Author: lesleyduff

How to…time management apps for autism

In reading some of the research studies involving adults on the autistic spectrum, one of the more valuable functions an assistive device can have is to remind the person of upcoming events or the next step to take when tackling a sequence of tasks. Autism can make it harder for individuals to adjust to changes of routine so anything that will provide a pointer to what comes next could be useful. There can be times where people have poor memory and forget that they have important appointments to keep, or you become so engrossed in one particular task that you need some kind of “nudge” as a reminder to move to the next task. It’s no exaggeration to say that there are literally thousands of apps available for smartphones that can assist with time and task management – it’s a very highly utilised category of app for all people.

Clocks and alarms

Most mobile phones, even the most basic kind, have some kind of a clock feature built-in. And where you find a electronic clock you will often find means of settings alarms for alerts at particular times.  You can usually choose what sound or ring tone should be used when the alarm goes off, on some devices you can even choose to play a music track on your device. Also useful is a countdown timer – say you have a particular task that is supposed to be carried out within a certain amount of time, then set a countdown alarm and an alarm will go off after that particular amount of time has passed.

Using Clock app on iOS (iPhone/iPod/iPad)

Android alarms

On Android the clock app may vary by who manufactured your device, you may have an analogue clock face or a digital clock display and often the choice of which kind you prefer. A clock is usually displayed on your home page on your device (the screen you see when you first start it up). On some devices you can set alarms via tapping on the clock.

Calendars and event reminders

Similar to clocks for time, devices will usually have at least a basic calendar feature to show the date and days of the month. On smartphones calendar apps become particularly powerful when you are able to add your own events to their calendar for reference and optionally receive notifications and reminders. This can be an excellent way of planning for the future by making sure you don’t miss something important.

In the calendar entry for the event itself there may be space to enter names/addresses/photos, anything of relevance to that event or venue. For visual learners you may wish to add photos of people you are due to meet or buildings you have to visit. For events taking place at a different location you could include transportation/journey details in advance so that you don’t have to figure that out on the day when you may be more stressed. For events in the calendar you can add alerts that pop up something visual on your phone to remind you and/or play some sound.

Google Calendar

Using Calendar app on iOS (iPhone/iPod/iPad)

Details of how to use the Calendar app on iOS devices can be found in your “User Guide” document – downloadable from the Support:Manuals section of the Apple website.

See also

Review of Using iPads in AAC – Augmentative Communication in Practice: Scotland

“Established in 1991, Augmentative Communication in Practice: Scotland (ACiP:S) is a national network that links together specialist AAC services and professionals; children and adults who use AAC (and their families); statutory services and voluntary agencies; and that provides resources, information and support.”

In 2012 ACiP:S had a study day, “Using iPads in AAC” and the papers from that day can be downloaded. What’s useful is that they have many case examples of using particular apps with different people and seeing pros and cons for each individual.

A common finding was that tablet devices (compared to smaller iPod devices) were preferred for children just starting to learn language skills and those with poor dexterity as iPads have larger screens making them easier to use and read but at added expense and they are heavier to hold if no surface is available to rest the tablet on. Accessories used for making devices easier to hold for children and to provide stands for working at a desk included the Big Grips cases.

App reviews

Sally Millar of CALL Scotland has a good review of a selection of apps in her paper

Simple Photo and Video Apps to Support Communication [PDF]

List of apps used in paper case studies

Here’s a list of some of the apps that this group has documented in case studies.

How to…find user manuals for mobile phones – have you read yours?

Smart Mobile Phone Line-up
Photo by: Dru Bloomfield

When you buy an electronic device like a mobile phone these days you’ll probably find that it comes in a small box with very little paperwork inside. Usually you’ll find some kind of “getting started” or “quick start” leaflet with the bare bones of how to start using your device along with any safety or legal notices. What a lot of people don’t realise is that most manufacturers also produce user manuals for using the devices. For economic and ecological reasons they don’t often ship printed manuals these days so it’s likely that they’ll tell you to visit their website to download any other information relating to their device.

Would always recommend that you have a read of any user manual at least once, sometimes you don’t always know all the features and things your device is capable of! Even if you don’t have a use for these features right away, just knowing what you might be able to do in the future is helpful especially if your own health changes. If your device has accessibility features it will normally be outlined in the manual so this can be useful to you or a carer or professional to help set up your device in such a way that it’s easier for you to use.

