TFL Team Meeting - 11/2/2021

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TFL Mission

  • Increase access to and acquisition of assistive technology devices and services so Georgians of all ages and disabilities can live, learn, work and play independently in communities of their choice.

Team Meeting Expectations

1. All TFL team meetings are no/light device meetings. This means using your device professionally, minimally, as an accommodation, or for emergencies.

2. Be mindful of the time you are given for your updates.

3. Provide thoughtful and comprehensive updates to the team. This time is the opportunity for everyone to learn about TFL projects and activities.


Agenda

Action Items & Follow Up

  1. University System of Georgia (USG) Benefits Open Enrollment will be held from Monday, October 25 – Friday, November 5, 2021.
  2. Stay tuned for Your other GT Compliances!
  3. Watch Resourcefulness: Being Problem Solvers and Solution Finders
  1. TFL Website Planning - Liz

TFL Director Updates (Carolyn)

  • GT|HR
    • Hire Process: AT Acquisition Manager Position
    • Hire Process: Program Support Spec. Sr. Position
  • Open Enrollment
    • Oct. 25 - Nov. 10
  • New Professional Development Resource I Recommend!
  • TFL Professional Development:
    • ACTION ITEM:
    • Managing Stress for Positive Change
    • https://www.linkedin.com/learning/managing-stress-for-positive-change/welcome?autoAdvance=true&autoSkip=false&autoplay=true&resume=true&u=2163426
    • In the workplace, stress is often viewed in purely negative terms. It's seen as a response that should simply be minimized or pushed aside; however, it's possible to use stress to fuel positive change. In this course, join instructor Heidi Hanna, PhD as she discusses what stress is, exactly; how you can train yourself to use stress in more effective ways; and what managers can do to reduce employee stress when an organization experiences difficult times. She covers how individuals can use stress for good by assessing and adjusting it, as well as what you-as a manager-can do to create an environment and communication style that helps connect employees to the bigger picture.
    • Note: This course was featured in Market Watch, Inc., Fortune, Forbes, and Entrepreneur.
  • GT Partnerships
  • AccessCORPS
  • ABLE Alliance - Google
  • Allocations
    • Make sure these are correct - any October changes by 12 on Thursday.
  • Projects:
  • GaDOE FY21 - SOW Submitted
  • GVRA FY 22
  • CDC Contract - NCE through Sept. 30, 2022. (Updates, ATOB, UNC Research & Dissemination of Videos)
  • HHS DRRP - Aging Well ACCESS - 5 Yr. $2.5 Million
    • AT Team
  • AT3 - $50K - (May-August 31)
  • Georgia Division of Aging (DAS) - CARES Act - (Nov. 2021 - End Sept. 30, 2022!)
  • 3 Yr HHS DRRP - AT Database - $1.5 Million - Meeting with partners from all over US.
  • Wireless RERC - NCE - 2 Videos
  • Proposals:
    • NSF - Transportation & Accessibility (GT Partners)
  • TFL Strategic Planning - Focused Sessions
  • Completed:
    • TFL Overview - CP
    • TFL Policy - CP
    • AT Acquisition (Part 1) - CP
    • Direct Services - Martha (October 18th - 2-4 PM) - THank you, Martha & to everyone for Participating!
  • Upcoming:
    • AAC Lab - DeeDee (October 25th 3-4:30 PM)
    • AT Considerations - Gina (November)
    • Leadership & Training - Liz (October 19th - 2-4 PM)
    • TFL Research - Ben (November)
    • TFL into CIDI S&E Research - Zerrin (December)
    • Wrap Up & Action Items - CP (December & January 2022)
  • AT Minute!
    • OrbitNote: Released last week (10/12) OrbitNote is designed to create, transform and experience digital documents. Creating accessible, dynamic work and learning environments. Texthelp’s PDF Reader was always part of Read&Write, it included all the literacy support tools. If you are a Read&Write customer you will still have everything you need to create accessible documents.
    • OrbitNote, as it grows and more features are added it will become a stand-alone product with premium features that we know you’ll love - so watch this space!
    • https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/orbitnote/feepmdlmhplaojabeoecaobfmibooaid?hl=en-GB

