At NDI financial stability and independence our mission is to collaborate and innovate to build a better financial future for people who have a disability and their family members as well.
We have here at National Disability Institute an assistive technology loan program.
Our services include outreach and providing these promotional webinars financial education and guidance on spending plan development.
We provide referrals tell you look at the assistive technology they need.
We received a grant to the U.S. Department of Education rehabilitation program.
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Today we welcome Vicki Spraul and Aaron Milligan from Gray Matters Alliance as they demonstrate successful pathways to using assistive technology.
Using remote monitoring and telehealth technologies and how they are improving learning, they are giving and creating improved safety and independence for people who use assistive technology.
This recording along with our assistive technology Spotlight webinars are being recorded and they are posted within one week at the national disability Institute assistive technology fight for viewing.
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>> I would like to introduce Vicki Spraul founder and president of Gray Matters Alliance LLC.
She holds a BA in business administration.
From Vicki's passion for the older population led her to create a grave matters alliance in 2014.
‑‑ great matters alliance in 2014.
She discovered the disabled population shares a lot of the same trials and tribulations as seniors and she wanted to serve those people as well.
Also I want to introduce Aaron Milligan he is a certified and licensed occupational therapy assistant.
He graduated from Merrimack community College within applied sciences.
While working through school he began working as a rehabilitation technician and continued his work throughout the years in acute hospital rehabilitation geriatric rehabilitation long‑term care, home health, and administration of rehabilitation facilities.
That is since 1996.
Thank you Vicki and Aaron.
Take it away.
>> We appreciate that.
Hello, I am Vicki I want to thank everyone for joining today.
We hope you enjoyed the demonstration and that you get some informative information out of it.
I want to go over a few things before we show you a couple of the systems a live and in action but I wanted to give you a background.
This is on how we approach things.
We are and enabling assistive technology company and our goal is to help people remain or become independent and do it all safely at the same time.
We take the holistic whole person approach.
When we design our systems because we know people go out to the home or they are in the home and they go out to the community.
We want to cover all the bases in every part of their life.
Our systems are great in the sense that everything is under one roof for the most part.
And so that way people can just learn one thing or another but all the systems are hippo compliant.
They are very safe because they are closed systems.
So only those that get invited in can have access into the systems.
The systems are either a monitor or a tablet and that is what someone who will use it sees in front of them but anybody else who wants to interact with that has permissions or would oversee someone's support remotely and do it or any kind of smart device as long as they have Internet connectivity.
They can remotely monitor someone from afar.
Like I said, it is permission based.
And everything in the system is a rules and alerts based also.
If this happens, what do you want to happen next.
If a door opens at 1:00 a.m. what's the next action you want to happen?
You probably want to call somebody and who's on the call list?
We do not just to reiterate, we are not a call center ourselves but we do help organizations and agencies set up their own turnkey call center utilizing their own staff.
We can talk off‑line if you're interested.
But I wanted to go over a little bit about that so when you view it you can get a gist of what it is about.
And Aaron will take over and give you an actual live demonstration that we hope you enjoy.
At the end if you have questions would be happy to answer them.
And if anyone ever want to demonstration to get more in depth would be happy to do that as well.
Thank you so much.
>> First we will go through a few slides then we will go into a live demonstration.
We like to believe that when you see this visually it really helps with the understanding of what the whole system can do.
That being said are subject today is pathways to success assistive technology remote monitoring and telehealth so we are urgent.
Briefly, our agenda, we will talk about our mission and what is assistive technology and where it can be utilized.
Advantages of assistive technology and the contact information and a live demonstration.
Our mission is to provide a full spectrum of health safety and technology services for those individuals with intellectual or physical limitations the aging population and their families and professional staff.
In a nutshell, we are a problem‑solving company and our goal is to provide safety and independence for those of any age.
We have clients from four years old all the way to 90.
And we work with people no matter what environment they are in if they are at home or in an assisted group home or assisted living or in their own environment with or without family we can pretty much take care of anyone.
What is assistive technology?
Products, equipment, and systems that enhance learning, working, daily living for persons with disabilities.
It can be item piece of equipment and software or product system that is used to increase, maintain, or improve the functional capabilities of persons with disabilities.
