Switches 101: Switches as Assistive Technology

Transcript

Adrienne Miao (00:03): All right, and I should probably introduce myself again. My name is Adrienne Miao. I’m a coordinator for the Pediatric Professionals Collaborative of Vermont. And today we have Quinby and Tracy joining us from the Vermont Assistive Technology Program to talk to us about switch access. Thanks so much for joining, Quinby and Tracy.

Quinby McLellan (00:22): Thanks for having us. It’s so awesome that you’re all able to be here. And for those who are watching later, feel free to follow up with questions later on. This is a big topic, so we’ll do our best to share an overview of what switches are, how you would determine which switch to use and the assessment process, as well as some fun ways of plugging it into favorite toys and different appliances.

So the main objectives are just what is a switch, why would you use one, what different activities does the person want to do, and can you use a switch with those activities? And even though we’re not doing the assessment type, the assessment process, we just wanted to give you some guidelines that we think might be helpful so you can figure out which switches and where to place them for the individual.

We’ll go through a whole bunch of different varieties. We have a couple demos, a lot of resources in the PowerPoint, which Adrienne will share later, and just show you as much as we can in this hour-long presentation. But again, Tracy and I are really happy to be here and let us know if you have any questions. You can follow up with our program later. So you can put these into the chat or just be thinking of these questions while you are watching the presentation later.

But we were just curious who’s joining us today. This is the PedsProVermont group. So guessing there’ll be a lot of different kinds of therapists. Curious how familiar you are with switches. Definitely this can be a just introduction or maybe you have tried a few basic ones and are looking for something more advanced. And maybe keep in mind someone who could benefit from switch access and that’ll put some questions in your mind of how this might apply to your work. And we’re also just curious what you’re hoping to learn from this presentation. So just a few questions to answer in chat or to keep in mind as we go through. So I see some of those are coming in, but we’ll just keep going through as we see fit.

So just switches and accessibility. There might be a barrier to accessing a device in the typical way. So if you’ve got a toy with really small buttons that might not work for someone’s dexterity skills. So you can alter that and use a larger surface area or a proximity switch or other kinds of things to adapt that activity and use their strengths, of course to access the switch. Of course, activating the switch itself is not the overall goal. You want them to be able to do that activity, play with their friends, have access to turning on a light themselves independently so it just surmounts that barrier. And there’s so many different kinds, so hopefully you can find the right one.

Tracy Roux: All right, so my name’s Tracy. I’m the AT consultant for Central Vermont in the Northeast Kingdom and I’m going to dive into some different kinds of adaptations. We thought we would start with some examples of tasks that could be adapted to be used with switches.

So here on this slide we’ve got some low tech adaptations. There are both commercially available adapted toys that come ready to use with a switch, and there’s also toys that you can switch-activate yourself. Just as an example, I’ve got Olaf the snowman here came with the switch adaptation. So it’s got this pigtail that you can plug into a switch and use right off the bat. And Quinby will show you later a toy that she adapted herself.

In the second picture, we have a remote controlled light socket. And this isn’t a very common example of a switch-adapted activity, but if someone can’t access the light switch on the wall, using a tiny little remote with buttons that they can do right from their bed might be an example of a switch activity. And this is like a cheap adaptation, so it’s not like a common example, but I think it’s still a good example.

And the third picture, we’ve got some switch-adapted bongo drums. So each of those drums can be struck by using one of the switches that we’ll discuss later. What a great way to include somebody in a music class if they can’t hit the drum with the palm of their hand. They could be playing the bongos with their head without smashing their head on the bongos.

We’ve also got switches for single message communication. So here are two examples. The AbleNet iTalk2, it’s got two buttons. You can record a 10-second message on each of those buttons. And what’s neat about most of these single communication switch buttons is that you can, in addition to playing a message, also activate a toy at the same time. So if your button is go, press the button, go, make the train go at the same time. So you’re kind of compounding the learning of the language with the action. And Quinby’s got a toy that she’ll show you later.

In the second picture, it’s the AbleNet BIGmack. Very similar concept, just a much larger activation space. And when we talk about assessment of the types of switches, we’ll get into activation type, size, pressure, all of those things.

