TFL Team Meeting - 7/21/2020

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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

TFL Director Updates (Carolyn)

  • Check In - How are You?
    • USG COVID-19; HR Plan/Return to work - Questions?
  • TFL Advisory Council Development
  • TFL 30th Anniversary
  • TFL Website - New! Need Everyone's help. Accessibility!
  • Credit-Able Discussions & Path for long-term Sustainability
  • ADA Celebration - Plan & Help!
    • Disability 101
    • Disability Awareness for Researchers
  • Funding:
    • GaDOE FY20 & FY 21 - Co-PI Gina
    • GVRA Contract FY 21 - In Discussions with GT Leadership - Co-PI Martha &
    • Georgia Division of Aging Services (DAS) -
    • CDC Contract (9 Mths) - Co-PIs Liz & Johan
    • MENTAL COVID-19 Grant - Co-PI Maureen Linden

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

Assistive Technology Outcomes & Benefits (ATOB) Journal

  • TFL (Vol 15) Article on DBHDD Project was submitted last week for peer review.

What Users of AT Wish Developers Knew... complete

Work ACCESS Project (Decision Tree Project) Content

  • Liz & Carolyn - Working on "Telework"
  • Ben & Dee Dee finalizing "Communication" tags and descriptions
  • Other members of the team wrapping up first round of tasks on "Reading & Writing":
  • proofing, short descriptions, validation, tagging & mapping to decision tree, etc.)

Work ACCESS Programming

  • Functioning model (skeleton) is out on a server for preliminary review. More robust version coming soon.
  • Annabel is helping with visual design for interface

Mastery of Assistive Technology (MoAT) Small Bets project kicked off July 1st.

  • Team is finalizing panel of AT "power users"
  • First round of data collection will start in August.

Other Projects:

  • Aging - Decision Tree Project (Washington State)
  • PIT-UN Challenge
    • submitted
  • CDC
    • working with John
      • UX methodology
      • IRB
  • USG BOR Survey
    • had a meeting with Gerry and Will
    • we will reach out to ACLD

TFL State Leadership Activities - (Liz)

Data Reminder: Don't forget to include your presentations, trainings, public awareness, education, etc. in the database each month.

Updates

  • Tools for Life
    • TFL Policy and Procedures - Liz, Sam
      • How's it going?
    • Wiki PPT submissions - Tori
    • TFL Website Redo - Liz, Sam, Shaina, CP
      • Everyone will have a piece in this project
    • PIOC website key pieces built into TFL
    • Wiki cleanup, possible transition to Zendesk
    • Diversity Symposium on September 9 - Liz, Danny
  • CDC
    • Accessible Materials and Culturally Relevant Messages for Individuals with Disabilities
    • Carolyn PI, Johan and Liz Co-PI
  • Social Media
    • ADA Celebration!
      • TFL Team ADA Questions - Thank you to everyone who has responded so far! We will be highlighting everyone over the next few weeks.
    • Like, Follow, and Share our pages and posts
  • ATAP (AT3)
    • Finished videos - Raminta
    • Finished document remediation - Tori
    • Last webinar tomorrow!
    • Exploring 2021 contract and deliverables - CP & Liz
      • AT Reuse Activities (PIOC)
      • Social Isolation/Connectedness Coalition (ACL/n4a) - CP, Liz, Rachel and Martha
  • TechSAge 2 RERC - Training and Outreach
    • Carolyn and Liz
    • Design Competition - Carolyn & Danny lead, Liz support
    • Check out the RERC TechSAge website to learn more.
  • Webinars
    • Working on expanding our webinars
      • Able to offer CRC's and CEUs
    • Wired Wednesdays
    • More webinar offerings from TFL?
  • Wireless RERC - Training and TA
    • Carolyn, Liz, Sam, Raminta
    • Outreach & Public Awareness ongoing (Sam lead)
    • Submitting to the Technology and Disability Policy Highlights (TDPH)
  • Work ACCESS - Decision Tree/AT Software KnowledgeBase
    • Carolyn and Liz - Telework
      • focus groups, training

TFL K-12 Initiatives and Updates (Gina)