Complete!! CDC/F Trainings & Activities (Carolyn)

  • 1,683,224 Served!
    • 1,683,224 is the total number of people who received direct, tangible information and assistance via project work that is supportable with project data!
    • Way to Go, Team!!
  • COVID-19 Vaccine Videos
  • ACTION ITEM:
    • Please, help spread the word regarding our 5 Vaccine videos & 1 ASL Video - Thank you, Raminta, Norah & Liz!!!
  • ATOB! v16.2
    • A special issue of Assistive Technology Outcomes and Benefits/Accessible Public Health Materials During a Pandemic: Lessons Learned from COVID-19 (Issue 16 Part 2) will be devoted to this project and the issues it addressed. Submitted manuscripts from our project team and/or about the project:
  1. "Include Me": Implementing Inclusive and Accessible Communications in Public
  2. Access for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Individuals in Informational and Educational Remote Sessions
  3. Technology for a Pandemic: Apps for Safety and Independence
  4. Minimizing the Complexity of Public Health Documents: Making COVID-19 Documents Accessible to Individuals Who Read Below the Third-Grade Level
  5. Building an Effective Model to Disseminate Accessible COVID-19 Guidance
  6. The Importance of Braille during a Pandemic and Beyond
  7. Creating Accessible Infographics: Describing Scientific Data in Ways Everyone Can Understand
  8. A Needs Assessment of COVID-19 Guidance for Adults with Developmental Disabilities
  9. Inclusive Design Thinking for Health Messaging in American Sign Language during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Case Study Brief
  10. Closing the Information Gap: Making COVID-19 Information Accessible for People with Disabilities
  • American Public Health Conference Presentation - CP
  • AUCD Presentation - Liz & CP

TFL AT Acquisition Updates

Transition

  1. Credit-Able - to FODAC!!
  2. Physical files will still remain in Danny's office

Credit-Able

  1. Credit-Able applications are on hold

TFL Research Updates (Ben S., Zerrin & Carolyn)

Assistive Technology Outcomes & Benefits (ATOB) Journal

  • ATOB Vol. 16(1) - AT Services During & After the Covid-19 Pandemic
  • ATOB Vol. 16(2) - Public Health: feature our work on CDC Project
    • Guest Editor, Mark Harniss, U. Washington
    • Peer Reviews are in process

Mastery of Assistive Technology (MoAT)

Work ACCESS

  • Team held an additional focus groups on Mental Health Accommodations and Changes in Retail Settings/Accommodations.
  • Presenting a webinar on "Inclusion & Participation in the Workplace" - Nov. 17th
    • Speakers: Karen, Sarah & Ben
    • Overview of Work ACCESS
    • Accommodations / considerations for common spaces & communication

AT Network

  • Beginning the process of mapping categories of AT from the AbleData database to the ISO 9999 classifications
  • Team has been exploring how to leverage evaluations done by TFL to help "seed" database
    • Dee Dee & Ben have proposed a template with levels at which eval data might be accessed.
    • Also looking for PowerPoint presentations and papers to include in the database.

Inclusive Tech Entrepreneurship Program (ITEP)

  • Business Coaching under Joy Harris supervision is completed
  • Final event will be scheduled for early November
  • Working with the New America Foundation for the annual conference

NSF Project

  • Experiences of Students with Visual Impairments with Tactile Graphics in STEM Courses: Critical Interpretative Synthesis
  • Continuing my meetings with Dr. DeStefano
  • I completed SLR training

ACCESS Projects

  • Have been working with the project team to develop protocols for the focus group
  • Will join two sessions as a note taker and one session as a moderator

GVRA

  • Working with Ben, Martha, and Carolyn

FY21 Seed Grant Program

  • We will be applying for the Oct cycle
  • Zerrin's New Professional Development Resource I Recommend!