Some more complicated examples. This first picture is a electric bed control. So Adaptive Switch Labs, they’re part of Invacare, they developed this remote so that someone could control the head and the foot, placement of their electric bed using switches. So with four switches, they also have a single switch option, someone could be able to control their electric bed if they weren’t able to use the remote as an example.

In the second picture, HelpKidzLearn is a company. They have a subscription-based switch-activated game service. They’ve got I think 200 switch-activated iPad and computer games, which is so great because switch-activated games are hard to find. In the real world, you use a switch to activate this and in the game, it’s someone using a switch to activate a fan. So it’s like a little trippy in reality there.

In the third picture, we’ve got the AbleNet Adapted Trackball, which is a computer mouse that they’ve allowed you to plug in switches for left and right click. So again, maybe someone can’t press those little tiny blue buttons for left and right click, but they could use their feet or their head for left and right click.

This allows you to pull that left and right click out and use whatever button makes sense for that individual.

Our last slide for examples, these are some high-tech examples. The first image is of the Obi Robot, which is available for trial through a DME vendor. I think that National Seating & Mobility has this for demo. It can be used with one or two switches. And so, essentially, someone will press the switch and this robotic arm dips a spoon into the food, slides it up, gets food on the spoon, you press the switch again and it brings it to the person’s mouth. So it’s programmable for height and for speed and all of that. You do have to adjust the recipes to make the food more amenable to the robotic arm, but it does allow some folks to be independently feeding themselves again, which is pretty cool.

The second picture is of Switch Control on an iPhone. There are other accessibility features that allow you to do this on an Android, but this one’s on an iPad. So essentially someone can control their iPad or their iPhone using these switches. And that’s a really complicated process, but Quinby and I have both had clients where this has been a successful implementation where someone that can only hit one button was able to do complicated things on an iPad, which is pretty cool.

And then the last image is of the adapted Xbox controller. So every teenager probably loves Xbox and Microsoft finally came out with this Xbox controller. It’s got 20 switch ports on the back, which allows you to turn any button on an Xbox controller into a switch of any kind. So in this picture here, if you can see my laser pointer, this person’s got two joysticks set up on either hand with a goalpost joystick so that they can easily use their lateral movement. They’ve got four little micro switches for probably the A, B, X, Y buttons. They’ve got other buttons here probably for the triggers on the back of the controller. Those controllers have tons of buttons. But this is just one example of a setup and there’s a video in the next slide that you can watch if you’re interested to see this in action.

But I thought we’d just show you a good example for summer. It’s a quick video of someone using a switch in their headrest to activate a water pistol to engage in a water gun fight with their siblings. So I’m just going to attempt to pull this up. I think I need to turn this laser pointer off. Okay, one moment. All right, so I’m just going to play this short little clip.

So you see this. So I’m going to just pause this. He’s got a switch right here on his headrest. Move it forward a little bit. They’ve got this water gun that someone has adapted to work with this switch, so when the kid presses the switch, the water shoots out of the gun. And I think the adult in the back is aiming it, but how fun is that? It’s so fun. So there’s lots of creative ways to include someone even if they can only hit one button for an activity.

So on your own time, I encourage you to watch some of these videos. We’ve got a link of someone using a blender with a switch. This is a video with the Xbox controller where there’s an individual, I’m going to blank on his name, and one of his caretakers, they play all sorts of games together because you can dual-mode it. So he does the shooting and his caretaker does the running around. Very fun. And then we’ve got some videos of EMG switches, which we’ll explain later. Now we’ll move into the assessment.

Quinby McLellan: So again, that’s not something that Tracy and I do in a real serious manner. That’s the job of an OT or PT of course, but we wanted to pull some thoughts from Michelle Lange who is an OT, also an AT professional, certified seating and mobility specialist, has a lot of credentials. And then there are links in the resources slide at the end to some trainings by Michelle Lange that both Tracy and I have learned a ton from. They’re free. Just amazing, amazing detail in each of these trainings. If you just need ideas for someone who has small muscle movement, for example.

