Featuring: Dana Hooper, LSA’s Executive Director, & Ian Ramos – Assistive Technology Specialist at Access Ingenuity

Hadiyah Fain: Hello again! If you’re just joining us and have never attended LSA’s I/DD Topics & Trends, welcome to 2025 I/DD Topics & Trends. This is now the 4th year we’re doing this and we have a really nice lineup. My name is Hadiyah Fain, and again if you’re joining us for the first time this year, or the first time for I/DD topics and trends series, I’d invite you to go back onto our website, go back onto our YouTube, we transcribe everything, and we also turn some of the topics into longer-form blogs. We also put our videos up on YouTube. If you’re joining us live here tonight, then you’re gonna have a real treat to ask our guest and our fireside chat host some really important questions.

The first installment of this series, this summer series for LSA’s I/DD topics and trends, is Assistive Technologies That Empower Daily Living. They’ve also been referred to as enabling technologies. We’re going to talk about some of the basics tonight, and we’ve invited assistive technology specialist Ian Ramos at Access Ingenuity to join us. 

Before we get started with that, I’m gonna go over a couple little housekeeping things. For the first time here ever on I/DD Topics and Trends we’re going to open up the chat so that there can be a live audience discussion amongst yourselves or with us panelists. Feel free to do that. You never know who’s joined us, who might be in a similar situation to you or who might know someone who’s in a similar situation to you. We want to encourage and invite you to join the chat and have conversation with one another, and who knows? Maybe you’ll even find your community here tonight if you haven’t already. Thank you so much again for joining us. If you are interested in talking to us panelists. Feel free to select the chat, go down to all panelists and send us a question that way at any time during this. You also have the opportunity to ask us questions at the end of this fireside chat. There’s going to be a Q&A. That’s also on the bottom of your Zoom panel. The Q&A is 30 minutes of us answering your questions live and on air. If you see a question already being asked, and you like that one, feel free to upvote it, and we’ll make sure that it makes a top priority in this particular recording session.

Also, if you have a specific question, don’t hesitate to ask it. We are not going to focus on specifics for certain individuals here in this particular topic, but it does give us something to think about. If you want to reach out to us later or reach out to Ian, he’s gonna leave his information, and you can ask that question more directly. Also, we’ll try to generalize it so that it can be answered for other people who may have a similar situation, either in this particular conference webinar, or later on down the line.

Without further ado, I have a question for you. Every year we do this, we ask so that we can continue to generate content that’s meaningful. We just want to know from you, how did you hear about us? And what’s your relationship to someone with I/DD? And then finally, what’s your biggest concern when it comes to future housing or care planning for your loved one with I/DD? So, if you take a moment right now and just answer the questions that we have in the chat.

We’re excited that you’re with us tonight. Thank you so much, and I’ll give you a few seconds to answer these and let us know how you heard about us. And I’ll give maybe about 15 more seconds, and then we’ll get started.

All right, so thank you so much for answering those poll questions.

Without further ado, I’m really excited to be doing this again for another year in a row, introducing our Executive Director, Dana Hooper.

Dana Hooper has been an Executive Director of Life Services Alternatives (LSA) for the past 17 years now, but his journey started many years ago when his son, Brent, was diagnosed with an intellectual disability. Over the years, he’s become involved in many areas of the I/DD world. He became a leader in our community, working with government and nonprofits, such as Branch Services, where he’s on the board, Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired, where he was on the board, The State Department of Developmental Services, and San Andreas Regional Center, where he’s a past board president, and also where his son, Brent, is a client in Supporting Living. It also led him to his leadership role at LSA where he can make a difference every day in the lives of the individuals that LSA serves. Thank you so much for joining us tonight, and welcome back, Dana.

Dana Hooper: Well, thank you, Hadiyah, and thank you all for joining us tonight. I’m really glad to be here. You know, this is a topic that’s kind of exciting, and I don’t know a whole lot about. But hope to be able to find out more together. It’s my pleasure to introduce Ian Ramos. Ian has over 17 years of assistive technologies, or we like to say enabling technology training and support experience. Both in a professional as well as a personal atmosphere. He enjoys working with computers and assistive technology in general. He always does his best to help educate others in computer use, while at the same time, getting them comfortable with using vital assistive technology. Ian believes customer service is a key aspect and enjoys bringing his customer service skills to the work environment. He’s a graduate of Sonoma State University. And also JAWS (Job Access With Speech) Certified.