It can be low‑tech or high tech.
It can be anything from a shoe to an adaptive utensil and it can be as high and as robotic hands and electronics and IT.
There is a low tech and there is high tech but it's all inclusive as far as what inclusive technology is.
Where can be utilized?
The answer is anywhere.
So, these are all the environments that we work with communities and some you might not think about.
Like hospice and palliative care.
Obviously, homes are bridging a gap between hospitalization and care at home.
If you look here you will see that assistive technology can be used anywhere.
What are the advantages to assistive technology?
Medication management and learning is one of our biggest concerns when someone is trying to be independent.
Self-management of chronic diseases.
Making sure that the systems we are using and the things that we do are safe.
And that communication and the assistive technology uses communication which is key to being able to respond to someone quickly.
It's very cost‑effective as opposed to what human supports can be a ‑‑ can be.
The money savings with assistive technologies are almost one third cheaper.
Let me take that back, it's probably two thirds cheaper.
But if you can use remote support communication with family and everyone being able to be on the same page and seeing what's going on you know when a mom or dad is letting their child live alone for the first time or attempt certain things if we can give them some control over that situation it means a lot and allows the parent to may let them go just a little bit further with whatever they're working on.
And it provides peace of mind.
Obviously, independence and safety is what we are all about.
It's a way of having ‑‑ a way of being involved without physically being involved.
We tried to be as noninvasive as we can in someone's life who wants to be independent.
It's a good way to know what's going on without being too involved.
Caregiver accountability avoiding 30-day readmissions and it's being proactive in using technology as opposed to reactive which is what we see too much of.
Improving staff efficiency and saving money and resources.
We will pop this up again may be at the end but our contact for this is Sheena Jaffer and she works with us.
She is the boots on the ground in your area.
This is our contact information.
Here it's up for just a second or maybe we can come back to it later but do feel free to contact us and review our website at gray matters alliance all.com and feel free to write Sheena's all right we are at demonstration time.
We are at demonstration time.
This is an emulation of one verse ‑‑ one of our systems.
We carry different types of remote monitoring.
They all kind of do the same things but we do have one that is based upon cognitive and behaviors.
Another one is cellular and Wi‑Fi ‑based.
We want to make sure it is as reliable as we can make it.
This is one of the three that we have today.
I will go off of this one and then we can talk about if I get the opportunity to show you the other when we can look at it.
Let's start by talking about communication.
We want to create a care circle and if you see on her demonstration, and the demonstration name if you hear me refer to it is just incredible.
This is Justin's care circle and you see me, I am Aaron and this is everyone involved in Justin's life.
Justin can reach out with the push of a button and communicate to that person right away.
Just the touch of button you can reach out make a phone call.
You can also call into the system.
If something happens like of someone went down to the basement and never came back up or, if, the door opens up at a weird time of night or if a medication was missed.
If someone should have been out of bed and ready to go to school or work and they have not gone up yet you want to be able to retrieve and get alerts then go back and check.
By the time you receive an alert it can be face‑to‑face with that individual and that takes less than ten seconds.
It is very quick.
There are multiple ways to communicate back and forth.
Here is a touch screen that's what you're looking at.
I can reach out here.
If I have a question or if I need help or I'm working on cooking and I forgot part of my recipe and I want to know about it, you can just reach out with the press of a button.
We also have wearable.
You can have a wearable pendant.
You can wear one as a watch.
Also we have things that worked out in the community that are satellite‑based.
We can know someone made it on the bus and got to school or got to their jobs or if they're out on a trip we know they're safe moving those kinds of things and so many multiple ways to communicate.
I will go into the main menu here and I will start talking about some of the aspects of remote systems and the holistic approach to someone and having that all in one location you will see multiple facets of caregiving and ways to remotely speak to individual.
First obligate with medical.
‑‑ I will begin with medical.
Here you can see basic nursing vitals.
If you have an uncontrolled diabetic or someone managing their weight or maybe they are COPD or some kind of breathing condition then you can add things manually or a Bluetooth will input the information for you.
I will go to blood pressure.
You will see the basic vitals that will pop up.
We can set alert and parameters.
If someone takes a blood pressure and it's above or below the parameters we want in then an alert goes out.