Tip: phone manufacturers tend to put downloadable manuals (usually PDF files) in a section of their websites called ‘Support’, some may have a product page on their website for your device and then have links to other documents there. It usually helps if you know exactly what model of device you have, it may be a name or some seemingly cryptic combination of letters and numbers. Here are some places you might find the model

  • It might be printed onto the case of your phone
  • If you have the original box it came in it when you bought it it would usually be printed on there
  • If you have a sales receipt from purchase it might be printed there. 
  • If you don’t remember some manufacturer websites will have pictures of their models and you can find yours that way.

Here’s a list of support sections for some of the main manufacturers. If you haven’t read yours…

Stop What You’re Doing Right Now And Go And Read Your User Manual Instead!

CALL Scotland, Personal Communication Passports and webinars on using technology for inclusion

CALL Scotland focuses on expertise and training in communication and assistive technology for children.

Personal Communication Passports

CALL has done some very interesting work on creating support for Personal Communication Passports – Person-centred booklets for those who cannot easily speak for themselves.

“A way of making sense of formal assessment information and recording the important things about a person.”

They have helpful support materials such as free templates and how to print the documents. CALL Scotland also run on-demand training courses.

They are currently working on a new iPhone/iPad App, you can register your interest in the Personal Communication Passports app to be notified when it is released.

Webinars

CALL is  currently providing a series of webinars that include demonstrations of using particular software/apps with a focus on promoting inclusion in your organisation.

These are very helpful as you can see demonstrations made by those with a high degree of familiarity of the software including representatives from the companies behind the software,  and ideas for how to use the apps in practice. Also more general help on inclusion topics such as Dyslexia.

Scottish Government Guidance: A Right to Speak Supporting Individuals who use Alternative and Augmentative Communication

“Guidance to be used by people who use Alternative and Augmentative Communication (AAC), their families, strategic and operational heads within health boards, local authority social work and education departments and the voluntary sector”

A Right to Speak Supporting Individuals who use Alternative and Augmentative Communication [Scottish Government]

Enabling technology – making technology work better for disabled people

“..Digital technology can be incredibly enabling for many disabled people. But for others, obtaining affordable devices that meet their needs and accessing essential digital services can be difficult or impossible…

This report is an output of a 15 month design research project carried out by the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design at the Royal College of Art, in partnership with BT and Scope as part of the BT Better Future Program. It looks at steps that can be taken by commissioners and producers of enabling technology, as well as providers of key digital services, to maximise the enabling potential of digital technology for the 11 million disabled people in the UK. It emphasises the importance of flexibility in the creation of technology used by disabled people, whether hardware, devices or digital services…”

Enabling technology – making technology work better for disabled people [PDF]

 

 

How to…show a banner of text or speak short phrases using Android (bus journey example)

This is a worked example to try and find an example of an approach that might help with existing problems giving a destination on Glasgow buses for those with travel cards (see Pros and cons of autism alert cards and travel cards for details).

In computing we normally call text that’s to be displayed in large lettering a ‘banner’.

So I did a search on the word ‘banner’ on the Google Play App store. And though not all match our intended use there are some that would seem to do what we want. Now if you’ve never downloaded an app from an App store what you very commonly find is that apps for free may have some advertising within them that may or may not be a barrier in what you want to do, mostly but not always paid apps don’t usually have adverts and will often have a larger range of things the app can do – we call these ‘features’.
N.B. If you have photo-sensitive epilepsy be very careful if you try these banner apps out. Most of them will, as a demo, scroll text quickly, some will flash or blink.

I was specifically looking for an app that might provide a banner of large text in clear type that could be read from a distance and in low-light conditions. This could mean that your phone/tablet could be held up to e.g. the bus driver to show what destination you want. Because place names can be long and won’t always all fit on the screen the text needs to be able to animate or scroll so the entire name can be shown. To get the maximum amount of width for text it helps if you turn the device on it’s side with the longer edge at the bottom, shorter on the sides i.e. ‘landscape mode’.

The following sample can display text or can speak short phrases. N.B. There are literally thousands of apps in the app store, I’m only using this as a worked example.