Ian Ramos: Thank you, Dana. It’s certainly a pleasure to be here.

Dana Hooper: Well, we’re really glad you’re here. Thanks for taking the time, Ian.

The format of the webinar, for some of you who may not be aware, is going to be question and answer, fireside chat style. I’ll be asking some questions and Ian will be answering them. Once we’re finished, if there’s additional questions that you have in the chat, we’ll address them in the separate Q&A section.

To get us started Ian, when we talk about assistive technology, what does that really mean?

Ian Ramos: Well, assistive technology really encompasses any device, software, or equipment that can help individuals with disabilities increase, maintain, and improve their functional capabilities, and ultimately their independence. It can range from low-tech solutions like communication boards, to high-tech tools such as screen readers, like JAWS, or voice recognition software. Essentially, assistive technology enables people to overcome challenges and participate more fully in daily life at school, at work, or at home.

Dana Hooper: So I think you answered my next question, why is this important, or who is it important for? And it sounds like a lot of different folks, and not all with the same disability. And it can help them become more independent.

What first drew you to assistive technology?

Ian Ramos: It really stemmed from a personal experience. My mother had vision loss throughout a number of years. It deteriorated to the point where her eyeglasses just weren’t quite helping her anymore. So she was starting to really develop some severe vision loss, and we discovered it was due to macular degeneration. Once we found out what the cause of it was, we started to research on how we could help her. There’s not a lot you can do for it physically, as far as medical procedures and whatnot. But, we learned about assistive technology. Specifically, magnifying devices that can provide visual assistance for those with moderate to severe visual impact. So our journey led us to these devices and led us to an organization that provided them. In helping her, I learned a lot more about this technology, and then, I really saw what this did for my mom’s life, for her independence. I saw her really start to enjoy reading again, and starting to be able to read her mail by herself. She started to cook again, because she could actually read the recipes. There was a few years there of some pretty severe depression because she was losing her vision, and she couldn’t do the things that she loved to do. So this type of technology brought her back to the independence that she enjoyed.

Dana Hooper: Great! It sounds like this led you to investigate and to become an expert in other assistive technologies.

Tell me a little bit about how your personal experience and where it took you.

Ian Ramos: In learning more about this technology, it really intrigued me, because I saw the impact it made on my mom’s life. So I pursued more education on this topic, and I connected with Access Ingenuity just over 17 years ago, and I’ve had an incredible journey so far, working with this technology, learning more about it. Technology, as most of us know, changes very rapidly. It’s been really exciting to see technology specific to assistive technology, or enabling technology, progress and become even more amazing and more useful. So that’s how I started my journey with this company, and I definitely love what I do, because I see the positive impact it makes on people’s lives. It’s a very fulfilling career

Dana Hooper: Great. Where do you see families often run into roadblocks when it comes to finding or using the right tools?

Ian Ramos: That is an excellent question. Assistive technology is very specific. It’s designed and developed for a fairly small segment of the overall population. And because of that, of course, it tailors to such a small market that the amazing research and development that goes into these products, they need to cover those costs. So that usually means it trickles down to more expensive products for the end user. So that’s definitely one of the biggest barriers and challenges is the cost for these units.

Now there are some organizations that can help with that. Maybe we’ll talk about that here in just a bit. So there’s the cost factor, but there’s also just the ability to appropriately match up the right technology to the right need. It’s even easier in today’s age to do that. Traditionally, let’s say even 10 years ago, there were 5 different devices that would help somebody. But in modern times, they’re starting to combine and integrate those different capabilities and functions together into singular devices. And so, now we have, let’s say, one or two devices that do a whole bunch of things for us. So that way we only have to get those one or two devices to then accomplish much more. So that’s what’s really exciting about modern assistive technology. But, again, one of the biggest challenges is matching the technology with the need, and that’s what I do as an assistive technology specialist. When I work with individuals, with organizations, with schools, I work with the end user, and we do our best to match up a specific product or products with somebody to most effectively help them.

Dana Hooper: Super. So, where would you say to families they should start looking?