Notifying someone to check on.
It also comes in a graphic form.
We are looking for trends.
We talk about being proactive.
We are looking for spikes or we are looking for downwards or sporadic.
This is telehealth so any physician, nurse, caregiver can come in and review this information and pull it up at the doctor's office.
They can come in and we can give permissions for them to look at it during a remote telehealth visit.
Medication management is also very important.
It's probably one of the main things we deal with was someone trying to work on independence.
We want to make sure that they can safely take their medications.
We do have reminders and we can set time frames where, at 10:31 a.m. if they have not acknowledged that they had taken their medicine and alert can go out and notify the care circle on how to check on the individual and make sure they took their medicine.
Coming up with a detailed the data of each and every medication you can have a detailed medication list as well.
I will skip over here because I consider the medical part let's go into caregiving and then we can move on the next one from there.
Each individual can receive a pin code.
It's almost like a log in or check in that says I'm here and I'm doing my jab.
You can leave care nodes and keep all the family engaged in all the care circle coming in and this is an example of how Justin wasn't feeling well at breakfast at lunch he still was not feeling good.
We took his temperature and he still had a fever so they called in a telehealth visit and this is what the doctor had to say and then this is how he did overnight.
Not only do we take care of the individual but we want to make sure the caregivers have all the information and data and information that they have if they are taking care of the individual.
This is what I'm doing for my individual today whether it is doing the laundry or working on exercises or shower day this could be their list of things we want to make sure we get done in the day.
But me and my therapeutic brain always thinking independence if we come in we want to leave some direction don't just slap shaving >> ‑‑ saving ‑‑ shaving cream and slapper razor on them we are working on independence meaning you're allowing someone to do as much as they can by themselves and then assisting in the most minimalistic way you can complete a task.
But now are thinking therapeutically.
Our goal is not just to do things for them.
That is not independence.
That is what I described earlier.
That is the telehealth part.
Now I want to get into how we do with education and teaching on independence.
Here is a full list.
We have been demonstrating this for a long time.
There is a lot on here.
I will take a couple parts out of it.
You don't need a reminder but it's time to take your medication and an alert will pop up individually and allow the person to acknowledge the task at hand.
I will open up morning routine and show you that it's not just time to get up but what does it mean?
And what we do?
We can attach videos, checklists, it can help a person through an activity so they understand exactly.
>> morning routine, take a shower, save, and brush teeth, that shave and brush teeth, comb hair, put on deodorant, eat breakfast, checked the weather before you leave.
>> there you go.
You see that.
Actually I will throw this out there.
You will see a video play here.
>> can you make a good peanut butter and jelly?
>> the checklist would play out and then that video would kick in.
You can remotely access the computer if they are just right on time what you know?
But you can get in and access the portal remotely.
And you can add to the schedule and you can change medications.
You can upload videos and do these things from anywhere in the world.
All you need is to access a person's device and you need anything smart.
You can do it on your phone, laptop, and you can get in here and make changes or send notes and details and also of course communicate.
Education and training.
There are multiple ways that you can train both caregivers and the individual.
We can download how to use and work on skills.
We work with a lot of therapists, lots of speech therapists, cognitive behavioral therapists, and they ask us to say can we work on this?
We need to get a jab but we are in rehab or school games, working with teachers.
We can go in and ADL skills anything they're working on from balance exercises, life skills, we can come in here and you know fire safety, stovetop safety, anything the individual has as a goal or a milestone that they are working to achieve we want to be able to give them the tools to do that.
We like to work with professional staff.
Caregivers who are in the house, moms, and dads.
As someone achieves the goal we want to be able to move on.
When you get something for us to get us, therapists that come with us.
They say we got pretty good and cooking we want to work on recipes bring that to me and I'll upload recipes.
Or any skills we want to work on we want to involve.
Other thing on the caregiver side of someone's not used to caregiving, and it may be ‑‑ and at one point may they were care of now into caregiving role remember give medication, take them to the bathroom, or this is how they transfer this is how someone should look in their wheelchair.
This is how the equipment is that they should feed themselves.
If you have someone non-communicative.
If there are certain signs sounds or symbols that they make what they mean?
We can upload that.
It caregiver can refer back to it.
