Category: AAC

ATIA 2024 Conference Preview

Join the RERC on AAC along with practitioners and researchers from the assistive technology community at the ATIA 2024 conference. We’ll present on our AAC projects and look forward to seeing you at the RERC on AAC exhibit booth!

ATIA Conference Preview
ATIA 2024 is where the assistive technology community will gather, January 25–27, in Orlando, Florida and virtually! Over the past 24 years, the ATIA conference has been the leading community-building and learning event for all things AT. Join the RERC on AAC at our presentations and our booth in the exhibit hall.

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Designing an app for alternative access assessments: new publication!

Happy to announce that our new article just came out in the Assistive Technology journal! Read on to learn how we involved users when designing our Access Navigator app for alternative access assessments.

Masthead of publication
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Join me at the RESNA 2021 Conference

Don’t miss the RESNA 2021 Virtual Conference, July 7-9, 2021! Registration deadline is Friday, June 25, 2021. I’ll be part of three presentations (more on these below). Hope to see you there!

Join me at the RESNA 2021 Virtual Conference
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ATIA 2021 – Day 1 highlights and how you can still register

The ATIA 2021 Conference is all virtual, but it’s still got an engaging and educational roster of presentations and exhibits. It’s going on now, January 25 – February 6, but there’s still time to register. This post shares some highlights from the first two presentations I attended along with info to help you register.

ATIA 2021: Day 1 highlights and how you can still registerThe ATIA Conference is always a highlight of the assistive technology calendar. This year’s version is all virtual, and the organizers have worked really hard to create an engaging and educational roster of presentations and exhibits. In this post, I’ll share some highlights from two presentations I attended on Monday Jan 25, and let you know how you can participate in the rest of the conference if you’d like.
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Access Assistant: a new KPR project funded by NIDILRR

Koester Performance Research is a partner in the newly-funded Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Augmentative and Alternative Communication (the RERC on AAC). KPR’s projects focus on ensuring effective and efficient physical access to AAC for people with severe motor impairments.

Photo of a man using a switch to access a computer. Text says Access Assistant: a new project funded by NIDILRR

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How to do a remote assistive technology assessment

Because of Covid-19, there’s a greater need for assistive technology practitioners to conduct remote assessments. This post presents a method used by occupational therapist Charlie Danger to assess for eyegaze access remotely.

How to do remote assistive technology assessments. Photo of Charlie Danger in front of two computer monitors: one showing a client's face and one showing the client's on-screen keyboard.
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Assistive technology for Rett syndrome: a systematic review

Have you seen the 2019 systematic review covering assistive technology as an intervention for individuals with Rett syndrome? If not, read on for a summary of the research on assistive technology for Rett syndrome.

Assistive technology for Rett syndrome: a systematic review. Photo shows a young girl using a computer-based AAC system. An adult is alongside her, holding her hand.
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A problem with two-switch scanning in iOS 13 and how to fix it

After upgrading my iPad to iOS 13, my setup for two-switch scanning in Switch Control stopped working. Here’s what happened, and how I fixed it.

Picture of an iPad with two switches connected via a Tapio interface. Caption rades A problem with 2-switch scanning in iOS 13 and how to fix it.

Overview

I recently ran into an unexpected problem getting my external switches to work when using two-switch scanning with iPad Switch Control. After wrestling with the problem and eventually fixing it (or at least finding a workaround), I thought I’d share what I learned in case it can save somebody else some time.

Here’s a quick bottom-line synopsis: If you are using a Tapio interface for two-switch input with an iPad, set your Tapio to generate 1 and 2 for outputs, rather than the Space and Enter default outputs.

Read on for more details on the problem and exactly how to implement this solution.

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