Ian Ramos: Yeah, yeah, great question. So there’s organizations, like you were heavily involved in, the Lighthouse for the Blind is an example of a community organization that is geared towards helping people. They focus more on low vision users, or no vision users, those who are blind. But again, there’s lots of agencies and programs out there, webinars to attend like this which can help educate everybody on what technology is available and how to achieve that help. There’s also, through the state of California, some wonderful programs available. For example, through the Department of Rehabilitation. Their primary goal is to help those with disabilities to achieve a healthy lifestyle. So that would be, education, employment, financial assistance, so there’s different aspects of that. And, so again, there’s state agencies, there’s some other ones as well that are administered by the state of California. There’s also some federal agencies and programs as well that can assist. But most of the time, it is at the state level, at least that’s what we’ve seen as an organization. It’s all about doing your research, going online if you can and identifying what the need is, and then that leads you down the path of finding out about what technologies are available to assist with that.

Dana Hooper: We talked a little bit about your mom with low vision, and how that technology helped her. How about some additional examples of assistive technologies and how they’ve helped people become more independent?

Ian Ramos: Absolutely, yes, and that’s the primary example in my head is, of course, my mother. Because, you know, I saw that change in her life. But, again, you know, it doesn’t just mean low vision users. Assistive technology can encompass many different types of needs and to help with multiple types of disabilities. Actually, just last week I was working with a student in the East Bay area. This student was visually impaired. Actually, the student was totally blind. So, there were some challenges with accessing digital content that this student needed access to for educational pursuits. This was a high school student. And so, in hearing about the students’ challenge, and in working with the school district, and helping educate them on what tools were available to help make their content digitally accessible. Let’s say, the student is in the classroom, they have a worksheet. That worksheet is distributed via Google Classroom. How accessible is that worksheet? This student was running into some major challenges, not because of the lack of skills on their part, but because of the lack of the ability of the administration to provide that digital experience, or that accessible digital experience for the student. We worked with them, and we taught them how to, let’s say, make a PDF file more accessible to somebody that uses a screen reader. And, um, it’s actually not that hard, and it was a really exciting experience to see them grasp this concept. And then almost overnight, they were able to change the system, or tweak the system just a little bit to then add this process that would allow this visually impaired student to have full access to all school documentation and assignments. So that was a really great experience, and I’ve had probably hundreds of experiences like that over the last 17 years.

There’s also specific technologies for individuals with motor impairments who, let’s say they can’t use a keyboard like you or I. There’s some functional challenges with their hands, with their fingers, and it’s very difficult for them to type on a keyboard. And, as we all know, computers are such an integral part of our world. We do so much with computers, communication, research, writing papers, all kinds of things. Being able to access a keyboard is something that I know that I sometimes take for granted because I just hop on here and use my fingers and type away. There are many users that we encounter that can’t type effectively. So there’s technology out there that allows them to use their voice to dictate and type down, and not only dictate, but control their entire computer experience. They can move their mouse using their voice. They can obviously dictate in a text, they can do online research, they can open web pages, they can book plane tickets all online, simply using their voice. That’s another example of assistive technology and how it can impact the world. I just saw a question in chat about nonverbal communication. There are some amazing, I’m gonna call them communication boards. There’s the low-tech communication boards, where it just has various symbols you can point to and communicate that way. Then there’s more high-tech solutions, which are what we work with, where it can be a fully immersive experience. The end user can basically communicate nearly anything that they need, they need help with, they like to do, as well as text all using nonverbal communication. So being able to use that communication board, they can type their requests. So, again, there’s lots of technology out there. We as an organization, we primarily focus on the visually impaired, so that’s low vision users and totally blind users. But we also do quite a bit on the front of speech recognition, like I just mentioned, as well as some nonverbal communication as well. Then digital accessibility, which is extremely popular nowadays, it’s almost becoming the main part of our business. Working with agencies to help them make their content accessible to people that need to use, for example, a screen reader.

Dana Hooper: Well that’s incredible. I know over time I’ve certainly seen a lot of things that, for instance, help my son. At one point, we introduced him to something called Type and Talk. Which he had a lot of fun with but it turned out typing wasn’t his thing either. So he didn’t use it very much, but what I saw over time is that, increasingly, computers became tablets without keyboards and he thoroughly enjoys using his finger on a tablet. He can accomplish a whole lot of things that I never would have guessed that he could, simply by waving his finger around. And you can just see how much independence that gives him, how much joy. So it’s pretty wonderful to see that. 