K -12

  • K-12 Contract FY 20 Updates
    • Portal
      • 193 users registered representing:
        • 127 districts
        • 8 Charter Schools
        • 3 State Schools
        • 1 Georgia Network for Educational and Therapeutic Support (GNETS)
    • Software
      • 84 districts signed and operational
      • 237,600 licenses (Read & Write, EquatIO, & WriQ)
    • Deliverables In Process and/or On-going
      • 5 mini videos (Speech-to-Text, Text-to-Speech, Graphic Organizers, Captioning, & Visual Supports)
      • Consultations – Portal open for consultations
      • Loans – prepared to begin loans for 2020-21 school; loan to districts requesting
      • supporting webinars with Texthelp & GaDOE (contract to do 3 webinars, we’ve done 1) to continue to support software support and implementation
      • EdTrade – development in process; materials development for roll-out
      • Discovery Surveys – beginning stages
  • K-12 Contract FY21 Updates
    • New Statement of Deliverables & Budget to GaDOE end of July (go through committees and ready for State Board of Education (SBOE) September meeting for approval (no SBOE Oct. mtg), go through contract process and be ready for Jan. 2021 implementation)
    • GVRA funds – Statement of work – moving forward and preparing to submit
    • Notified GaDOE as a courtesy and responded to a request that Tools for Life no longer doing AT/AAC evaluations K-12 – “I would like to inform you that Tools for Life is no longer offering assistive technology / augmentative-alternative communication (AAC) evaluations as part of our continuum of services. The need in this area is growing so rapidly and intensely among Georgia districts that Tools for Life cannot keep up with the demand and provide quality and timely service throughout Georgia. As you move forward in looking for other providers, I'd suggest checking the Special Needs Database on the Parent to Parent of Georgia website.”
  • Accessible Educational Materials Cohort Application
    • collaboratively worked on this with GaDOE with active roles from TFL and CIDI
    • waiting on the 2020-2024 AEM Cohort to be announced (don’t have an announcement date) – five states will be selected
    • intensive AEM technical assistance
  • Georgia School for the Deaf (GSD) Contract
    • new administration at GSD; administration that spearheaded the contract left
    • former administration supported moving the current contract training format from 2 – 4 hour sessions to 4 -2 hour sessions virtual format. Working with new administration.
  • AAC State Strategic Plan
  • Revising GPAT AT Resource Guide

TFL Direct AT Services - AT Access Updates (Martha)

  • Device Demo 10/1-19 until present All Centers 282
  • Device Demos 10/1/19 - Present TFL 77
  • Device Loans 10/1/19- Present All Centers 183
  • Device Loans 10/1/19- Present TFL 80
  • Device Reutilization 2912


  • Wired Wednesdays are going great! Next on will be July 29th with Danny. He will be covering Wayfinding apps. We need people to Sign up for August and September
  • Attended the Christopher and Dana Reeves HIIAT Grant info webinar yesterday. It is for $75,000 and can be used for existing projects. I feel this is something that TFL can do. Can use to increase equipment in our AT Lab. Must be geared towards paralysis Ideas: Social Isolation, AAC, Gaming, smart home
  • Updating the TFL Equipment Database- Ciara
  • Waiting on the funds for DAS
  • Carolyn and I met with Dr. Lisa Adams and Rick Sigman with the University of West Ga. They would like our help training their faculty and staff on disability awareness and universal design. They have a new president Dr. Brendon Kelly who would like to increase Universal Design for campus and for faculty and staff. Will meet with Liz, John, and Doug today to come up with SOW.
  • Washington Access AT List has been completed and Sarah, Sal, Martha, and Rachel are reviewing and making changes
  • Carolyn, Sarah, Annabel, Rachel, and Sal met to review Washington Access database and made some changes- Annabel and Martha will meet with Matthew on Thursday
  • Display equipment for AAC lab has been submitted and approved, computer access equipment is being researched.
  • Working on product and AAC information sheets for AAC lab
  • Work Access Communication tasks are being finalized

TFL AT Acquisition Updates (Danny)

Projects:

Dollars and Sense

  1. Who wants to give it a look and help with content development

gTRADE

  1. After meeting with Matthew on EdTRADE, it should be pretty easy to relaunch gTRADE

Credit-Able

  1. Processing some of the backlog of apps since March
  2. Discussions continue on relocating

Other

  1. I will be on leave from 7/10-7/17 and will not be checking e-mail/voicemail

AccessGA Initiatives and Updates (Johan)

Action Items & Follow Up