So Michelle Lange’s assessment considerations are, okay, where does this client have movement? This will help you guide which kind of switch, where you’re going to place it. Are you going to use one kind of switch for the duration of their lifespan or might their needs change if their movement is affected by a degenerative disorder? What is their level of strength for this movement that they have? It might be in the inner side of their anterior thigh. Who knows? What is their level of strength for this movement in this muscle group? And can they sustain clicking or activating that switch over time if they’re going to be using that switch to control the water gun or iPad Switch Control or something like that. So going off of the client’s strengths, that’s just kind of a starting place for the assessment.

Michelle Lange also has this movement criteria for the switch site. So once you’ve determined the first piece, then you see, okay, does this person, do they have the ability to make a really small movement so they’re not having to do a gross motor movement to reach that switch? Where can you place it so that it’s close to them? It’s an isolated movement that they can sustain over time. It has to be a volitional movement. So if they have involuntary movement in their arm, that’s not going to be an appropriate access point for the switch. Maybe they have something in their toe that would be a little bit more isolated and volitional.

It has to be a controlled activation. Can they sustain that pressure? How much strength do they have in that muscle group? Because maybe you choose a different switch where you don’t actually have to pressdown at all. You just hover near it such as a proximity switch that someone had mentioned they’re familiar with and we’ll go over as well. And do they also have a controlled release? So if they’re able to press it, that’s great, but then are they able to also have the muscle strength to release so that then they can do the activity repeatedly? So just thought that this criteria might be helpful for guiding your assessment process.

And this is not going to cover everything, but additional considerations might be once you’ve trained the client, do they have a caregiver that could also keep this going and transfer those skills to other environments? What is their motivation? Might be different activities that the caregiver has in mind versus what the client wants to do. Are they going to continue to want to try this switch?

There are different kinds of switches and Tracy will go into this more as well, mechanical versus electrical switches. How durable is that switch for the activity that they’re doing? So if they are on their iPad every single day, you want something that is rugged versus maybe the water pistol that they’re only doing during the summertime or something a few times a year. What do they need to do to maintain the switch? Does it come with batteries that they’re going to have to charge? What does that look like with thecaregiver taking care of that for them or is that something they can do?

You’re looking at the size, the color, the texture, what kind of feedback they might need. Some folks might really benefit from visual feedback as well as auditory feedback to know that yes, I have activated that switch and it’s doing what it’s supposed to. So a lot of different things to be thinking about.

And we also just wanted to include this quick slide and link to a chart to help you navigate that assessment process and figuring out, okay, this individual has voluntary muscle movement in their foot.

They want to activate a small target. You can click all of these little radio buttons and then Enabling Devices will give you some ideas of where to go. So that breaks it down for you as well, which is super helpful. And then the switch chart has lots of great pictures, you can compare and contrast. So these are two really helpful resources during the assessment process.

And then that trial that you might be doing with our program to try out a whole bunch of switches for free for 30 days is our trial period. And we ship straight to you, include a prepaid return label so that we try to decrease any sort of barriers to getting that equipment to you and to the kiddos so you can try it out. So definitely check out those resources on your own time.

Tracy Roux: Yeah, I really enjoy that switch chart myself. It just gives you all of the options all at once. And if there’s anything that you take from this presentation is that, man, switches come in a lot of shapes and sizes. So if you’ve dreamed up something, you’re not sure it exists, ask because it probably does.

So I wanted to go back to the basics of what a switch essentially is because I think that can help kind of conceptualize what activities it’s appropriate for. So I’ve got a diagram here that everyone’s familiar with from third grade science class. When you try and turn the light bulb on with the battery and you have a little light switch that does that task, that’s essentially what any of these capability switches are. They are ways to interrupt the power circuit in a toy or in a device. And then when you flip the switch or press the button, you’re reactivating the power. So I think about it as just adding to the electrical circuit of an existing device.

And so now I just wanted to go through, give you some examples of what some of the switches look like just so you can start thinking about what might be possible. So the first image is exactly this little Jelly Bean Switch that I’ve had. This is probably one of the most popular, most known switches out especially in the school system. These are kind of inexpensive and a bit chintzy. But this is called the mechanical switch and that means that inside this switch is two pieces of metal that come together and touch when I press the switch. All switches end in this kind of headphone jack, though it does not plug into a headphone jack, be mindful of that. But this is just a pressure switch and that’s how you activate it.

