Kathy Eckrich was happy with the size of the font the text messages on her iPhone 4 displayed. But after she moved to an iPhone 6 she was unable to figure out how to make that font appear larger.

“It was frustrating, always having to take my reading glasses on to read text messages and then back off to do other things,” says Kathy. “When I saw the class ‘Better Seeing and Better Hearing with Smart Phones and Tablets,’ I was excited to attend.”

Smart phone and tablet use are on the rise, especially among people age 65 and older. The Pew Research Center reports that both smart phone adoption and tablet adoption by people over 65 has increased from 18 percent in September 2013 to 30 percent in July 2015.

Kathy was able to enlarge her text and learned a few other features as well during class, but for those who need or prefer to learn this kind of information in another format, the Mobile Accessibility guide is a convenient alternative.
The first e-book published by OASIS, the Guide is available for anyone to download in English or Spanish. It covers what are referred to as accessibility features for both iOS and Android hand-held devices.The book is a useful tool for anyone who wants to use their device more effectively or help someone do the same.

The Mobile Accessibility guide and companion tutorial videos were made possible through the generous support of AT&T and the Consumer Technology Association Foundation.

This weekend Americans celebrate the birth of our nation and the freedom from being under British authority. It is a wonderful time to be grateful for the innumerable freedoms we enjoy that simply do not exist in other nations in our global economy.

This Independence Day many individuals and families are grappling with independence in a different context: the desire to age in place and on one’s own terms. Most older Americans are very certain about the desire to live in their own homes and maintain their autonomy as long as possible. All of us who care about a loved one with cognitive, dexterity, hearing, mobility or vision limitations are familiar with the challenge of fostering independence.

My first exposure to this was in Patricia Malik, Ph.D.’s 1989 undergraduate Recreation for Special Populations class. Dr. Malik was patient and unrelenting in providing ‘real world’ experience, albeit temporary. She taught us how to navigate the world in a way most of us had not yet considered, a world with some type of physical limitation.

We simulated blindness, low vision, and loss of dexterity, hearing and mobility. After I took the test to identify words through hearing aids, I was humbled and called my Grandpa Ralph to apologize for hounding him to get hearing aids. He just chuckled.

July 26th marks the 25th anniversary of passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). You may think that passage of this legislation didn’t really impact you, but if you have ever pushed a stroller over a curb cut or used an elevator, ramp or automatic door that was mandated by this law, you have benefited from these physical accessibility enhancements.

During the last quarter century, technology has increasingly enabled people living with temporary and permanent vision, hearing, dexterity and mobility issues to function more autonomously. Those of us using portable devices (i.e. smart phones and tablets) may notice a menu items labeled ‘accessibility’ without understanding what that term means.

Accessibility refers to the design of products, devices, services or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both direct access (i.e. unassisted) and indirect access, meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology, for example, computer screen readers.

The Oasis Institute is proud to announce our newest Connections technology class, Mobile Accessibility: A guide to seeing and hearing smart phones and tablets better. Generous support from AT&T and the Consumer Electronics Association Foundation make it possible for anyone to download a complimentary student handbook. Assistive technology can benefit anyone and we are excited to hear how the book helped you make accessibility features work for you. The book concludes with a survey or you can send comments to me.

Have a wonderful holiday weekend!

At 59, in great health and working full-time as a copy editor for AARP, I was planning a trip to London to celebrate my 60th birthday, when everything changed. I experienced a series of seemingly unrelated heath complications that took me from able-bodied to wheelchair-bound in five months.

That five month journey, perplexing, arduous and frustrating, led me to what I call ‘my new normal’ and a journey of hope and resilience.

At 60, I’m now retired on disability, with a brain injury that has limited my life, but not ended it. That fact alone is my biggest blessing because there is no proven treatment for the two rare conditions I have. I also had the immense good fortune to have the full medical coverage for my challenging diagnosis and treatment plan, along with support of my partner James and my family. It has taken more than two years, but I can now say that “life is good.” I may no longer work, but my life is happy and fulfilling in a different way.

