PrAACtical Pictures: ATIA 2013 Orlando

All we can say is Wow!  ATIA 2013 Orlando was awesome! Since it is February, we will focus on things we LOVE as it relates to our ATIA experience. Here are just a few thoughts and pictures from our time in the Exhibit Hall.

(Please note, this is just a small sample of the many, many things seen and learned.  Our list is based on the pictures we took and the time we had in the Exhibit Hall (both limited). A comprehensive list of Exhibitors can be found at the ATIA 2013 Orlando Site under the Exhibit List. 

So much to see and learn!

FRS Custom Solutions.- We loved  meeting the FRS Team (especially since they are based in Fort Lauderdale) and learning about the CommLink ProSlate Series.

Fat Cat Chat– Love the Fat Cat Chat apps for ‘small talk’ (Thanks Jane Farrall for blogging about Fat Cat Chat apps).  Immediately downloaded the new Fat Cat Action and see multiple possibilities for teaching symbolic play joint action routines and conversation that goes with fantasy play.  Will write more once we try it out with children.

Alexicom Tech– We got to meet the Alexicom team (Karen Suhm & Jerry Little pictured here).  We love the great AAC apps and were so impressed by the amazing energy of the team and their openness to feedback.  We are looking forward to the continued support and development of the Alexicom Apps.

                   
Love all the visual language educational supports.  Vizzle and News-2-You had great options for communication, language, and literacy.

TBox Apps–  have some great innovative AAC, language, and phonology apps.  Their apps run on both  iOS and android platforms.  We love how they are developing apps that span the speech, communication, and language domains.

Marblesoft- Simtech develops special needs software for Macintosh and Windows platforms.  We love the Marblesoft accessible software for early education and games and Simtech’s cause effect learning,  switch training, scanning and early literacy software.

Widgit-  We love the Widgit slogan “Symbols for inclusion and accessibility”.  Widgit has a variety of free and paid resources that embrace the philosophy of making language visual.  Love the health resources We got a tip about using the Canadian version of the  First Response Communication Book because the health system symbols are closer to those in the United States. We also found out that an ICE (in case of emergency) Card  was developed in direct response to a suggestion from an adult with autism who felt it was needed (love responsive companies).

TobyChurchill– Got to see Todd Meltzer, a colleague and friend (who moved away). We loved catching up. We looked at the Lightwriter® SL40 Connect and the Lightwriter® Swift, both portable and accessible keyboard based text to speech devices.

Talking Tiles – We love the Talking Tiles mission: “To make AAC Affordable, Accessible and Adaptable to everyone”.   Talking Tiles is a comprehensive AAC system that is compatible with Apple, Android, & Windows.  It has some awesome features including remote programming, remote collaboration, an affordable subscription price and is free for professionals.

Cognitopia– develops apps for self management.  Picture Planner is an easy to use icon based organizer.  Scan Do is a soon to be released new app.   It pairs UPC or QR codes with video modeling.  It allows you to link any you-tube video with a UPC code.  Video modeling made easier (recently checked tooth brushing video’s and there were more than 10 pages of options).

TalkRocket Go by MyVoice was  one of the first AAC apps to use GPS  related to vocabulary displays. The app is continually  supported and updated.    RocketKeys is a new AAC solution that is a customizable talking keyboard that is fully accessible for direct selection even  if the user has imprecise or unsteady hands.  There is an innovative word prediction software based on analyzing 9 million Twitter tweets. We got to try this out and were able to choose words for our conversation that were predicted intuitively.  Very exciting!

We Loved ATIA 2013!