (the Intelliswitch), the Discover line of products (the Discover Pro and the Discover Envoy) and some other computer access hardware and software.

A Note

"Dear Teacher,


Joe doesn't have any news today as we weren't getting along, his machine and I.

Sincerely, Caregiver"

Ablenet Introduces the New Powerlink 4

Ablenet has announced the new Powerlink 4 enviromental control device at Closing the Gap. No longer the teal box we are used to the new Powerlink 4 is upgraded for today. The new Powerlink is compatiable with the wireless Jelly Beamers and Big Beamers. The Powerlink 4 will cost $230.00 and will begin shipping in early 2010. A Powerlink 4 and two wireless Jelly Beamers can be ordered for at a discounted rate until the end of the year (12/31/09).

(Note to Ablenet folks - could someone clarify the discounted race, in the e-mail it was $307 and online it is $357. Thanks.)

PowerLink 4 features:

• Easy set up with built-in display and a simple new design
• Powerful access with six modes of control
• Accurate programming and data collection like never before
• Flexible outlets allow custom positioning of up to two appliances, activating independently
• Linkable™ wireless technology for use with multiple Big or Jelly Beamer switches (from up to 30 feet away)
  
• Two switch input jacks
• Position on table-top or wall-mounted

Modes of Control

• Direct
• Count (direct with data collection of number of activations)
• Two Switch (direct but two switches must be held down at once for interaction or safety)
• Timed Seconds (0-99)
  
• Timed Minutes (0-99)
  
• Latch (one hit on, next hit off)
  

New Hitch Switch Interface

Ablenet has announced its new switch interface, Hitch, which will be ready to ship in July. Hitch needs no software to be installed (fantastic for those of us who do not have administrator privileges on school computers), can control one to five switches and can be used as a switch driven mouse emulator set to up arrow, down arrow, right arrow, left arrow and enter.

Bonus: Hitch can be set up to make switch hits act as certain function keys (F3, F5, F7, F8) which in secret code means you can use the Hitch to run Clicker5 (which uses F7 and F8 for switches). Until now you had to use a proprietary Crick Switch Interface to use switches with Clicker5 (which was annoying). Yee-Haw!

Hitch will retail at $99.00 (Sixty bucks cheaper than the Crick Switch Box).

Interchangeable Switch Backings

I was thinking (while stuck behind, but thankfully not in a six car pile up on the way home tonight) that while the new interchangeable, screw on switch tops from Ablenet are nice it would be way more useful to have interchangeable, screw on switch backs.

Basically it would be awesome if the bases screwed on and off. The backs of the bases could be your choice of interlock, hook velcro, loop velcro, rare earth magnet, table top/wheelchair tray ready clamp or universal mount ready with nuts and screws (make sure the screws are attached and if possible the nuts are too).

Wouldn't that be great?

Ablenet, what do you say?

And how 'bout I get a few sets for free?

P.S. I've had a note from Ablenet, a version of the idea has been sent to the engineers. Perhaps we will see something like this soon!

Customer Service

For the record I think that some of the A.T. providers out there have the best customer and support services of any type of company. (Too bad the phone company, for example, can't take their lead.) Today I had folks at both Dynavox and Ablenet spend copious amounts of time helping me figure out that the parts ordered and delivered for a student's switch and switch mount cannot work together. Which was a relief, in a way, because I was starting to think there was something wrong with me that I could not figure it out.

Followed by Ken at Ablenet (thanks Ken) helping me to figure out exactly what to do about it. Ken and I came up with a plan and in the end the SLP, parent and I (coordinated through multiple phone calls) decided that we will be returning the switch and mismatched mounting plate for a different switch with a matching mounting plate (things work better if all the parts match). Ken was kind enough to give me the item numbers so I can be sure when we re-order it is correct.

On more set of phone calls tomorrow to finalize the exchange with Dynavox and we will be in business. Finally. It took me weeks to find a three hour block in my schedule, during business hours, to make all these calls! (Tough to find time around all that darned teaching!)

Maybe the return will be ready to go in time for the student to mail it himself during community based education this week!