This particular app is free but be aware there is a little bit of advertising. This app allows for up to 15 phrases to be stored and reused though you can change them at any time. You very simply tap on one of the rows of text and type in what text phrase you want to use. In the settings for the app you can change the size of the text, scroll speed and background and foreground text colours, I’ve chosen a blue background and white text in my demo.

Banner text

You tap on the letters ABC in the middle of the screen to indicate you want to display a banner in solid lettering.

Banner selection of phrases

To display a banner, tap on the letters ABC in the square to the left of the text phrase you want. Screenshot shows a part near the beginning of “Sauchiehall Street”. The text fills the entire width of the screen and then scrolls the phrase continuously until you tap the screen again.

Sauchiehall Street

Voice

You tap on the picture of the loudspeaker to indicate that you want to use text to speech. Then you tap on one of the rows of text and type in what you want spoken. When you are ready to have the device speak on your behalf just press the loudspeaker next to whatever phrase you want to speak.

If you were using the same destinations repeatedly then using the app would be quicker as the text would already be entered so you would only have to tap the square ABC. This app will use the voice you have selected in your accessibility settings (see How to…Scottish voices for text to speech on Android for more details)

Voice Demo

I’ve recorded sound output via the Scroller – LED & Voice using CereProc Scottish voice ‘Heather’. I’ve just tapped through a list of names:

  • Trongate
  • Dumbarton Road
  • Sauchiehall Street
  • Saint Georges Cross
  • Wilson Street

Download the CereProc Scottish placenames [MP3]

How to…Scottish voices for text to speech on Android

Searching for synthetic voices for reading out text via Text-To-Speech (TTS) or speech synthesis systems found a Scottish company called CereProc. For a number of years they have been providing voices for desktop computers and now they have released versions that work on the Android platform for tablets and some of the newer and higher specifications of smartphones. This technology has come on in leaps and bounds in recent years and although not perfect and pronunciation may be a bit off for some words,  it’s certainly improving over time and may be an option for anyone wishing to have a device speak on your behalf.

There are some limitations like the hardware volume of the device will limit how loud the spoken sound may be which might not be loud enough in busy environments.

I’ve recorded examples of the synthetic speech that can be used on Android see the demo at the end of this post.

Tech note: In my tests I’m using a Google Nexus 7 tablet which you can currently buy for around £200.

  • Go to Settings
  • Go down to the System section
  • Choose Accessibility
  • Choose Text-to-speech output
The first time you access it you might need to install a text-to-speech engine – on the Nexus this provides a basic “Google text-to-speech” engine with a range of English (UK or US, French, German, Italian and Spanish. However you are free to choose any other text-to-speech engine you wish. 
CereProc’s paid for voices currently cost £1.19 each

N.B. The way the Glasgow voice is presented on the Play store it seems to be intended as a “jokey” example. This is a pity and don’t let that put you off as it does do an surprisingly good job of pronouncing in the Glasgow Scots dialect. In our example of Pros and cons of autism alert cards and travel cards one point raised was

“…With synthetic speech it’s important that the ‘voice’ shouldn’t lead to the person being ridiculed in public…”

Maybe more middle-class people might find the Idyacy Dodo Glasgow voice humorous but if you come from a more working-class area of Glasgow using some of the ‘posher’ Scottish voices like Stuart might make you the odd one out and possibly lead to mockery. So a lot depends on who you are surrounded by and the situation. Having the ability to switch between formal/informal voices easily could be an advantage in e.g. the workplace or interview situations vs. at home.

Here’s an example of how your text to speech section might look if you’ve installed a few different voices.
Android Accessibility texttospeech-2013-09-19-12-43-04
Android Accessibility text to speech

On Android there is a device-wide “TalkBack” option which is really intended for blind or low vision users – this will help navigate the device by reading out app names or notifications etc. However, Android doesn’t quite seem to be at the point where any text within any app can be dictated, it depends on whether the app developers have added support for it. So to really make use of installed voices you need to look for apps that support text to speech.

Audio Demo

Audio recording from the output of the tablet device speaking some sample text using CereProc Scottish Voices for Android [MP3].

See also How to…show a banner of text or speak short phrases using Android (bus journey example)

Pros and cons of autism alert cards and travel cards

Meeting Date: Monday 16 September 2013
Location: Glasgow office of the Adult Autism Team

The Adult Autism Team kindly arranged for me to meet a woman with extensive experience of working in peer support in autism.