As a writer, I find that keeping a daily gratitude journal is an important mindfulness exercise and one that allows me to document how far I have come. Before my illness, which I’ve dubbed BI (before illness); I never appreciated all the things my brain did for me 24/7. Now I do. Simple daily tasks that I used to execute unconsciously: buttoning my shirt quickly or throwing something into the trash the first time give me reason to pause and give thanks.

Washington Metro Oasis serendipitously entered my life to give me back the thing I liked most about working: a reason to get out of the house and continue learning in a group of my peers as I got used to my post-diagnosis life. My immune system is severely compromised, so I have to be very careful, especially around children, during the winter months. Since Oasis serves older adults, I feel less vulnerable there.

I use a wide variety of technology solutions or ‘assistive technology’ to complete my daily tasks. I am no longer able to touch type but a variety of technology solutions have given ways to keep my writing life alive. Dragon Naturally Speaking and the Windows speech recognition allow me to ‘talk’ my words rather than type them as my brain re-learns to communicate with my arm and my fine motor skills come back. This learning curve hasn’t always been pleasant, but without these speech recognition and transcription services I wouldn’t be writing much at all.

My Nokia Lumia 1520 has become my personal assistant. It accompanies me everywhere and helps me to keep organized and reminds me of appointments and chores. The phone has been a pivotal tool for me to remember everything at times when my brain is just not able to do so.

I will celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act on July 26 because it was the source for numerous accommodations and services that have enabled me to create my new normal. Things I took for granted like grab bars in public bathrooms, elevators and ramps instead of or alongside steps and parking spaces located close to my destinations. My new normal would be a much more limited existence without these essential tools.

There isn’t enough room in this blog post to list all the people and things that have helped me to navigate all the new challenges that have come about in these last two years. I hope that this blog post will help others to find their new normal and embrace it. To learn more about my journey to diagnosis click here.

Suzanne retired on disability from her copy editing job at AARP in 2014, but hopes to launch a blog in support of brain injury survivors and their caregivers in the future. You can follow her on Twitter at st_ournewnormal.

Do you have a loved one with memory loss or Alzheimer’s disease (AD)? Chances are that you do—or soon will—know someone on that journey. Have you ever thought about packing memories for the journey of memory loss? Knowing the progressive stages of AD, I think it makes sense to pack some of the things we are apt to lose along the way.

My experience over the past few years is that it can be both easy and fun to help our loved ones prepare for this journey. What we pack might look different for everyone, and how we use it might be different on different days. With new communication and technology tools, and our help, our loved ones can step into their memory loss journey with their bags packed full of personalized mental comfort.

The way I choose to collect these memories is with an iPad and a series of apps centered in four different activity areas. While working with older adults and technology, I began to notice the intense engagement that was occurring with tablets, especially for individuals with memory loss. Specifically, I work with apps in the areas of music, life stories, games and images. I chose these areas for their benefits to people with memory loss.

For example, the life stories activities are based on reminiscence. Reminiscence plays an important role in successful aging and helps people move to a more reflective inner awareness that can help transcend physical and mental limitations of aging. Individuals with memory loss typically lose their short-term memory first; however, when reminded, they are often (depending on the stage) able to share the joy of reliving those cherished memories.

You might want to start by recording a story. Many older adults are not fond of being videotaped, but if you provide pictures and then record conversations over the pictures, you end up with images and a narrative, similar to a video. I do this with the app Swaha, available in the Apple app store under iPhone only. Swaha is quick and easy, and your stories can be private or public. Don’t worry about making it perfect. Individuals with memory loss may have problems accessing words, so if they stumble or lose words, just prompt your loved ones or start again. A good story length is about five minutes.

An important point here is that it is should be enjoyable to do the initial story. After you finish, it will be fun to share that story with friends and family near and far—and fun to hear it again and again. In fact, as storage, recall, and memory abilities diminish over time, those stories may become new again, still evoking that cherished memory feeling.

