AT Program News

Nationwide, AT Reuse is Taking Off!

by Liz Persaud and Carolyn Phillips of the Pass It On Center

In response to ongoing continuous requests for help establishing or expanding assistive technology (AT) and durable medical equipment (DME) reuse programs, the Pass It On Center hosted a national conference this past December 11th-13th. The conference served Centers for Independent Living, non-profits, and faith-based organizations and took place at the Georgia Tech Hotel and Conference Center in Atlanta. It provided an opportunity for leaders  throughout the US and territories in the field of independent living and AT/DME Reuse to come together and collectively focus on real solutions for individuals who can benefit from access to gently used affordable equipment.

Close to 100 participants came from over 27 states! The event  showcased successful practices and quality programs that work within or in collaboration with Centers for Independent Living. For the preconference session, participants toured Friends of Disabled Adults and Children (FODAC) in Stone Mountain, GA--one of the oldest and largest reuse programs in the U.S.--to see reuse activities and best practices in action. Conference general sessions and workshops highlighted lessons learned on issues such as equipment collection, sanitization methods, refurbishment checklists, marketing, inventory tracking, equipment matching, program sustainability, and much more.

FODAC Executive Director Chris Brand gives a tour to representatives from the Tennessee Technology Access Program, Project MEND in Texas, Access 2 Independence in Columbus, GA, MassMATCH in Boston, and WisLoan, Wisconsin's AFP.

 

Attendees were successful recognizing their own accomplishments and that of partner programs, and many identified points for collaboration and for building national networks for reuse service delivery. To learn more about this national conference, and for access to the general and concurrent session presentations and handouts, please visit www.passitoncenter.org.

Liz Persaud is the PIOC's training, outreach and development coordinator. Carolyn Phillips is PIOC's director.

 

Pererro: New, Powerful, Switch Access for Your iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch!

 

In a recent Scoop.it!, Diana Petschauer, ATP shouted out the Pererro switch interface device by RSLSteeper that was recently unveiled in the US. The Pererro plugs into iOS devices (except iPad Mini) and provides plug and play universal switch access (with a 3.5 mm mono jack socket). Best of all, Pererro works with almost any VoiceOver-enabled app!

"I was able to try this switch with my own iPad and apps at ATIA, and it is phenomenal!" writes Petschauer. "It works with several apps that my students and clients use, including VoiceDream and AAC! It not only offers access to the iPad through scanning and switch selection, but also to far more apps than any Bluetooth switch!" 

Additional features include direct input (so no Bluetooth battery drain), and the ability to charge your device while Pererro is connected. Learn more at this RSLSteeper Web page. And thanks for broadcasting your insights Diana!

Reminder: AT Program News makes no endorsement, representation, or warranty expressed or implied for any product, device, or information set forth in this newsletter or on its Web site. AT Program News has not examined, reviewed, or tested any product or device referred to.

New Patent on Car Trunk Wheelchair Lift to Benefit Utah Assistive Technology Program

Design Success in Utah!

USU engineering student James Somers operates the car trunk wheelchair lift

By Storee Powell

The Utah Assistive Technology Program (UATP) partners with the Utah State University (USU) College of Engineering to help guide senior capstone projects that focus on assistive technology (AT). USU has a grant from the National Science Foundation to invent new and improved AT devices for the benefit of the aging population. While students have been making great things, the second part of the grant is more challenging: marketing the devices so they ultimately get manufactured and sold to consumers. Recently, however, we've had success!

The car trunk wheelchair lift has now been patented under Utah State University. This is a device that hooks onto most cars and hoists a manual wheelchair into the trunk so that very little exertion is required. Currently, USU and UATP are negotiating with a local company to see the device licensed and manufactured. Not only will this device serve consumers at an affordable cost, but some proceeds will benefit the AT program, and the students get a taste of the disability and AT world. A win-win-win!

Storee Powell is the marketing/public relations specialist for UATP

 

 

Following up with Peter McAlindon

The following interview augments the ATPN feature story: "A Shark Tanks without the Sharks; 
Peter McAlindon's fast-track for aspiring entrepreneurs (with disabilities)" 
 
After his presentation at ATIA, AT Program News had an email exchange with Peter 
McAlindon to learn more about how his online mentoring program for budding 
entrepreneurs will work.