In the second image I’ve got Adaptive Switch Labs, their Egg Switch, very similar to the Jelly Bean except instead of having this open crevice around the outside of the switch, they’ve filled that with rubber, silicone, which prevents crumbs from getting in and preventing the switch from going down. So if this is a switch that’s in someone’s lap, they’re using their leg or it’s on their wheelchair and it goes outside, I would tend towards a switch like that so that dirt and stuff doesn’t get inside the switch and mess it up, muck it up.

The third image is of the Buddy Button. Again, same concept but it’s a lower profile and the activation surface is larger. I believe they also make a wireless version of that. Most switches are wired so you should keep that in mind.

Here in the upper left, we’ve got the Enabling Devices Tail Light Switch. It’s about five inches in diameter. And this one’s fun because it lights up. Oh, Quinby’s got it. It lights up, it plays music, and it vibrates. If any of those sensory pieces are overwhelming, they can be turned off individually. So if you just want the light and no music and no vibration, you can make that happen. So that’s a fun switch.

In the upper right, we’ve got the Enabling Devices Ladybird Bug Switch. So if you touch anywhere on that Ladybug, it activates the switch and the antennae light up with red lights as a visual cue that the switch is working. So that’s fun. Then we’ve got the Enabling Devices Shaggy Switch, which Quinby also has. It looks like a shag carpet rug, soft, in the shape of a folded taco. Again, just a very interesting switch that’s appealing in a sensory way, which is good if you have someone that’s aversive to the clicking of a Jelly Bean Switch.

Then we’ve got the Enabling Devices Thumb Switch which you hold within your fist and then you activate with your thumb. It’s a very small activation surface. And then the last switch in the lower right is the Chin Switch, which is on a tube. You wear it around your neck and then you activate by dipping your chin down. Some folks can also activate, say, a wheelchair using a joystick at this place. So they’ve got different mounting hardware depending on what you’re working with.

Then we’ve got some of these light touch switches, which are still mechanical, still require physical activation, but the activation force, the force required is very small. So if you have someone with muscular dystrophy for example, they’ve only got this tiny little finger movement, maybe a Micro LightSwitch would be appropriate. It’s very small, it can be mounted even on a finger. I’ve seen it so that someone can press it with their thumb.

Then the Pal Pads, they don’t make this clicking noise. They work by contact. So when you just touch the surface, it’s supposed to activate the switch. I will say this is probably the most glitchy switch I’ve worked with. It’s not one of my favorites. I like the idea of it, but I think you’ll like the proximity switch if this is appealing to you, but you don’t find that the Pal Pads work well.

And then I’ll mention this before we move into Quinby’s section. We’ve got a bunch of wireless switches. You can find them in both this mechanical style. So the middle switch is an example of this, the AbleNet Jelly Beamer. That’s a Jelly Bean Switch that has been adapted to have a receiver so that it can be a wireless transaction. But that receiver that you see on the left with the blue line down the middle of this guy here, that still has to be plugged into your toy.

But you can be farther away from the toy when you’re activating it with the switch versus a proximity switch here, which come in wired and wireless. This is a wireless version. You would just hover above this transmitter and then it activates the switch, but you still have to have the receiver plugged into your toy and we’ll discuss that further, later. And then the AbleNet Blue2 is one of the most popular wireless switches that we have and this is a twofer wireless switch.

Quinby McLellan: And we’ll talk a little bit more about the Blue2 and different ways to use that later as well. Then we’ve got pneumatic switches. You might have seen these before for operating a power chair. We’ve got sip and puff or grip and puff. So on the left side there are different widths. This is the wider blue handle, but they come in thinner ones as well that are different rainbow colors.

So you can squeeze with a gross hand motion and operate the toy that way or with sort of like a straw that you would plug in. And then the sip and puff, you could have two different actions. So one action if you’re using this on an iPad to move to the next app or something like that, if you’re on the home screen.

You sip to move to the next one and puff to select for example. And this person’s wearing it just hooked behind their ear. So we’ve got different sip and puff devices, grip and puff devices that you can try out.

There’re also lever switches or wobble switches. So we don’t have these exact models, but we do have ones that do wobble and they’ve got a big red ball at the end. So you can kind of have that surface area. You don’t have to be as exact with your movement. So if you have a tremor for example, that might be a good choice. You can use it for a variety of reasons. But certainly the Wobble Switch is also really popular to kind of try out. And some of them are mounted on a goose neck that then clamps to a chair, for example. There’s that one in the back.