June is Alzheimer’s & Brain Awareness Month, and one of its goals is to bring to those families caring for loved ones with this disease greater awareness of the predicaments and situations they will face. It might be a good time to plan ahead and help a loved one “pack memories for the journey.”

Debby Dodds, MS, is an innovative gerontologist who was inspired to leverage personal technology in new ways to create better engagement between those living with memory loss and their caregivers. She created the TouchTEAM Workshops, an activity-based exploration of apps that are beneficial to forgetful older adults and those who care for them.

Last weekend I attended a conference of musicians with hearing loss. That’s right, people who make music for a living, or for whom music is an all-important activity, who also have a significant hearing loss, enough that could threaten to derail their vision of themselves as musicians.

One pianist has both vision and hearing loss. Was this a depressing conference? Not for a moment. Each man and woman there had found various ways to accommodate their hearing loss and still make beautiful music.

Many of these musicians clearly had an extraordinary musical memory. Most also had some kind of assistive listening device to augment their remaining hearing.

What is an Assistive Listening Device?

An assistive listening device is exactly what it sounds like: an electronic device that helps someone in a listening situation. A wide variety of listening devices and systems are available. Some devices are composed simply of a microphone, a small amplifier, and a headset. Some are linked to public address systems and send a signal directly to the ear. Now we’re seeing cutting-edge technology such as the Apple iPhone that is linked directly to some brands of hearing aids. These kinds of devices and systems are indispensable to someone with a significant hearing loss and can be a huge help in noisy situations to someone even with a much milder hearing loss.

If you have a hearing loss, the thing to do is to spend some time on yourself to find what works best for you:

•  Have your hearing evaluated by a trained and licensed audiologist.
•  A first-time purchase of a hearing instrument really should come from a trusted professional, either that  of an audiologist or a hearing instrument specialist.
•  Make sure the hearing device is properly fitted; that is, that it works well for you in the situations that are most important for you: work, home, on the telephone, in meetings.
• Talk to the professional to get the best options possible – don’t settle for less.
• When you find that the hearing aid works great for one-to-one conversations, but not so hot in a meeting room, it’s time to check into assistive listening devices and systems.

There are many resources for assistive devices. You can talk to your hearing health care professional. You can also go online, search for “assistive listening devices” or “products for the hard of hearing” to find the right product for you.

I have to say, people with hearing loss have a love/hate relationship with their technology. We love it when it works, and curse it when it does not. But that’s only because we come to depend on technology and see it as our “third ear.” Technology allows our lives to be a little easier. It keeps us in the loop at home, at work, at school, at the doctor’s office, or at this year’s family reunion. With technology, we can be part of it all, just as those musicians continue to compose and play. Yes, they each went through their own grieving process for hearing loss, but they found joy in being able to continue to do what they love. The results are well worth the trouble.

To learn more about assistive listening technology, join the Hearing Loss Association of America at our annual convention in St. Louis, MO, June 25-28 at the St. Louis Union Station Hotel. We have a wealth of information about hearing loss at our workshops and an Exhibit Hall full of useful technology. This year we will be joined by Senator Tom Harkin, arriving to receive an award and celebrate the 25th Anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. We will also have fun celebrating the 35th Anniversary of the founding of Hearing Loss Association of America. For more information, click here.

Lise Hamlin joined the Hearing Loss Association of America’s (HLAA) national staff as director of public policy in April 2008. Ms. Hamlin, who has a hearing loss herself, has worked as an advocate for people with hearing loss for some 20 years. She currently represents HLAA on federal advisory committees, industry advisory groups, and consumer coalitions. She has also taken part in developing, maintaining and presenting training programs on hearing assistive technology and on emergency preparedness. Ms. Hamlin fields emails and calls daily from consumers with hearing loss who experience barriers to employment, technology, access to public places and telecommunications access and works directly with them to help overcome those barriers.