Today is the last day of OCALI. The energy at our booth was as strong as the first day. People kept stopping by after hearing from friends and co-workers about the "cool" communication program on the the Nintendo DS.
Four people sought out the booth without knowing the name TapToTalk because they saw the 2 second "flash" of the product in the NBC 4 news report the night before.
We have been struck by the number of moms we met who became professionals in some aspect of autism because their child is on the autism spectrum. There were many others who are involved as advocates, dedicating their time and energy to their kids and gathering information for other moms. These are true heros, who volunteer their time and abilities or changed careers to help others.
A woman from the Social Security Administration took some literature so that she could tell some of the people she visits that their are low cost AAC solutions available.
A common theme was the difficulty that schools and parents have acquiring the expensive "communication boards," and children not wanting to use them after a certain point because they make the child "look different," and their weight and size make them hard to carry around. They told us that the cool Nintendo DS and TapToTalk's price solves those problems.
The challenge of "programming" communication boards also came up often. When we showed how TapToTalk Designer makes this a snap, we got nods and smiles.We leave OCALI tired but gratified. It was a great experience.
Another frequent comment was that many educators don't like the "stick figures" and graphics that are commonly used in the industry. The California State representative who spoke said that she recommends that professionals only use real photographs. The question of adding photos came up frequently. When we showed how to do that in TapToTalk Designer, we got nods and smiles.
If you have a TapToTalk idea or story you'd like us to share with other TapToTalk users, please email us at blog@taptotalk.com.
The TapToTalk Team
www.taptotalk.com
blog@taptotalk.com