The Tilt Switch we’re not as excited about. It’s kind of finicky. You have to be very exact with the way you’re tilting your head. And the way you’ve positioned this Velcro piece to the strap that goes around the forehead, it has to be very exact. There’s a little ball of mercury that will slide when you’re tilting your head one way and then righting it again to activate the switch. So there’s some awesome diagrams there to see when that connection has been closed and it’s been activated.

Tracy Roux: And like this kid here, it’s activating right now. This is a terrible picture.

Quinby McLellan: Right. Yeah. If you’re interested in head control, we have other ones that might be a little bit more precise, especially if you’re doing it for repeated motions for an iPad with Switch Control. This one, it’s okay, but I would say it’s finicky for sure.

And then these ones are kind of our favorites with the proximity that we have. So the Mini Beamer Tracy had introduced before. There’s also this AbleNet Candy Corn that comes in two different sizes. So there’s a really large surface area. This one has auditory feedback and visual feedback. So you can have the lights come up in the three corners of this Candy Corn triangle shape or turn those off and you have that sound.

Does it vibrate? I can’t even remember. It doesn’t vibrate.

Tracy Roux: No vibrate. No.

Quinby McLellan: But you only have to get within an inch or so. So if you don’t have that force, that can be a really helpful tool. You can Velcro it to a pillow or to another mount by someone’s knee. Those are just really awesome if you need something that doesn’t require activation force.

And then we’ve got the sound switch as well. So this one will pick up on any ambient sound as well as voices. So it has to be a very quiet, controlled area, but for someone who has maybe just a whisper of a voice and that’s their strength, you can use that to turn on a light or to activate the toy or a vibrating pillow. Just another option.

And then you’ll see on the right-hand side, and we’ll go into this more later, this tool has the ability to change the mode. So maybe it’s a whisper one time and then if it’s in latch mode, the light will stay on.

And if you whisper again, the light will turn off. That’s latch mode. You can have a timed mode and a momentary mode. So we can go into those more later. But basically you can control what and how the switch activates with that sound.

Tracy Roux: So next, this is an older switch, but it’s kind of cool. It’s kind of similar to the Pal Pad in that it activates by touch without any force. It actually is electromagnetic. So when your fingers make contact, it picks up on the human electricity, if you will. And it comes with these different shapes of paper that have adhesive on the back. So you can stick it to random objects and turn a random object into a switch. So a favorite toy or a can of iced tea, whatever you want. So that’s the Taction, it’s called Taction Pads, and they come with this converter, which you have to plug the membrane into to make it work.

Then we’ve got the Makey Makey, which is again not your typical switch. This was designed for school- aged STEM projects. So you’ve got this little computer board here which gives you access to the arrows on a computer keyboard as well as the space bar and the left click button on a computer. And in the background of this picture, they have clay stuck to a notebook with these wires and alligator clips coming down. And what this student has essentially done is create buttons out of clay that activate the arrow keys and the click key so that they can play this computer game on the background.

So I thought to include this because if you had a student with a disability that needed an adaptive button, how cool would it be to have your friends make you an adaptive button so that you could play on the computer while also teaching them about low-cognitive computer programming because you’re still connecting the wires and stuff. So I just thought it’s a pretty cool school project. And you can use clay or bananas, anything that’s electrically conductive to make buttons out of.

Then we’ve got an infrared switch here. We’ve got it in an Eye Blink Switch. So this woman has thisdevice attached to her glasses. The infrared beam is pointing towards her eye, not into her eye, but whatit’s detecting is her eyelashes breaking a beam of light. So every time she makes a focused blink, itactivates a switch. This is what we call an electrical switch because it’s using a sensor. It requires powerin order to work and it’s not requiring physical activation like a Jelly Bean would.

Eye Blink Switches are kind of hard to come by. They’re also pretty hard to position, but if you need something like this, it can be a pretty useful switch. They also will make infrared switches that areembedded into a wheelchair tray. So for example, at the edge of a wheelchair tray, you can have an infrared switch so that the person can move their hand and cover the beam and activate the switch, which is kind of cool too.