ATPN: Do you have a review committee to look at applications and match mentors
with mentees? Who are they? 
Peter McAlindon (PM): Yes, we do have a review committee look at the applications to 
help match mentors to mentees. I am a principal at venVelo -- short for venture velocity--
an Orlando based accelerator. We raised a sizable fund
for early stage companies and have since inception a little over 6 months ago,
invested over $250K in 3 startups here in the central Florida area. Much of
what we do at venVelo translates nicely into what we are doing for the grant.
The venVelo team and its mentors, as well as other community mentors, is
diverse in its members backgrounds, experience(s), and industries in which
companies have been built. More specifically, we have attorneys with various
backgrounds (i.e., corporate, patent, etc.), finance professionals (i.e., CPAs,
wealth managers, merger and acquisition specialists), professors (from
engineering, business, psychology, and many other disciplines), successful
serial entrepreneurs, marketing and sales professionals, and others. 

ATPN: Are you developing software to analyze applications and generate
curriculum recommendations? 

PM: Yes, we are developing software to analyze applications and to help
generate the curriculum. However, the software will only be used as a tool to
aid a human mentor in analyzing the application and suggesting a curriculum.
Over time, with the feedback from both mentors and mentees, the system should
become smarter and become a better tool for analyzing the application and
suggesting the appropriate curriculum development. We are also developing a
system to match mentor to mentee and vice versa based on
personality type, learning style, and a handful of other metrics. Again, over
time, the system should get better at matching mentors/mentees.

ATPN: Who are your marketing partners, specifically, to get the word out (I'm
thinking you have a blend of disability/AT world entities but also, perhaps,
connections in higher ed to find budding entrepreneurs ... who also happen to
have disabilities)? 

PM: You are correct. We have and will continue to reach out to many
disability/AT organizations to promote and execute the program. The VA has thus
far been a very receptive partner as has the Orlando CIL and the Central
Florida Disability Chamber. Vocational Rehabilitation and Workforce Florida are
others who have either helped or can help promote the program. The marketing
partners who matter most however are the individual entrepreneurs doing great
things…. This is definitely a entrepreneurial success begets marketing success
type of effort.

ATPN: Is there a fee, at any time, for participating/applying? (How will it be
funded beyond the grant?) 

PM: Right now, there is no fee for applying or participating. I hope that there
will never be a fee for people to apply or participate. Funding going forward
will be via other grants through local foundations, through support of local
programs like vocational rehabilitation, centers for independent living, and
here in Orlando, the Central Florida Disability Chamber. I am also optimistic
that once one company becomes hugely successful, it will want to give back to
the program in some way -- and offering free service is a great way to do so.

A Shark Tank without the Sharks?

Peter McAlindon's fast track for aspiring entrepreneurs (with disabilities)

If you've seen Shark Tank on ABC you know it's an opportunity for aspiring entrepreneurs to gain an audience with billionaire business people, pitch their products, ask for investors, and potentially gain mentorship opportunities (or be completely exploited for their product ideas). The Sharks present themselves as one part nurturing and one part ruthless, lobbing advice and connections, cutting deals or squelching dreams. Small time business people are made and broken; products pitched go nowhere or show up in your local department or convenience store.

At the ATIA conference in January, ATPN had the opportunity to attend "Entrepreneurship for Persons with Disabilities" presented by Peter McAlindon, Ph.D . McAlindon is not a ruthless Shark, but a community-minded assistive technology (AT) entrepreneur  (of orbiTouch keyboard-fame) who is passionate about growing a business sector led by persons with disabilities. Like the Sharks he has a passion for mentoring and for mining his own connections, experiences, and business acumen to help those with strong business ideas succeed. Unlike the Sharks, he is targeting highly motivated individuals with disabilities only. He knows you are out there; he wants to find you; indeed, he's getting ready to train you up!

Why entrepreneurs with disabilities?

McAlindon believes that the sea change needed to improve employment for persons with disabilities won't happen until more businesses are created, developed, and led from within the disability community itself. Entrepreneurs--by their very nature--tend to help each other out; so he reasons, the more persons with disabilities who succeed, the more will be available to lend a hand, grow the community, and ultimately impact the hiring and retention practices of a broader swath of corporate culture. While success as an entrepreneur is challenging for anyone, entrepreneurs with disabilities often face greater isolation and have access to fewer resources. McAlindon suspects there's an untapped ocean of potential talent out there.

