2010-08-18-For Your Information on Pdas

2010-08-18-For Your Information on PDAs

Seminars@Hadley

FYI on PDAs: Considerations When Choosing a

PDA / Note Taking Device

Presented by

Sharon Ewing

Amy Salmon

Moderated by

Billy Brookshire

August 18, 2010

Billy Brookshire

Good morning! The time is upon us and I would like to welcome you to Seminars@Hadley. My name is Billy Brookshire. I will be your moderator today. Today we are going to be talking about FYI on PDAs: Considerations when choosing a PDA/Note Taking Device. PDA stands for Personal Digital Assistant or is that Personal Data Assistant, I am sure our speakers will help us out with that today. We have two great speakers here today who know this topic backwards and forwards. You guys are going to really enjoy what they have to say. I am sure you will have lots questions at the end. So, please hang in there for the question and answer session.

Today, our speakers are Sharon Ewing who is co-owner and Assisted Technology Trainer for Kewing Enterprises and Amy Salmon who is a Hadley instructor par excellence. You guys are in for treat this morning. Not to take up any more of their time, I am going to hand the microphone over to you Sharon. Take it away.

Sharon Ewing

Good morning everyone. I am privileged to be here. I was asked to do this in early July and have been on the road. I want to ask your forgiveness for anything that may or may not seem prepared. I feel pretty confident in the subject. I was an evaluator for the State of Texas in the Assistive Technology Unit here in Austin. I get to see a lot of situations in which note takers were chosen by people. First they hired a consultant, worked with them and had a consult done (employment assistant specialist). The employment assistant specialist determined their need for such a device.

I am going to backtrack just a bit because note taker in today’s scheme of things is almost non-applicable to what the device can actually do. Note taking assumes simply note taking; which in a college or university setting many times you would see an individual who was gifted in that area and took very good notes. The person would come on and they would help someone who had a disability. Whatever that disability whether physical which kept them from being able to write and/or a visual disability. They would actually put their names up on message boards advertising their skill either as a volunteer or for pay. Many times those individuals were excellent in their classes and did a great job, but there was a problem with the issue of independence.

Many blind people what to be independent. One of the first tools that I believe was used in that venue was a simple tape recorder. I had a young woman come into my evaluation and said all she had used in her entire 4 years of college to get a bachelors degree was a simple tape recorder. For some people that is perfect. They have no problem with using a tape recorder and actually prefer it. There are those that want to physically take notes. To quote Mr. Hodges in his article for AFB, “Enter this device or enter that device…” we see Braille Express,Braille n’Speak and later the Braille Lite, and the Millennium series.

All of these devices came on board with much more than the ability to take notes. They had full calendar function, phone books, and options to connect to PCs with serial connections. They were capable of speech. You could listen to your notes with the originaldevices. Then you had the Braille Lite which also came on board with a Braille display. You could have Braille output as well as Braille input. Also, let’s not forget the type and speak. The ability for those of us who love QWERTY input, you could type and save in a format that you could use later. These things began to change what was used and expected in the field andas time went by, other companies brought along other devices.

Now we come to the situation of what do I need? What do I choose for myself? There are so many choices. The variable in the cost is phenomenal. For example, there are netbooks or laptops you can purchase these for under $300 and $500 respectively. You can add a Braille display for approximately $2000 or less and that gives you something that is half the cost of a traditional note taking device. What about if you want it to come on instantly? Do you hibernate, do you sleep, do you force the device to use the battery by putting it into a low power hibernate so that you can get that instant on? Well, maybe not, maybe you would prefer to have the ability to just turn it on and there it is. Or a calendar that is set up for Braille input as opposed to using Outlook. Some of these considerations need to be thought about as you look at these devices.

Another criteria to think about with assistive devices is your job description. Do you actually need a device that is portable along with your desktop? Do you actually need a device that would allow you to bring it to a board room and take notes in a meeting? Most times you need something if you are in any sort of management capacity or in an assistant capacity. You do have to have something that is portable to take notes in meetings. Again, somebody might prefer to use a simple tape recorder, but most of us want something that has a little more functionality. Most of us want the capability of being able to schedule while you are in the meeting or perhaps you get a call and you need to be able to write something down right then.