There’s also piezoelectric film switches. These were the precursor to EMG switches. So in the picture of the left, you see a woman has it taped to her face. It has to be very specifically taped. And what it’s doing is there’s a piece of foil in that blue sensor that’s taped to her face and when she wrinkles her face, that foilbends a tiny, tiny bit and the device picks up on that bend. It creates an electrical current actually, and that’s what’s activating the switch. It’s pretty finicky. So I think most folks have moved towards EMG because there’s a lot more software that comes with an EMG switch, which I’m talking about next. But these still do exist and it’s good to know the difference between an EMG switch and a piezoelectric.

Another example of this is the Table Tapper. So the Table Tapper, you set on the table and then you can hit the table and that vibration activates the piezoelectric film, which then activates your device. It has to be on a surface that vibrates and that has to be something that you want to promote. If hitting a table is not something you want to promote, the Table Tapper might not be a good plan.

All right, and then the last switch I think that we have here is the electromyography switches. So these actually sense the electrical changes caused by a muscle activation. And what’s cool is that they’re using these in folks that have really, really, really weak muscles, ALS clients that you can barely sense that they’re moving. They can pick up on these tiny little electrical signals.

And so the NeuroNode you’ll see is located on this little girl’s arm here. So it’s about an inch and a half in diameter, and you place this over a muscle that the person can activate. Even if it’s not something that you can see on the surface, they still might be able to activate it without a lot of motion. And that electrical impulse is what activates the device. So I think that this is probably the wave of the future for folks that have muscle weakness and need to use a speech device. Very complicated to set up, but totally worth it if the use case is good and correct. So that’s the EMG. And the companies featured here are NeuroNode and Emego.

Quinby McLellan: And then I thought I would share a little bit more about the switch modes I just started talking about with the sound switch. I’ve got a couple examples here in front of me, but basically wanted to share that, okay, you have a switch site, you have a specific switch that will work with that person’s strength, you have an activity that it’s all connected to, but maybe the mode isn’t quite right. So you want to have a latch method where it will stay on that and they only have to hit it once.

So you plugged everything in, they hit the switch and it just turns on, turns off right away and you’re like,

“Oh, I actually wanted it to stay on for a period of time, like a light or a fan,”

you would want that in latch mode. And you’d need to use a different adapter to do that versus that momentary or direct. You just hit it once and it is on and then it comes off again.

Momentary or direct mode might be helpful for cause and effect or for use with the iPad Switch Control when you’re moving from one app to the next or one phrase to the next in a communication app. Latch mode might be more appropriate for driving a toy train for an extended period of time. Timed mode might be better for making popcorn or using a blender or for a particular song where you hit it once and it’ll stay on and connect it for two minutes. You can adjust that.

So going to now show you a few different ways to work with those different modes. So one is the Dual SLAT, so switch latch. You can adjust the timing. You can also have with this dual one, you can have two different toys plugged in and two different switches. So once you’ve set it up to be times mode or latch mode, you can have two children, for example, with their individual switches playing with two different toys. So it’s like an adapter for both of them when they’re playing together. Maybe they’re racing trains or a car and a bus or something like that.

So right now I’ve got it on just one second to show you, but you can adjust by turning this dial for how long the timed mode might be. And then you have whatever switch will work for them plugged in as well.

And that will just play for the timed duration versus the latch mode. If you want to switch that up, it’ll go through its whole routine. I’ll just turn that off. But Basically I only had to hit the switch once and the toy stays on for an extended period of time. So that might be a fun way to have two folks playing together andbeing able to control how the switch is operating.

Then I wanted to show a way to adapt a toy you might already have. So a lot of things like the Elmo or the Olaf in Tracy’s background already have a port to plug into a switch and you buy it ready-made with a switch adaption. But maybe you have something like I have, this disco ball that just has a little toggle switch that you have to manually turn on or off to have this disco ball go.

So I adapted it with what’s called a battery interrupter, which is basically this copper circle. And there are different sizes based on the size of the battery and you put it between the battery and the compartment. So as you can see, I’ve got it placed here so that the connection is right next to the battery itself. And then you can close the compartment and then it will be connected to whatever switch.