Even in the short time since starting this project what has become painfully evident is the current relative lack of research/support techniques for adults on the autistic spectrum, most projects focus on children.

“Do we disappear when we hit 18?”

But we do get some incredibly useful insights via anecdotal reports.

Autism Alert Cards

Here’s an example of the Strathclyde Autism Alert Card.
Autism Alert Card- FrontAutism Alert Card- Back

 Pros

  • They provide a certain amount of gravitas as they are ‘official’ cards only issued to those with a formal ASD diagnosis. This helps with things like applying for benefits or dealing with officialdom
  • Convenient size, printed on robust plastic similar to credit cards, easily carried by men or women
  • Although the cards were originally intended to be used in exceptional circumstances some people have found them useful in everyday life  e.g. present them to shop assistants, on public transport etc., people usually find the person will then ask them if there’s anything else they can do to help.

Cons

  • Some have found that the stamped police logo on the front of the card is problematic – on occasion presenting it the other person mistakenly thought the autistic person was an official from the police. Because of this some people have opted to use other plainer cards but those carry no official weight
  • Some cardholders haven’t understood that it’s not good enough to simply have the card on them…they need to remember to try and present the card to others.
  • There’s space on the back for a personal contact. Some people have nobody they can think of to put in that box, they’ve thought that the card wont be useful unless that was filled in so haven’t used the card.
  • No space for personal details

All these kind of details are very useful to me as I look for ways of supplementing these kind of cards. If you know of more pros or cons of these existing cards please leave a reply in the comments or contact me.

Travel cards – Glasgow buses

Some people qualify for free travel due to their disability. In Glasgow there’s one issue on buses where the recent introduction of technology is currently having a negative effect on some autistic people.
Free bus travel for people aged 60+ or those with a disability

In the past what would happen is you would just hold the card up to the driver and board the vehicle. Now that there’s electronic versions of these cards the user has to

  1. Physically place their card on top of a card reader device
  2. Say to the driver their destination stop
  3. Board the vehicle

Some autistic people find bus travel difficult in general,

  • finding the right stop
  • waiting 
  • getting into queues and especially in Glasgow the expected social chit chat
  • getting on the right number of bus

So for people with these kind of difficulties they can already be pretty stressed even before they step onto the bus. It’s “say to the driver their destination stop”  that is causing a problem. For those with difficulty with verbal communication they may be unable or too stressed and unwilling to speak which means they run into problems simply trying to board a bus successfully. Some have stopped even trying to travel this way which leads to mobility problems reaching appointments elsewhere.

What would be useful is a way for a person to present the destination to the driver without needing to speak, possible approaches may be

  • Showing text with the name of the desired destination
  • Using text-to-speech technology to verbalise the destination on behalf of the person.

With synthetic speech it’s important that the ‘voice’ shouldn’t lead to the person being ridiculed in public.

Gender is also important, most people would probably prefer that their synthetic voice was male or female as appropriate.

Ideally it would be good if any synthetic voice had a Scottish or local accent, some people who have already tried assistive devices refuse to use devices with American or English (e.g. London RP) accents as they don’t like the sound of the voice.

In some cases people may be able to prerecord audio of themselves or others pronouncing destinations so look for tools that can support this.

Post updated  19th September 2013, see the following How tos for examples of apps that might help with this.

 

App helps children manage their health care routines

App helps children manage their health care routines.

App from Vanderbilt University. This is a free app at the moment but may have a charge in the future. They provide a sample (for children) about visiting the doctor which includes photos of e.g. getting your height and weight taken. Although this app was developed for children It’s generic so you can add your own routines quickly, it’s very simple to use and is good for breaking larger tasks into a sequence of smaller tasks or steps. Here’s some screenshots of an example of my own showing a visit to the autism team, I just used photos but you do have the option to use video instead.

    1. Choosing a routine

Choosing a routine

    1. Showing steps in the task
      If there are more steps than will fit in the screen then you’ll see arrows to let you scroll to them.
      Showing steps in the task
    2. Completing tasks
      You just touch the square when you’ve completed a task. It’s easy to see which steps have still to be done.

Completing tasks