Ian Ramos: And speaking of tablets, modern smartphones are an incredible tool. They’re in the same family as tablets, I’m going to say, cousins of tablets. What’s really attractive about devices like smartphones and tablets, especially for the younger generation, is everybody’s using them nowadays. So when somebody is faced with a challenge, they don’t want to stick out. They want to blend right in with all the other kids, so they want to use their smartphone just like everybody else. Amazingly, there’s some really neat tools and features that are built right into smartphones that can help bridge the gap on so many things. Like communication and the ability to have their phones read content to them, if they’re visually impaired. You can use your smartphone as a magnification device if you’re low vision. Smartphones and tablets are an amazing tool that everybody can have access to. So what that means is that you aren’t forced to stick with technology that is designed and developed for individuals with disabilities, you can use mainstream technology. As long as you know what’s available and how to use that to meet your needs, you can do that. So that’s what’s really nice about our modern world, is there are so many different ways to get the help that we need with these little devices that we can just put them right in our pocket. It’s pretty exciting.

Dana Hooper: Is this an area where AI technology’s gonna be very helpful?

Ian Ramos: Absolutely. I’m glad you mentioned that, Dana. So, AI is an incredible leap forward for those that need assistance with technology. So, for example, there are wearable technologies available, such as glasses that you can wear on your head. Maybe some of you have heard of the meta glasses, from Meta. Those are kind of all the rage right now. An amazing technology that can provide a lot of independence for somebody who uses them. For example, actually, just earlier today, I was working with a student at a school that’s specific for the blind and the low vision. And I was talking to this young gentleman who was wearing the meta glasses. Whenever I run across somebody like that, I try to do my best to ask them what they use this technology for? How does this benefit them? That way, I can find out new tasks that they’re able to perform with this technology. And then I can have that locked in my head so that if I run across somebody who has a similar situation I can say, “Hey, I know somebody that these glasses benefited them.” So the Meta glasses, basically, what it allows this individual to do, and many others, is to understand the environment. So it’s a great environmental feedback tool. What that means is that they can be wearing these glasses, which look like a traditional pair of Ray-Bans. On the down low, they can be getting environmental feedback for their situation. They walk into a room and they want to know what’s going on in that room. Are there empty chairs? Are there people here? Where’s the food? So, with these glasses, they can now ask a question. What’s in front of me? And through the use of AI, it breaks down the room for them. It can tell them what’s going on in the room. There’s some kind of event happening, there’s people sitting down, there’s computers on the desks, there appears to be a food table on the right-hand side, or at your 2 o’clock, right? It’ll even give you references like that so if you are visually impaired you know the general direction of where to go to find what you need. And then you can take that further, because through the magic of AI, you could then ask specific questions about your environment, help me find an empty chair to sit down on, where is the restroom? Where’s the door to head out? There’s really no limit on what you can ask this technology. And that is basically because of AI and the amazing advantage that we get. They are starting to integrate AI into so many different assistive products. Not only the glasses, like I was just mentioning, but the magnification devices that sit on your desk and allow those with low vision to read again. They can ask AI a question about what they just scanned in on this unit, and AI can read it back to them. They don’t even need to use their eyes and struggle through the content if they are — let’s say, severely low vision. AI can do it all for them. I think as we move forward, we are gonna see more and more AI integration into so many assistive products that are just gonna make things even better and be able to achieve even greater independence. So it’s really exciting. I’m sure you can tell —I’m really excited about AI and what it’s done for our industry, because it’s a real game changer from what I’ve seen, and it’s only going to get better and more exciting.

Dana Hooper: Well, that’s pretty exciting. So how can families get started? What would a good first step be?I think you mentioned, you know, doing a little Web browsing, but maybe that’s not for everyone.