On an unrelated note today my order from Ablenet for a Jelly Beamer and the new Read, Write and Grow software came in! I played quite a bit with the Jelly Beamer. So cool! Wireless is definitely the way to go. I can't wait to do a math lesson I have planned tomorrow and not have to worry about how far the cord will reach when I pass around the switch! More on Read, Write and Grow soon.

Weekly Reader Ablenet Edition

Recently I had an opportunity to sample Weekly Reader Ablenet Edition. Like News-2-You it is an adapted newsletter, however, unlike News-2-You it supports inclusion in that it goes along with the standard Weekly Reader that is mailed out 32 times a year to classrooms all over the country for the past 100+ years. This way students are doing the same topics with differentiationin instruction. Here is a sample.

Also like News-2-You you go online to download most of the content, however you do receive the regular, unadapted Weekly Readers in the mail each week (and an e-mail telling you when the adapted content is available).

The content of Ablenet Edition Weekly Reader is differentiated on three levels:

1. The first level is very basic, for learners somewhere between cause and effect and emerging conceptual/linguistic knowledge. It has full literacy symbol report and the selections on the page are large and uncluttered.
2. The second level is for students with some concept knowledge and working on beginning emerging literacy.
3. The third level is for learners who need a high interest-low readability text (about mid first to late second grade level).

In addition you recieve a teacher's guide with lessons for sensory, literacy and "day-fillers" (okay they need a better name than "day-fillers", especially since the activities are not busy work and areapproproiate thematic activities - perhaps they could be renamed "thematic activities"). Themeatic activities include lessons for community based instruction, recipes, games, interviews, surveys, web links and more. If you want to view the themes for each weekly reader you can download them from Weekly Reader. It would be possible knowing the Weekly Reader themes ahead of time to plan your curriculum with the Weekly Reader topics as a base.

It appears as if the Weekly Reader Edition 2 (second grade) and the Weekly Reader Senior Edition are available from Ablenet, however most of the themes of the are the same across all of the elementary levels (K-3) so you should be able to use the Weekly Reader Edition 2 from Ablenet with any of the Weekly Reader elementary editions for inclusion. Use the link above to check the Edition 2 themes against other additions to be sure. The elementary edition comes our 32 times a year and the senior addition comes out 25 times a year.

Both News-2-You and Weekly Reader Ablenet Edition offer support for assistive technology and AAC. Ablenet comes with guidelines for using technology such as a Big Mac, a Step-by-Step, All Turn it Spinner, iTalk2, Power Link and a Super Talker with the Weekly Reader content. (I wish I had all of those things, just last week on of the teacher I mentor asked to borrow my All Turn It Spinner and i had to tell her that not only do I not have one, I have never had one. I don't have a Super Talker in the room either.) These guidlines are super for teachers new in the intensive field and have no idea what a switch is or what to do with it. The advantage that News-2-You has is the Classroom Suite Activties that can be downloaded for each newsletter. Here's hoping that Ablnet adds Clicker 5 or Boardmaker Plus, or even Classroom Suite support to their offerings.

Like News-2-You, Weekly Reader Ablnet Edition aligns to state standards and allows you to easily match standards to activties and take data for Alternative Assessment purposed. With so many similarities the major difference between Weekly Reader and News-2-You is the normalization and inclusion factor. I read Weekly Reader in elementary school, my elementary aged family members read Weekly Reader, Weekly Reader has been a staple in American schools for years and now our students can take part too. (Note: there has been some online banter on listservs that Weekly Reader is not available outside the USA, including in Canada. I would call and check before ordering outside of the USA.)

A word about the symbol support. Ablenet uses JupiterImages and News-2-You uses Symbol Stix. The free newspaper (UK based) ELive from Symbol World uses Widget Symbols. As far as I know there is not an adapted newsletter using Mayer-Johnson Picture Communication Symbols. On my wishlist is for someone, maybe Ablenet, to produce an adapted newspaper with Mayer-Johnson Picture Communication Symbols and Boardmaker Plus content.