So I’ll just show you how that whole thing works. I’ll tilt my screen down. So I’ve got the battery interrupter already in the battery compartment connected to the disco ball. And then I’ve got this Tail Light Switch which will vibrate and light up and make music. So that I have to keep pressure down and sustain that to keep the music and the dance jams flowing. So that’s going to be a momentary or a direct switch, but using that battery interrupter, which is pretty cool.

And the battery interrupter will only work with toys that have a simple on and off. If they have got a million different buttons to sing and dance and twirl then that’s not going to be a good fit. So just something that’s simple like on, off just one button per battery interrupter, if that makes sense.

Adrienne Miao: Quinby, can I just ask, when you’re describing the battery interrupter, that’s for use with the standard setup of the battery. So once you have that component, there’s nothing else unusual about the way the battery goes into the normal slot?

Quinby McLellan: Exactly, yeah. So all the batteries are normally there without this extra cord that would make this toy normally go on and you’d toggle the switch on or off to make the disco party happen. But with that copper plate, now I have access to plug into a jack with a switch.

Adrienne Miao: Thanks.

Quinby McLellan: Yeah. And another tool that might be helpful for operating a blender, for a fan and a light, you can plug into two different devices actually, it’s this PowerLink. So I’ve got mine set up with a light and a Shaggy Switch, but it’s got all different modes. It’s got the direct one, the latch, timed. You could have multiple switches and there are different ports.

So on the left side, you’d have the blender plugged into there, and then the whole device is also connected to a regular outlet. So in the back you’ve got it connected to a power source. The fan is connected to that left-hand port, and then you’ve got a switch plugged in on that side as well to correspond with whatever you’ve got plugged in on that side. You can switch through the mode, you can add or subtract minutes if you have it on the timed mode. So I’ll show you that next. You can see that light?

Tracy Roux: Yeah, just go a little bit more to the right. Yep, there you go.

Quinby McLellan: So right now it’s on direct mode, which means I’m going to press this Shaggy Switch and I have to hold it down to keep that light on and then release and it turns off. If I put it into latch mode, I only have to press it once and it’ll stay on. And then when I’m ready to turn off, I press it again. So PowerLink is super versatile for a lot of different environments, so that’s a definite favorite as well and it’s been around for a while.

Tracy Roux: It’s important not to go over the 12 amp requirements, so don’t use a personal heater. I might be speaking from experience.

Adrienne Miao: In Vermont winter, Tracy?

Tracy Roux: All right, so the last thing before we’ve got questions coming up is I just wanted to discuss briefly how to connect a switch to something that doesn’t have a switch port, so an iPad, a computer, things like that.

Those devices require what’s called a switch interface. These are three examples of switch interfaces. The Blue2 is a switch in itself. It’s a Bluetooth switch, but it’s also a switch interface. In the back of a Blue2 is two switch ports, which you can use any switch that we’ve discussed today to activate the device that you’re connected to through Bluetooth.

So with an iPad, for example, in Switch Control, you could use the Blue2 to connect a sip and puff switch in order to run the iPad, but it requires an interface because there’s no way to directly plug a switch into an iPad. Another switch interface is a tecla. This has the ability to attach up to four switches. It’s Bluetooth and it also has a nine pin so that you can use your wheelchair joystick if you choose, which is cool for different directions. And then the last switch interface that I’ll mention here is the Hitch, and this is for a computer. So this one has four different modes and each of those modes runs up to five functions. So you can have up to five switches to run these individual modes in.

And we won’t get into this, but also know that there are mounts for your switches. So if you’ve got a switch that you need in a funky spot, you can use mounts to get it there. And we’ve got lots of different simple mounts for folks to try in addition to pretty much all of the switches that you’ve seen today plus some more. So there’s lots and lots of options.

And that is the end of the presentation. But for your reference, there is a list of webinars at the end of the PowerPoint, including the ones that Michelle Lange did that Quinby spoke of. There are a list of vendors of where we get a lot of our switches from and that switch chart is included in that list as well. And then there are links to our program information, so how to loan stuff, how to get in contact with us, how to sign up for our weekly Tech Tuesday newsletter, and then we also have a YouTube page.

Adrienne Miao: Thank you both so much for that excellent presentation. I can help monitor the chat, but I think we have some time now to open it up for any questions.