What about in school? One of the situations we came across in the senior years of a college degree program that laptops were required. Do you need a laptop and a note taker? Sometimes people want the ability to take short notes without booting up a laptop. Here we are back at the instant on capability. Something even more important is battery life of a laptop in that situation.

Note takers have such a wonderful battery life. In some devices such as the Braille Lite and Braille n’ Speak it can be as much as 30 hours. Now you are looking at 12, 15, or 20 hours depending on the device. When you start talking about note takers in the context of laptops, netbooks, and notebooks, gosh! How many books can we get confused with? Laptops tend to be larger with a built-in keyboard and number pad with traditional screen access tools such as JAWS®, WindowEyes, and VDA that use the number pad and the fact that the keys are larger for those who have issues with small keys. There are issues with the space between the keys. How far do I have to move and the shape of the key tends to make an impact. I have had people choose note taker on nothing more than the size of the keyboard alone. They didn’t like the way the keyboard felt on any of the devices and they were willing to sacrifice any other factors to have that particular keyboard. In this sense, a laptop is going to be the better solution.

Then comes the notebook which is smaller with a full keyboard, 15 inch or smaller screens, but you still have to worry about using that function key to access your mouse keys or JAWS® cursor unless you are willing to switch to the laptop keyboard settings. Lots of people don’t like using laptop keyboards they just want to stick with the traditional keyboard settings for screen access tools so they get a number pad instead whether integrated or removable. Those don’t always work well. That is another consideration.

You have battery life, keyboard size, and then the size of the device and its power. Let’s talk about power. For example with netbooks, I get reports from field training that include, my Braille display is sluggish. I love my Braille display and when I use my netbook I often have issues with the Braille display acting sluggish and not having quite as much power to handle the peripherals. You also have the issue of the external CD-ROM. You do have SD Card capability on most netbooks that you can save to, but a lot of times that might be an issue.

If we are talking about netbooks, notebooks, and laptops there are going to be other considerations. I would certainly like to ask Amy to bring her input into this part of our discussion which is what about low vision? Amy, how do we deal with that issue?

Amy Salmon

Thanks Sharon. I did want to touch on the low vision aspect of the netbook world. I have worked with quite a few students in the last couple of years and one downside of the netbook is a smaller screen size. A laptop monitor is normally 15 to 17 inches, notebooks range from 13 to 14 inches and netbooks tend to be around 10 inches.

The other problem that we have with netbooks that I want anyone with low vision to take into consideration when they are looking at this option for themselves, a client, or student is that the video quality on a netbook is very degraded. It is much less than what you would get on a typical screen for a laptop, notebook, or desktop monitor. When looking at a netbook as an option for a low vision user I really recommend they get their hands on a netbook and look at the quality of the screen. The other problem is that if you hook up a netbook to a standard flat-screen desktop monitor your quality is not going to improve because the video feed from the netbook is still the same lower quality. Even though you might have an excellent desktop monitor you want to use you are not going to get any improved image quality because of the video card in the netbook. Again, make sure you take a good look at those netbooks and make sure that they meet your needs.

The other problem I see with low vision people having with the netbook is the size of the keyboard and particularly the size of the keys. They are difficult to label and see. These are just some issues I want to make sure everybody is aware of as they look at the netbook option.

If it is okay with Sharon then I will move on to our next section which talks about mobile note taking or PDA solutions.

Sharon Ewing

In relations to the keys I did also mention earlier and want to reiterate that is also in the key size and key shape. We go back to that same issue with netbook keyboards being smaller than the notebooks and laptops. Sometimes key reach, key shape, and those people who just like that traditional feel to the keyboard you won’t get that with the netbook. You are going to get little bitty keys. Often times there is no definitive difference but for example your function keys are not going to have division between them. They are just straight across. If you do choose the Netbook avenue you are going to want to mark those keys like F4, F8, F12 because sometimes there is no declination between F12 and the insert, delete, and home keys. Keyboard layout is a big consideration. Again, it also makes you want to think more about the key size, battery life, and what Amy mentionedabout the video quality.

Amy Salmon

Thanks Sharon. We are going to go on to the next area of note taking solutions that I like to call mainstream PDA options. Another term you will hear in the field today is mobile solutions. These include cells phones, smartphones, and Pocket PCs. They really have come quite a ways in the last couple of years as far as being an accessible option for somebody who is visually impaired. But, what is the difference?

