A couple of weeks ago, we shared some popular apps that may benefit individuals with a variety of intellectual and developmental disabilities. While these apps are indeed helpful, they have mainly been designed and developed for kids to use, and aren’t always age appropriate for adults with cognitive disabilities. Imagine!’s tech guru Alex Andrews has set out to create apps that can teach basic skills and concepts around numbers and letters, but are more suited for adults. A chance meeting (guided by James Sandstrum, MA, CCC-SLP of University of Colorado, Assistive Technology Partners) at The Coleman Institute for Cognitive Disabilities’ Annual Conference has put this project on the fast track.
During the conference, Alex began discussing his desire to create the more age appropriate apps with Sri Kurniawan, Associate Professor at the Baskin School of Engineering at the University of California Santa Cruz. Professor Kurniawan agreed to collaborate by having some of her students help to create the apps as part of a student project.
The two have set an ambitious goal of designing 25 apps and coding 15 of them by January. Alex is doing the designing, and the students will assist with the coding. In addition to catering to a more adult sensibility, the apps will be designed to track and store data on individual users, allowing support staff to track progress and see how individuals are improving.
We offer our sincere thanks to Professor Kurniawan and her students, and we’re looking forward to seeing the final products! We’ll keep you posted.
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