‑‑ a caregiver can refer back to it and we can know what to do in certain situations we can leave a plan behind for the caregivers.
Okay, back side.
In the main menu.
You can always if you want to keep an eye on someone's lifestyle particularly may be they are eating or it's behavioral or their mood or maybe they're diabetic and you want to be able to track some assessments and you want to see how someone is doing we can get in here and go through questionnaires that they can do daily.
All of the stuff is tracked in data collected.
You can see if there is a downward or upward trend with their mood or behavior and how they are feeling and those kinds of things.
Now we will talk about therapeutically working with someone.
How do we want to engage someone who has behaviors or is autistic or maybe they are just socially awkward and they don't have ‑‑ they have a hard time having friends but they don't communicate well with others.
There are all kinds of things we can add to virtual reality tour through museums, traveling, here is a calming aquarium I can show you.
If someone just needs to relax and take a little time out.
If you think about it, we can do church services here, live stream video of a family wedding, or a grandchild's soccer game or whatever it might be.
But we want to engage and pull out some emotion.
If you are working with someone speech and they have a hard time expressing themselves, what we want to do?
Find out what their likes and needs are and upload that so we can talk about it.
I have an autistic nephews into Pokémon and Ghostbusters.
He's 12 years old now.
I know to keep those things around if we need to take a timeout.
We like to find the likes and needs and it helps them engage.
Photos, uploading photos and being able to talk about your family, friends, favorite pets, things you like but one of the other things I like and here is that you can actually create your own communication board.
You can put different things of the needs around the house or where I want to go eat and customized around the individual.
We have systems that will second as a device.
We can upload communication device apps and you can get all of this on top of having an embedded communication device.
Utilizing playing orientation and news to talk about and engage but they think of this is fun and we think of it is therapy.
Whether it is relaxation over working on memory we work with a lot of traumatic brain injuries.
Strokes, CBA, Alzheimer's, and autism, you name it.
Utilizing games are fun to create and to work towards goals.
Music is big for people.
I don't know if anyone has ever talked or met with the music therapist.
But if you ever learned about music therapy and how it can engage and help therapeutically with someone it can be quite amazing.
Orientation and news.
The important thing to know is that we have created ways to actually take things from the Internet and then lock them down.
You can't go out and search, you can't go out in Google, you can't go buy things, you can't do things on this, it safe and secured so there's no way to get in trouble to use our system.
With taken all of those dangers out.
People cannot get in, only the people that are in their care circle are the only ones that can utilize this.
Lastly, I want to talk about smart home.
We have the health part taken care of.
We have the caregiving and the independence that we are working on taking care of.
Now I will talk about the safety part in how we can create smart homes actually will collect data and protect the individual or make them more independent.
Let's start with safety.
We can do smart stove knobs, we can do motion sensors, contact centers, video doorbells, perimeter cameras, there are occasions where we have had ‑‑ we don't like to use cameras inside if we can avoid it.
But sometimes mom may need to know they're down in the basement playing and I need to go cook dinner so I need to just keep an eye on them and know that they are safe and doing the right things.
There is a need for a camera every once in a while but we tried to avoid those and use motion sensors and those kinds of things that we can.
But door openers and stair lifts and those kinds of things.
But anything smart home we can do and Alexa related things ‑‑ Alexa related things to turn off the lights into the smart home kind of thing.
And were getting into even cooking safety.
Alerts when the stove has been turned on or off.
Smart smoke detectors, it will alert out into the community.
We have ways to monitor sleep so you know if you know they're having a lot of behaviors during the day you can look at the data and see that they were up all night.
Sleep is important to someone.
We realize that sleep actually is a serious problem for people nowadays.
We’re doing a lot of work with sleep research right now as well.
I am going to pause my sharing for a moment.
I will show you neat interesting things that are not on the system that we can utilize.
I'm sorry about that.
Can you see my screen?
>> It looks good we seek care systems.
>> I will show you interesting items that are common with what we do.
The first is called Angel sense.
Actually it is a GPS device that comes in the form of a watch or a wearable pendant.
It has SOS capabilities so you can actually call into a care circle if you are remote and out and about.