A cellular phone can be a Symbian-based phone or a Windows-based mobile phone which are the two primary phones on the market today. Android is a new one that has just recently come onto the market and I consider that to be more of a smartphone not a standard cellular phone.

Then there are smartphones. Smartphones cover everything from the Android, Blackberry, and iPhone. Those would all be considered smartphones. A smartphone is a cellular phone that also offers other options and functions, such as accessing the internet, checking email, and calendar and contacts all in one place on your phone.

Then there are the more robust which are the Pocket PCs. A Pocket PC can be a cell phone, but can also be a standalone mobile device. On a Pocket PC you typically have email, internet, calendar, and contracts, but you also have more advanced computer functionality like Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word, or PowerPoint available on the device.

Then comes the personal digital assistant, you were right Billy, which can be a standalone device or incorporated into your cell phone. For example, the iPhone would be considered a smartphone/PDA, the iTouch I would consider a PDA because it doesn’t offer the cell phone functionality.

Those are your categories of mobile solutions. Any of these you can get at what I like to say, “What’s at Best Buy?” My husband and I love to go to Best Buy. We love to check out what’s new and love to buy toys. All of this stuff you can buy at Best Buy. You don’t have to go through a special vendor selling products for the blind or visually impaired.

How do they make these mainstream products accessible? There are several different techniques. If you go the iPhone/iTouch/ iPad route and I lump them all together because they all work on the same platform/operating system usingVoiceOver as the screen reader to access the information. Right there you have a solution that is all built into one. You buy an iPhone you have VoiceOver. It’s built into the operating system. If you have an iPad, again it’s just a bigger version of the iPhone but does not have cellular phone service, but has VoiceOver built right into the operating system.

Then as you move to the Windows mobile platform which would be a Windows mobile smartphone or your Symbian based cell phone there are other options for you as a blind or visually impaired user. You can go with Mobile Speak and Mobile Magnifier which is manufactured by a company called Code Factory based in Spain. Mobile Speak provides you text-to-speech access to all functions on your smartphone, cell phone, or Pocket PC. Mobile Magnifier provides those with low vision magnified access to the features on your smartphone, Symbian cell phone or Pocket PC.

Android is in a category by itself. Android has some text-to-speech support built into the operating system, but it is not the greatest. I don’t recommend the Android for somebody who is a blind user because they have not quite perfected this function. They are working on upgrades to the OS for the Android to make it more accessible for people who need text-to-speech access.

What can you do with these mobile solutions? Why are we talking about them as they relate to note takers? In a lot of ways these mobile solutions could be note takers. I am going to talk about my own personal experience. I think that will give everybody an idea in a more real-world situation. I am legally blind and I used a traditional note taker. About two years ago I replaced my traditional note taker with a Windows Mobile Pocket PC running Mobile Speak from Code Factory.

I am the mother of two little kids and my cell phone and I never part. We are together all the time. I wanted a device that offered me a cell phone capability, keep the kids soccer schedule, and my doctor appointments all in one place. I also had all of my contacts in the same location so that I could quickly look up the doctors address and phone number, but also giving me the ability to read a book if I am sitting in a doctors office or listen to music, or take notes. The Windows Pocket PC gave me that option. I now have Microsoft Word as my note taker and I can do all of those tasks all together. The device I chose had a built-in keyboard, one of those itty bitty what I like to call mice type built-in QWERTY keyboards, but I added a Bluetooth fold up external QWERTY keyboard that when folded was about the size of a deck of cards. When unfolded was a fairly large keyboard that I could then use in tandem with my Pocket PC. It was a great solution and worked wonderfully. I really enjoyed it instead of carrying a note taker, cell phone, and book reader. I had it all in one device.

In February of this year I decided to upgrade to the iPhone 3GS. I am very happy. I was thrilled in June of this year when they came out with the operating system 4 for the iPhone which now fully supports Bluetooth for Braille display as well as Bluetooth external QWERTY keyboard support for the iPhone. I personally purchased the Bluetooth QWERTY keyboard and it works beautifully with the iPhone. Again, I have everything in one solution.