Ian Ramos: Sure. Well, it’s great to connect with community organizations like Life Services Alternatives. You guys are great — that links the community with organizations and knowledge on this topic, which is great. Definitely reaching out and getting in touch with your local community and what they offer. Like I mentioned,there’s lots of community organizations and agencies. I know up in the North Bay we have three different organizations that provide disability services as far as support and fulfillment, so they actually provide and can purchase the assistive technology for the end user, so that’s really exciting. So, that’s one way, and again, if you can try and Google or the internet is not your thing, you can reach out to your local Chamber of Commerce, and they’re typically connected with a number of organizations which can provide direction on where to go. And then when you hear about technology events in general, seek those out. I know that all around the Bay Area, there are a number of technology fairs and shows–not even specific to enabling technologies or assisted technologies. But seek those events out, and as you network with people and meet with people, you will most likely find your way to the specific technology that you need. Now, it may not be an easy road, it may not happen the first time. That’s why it’s important to keep going and to keep researching because your independence is so important. For most people, independence is really, really an important part of life. Being able to achieve things on our own. Of course, we all need help, sometimes from organizations like Life Services Alternatives, or organizations like Access Ingenuity, our company, but there are lots of different ways to get connected.

Dana Hooper: Wow. Thank you so much. Let’s wrap this up and move into the open Q&A. Hadiya?

Hadiyah Fain: Yes, thank you so much, Dana and Ian. Ian, I’d like to specifically thank you, because your technology, your organization, has a specific application, but we asked you to come on because, in the facet that you’re in, in a lot of ways, it’s light years away from some of the ways in which organizations and providers like ours and even governmental organizations think about enabling technologies. Either it’s the big bad wolf. Right? And we don’t want to have anything to do with it, right? Because it just takes us one more step away from connecting with people, or it’s people have too much faith in it, and it’s supposed to be this magic pill that’ll come and save us, but all in all, we had you come on because we believe and you’re seeing hopeful cases every day. And I know we have a dear friend of ours, Amy Milani, who’s in the audience, who asked that question about those who are visually impaired, and I want to make sure that we get to those questions. While I’m talking right now, if you’re thinking of things that you’d like to ask Ian or Dana, feel free to go ahead and use that chat feature, but we prefer if you use the Q&A feature so we can keep your information bubbled up to the top. There’s been a few things that have come in since we’ve gotten started, and we don’t want to lose your questions, so take the time while I’m talking right now. If you’re in the audience, and put in your Q&A, or put your questions in Q&A, and we’ll answer them momentarily. But I wanted to thank you, Ian, again. I feel like it’s a good moment to stop here and say there are different abilities everywhere, and what I think mostly everyone can agree on, despite of what side of the spectrum they’re on, whether they’re enabling technology or assistive technologies evangelists, or they are a skeptic, think we can agree on that there has been no innovation for those who are differently abled in the I/DD space that everyone can agree on and use. And AI is coming really close. You mentioned the metaglasses earlier, right? And that’s really good, but what about when that person comes over the speaker, whoever Meta is, and she begins to speak, and the person in front of them can’t comprehend that it’s not a person. And so what I’m hearing you say, or what I’ve been hearing you say tonight is that we’re just at the forefront of something that’s changing. Something that, for the very first time in history, we have the ability as the users, to make input through social media, through various conferences, and I don’t want to sound old or date myself, but back in my day, we would have trade shows that you could go to. I mean, heck, even Disney World had a Tomorrowland where they would imagine what this world could be like. It sounds like there’s a few people who are listening right now and that are gonna be listening and they want to know how their son or daughter, either verbal or nonverbal, can get access to maybe piloted programs, or where do you go when your organization wants to try to add on a new feature? If you have magazines that you look at? For all we know, there’s people on here who would fund around for investments for something that was really, really helpful for their child, and their daughter or son. Where do you go when you want to find inspiration for what’s coming next? Can you give us a specific place that we can look? Is there a trade show? Is there a Tomorrowland, for people like you, Ian?

Ian Ramos: Absolutely. So, as I mentioned, the trade shows are a great place to really capture everything that’s currently available, and even things that are not currently available, but up and coming. So, just in the Bay Area alone, there are a number of tech shows. Now, these tech shows that I attend are typically enabling or assistive technology focused. So I know that there are a number of colleges. So colleges are a great resource that typically hosts these types of technology fairs.

Hadiyah Fain: Oh, I didn’t think of that.