McAlindon is, himself, a serial entrepreneur, and founder of Blue Orb, Inc. He has a doctorate in Industrial Engineering with a focus on ergonomics, and teaches entrepreneurship at Rollins College Crummer Graduate School of Business. He supports and works with the Central Florida Disability Chamber: a first-in-the-nation Chamber of Commerce devoted to providing business mentorship and resources to individuals with disabilities as well as fostering youth entrepreneurship.  Woven into every entrepreneur's DNA, he asserts, is the urge to advise others, network, and connect.  His latest project intends to exploit that gene trait for the greater good, while seeking to replicate it within a fast-track accessible ecosystem of his own creation.

McAlindon's vision: accessible, step-by-step, one-to-one mentorship

Blue Orb, Inc. has a three-year grant from the National Science Foundation to create an accessible online program that matches entrepreneurs with mentors  and generates curricula targeted to the needs of each mentee. The vision is for an online portal to reach mentees anywhere, but at the heart of the project are actual people--currently a network of 150+ mentors who range from serial entrepreneurs to legal and marketing experts. The mentors are gleaned from McAlindon's own business network (think LinkedIn), and they are eager to help. McAlindon reports that beta testers are currently seeing a six-day turn around with their applications. 

Motivating McAlindon is his own experience creating the orbiTouch keyboard and his belief that the tools and connectivity of the digital age can shave years off the traditional entrepreneurial process. "What took me 20 years to accomplish can now be completed in just three," he told the room at ATIA. Every entrepreneur, he notes, has a different experience and process based on many variables. Common to all, however, is the need to access the information and skill sets  necessary to move business ideas forward (since no one person can know everything).

Mentees accepted into the program receive two kinds of mentors. The first is a "global mentor," a single individual charged with guiding a mentee's education, activities, and action steps from concept development to distribution and beyond. The second is step-specific, mentors who are assigned along the way based on individual mentee needs. Assistance with the patent process, for example, may be provided by a lawyer with this particular area of expertise. 

Helpful to the mentors is the rigor of the program's application process. The application mines product and marketing ideas for their potential and flaws, and quickly reveals how well applicants have thought through their ideas. Sample questions include:

1. Describe your business in 140 characters or less.
2. What's new, interesting, or different about what your company will do?
3. Do you have a website or prototype? What is your website URL?
4. Explain how your company will make money.
5. Provide information and URLs on current or likely competitors.
6. Why should we work with you and your company?

Successful applicants are next provided with no-fail tests to help match their team building and learning styles, etc. to appropriate global mentors (who take the same tests). Applicants who are not ready to be mentored are provided feedback for how to further develop their ideas.

The rigor of the program is also reflected in the curriculum expectations McAlindon describes. Appropriate books and online courses are recommended tailored to the  learning and business needs of each mentee. Participants may be referred to particular offerings at udemy and HubSpot, to the blogs of marketing gurus (Brad Feld, Seth Godin, Mark Suster, etc), and to entrepreneurial support organizations such as the Kauffman Foundation, Do-It, and TechStars. Evaluations by both mentee and mentor are completed for each program step to help gauge their level of commitment, accountability, and to further improve the system.

McAlindon stresses that program information will be available in many formats through the mobile device of the user's choosing (Android and Apple platforms), and Skype is deployed for face-to-face connecting. Prior to initiating the application process, participants are queried about their AT preferences and referred for further AT exploration as needed.

McAlindon does not specify if his target audience is a business person with a disability or a person with a disability who'd like to get into business. And while his application seems to suggest the former, he is quick to assure that mentors are available to help any motivated individual with a disability complete an application and develop their concept. He also intends to market the project through the VA to veterans with disabilities, the network of Centers for Independent Living, and other disability services organizations (among other entities).

Are you passionate about a business idea? Interested in playing in Blue Orb's shark-free tank? Blue Orb is looking for beta testers! Help Peter McAlindon retool from a serial to a social entrepreneur. Contact pete@blueorb.com.

Learn more: 

• Read this follow-up interview with Peter McAlindon 
• Download his ATIA slide presentation.