Quinby McLellan: I will say that I know this is a lot of information when you thought that maybe there was just a sip and puff and a Jelly Bean, and you’re realizing now there’re all these possibilities. We’re here to guide you through that assessment process and trying to figure out what might work for your kiddo for your client. So Tracy, Ben, and I cover the state. I’m in the northwestern area and Ben is in the south area and Tracy’s kind of in the middle and we’ve got different areas. So we control the whole state and you can certainly reach out to the links that we put in our presentation, but also we’ve got the toll-free number and email address in chat. You can reach out and we’ll consult with you for free and then demonstrate different options that we think might be helpful.

Then you might want to try out five different switches and we can recommend different toys that we have in our library that are switch-adapted. Both Tracy and I are in our Tryout Centers right now, runs this whole backside behind the rice paper wall. We’ve got a lot of different choices to play with based on what interests that kiddo and whether it’s water play or painting or whatever that they need switch-adapted. So we’re here to guide you through that process, so feel free to reach out.

Adrienne Miao: So Quinby, if I met a new student maybe in the fall, maybe who had never used any switches before and I wanted to talk to you about the information I was learning about the student and then see if we could try out some switches. Is that the kind of thing that I could do and how would I go about doing that?

Quinby McLellan: Absolutely, yep. So you can reach out to that main email address or phone number. So dail.atinfo@vermont.gov. Also on our homepage, there’s a way to fill out a little inquiry form just to answer your name and email. There aren’t many questions there, so trying to not have any barriers. I’ll put that one in the chat as well. You can contact us in whatever way suits you, and then we can set up a video call or a phone call and just say, “Hey, this is what I’m looking for.” And we’ll brainstorm with you and make some suggestions and go from there. But our service is totally free, so we’re here to support you.

Adrienne Miao: And I’ll just offer testimony to say that this is such a great resource for our state. And it’s just everyone is so approachable and knowledgeable and it’s really great to do consultation and to say, here’s the specific situation or the student that I’m thinking about and to really take advantage of this knowledge because you all keep more abreast, I’m sure, than many of us have the opportunity to, of some of the new technology.

And then being able to then ask you to send us some to try out is just really, it’s a great opportunity.

And then, Quinby, if I then maybe had a student who was using a switch and I was looking at maybe progressing or trying out some new options, would that also be a scenario where I could call you up and ask for some advice?

Quinby McLellan: Absolutely. And we’re getting new things into our inventory at all times and kind of recycling out the old. So we do have an AT exchange program for retired assistive technology that’s free to keep. But the lending library that we have that’s active is supposed to be stuff that is readily manufactured and available to purchase for the school, if you decide the trial’s gone well, it’s been successful. So we do have that time to research what’s the latest and try to keep things current here, answer questions for you. Or we might refer, if it’s something a little bit more complex, refer you directly to the vendor to get more information.

But we try to have an overview of what’s out there and answer your questions.

Adrienne Miao: And if we wanted to borrow some of the toys as well or the activity setups, you have quite a variety of those in addition to the pads and all the other technology that you have?

Quinby McLellan: Absolutely. Yep. So yeah, just let us know what your kiddo’s interests are and we’ll pull together everything we have that has to do with music, for example. And you can look through that and say, “Hey, I’d like to try those four things.” So there isn’t a limit to how many things you try at a time and the loan period’s about 30 days. We ship directly to the family or to the school, whatever’s convenient. So you don’t have to drive anywhere to get the stuff or drop it off. You can do it just shipping both ways.

Adrienne Miao: Great. Thank you so much. I don’t see any additional questions popping up in the chat just now, but a lot of appreciation for such a lovely presentation. Is there any other parting tips or tricks that you want to share with us before we close?

Quinby McLellan: No, I’ll just say-

Tracy Roux: Just keep an open mind. There’s a lot that you can do. Yes, it’s amazing what you can adapt. I’ve been so appreciative of a lot of the rehab therapists coming with all of these creative activities, being able to brainstorm how to make it accessible with switches is really fun. So yeah.

Adrienne Miao: Absolutely. Definitely, there’s so much possibility that it’s just one of those areas where it seems like more collaboration, more eyes on the problem is helpful and just being able to discuss the different options. Great. Well, thank you so much for your time today. This is wonderful.