TFL State Leadership Activities - (Liz)

  • Tools for Life
    • Data Reminder: Don't forget to enter in your public awareness and I & A data. Include your presentations, trainings, public awareness, education, etc. in the database each month.
    • TFL Policy and Procedures - Keep going! Follow up coming soon.
    • Webinar archives - Are any of yours missing?
    • TFL Website, wiki (discuss process) - Liz, Kayla, Tori, Shaina, Trish (support)
    • Training plan - host more virtually - we're doing it!
      • ARC Disability 101 - rescheduled for 11/4 at 11:00 AM
  • GCDD Accessibility Grant - Universal Design for Learning and Plain Language - Success!
    • June to September 2021 - $13,000
    • Liz, Norah, Tori (Carolyn and Trish support)
  • Credits - Training Team
    • CEU's - Continuing Education Units approved and distributed by the AAC Institute
    • CRC's - Certified Rehabilitation Counselor Credits approved and distributed by the Commissioner Rehabilitation Counselor Certification or CRCC
      • All applications must be submitted no later than 30 days before the live event.
  • CDC/CDC Foundation - Carolyn-PI, Liz-Co-PI, Norah - Content Creator and Manager, Trish-Project Support, COVID-19 Accessible Materials for Individuals with Disabilities - COMPLETE!
    • Working on archiving the project - Teams and Dropbox
    • Microsite maintenance will run through 2022 - Norah lead
    • Will still collect monthly analytics - Tori lead
    • AUCD Conference presentation - CP and Liz with CDC and CDC Foundation
  • ATAP (AT3) - AT Reuse Activities, AT Database - Carolyn, Liz, Trish(support)
  • Webinars - WORK ACCESS series; Wired Wednesdays
  • Wireless RERC - Training and TA - Outreach & Public Awareness - Carolyn, Raminta, Liz
    • 1. Making virtual meetings more accessible in emergencies, and
    • 2. How to minimize the text complexity in messaging
  • Work ACCESS - Decision Tree/AT Software KnowledgeBase - Focus groups, trainings, webinars - Tori
  • New Professional Development Resource I Recommend! - The ILRU (Independent Living Research Utilization) program is a national center for information, training, research, and technical assistance in independent living. Learn more at the ILRU website

Tori's Updates

  • Social Media - Send articles, webinars, videos, general information, etc. for posting to Tori
  • New Professional Development Resource I Recommend!

Kayla's Updates

  • Graphic Design Projects - Kayla
    • TFL Website Re-Design/Drupal Translation **
  • Updating Graphic Design File Structure on Dropbox *
  • Reach out for any future graphic design assistance/projects or questions. *
  • New Professional Development Resource I Recommend:

Raminta's Updates

  • Video Projects
  • New Professional Development Resource I Recommend!

TFL K-12 Initiatives and Updates (Gina)

K-12 Updates

  • Next State Board of Education meeting is scheduled for November 3 & 4
  • Continuing current K-12 deliverables
  • Texthelp – November 16, 2021, from 9:00 AM – 2:00 PM – Texthelp Master Class @ CIDI (in person) – sent out an update – look for virtual registration for class in upcoming days.
  • New Professional Development Resource I Recommend!

Norah's Updates

  • Updates
  • New Professional Development Resource I Recommend!

GVRA Project (Ben)

Team & Project Plan

  • October Report is being compiled and analyzed
  • Billing for 1st Quarter of project is in process
    • Preparing programmatic data to match invoicing
    • Working with Eric T to sync these up
  • Ben: ongoing meetings with Matthew Blake/ IT Team - planning for:
    • GVRA Portal / Service Portal
    • Monthly report automation
    • Incorporation of IPSE programs into NEON systems.