MEville to WEville Wiki

As many of you know MEville to WEville is a literacy program by AbleNet for elementary aged learners with moderate to significant disabilities, including non-speaking students. I have recently received a copy from (the generous folks at) AbleNet to review and will do so soon, but until then I want to share a resource that was posted on the Boardmaker ListServ.

The MEville WikiSpace shares tabs for your spiral bound MEville to WEville teacher guides, biligual parents letters, Boardmaker boards (in boardmaker format, so you can adapt them), alignment to Florida Standards, data collection forms (based on standards), internet links and a blog.

Here is a MEville to WEville FAQ is you want to know more about the program.

Press release: Ablenet Aquires TASH, Inc.

On Monday, April 14, 2008, AbleNet Inc. acquired Tash International Inc., a world-class provider of assistive technology with a strong presence in the areas of physical therapy, rehabilitation, and daily living.

For nearly three decades, AbleNet and Tash viewed each other as friendly competitors with both companies offering a unique assortment of switches, communication aids, wheelchair and desktop mounting systems, environmental controls, and a variety of cutting edge computer access aids.

With Tash now a part of AbleNet, both brands and product lines will continue to be available with each providing distinctive features and exceptional quality, but with the convenience, cost-effectiveness, and support of one-stop shopping. Now you will be able to browse and purchase both Tash and AbleNet products 24-hours a day, seven days a week at www.ablenetinc.com.

AbleNet's acquisition of Tash is a great milestone in the world of assistive technology. We are delighted at the prospect of offering Tash products as part of AbleNet's ever-expanding line of easy-tech assistive technologies and look forward to serving you just as we always have.

To learn more about the exciting news regarding AbleNet's acquisition of Tash, please visit www.ablenetinc.com/tash.

Device of the Day - The Lingo by Ablenet

Ablenet is introducing a new mid-level AAC device, the Lingo, that Ablenet and some members of the QIAT list-serv have pointed out may also have implications for use as an auditory cueing device. The device holds seven static 25 second messages and one "memo" button which holds a 60 second message. Here are the features listed on the Ablenet site:

• 7 single messages (25 seconds each)
• 1 memo message (60 seconds)
• Recessed keyboard to prevent accidental activation
• Digital sound - for incredible sound quality
• LED feedback
• Rechargeable battery
• Volume control and volume lockout
• Headphone jack
• Low memory and low battery indicators
• AbleNet durability and water resistant
• Optional Symbol Holder available

The size is 2.5" x 5.25" x 1.04" which is the size is the size of this handheld game, only the Lingo is .25" shorter. It weights about 4.5 oz. It will be selling for $179.00 come "the winter 07/08 season".

This reminds me of the four button wrist band AAC device that Ablenet sold about five or six years ago. (What was that called?) In theory it was a nice device, small, portable. However the first run out of the factory was impossible to program (I thought) and no sooner did Ablenet get them so they worked did they pull them off the market. I hope this is a nice alternate. I am waiting to hear reports about ease of programming, durability and volume.

Device of the Day - Tango!

Having gathered quite a bit of attention on non-sped technology blogs, such as Engadget and Sci-Fi Tech, I thought it might be time for me to mention Tango! from Blink Twice.

The Tango is a handheld, dynamic display device with unique picture symbols (although you can import anything you want) and a built in camera for taking new photos to use as symbols. The symbols are arranged into talk topics for easy access (although you can program anything you want).

The Tango has spelling/typing options with word prediction and can be used as an adapted keyboard for documents, e-mails and more.

It runs on Windows CE, has about 8 hours battery life, built in scanning and switch ports. It only weights 2.5 pounds and has dimensions of 12.5" x 4.4" x 1.8. It is water resistant and has a tough wear resistant design. It also looks cool and was designed by some of the same people who made the X-box.

It costs about $7000.00 (gasp) and is distributed by Ablenet. The price would be its most obvious downfall. Others I can foresee without trying it out are non-standard symbols and a limited symbol set, not-yet-distributed desktop editing system and a maximum of six buttons per page,