Ian Ramos: Yeah and so it’s probably the most common type of format that we attend, that where I see so much new technology that’s out there, because you even have some of the big players, like Samsung and Apple, that come to these smaller events in the Bay Area, because Silicon Valley, right? It’s kind of the hub of technology, and so a lot of times we’ll get Amazon, we’ll get Apple, we’ll get Google to attend these small college hosted technology fairs, and we get to see what the big guns have, right? We get to see what these large companies have in the form of what technology they currently have, and a little snapshot of what they’re working on. So that’s a great resource. So again, colleges. Now, what I’m not sure–typically they reach out to us to let us know about these. I do know there’s a number of forums that one can become a member of and mailing lists where you can get communication for when these events are going to happen. Although, I don’t know what they are offhand, I apologize, but I do know that that’s a great resource, is through colleges, because they often host these types of events. 

Then there’s organizations that are more specific to a need, such as the National Federation for the Blind. They often host community-type technology fairs, or conventions, they’re also referred to as. And so you can go to the NFB website or the AFB, the American Federation of the Blind website, and find where these events are happening. Typically, they happen in Sacramento or Burlingame, that’s another popular area that they usually do these in. And then there’s California education system that offers events, like the California Teachers of the Visually Impaired event, CTEBVI is what it stands for, and so that’s an event that brings all the educators from California together, educators of those with disabilities, and it brings them all together, and it’s a great event with some informative and educative workshops on how to find out more about assistive technology. There’s vendors like us there that are demonstrating this amazing technology. So we have tables and tables of the cool tech you can come and try and touch and feel, and really kind of get and it may be your first exposure to this type of technology. And a lot of these events are free, which is great. They’re free to the public, so you can attend them. Hopefully that answered your question.

Hadiyah Fain: It does, and actually, a lot of the stuff that you mentioned seemed like it was right underneath my nose. I would consider myself pretty tech-forward, but I had no clue. And you wouldn’t know those things just sitting around in your house, right? You tend to be micro-focused on just whatever it is that your need is. I asked another question, this one’s for Dana, and before I switch it over to him, I just want to say this for those who are watching and coming after, is Ian’s done a wonderful job of just instilling hope, but at the end of the day, the end user, the families who are going to benefit, and hopefully the individuals that will be using the product or the technology that has been invented, the only way that anyone will know that there’s a problem or a need is if we open our mouth. And if we begin to talk about what the necessities actually are and frame the problem. And right now, I don’t know if there’s a forum like that openly for I/DD individuals to talk about it. Maybe some of you in the audience will be able to tell me that there is, but if we continue these conversations, then we won’t have technology handed to us. Right? We’ll be a part of the invention in the process. And so I’m going to ask Dana. Dana’s a father, and he’s also in a unique position to be the executive director of a nonprofit that provides services and housing for I/DD individuals. Dana, in your professional opinion, and of all that you’ve seen over the years, how far are we away from someone wanting to come into our house, or come into one of our programs, or one of our homes with an AI robot that is also a DSP. Or with something that acts as a one-to-one for that individual. Is that something that just sounds like some sort of science fiction movie to you?

Dana Hooper: Well, I had not even begun to think of where all these technologies are headed, but yeah, that’s kind of the intersection of robot technology and AI technology and all of these communication skills. Maybe we all, in our old age, will want to be taken care of by a kind and gentle robot. But one of the things that came to my mind, one of the biggest challenges many of the people we serve have, is that they’re non-verbal? And learning to communicate with them takes a lot of good old-fashioned spending time with them, and trying to understand them. My son’s a good example. His first response is always “no”. And so, is that a “no” he means “yes”? Or is that really a “no-no”? So I have a question, back for you, Ian. Is anybody doing stuff in the area of non-verbal assistive technology? Maybe helping others read what you mean by processing your expressions? Or training on you? Speech recognition was always based on training, on modeling, and maybe technology can train on us to better understand. You know, well, “this is what you meant, this may not have been what you said”. I’m just curious.

Ian Ramos: Yeah, absolutely. Actually, there’s some fairly new technology. They developed this about 6 months ago, and they approached us with this technology about 4 months ago. It’s still in beta. It’s technology that was originally developed, actually, for the blind. But what this technology does is it is able to capture and read people’s expressions, emotions, and from that, it can provide what that emotion was supposed to come across. So let’s say, for example, you’re totally blind, and you’re talking with somebody, and they’re doing different things with their face, like, “I don’t know about that, or I don’t agree”, or, yeah, they’re smiling. So, there’s technology–it’s about to drop–that’s going to be able to provide emotional recognition and facial recognition which will allow the end user to then capture what emotion they are trying to present, just with their facial features or their body stance.