If you have someone working on independence, getting to work, or getting to school or you have someone who's out with a friend and you want to check and make sure they are in the location they should be in you can check that through an app on your phone.
You can call into the particular device it works to satellite, and so if something is amiss or awry you can call in and check on the individual.
Actually this Loxahatchee to clothing as well.
‑‑ this will actually attach to pant belt or purse.
That way it won't get lost, taken, or thrown away.
If you have someone that says I want mom to let me walk to the store so I can grab a Soda but my nephew one time got a good grade on his artwork and walked out of school with his artwork and started knocking on the doors of neighbors because he was so proud.
He left school with it and knocked on neighbors doors to show them his artwork.
Lots of needs and ways to utilize that.
I want to be leery of time as well if someone could please check and tell me how are doing on time.
>> We have about 20 minutes left before the top of the hour and I would like to invite people to put any questions they may have into the queue and A.
>> And please stop me if there is a question and we can pause.
Twenty minutes is great we will probably have plenty of time for questions.
Seizure monitoring, collecting data pre‑ seizure, during a seizure, and post‑ seizure, to collect data to see if there are triggers going on that happen.
We have school districts that call us and want these at school so they can monitor.
We also have a sleep monitor that helps with seizures.
This is a little saying that you lay on at night and it will monitor for abnormal movements, abnormal patterns, and believe it or not we have a ton, because we work with so many traumatic brain injuries unfortunately seizures are common with that we have many children ‑‑ really it's more about collecting data to see if we can find a solution for the individual.
Here are smart knobs I was telling you about.
There we go.
You can see that we replace the stove knobs here and it will alert you when things are turned on and off.
It comes with the motion sensor in front and it will alert if someone has walked away or no motion is detected in front of the stove and that will send out an alert.
That also works with this, this is the same a company called sleep sense and believe it or not this little coaster right here, the coaster looking thing, if it's on the end of your bed and collects all the sleep data but more importantly it is a bed alert.
If anyone cannot really wear something this is a good night safety thing to alert if someone has gotten up and out of bed or if they're not sleeping.
These are all kinds of things you get with it.
It literally it fits under the end of the corner of the bed right there.
We use this as a series.
That in a motion sensor in every room.
We have a program called the very care that is artificial intelligence and learns behaviors and patterns around the house.
If you're typically up at a certain time or if you have not gone to the kitchen to eat it will sense abnormalities and kind of send you an alert that says hey this could be an abnormality, this is what is going on and it will collect data.
If you are a first‑time parent whose child has moved out and is living alone that is a great way to just know that they are sleeping at night or they are not sleeping at night and they are up playing video games when they should not be, or something behaviorally might be going on.
It's a great way as they recommend this to everyone who starting on their own for the first time.
This one we get a lot of information about this is a rechargeable robotic feeder.
You will see here and noticed the two buttons and one button will change where the spoon goes and what bites you want to eat and the second one actually scoops and brings the bite to your mouth.
It can be taken to a restaurant or to a family event like I said it is rechargeable and it's so easy to set up.
Some other devices are things like I gaze, eye tracking devices.
Our particular device will actually not only ‑‑ you can use it to communicate what you can control your environment with it.
You can watch movies, Facebook, e‑mail, you can control your lights,, you can control computer, you can control your cell phone, anything you like.
It doesn't always have to have the I tracker it can be individualized like just the handheld a press button.
But then, again, it does have the eye gaze capability.
We do have several other communication devices that we do help ‑‑ would do have the ability to get them.
Communication devices are covered by insurance.
Where most of this other stuff is not but we cover them to the waiver or grant funding or things like that.
This one takes a minute.
This is a laser like reader.
If you have someone with a not so good reading comprehension or low vision ‑‑ I will play this for a second pair extract the ultimate solution for people with reading difficulties.
The extraordinary reading power that never has been achieved before.
It's a handheld device with a visual sensor that captures text from any service.
An LED for lowlight environments all operation is controlled with four number ergonomic buttons.
Outfitted with the two laser modes for precision.
>> It's a point‑and‑click that will read the page and anyone who wants to learn more about this there are couple different versions.
There is a smart version here that will actually sit on your glasses.
And it is incredible.
It will dissect words and areas to read and you can say hey, do this action and it will do it for you.