GVRA Updates

  • GVRA Transition work groups have met/are meeting to discuss:
    • Pilot to develop a model for reporting software usage of GVRA clients in K-12 Districts
    • Incorporation of IPSE programs into project. (1st 3: Ga Tech, Ga State, Ga Southern)
  • Preparing a pilot study of usage of Equati0 at Post-Secondary Level
    • Dalton State (+ others?)
    • What is the potential level of usage of Equati0?
  • Looking to do a data sharing arrangement/ agreement
    • Help populate NEON with required GVRA data

TFL Direct AT Services - AT Access Updates (Martha)

  • Wired Wednesdays- Carolyn will be our guest speaker for the November Wired Wednesday. Scanning Pens was excellent in October and would love to see how we can update our older c-pen models to the new models.
  • AT Lab- we are continuing to work on this. Thank you to everyone who helped last Wednesday. We are working on the DBHDD lab and a huge thank you to Nate and the team for moving a black storage cabinet upstairs. We are trying to work on a better flow of items within all the labs. New labels have come in. Sanitization can be found in plastic bins in the downstairs lab, 2nd-floor lad, access lab aka Ciara's office, and the AAC lab. Items that no longer work have been marked obsolete and given to surplus. I am so proud of the team for working on this and the ideas coming from it.
  • Working with several individuals on providing resources and information about AT. Receiving calls and emails for evaluations


  • New Professional Development Resource I Recommend!

https://www.linkedin.com/learning/balancing-work-and-life/welcome?autoAdvance=true&autoSkip=false&autoplay=true&resume=true&u=2163426

Ciara's Updates

TFL Data:

  • Device Demo Oct. FY22 - Present All Centers: 0
    • Device Demo for FY21: 137
    • Device Demo for FY20: 478
    • Device Demo for FY19: 1029
  • Device Demos Oct. FY22- Present TFL: 0
    • Device Demo for FY21: 25
    • Device Demo for FY20: 79
    • Device Demo for FY19: 185
  • Device Loans Oct. FY22 - Present All Centers: 0
    • Device Loans for FY21: 189
    • Device Loans for FY20: 258
    • Device Loans for FY19: 634
  • Device Loans Oct. FY22 - Present TFL: 0
    • Device Loans for FY21: 76
    • Device Loans for FY20: 94
    • Device Loans for FY19: 352
  • Device Reutilization Oct. FY22 - 0
    • Device Reutilization for FY21: 4678
    • Device Reutilization for FY20: 4333
    • Device Reutilization for FY19: 7266

TFL AppFinder:

  • Jamf Update & Timeline for Rollout - Jerel is waiting for OIT to set up his account to receive permissions in order to set service accounts for TFL team
  • Highlight 1-3 New Apps in Appfinder - no new apps, but has been updated to include communication apps that we use often

TFL Lab:

  • "How to Guides" Updates - There is a new folder under the TFL Direct Services channel on Teams where ""Cheat Sheets & How To Guides"" exists. There are different assistive technology categories. DeeDee & I met with Valerie to discuss the accessibility of the cheat sheets, she has offered to give the TFL team a refresher training on PDF & Word Doc accessibility if we are interested.
  • New AT for Lab Updates
  • New Professional Development Resource I Recommend! - https://pe.gatech.edu/wlpd/learning GTPE, Workplace Learning & Professional Development offers a wide variety of free courses such as Giving & Receiving Feedback, Conflict Management, Managing Your Performance, etc.

Sal's Updates

  • Aging Committees Updates
    • Who
    • What
  • Outreach & Trainings Updates
    • Upcoming
  • AT Lab - Organization Updates
    • New AT
    • Ideas

New Professional Development Resource I Recommend!