Hadiyah Fain: Ian, wow. Can we get my husband one? This sounds like it’s going to help so many marriages. I know this is for I/DD, but my goodness. So, can I ask you this? How seamless is that device that you saw, or is it quite intrusive?

Ian Ramos: I blew us away because in our world, a really important factor of technology is the speed in which it can provide feedback. We don’t want to make awkward situations where we’re having to pause for a long time, or we wait for a response. We want it instantaneously, we want it very, very fast. And this device actually provided near instantaneous feedback. So, in the demonstration unit that we were able to test, as you look at somebody, and they give a facial expression or a body position, the device would within probably less than half a second, give you an emotional response, meaning, what emotion are they presenting with this facial expression or body language. It was extremely exciting because the latency was so little, meaning that the time delay was so little between the point where they expressed their emotion on their face, or on their body language, and when you as the end user would know what that emotion was. So, really exciting.

Dana Hooper: Wow. This is something that there’s a lot of people out there, including myself, that have been accused at different times of having a low emotional IQ, so this might be helpful. This is some feedback for you, Dana. You felt really positive about this, but that’s not the vibe you were sending.

Hadiyah Fain: Ian, I know you do a podcast, and I’d like to talk for a minute about that. Who’s your podcast for?

Ian Ramos: So our podcast is really directed towards anybody who wants to learn more about assistive technology–both the hardware, the software, as well as the development of that. So, the hardware–that’s pretty cut and dry. We talk about the different technologies that are available, devices for low vision, devices for hearing impairments, devices for speech recognition technologies. We actually don’t do much on nonverbal hardware technology because that’s really not our specialty. Our more popular podcasts or webinars, are the webinars where we provide you ways to help make your publicly accessible content more accessible. So, this is geared towards agencies and companies that have public-facing websites, or distribute public documentation, like medical facilities that have their weekly health news flyer that goes out. So we provide walkthroughs of brief explanations of how to make that content more accessible to those who use alternative communication methods or assisted technologies to view that content and comprehend that content. So, yeah, those are our most popular sessions by far, just because it provides some amazing resources at no charge. So, those are our most attended sessions. But we offer these every week. Typically, they’re on Wednesdays and there’s no sign-up required. You just get the link, you click on it, and you join in on the discussion. You can get the link by going to our website–actually I just saw it posted in the chat there. You can go there and sign up on the mailing list so that you can know what’s coming up next and also have the link to join in.

Hadiyah Fain: Yeah, so I’ve heard a lot tonight, and thank you so much for sharing that with us. Dana, I’m gonna ask you one more question, Ian, another question before we close out. My curiosity is about our openness. I know, Dana, you’ve sat in on think tanks with DDS and Stanford and so many different organizations. I think Lisa Zugel was joining us tonight. And a lot of people pick your brain for, kind of how to just live–the things that are basic. A lot of times when you’re in positions like that, you’re not really afforded the ability to dream wishes and dreams–you have to deal with the blocks that you have now. When speaking with DDS and listening to their rollout plan just last year, one of their bullet points were enabling technologies. Would LSA ever pilot something like that, and enabling technology of any type within our homes? Are we highlighting any enabling technologies within our homes?

Dana Hooper: Well, we certainly haven’t, but we certainly would love to. Kind of coming back to that whole discussion that we just had about nonverbal communication, and I guess the previous one about that robot character. I’m not sure that I’m ready to remove the humanness–caring and supporting others. But I’m sure there’s a role there, and we would certainly love to be on the forefront. And I think one of the problems with assistive technology is that you really have to get that feedback because people who don’t need it are oblivious to the need. We had this one story that was told over and over again at the lighthouse about this brand new building in downtown San Francisco. 30 beautiful floors, great elevator system–not a single button anywhere. Not a single button anywhere, and certainly no braille around the buttons–everything was digital. Digital screens. And someone who was visually impaired was absolutely, 100% locked out. They never thought about, is my new, bright, shiny thing really accessible, and who isn’t it accessible to? And how can I make it more accessible? So it’s a mindset, not just a technology thing.