Quick look at safety measures, this is smart lock.
This actually attaches over a deadbolt.
And to become smart.
So you know when the door has been locked unlocked.
Yesterday we had a mom in Germany and the sun was here in the living alone for the first time and literally from Germany she could lock his door if you forgot to do it.
We can code doors; this one has a video camera installed into it so it is an all‑in‑one.
Security and safety is most important for people when they try to live alone but unfortunately some people with disabilities their choices of where they can live are not always in the best neighborhoods.
Her best places.
So making sure that they are safe is high on our list.
Medication dispensers, we have multiple kinds of medication dispensers I will just maybe show you one so you get the right idea.
There are many different kind of medication dispensers one you flip over but all of them do alerts and will show you ‑‑ will talk to you and tell you when it's time to take your medications.
We have medication dispensers that will drop them into a cup.
Or into a box, we have 90 days worth or we can do a weeks worth, a months worth, really we have to go in and assess for which type is best made for you but we do have several different choices.
Let's talk about LE Q, this is new.
I just got one about two months ago and it has been sitting on my desk but this is an artificial intelligent robot that talks to you and it uses this little side tablet to interact with you.
It is proactive and initiates conversation and learns you.
As an example, it asked me when I first started what my favorite sport and my favorite team was so I said baseball St. Louis Cardinals and I was at a conference and I had this out about three weeks later and it turned on in the middle it turned and looked at me and told me that the Cardinals game was about to turn on and asked me if I wanted to watch it.
It will remember your family.
You can say call Aaron.
It's built with empathy so would always cares about how you're feeling and if you're not in a good place it will ask you what it can do.
Can I tell you a joke?
Can we do meditation?
Maybe some breathing techniques.
I could call your mom.
It asks questions and initiates conversations.
We have a lot of people I just demoed this to someone who was socially isolated but really loved it and into robotics and we showed him and he just loved it he couldn't get his hands on it fast enough.
We are learning more about ‑‑ again, I told you about sleep but this we are working on.
Vicky and I both have one.
And this mimics ‑‑ there are a couple different versions.
But this mimics indigestible.
If you need something for sleep or you need something for calming or you need to focus or energy this actually mimics like caffeine or what you take for sleep?
O geez it's not coming to me.
>> Melatonin.
>> Yes melatonin.
You can sleep on this and you can put it in a wheelchair you can put it on your couch in your recliner and Vicki and I are living testimony to this.
They gave us a demonstration and it works.
It has really helped my sleep a time.
Vicki has hard data.
If you want to learn more read just ‑‑ reach out to us about it.
Monitoring.
Many folks are on CPAP and if they are living alone and you want to know that their oxygen levels are down may be their CPAP fell off or maybe they might need some monitoring.
We have come across this more times than I would have imagined by overnight oxygen monitoring can be pretty vital and there's not a whole lot out there that will do this.
Was chosen to carry this and we found that more people need this than I ever thought.
>> I have a question.
This has been amazing to see how a person circle of support can really help them to become more and dependent in the community.
A lot of these devices are relying on electricity and the Internet.
With the climate emergencies sometimes power is disconnected.
What is being recommended as backup systems for families who are relying on smart devices?
>> We do, number one, most of everything we utilize will have either a low battery alert or a powered off alert.
If Wi‑Fi has become disconnected.
There are ways to think about that.
Backup generators, sometimes, you know, especially, we actually carry a backup battery that will last for three days.
Let's go back to the tablet.
You know it will give you plenty of time to get someone help it will back you up for that long.
If Internet goes out the other backup we have to that is cellular and so if Wi‑Fi goes out the LTE Sim card will kick in or we can simply make something so it will stay so if we power it and give it cell phone usage that way we are as about as protected as we can get.
>> Some of our outdoor products are Soler as well.
So they run off of the good old son.
>> security cameras, cellular security, perimeter cameras that we can install.
Having LTE as a backup to Wi‑Fi we are finding is needed about supplying it with battery power to last you a couple of days.
Should there be an emergency.
>> Can you talk again to help people are affording the cost of these types of assistive technologies.
And what funding is available across the United States.
>> Most of the time the majority of what we do is get paid through Medicaid waivers MCL and so we're working a lot with MCO across the country.