Rachel's Updates

  • TFL AT Awareness for Dementia & Isolation Update
    • New AT
  • Interactive AT Lab Reassessed current inventory for AT related to dementia and isolation while in the office last week. Updated “wish list” of new and innovative AT to add to the AT Lab.
  • DAS Contract
    • Updates: Awaiting the extension for the Cares Act project. Hopefully, we will be able to resume in November.

Culture Change Network of Georgia is hosting a CCNG Rally this Thursday from 10-11:30. This is a virtual event that is typically an annual Summit. The intent is to "Come together for a common action or effort". Stakeholders across Ga will update progress for Person-Centered Care especially related to Dementia. Recently awarded a new grant along with GSU/CMP. Changing Public policies and educating care providers caring for elders especially in nursing home settings are top priorities of grant. TFL will share updates with those in attendance.

    • Policies & Procedures
    • ADRC Provided general feedback and concerns to DAS as requested re: their P &P for AT. Yolanda appreciated our input and requested a follow-up meeting. It was a vague message, so unclear as to if it is related to P &P or other projects at this point. Will continue to explore with DAS
  • AT Makers
  • Updates•
  • New Professional Development Resource I Recommend!

Sarah's Updates

  • ACCESS Updates & Focus Groups
  • GT DSP Office Updates
  • New Professional Development Resource I Recommend!

AccessGA Initiatives and Updates (Johan)

  • AccessGA
    • Technical assistance provided to state agencies
    • GA Dept. of Economic Development
  • Fee-for-Service
    • Shepherd Center (first of six trainings beginning Nov. 9th
      • Web Accessibility Evaluation completed
      • Follow-up Technical Assistance
    • UDOIT Tool Evaluation for LMS in progress
      • evaluation to be completed by end of month
    • BLH/NLM
      • 2 of 19 trainings scheduled Nov. 2 and Nov. 10 on topics related to disability awareness
      • A11y evaluation of NLM website
      • A11y evaluation of Moodle LMS
      • Technical assistance
    • Request from ASTHO
      • Trainings on Disability Awareness and Digital A11y
    • JCC Chicago
      • SoW pending
      • Web a11y evaluation and technical assistance requested
      • awaiting testing environment
    • UX Initiatives
      • Several ongoing projects in the coming weeks/months involving UX
        • Aging Well Access
        • Dementia Access
        • Washington AT Access
        • AT Network
        • AT3 AT Access

AAC Programs (DeeDee)

  • Display devices have been set up and labeling begun
  • AAC materials from DBHDD lab moved upstairs - getting organized

Display materials planned:

  • Device information
  • Posters/handouts on elements of AAC and Access (i.e., types of AAC devices, core words, switches, scanning access, etc.)
  • Handouts on implementation strategies, product information
  • Information on access from Pittsburg AAC Language Seminar - Karen Kangas
  • Model as a MASTER PAL for communication partner training
  • Considering list of training resources

Kennesaw University UD Lab

  • Initial visit completed 8/24/21
  • Classification of apps by educational vs AT completed
  • Review of equipment updates completed
  • Need to write report
  • Training webinars planning begun (Microsoft Accessibility/Chromebook Accessibility)
  • need to reach out to Chris regarding status of videos

AAC Curriculum

  • Review of online courses completed
  • Analysis of course content begun
  • Basic framework of Curriculum begin

Action Items & Follow Up

  1. ALL: University System of Georgia (USG) Benefits Open Enrollment will be held from Monday, October 25 – Friday, November 5, 2021.
  2. ALL: Stay tuned for Your other GT Compliances!
  3. CP: Archives for Resources
  4. Gina (CP will help): Making TextHelp Training Virtually available to CIDI & TFL Team.
  5. Martha: Lab Day! Organizing our TFL Team to focus on the Labs.
  6. Ciara & DeeDee: Meet to see what DeeDee has for "How To" Guides and what we need.
  7. Tori: Post the TFL Meeting Wiki Agenda the Week before - so folks can update without overwriting each other.
  8. ALL: Managing Stress for Positive Change