A little background on Tim:
I was born with Cerebral Palsy and graduated from Cal State Long Beach in speech communication. I’ve been an active member on several advisory boards, such as In Home Support Service, USC University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities, Self-Determination Program Local Advisory Committee for Regional Center of Orange County, TASK in Brea, California, Disability Voices United, and California Communications Access Foundation and Ability Central.
I have been using an AAC device ever since I was in elementary school. One of my passions is for everyone to communicate through technology, whatever that happens to be. It doesn't matter what your disability is, everyone needs to communicate.
What differences have you experienced during the pandemic in terms of AAC or accessibility during the pandemic?
When the State reopens again, the disabled community won’t be the first people that will go out of their doors and our lives won’t be normal. Most likely, we are all staying at home and being isolated from the virus because we are most vulnerable. The disabled community is one of the poorest people in our society. Many of us don’t have the means to have access to the Internet in our homes, yet alone a computer. Many of us don't have the ability to communicate through a communication device to message our basic needs, or our devices are so outdated or broken that it becomes a paperweight because it is no longer optimized to our needs, because of limitations from our health conditions.
For example, I have a friend who has the same disability as myself and he lives in the next city from me. We have been trying to get him on Zoom to have some kind of social interaction because of the lock down. He has no computer or basic internet connection. My friend has a cell phone, but he has a flip phone and cannot install any apps on it. What is my friend supposed to do for the next six months or whenever the pandemic is over? I fear for my friend because he is not getting the services that he should be receiving to maintain his mental health.
There are a lot of unheard stories like my friend.
What are you looking forward regarding future accessibility technology?
With the recent innovation with artificial intelligence, I like to see better word prediction. The current word prediction system is very outdated. I like to see word prediction that uses some form of artificial intelligence to make me communicate even more effectively and faster. The app will know what setting I am, either at home or work and it will predict phrases or words that I’ve already used for that environment.
For example, let’s say I’m at a show, seeing my favorite bands. With artificial intelligence and GPS, the app will know where I’m at and switch vocabulary to fit to that environment. Like, albums to the bands or songs.
Here is a better example, let’s say you are having lunch at your favorite restaurant and you are about to order. Instead of typing what you want to eat, the word prediction should adapt to the environment that you are in and the restaurant menu should be appearing in the prediction library, as you order your food. This will save you time with your device and make you more efficient at communicating with others.
AAC should be adapting to the user rather than the user adjusting to the device.
Are you a Healthcare Professional?