Were happy to have met you because grant particularly the hardest part is seniors.
There is a lot out there for the intellectual developmental disability world.
But the seniors don't have this kind of resources.
It's starting to come around because people are realizing the cost savings involved.
Started and proactively and help someone age in place.
Or provide a remote support.
One of the biggest things with this is the work prices.
There's not enough caregivers out there in everyone's fighting with the same pool of people.
If we can utilize remote support and fill that gap as well, we are doing something good to do what we can to help when there is a lack of staffing.
We are excited to be able to work with people who can find grants.
Here in Missouri, we have something like that as well.
If they don't have waivers and they cannot afford this than we can go through them and work with this nonprofit organization to help them pay for these things.
Always working.
>> That's great.
>> Yes.
We spoke about, if there are no options we do ‑‑ if we can get someone to sign on for a year or two we can break that into interest‑free payments.
As long as we know that you will stick with us for a while you can just pay us in parts over time.
We try to work with any and all resources we can find.
But the majority of our business is through state Medicaid waivers or assistive technology waivers.
>> That's great.
>> I know we have a couple more slides to go through, is there one thing you would like to share with folks?
>> Yes this is the last one that we are good and can open up for questions.
This is an amazing new one blowing people away.
This is called Z‑letter putt.
>> It helps me sleep.
>> It helps me sleep better.
>> It allows for complete control of your sleep environment; the big idea is how do we help people sleep better.
>> I'm George Bailey.
>> On Jeff Wade a cofounder.
>> I like that I can close it and that it is around me so nothing can come in.
>> Tina was staying up for three days at a time.
We tried we did blankets, melatonin, sleep study because he thought sleep apnea and my experience with this has been wonderful.
The sleep has changed tremendously.
I'm getting more sleep because she's getting sleep.
>> Because of her autism diagnosis and schizophrenia diagnosis.
>> Okay that was the last one, there are more we wanted to show you the most popular.
We do durable medical equipment as well.
>> I will stop my share and we can open up the questions.
>> Again if you have questions please put them in the Q and A and I will move forward through the slide deck.
I'm from the national disability Institute.
We know that if a person needs a form of assistive technology for work and the person receives SSI or SSDI when a person pays for that item or service that may qualify as a work support and that can help a person to receive their disability benefits at a higher rate or a longer‑term.
People want to look at the SSA information protected savings options.
We are talking about impairment related work expenses or a plan for achieving self‑support which can help a person to afford these out‑of‑pocket expenses.
Of course there's also the able accounts for a person who has a disability that began before age 26 family and friends can put money into the able account to pay for things like assistive technology so this calendar year friends and family can deposit up to $17,000 into an able account and for example a person who has an SS supplemental security income benefits they are limited to $2,000 in savings.
So with an able account, for example, that person can have up to $100,000 and that savings is not counted as a resource for SSI benefit.
Here at national disability Institute we can help you to look for grants and other forms of funding to afford assistive technology.
If we cannot find a grand we could offer a loan up to $45,000 for things like modifying your home, purchasing a wheelchair accessible vehicle, and regardless of a person's credit history the interest rate is 4 percent interest for the term of the repayment of loan.
And we work to reduce the interest rate down to 4 percent interest and we have favorable income so you're welcome to reach out to me if you are interested.
We have assistive technology resource guides for New York State and New Jersey residents.
We welcome you to look at those.
This slide deck and presentation is being recorded and will be posted on our website so you can share this with friends and family.
Next cap next August the 17th we have another webinar presentation on seeing eye dogs and therapy dogs and we welcome you to register.
That we posted on our website shortly so you can register for the event.
And we have some polling questions we want to share with you.
Question number one, what information in this webinar was most helpful?
What information was most helpful to you this webinar?
Do you need help finding a jab?
We have services available to help with employment needs.
What type of assistive technology would like to know more information about?
And if you like to schedule a presentation with your agency or community.
For example, I am available to provide information sessions virtually across New York State in New Jersey.
We thank you for participating.
Thank you and Aaron and Vicki.
This is all new information and I thank you so much.
Thank you for joining us.
>> Thank you for your time.
>> I see no questions at this time.
Thank you everyone.
Have a great day.