Hadiyah Fain: I love that. I’m hearing one thing from Dana before I move on to our last question for you, Ian. I’m hearing Dana, as a provider, as a father, and as an advocate for people like his son, I’m hearing him say, ask us. Ask us. We’ll tell you. We’ll tell you exactly what our barriers are, and what some of our needs are, and if you’re in an organization or a company that’s dreaming up our future, don’t do it without us. And so for those who are reading the transcript and you’re gonna see this afterwards, I would invite anyone who has a great idea for a pilot, to pitch that idea to us or organizations like us, so that you can get our feedback. Dana and I both come from a high-tech background, before we got into our nonprofit days, and a lot of the things that we saw were about testing and client and customer focus. It seems like we’re moving so fast now with the technology that we’re not really focusing on customer feedback, but fish food and ratings, right? And whatever round we’re in, C round, B round, or whatever it is. That being said, Ian, I want to give one last question over to you before we conclude tonight and that’s just to ask you, what is it that you personally would like to see come out of this particular age of AI, assistive technologies, enabling technologies, if there was something you would want to see technology do next, what would it be, particularly for those who are at a different ability, or maybe even at a disadvantage to neurotypical or typical use of everyday items in life?

Ian Ramos: Wow, that is an amazing question. Again, I really have an excitement for AI. I really think it is going to be the future of so many different technologies that we utilize. Based on what I’ve just recently encountered, just within the last 2 months, I’ve learned a lot more about AI– just based on personal research and how it’s impacting this area of technology. And as I’ve discovered more about it, I’m also discovering, we are just barely scratching the surface on what AI is going to be able to do. And so, what I’d like to see is more integration that can provide a more real-time experience for those with a disability. Now, of course, I’m maybe more focused on the visually impaired, because that’s where our area of expertise lies and where our company focuses, but there are also lots of software that we provide that helps the I/DD community and can provide enhanced learning environments and tools to help those who need that help. So I think AI integration is really going to change the game across the board–computing, standalone devices, tablets, smartphones, everything. I just think more independence is coming.

Hadiyah Fain: I love to hear it. Well that being said, we have a focus this year on agency, and Ian did a wonderful job just breaking us into this first installment of I/DD Topics and Trends. And thank you so much for coming on tonight. Dana, that was wonderful. Thank you for speaking for all of us here at LSA, and for quite a bit of our community. If you want to contact Ian, want to ask him questions, if you want to listen to that podcast, you’ll find the link in our chat, but also his phone number and his email are right here. We are not yet legally bound by WCAG in this country, but his organization’s working to make sure that’s a standard for everybody. That being said, we’re really excited that we had a chance to talk with him. If you want to continue the conversation further, encourage you to use these contacts. And if you want to talk to us, here’s our information for you on all major socials, including X now–which was Twitter. We love to hear from you. Email us–it goes directly to me and my team at info@lsahhomes.org, or visit us on lsahomes.org to see this I/DD Topics and Trends and others in past years, as well as our next webinar, which you can sign up for. Which is planning for your future, our special needs trust, Ellen Cookman is going to join us. She’s an attorney at Cookman Law and the owner and principal at Cookman Law, and she’s a certified specialist. We’re gonna have her on next Tuesday at 6:30, right back on our Zoom line, so please be sure to sign up for that, register early, and if you don’t make it, we’ll have it online, but you’ll want to be here so you can ask her questions about planning for your loved one’s future. Ask about special needs trust, conservatorships, and decision-making options. Thank you so much again for joining us tonight. If you’d like to see us in person, we’re gonna have our annual race coming up, and that’s September 6th. The link is also in the chat. You can also scan here to register. Again, this one’s in person, and we’re gonna have an awesome time, where you can run, walk, or cheer us on at the finish line, come down to Vasona County Park in Los Gatos, and join us. We’d love to have you, and again, this is going to be literally a great event. It’s one of the best events that we throw for the year, so we’re excited if you’ll join us. If you choose, join us next week and the week after, we’ll be doing the rest of these I/DD Topics and Trends, and I’m excited about it. Thank you for joining us, everybody, and we’ll see you next time. Thanks, Dana. Thanks, Ian. Thank you everyone, bye-bye.