Thursday, July 14, 2011

Presentable

SmartHomes project manager Sterling Wind and PR guy Fred Hobbs will be presenting this September at The Arc’s 2011 National Convention in Denver, CO. The topic will be "Using Social Media To Connect, Communicate And Network Regardless Of Ability/Disability."

Way to go, guys!

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Rebecca Tests Cell Phones

We’ve mentioned before that SmartHome residents have been teaming up with the University of Colorado’s Assistive Technology Partners to test a variety of technologies in the hope that the technologies will provide more opportunities for independence and more community involvement for those with developmental disabilities and related disabilities.

Recently, Bob and Judy Charles SmartHome resident Rebecca tested some cell phones.

To test the ease of use, Rebecca was:
1. Given a phone number, and asked to place a call using that number. To start, the phone was on, with the home screen showing.
2. Given the name of a person in the phone’s contacts list, and asked to find that contact and place a call to that person. To start, the phone was on, with the home screen showing.
3. Given a calendar date and told there was an appointment in the calendar on that date. They were asked to find the appointment and tell me what it is. To start, the phone was on, with the home screen showing.
Check out the pictures below of Rebecca hard at work.


To see other examples of SmartHome residents testing out new technology, click here or here.

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Guess Who's Touring The SmartHome?

Touring the Bob and Judy Charles SmartHome yesterday were Arnie, Becky, Gordon, Megan, and Zeke from Mission Supports. Mission Supports is a Colorado 501(c)(3) nonprofit committed to the personal development and care of Denver citizens who have intellectual developmental disabilities, and are presently on the Medicaid Waiver waiting list for funds and critical services.

The wait list in Colorado is a huge concern and one of the deciding factors in our decision to move forward with our SmartHomes in the first place.

The folks from Mission Supports sent us a nice message about the tour via our Facebook page:

It was a great experience to visit your home yesterday! Yes, the technology in this house is beyond belief, but we noticed that the people who live there were happy and well taken care of as well. So, thank you Gerald, Donna and John for the wonderful greeting and to Sterling for an informative and interesting tour. Thanks for letting us visit your home!
Thank you, Mission Supports, for the kind words and for the important work you are doing.

Interested in touring the SmartHome? Just click here to make an online reservation.

Monday, July 11, 2011

Table Topic Two

We mentioned in an earlier post about a generous donation of a table to the Charles Family SmartHome in Longmont. The existing table was not a good fit for the heights of the different wheelchairs used by the six residents of the home.

The table has been delivered and is in use! Take a look at the pictures below.









Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Wes At Beach Boys Tribute Band Concert

Those of you who know Charles Family SmartHome in Longmont resident Wes know that he is a huge Beach Boys fan. So he was delighted to be able to attend a recent concert featuring Kahuna Beach Party, a Beach Boys tribute band, during the Longmont Downtown Summer Concert Series. Looks like he had a great time!




Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Donna's Diary June 2011

SmartHome resident Donna keeps an online diary/blog of her activities at the Bob and Judy Charles SmartHome in Boulder. Below, see what she had to say about jobs, birthday, and a special visitor to the SmartHome in her June diary entry.


June has been another great month that has had me on the go. My husband Gerald started his first job at Twisted Pine Brewery, my birthday was last Friday, all of us who live at the Bob and Judy Charles SmartHome went out a couple weeks ago to the FAC at the Millennium Hotel , and a Congressman, Jared Polis, took a tour of the SmartHome this week. My job at In Clover has been busy, and I’m enjoying the warmth of the summer weather.

On my birthday last Friday I went out to dinner with Gerald, my housemate Lana, and Cailin, who works at the SmartHome. We went to Applebee’s and I had the shrimp. It was delicious. Gerald had some fish and he ate almost all of it which surprised me. He doesn’t eat a lot, but when he does he goes all out. My friend Chloe brought me a present too. It was a roll of coloring paper, a box of crayons, and a box of art markers that you make dots with. She’s a wonderful friend.

Going to the FAC at the Millennium was fun. I liked everything about it, the music, the food, and hanging out with my friends was the best part. I’m really glad I live with active people who like to do things, and that the staff are willing to take us to a lot of places. We’ve got a really good thing going here at the SmartHome.

Gerald is so tickled to be going to work. He has spent a lot of time learning his numbers. Just yesterday Richard from CORE/Labor Source came to the house to help Gerald work on his numbers and it went really well. They worked on numbers above 100, which is a new step for Gerald. It’s great that he’s learning to identify his numbers so well. He’ll need to be precise when he counts bottles at work. The teens are still troublesome at times but that’s understandable. I think they’re the toughest numbers to learn.

I’m so proud of Gerald and all he does. A couple days ago someone asked me how in the heck does he operate his chair? They could see that he wasn’t using his hands. I took them over to Gerald and they were amazed he could operate the chair with his head. He’s a neat individual. And his family, that family is awesome. I’m still so happy his dad asked me to call him dad. Right then I knew I was accepted into his family.

I prefer the warm summer weather to the cold of winter. Today it was 95 out, and I wasn’t complaining. Life is so much easier in the summer. No snow and ice, and you don’t have to grab a jacket, scarf, and gloves to go outside. Today me and Gerald sat outside enjoying the warmth.

My job at In Clover is busy. We put out 112 bags of supplements today, which is a lot. They had a couple new orders they needed right away so we buckled down and helped them fill the orders. I’m not planning any vacations soon. With both Gerald and I having jobs, we figure we’ll work it while we can.

We’ll watch fireworks this weekend on the 4th of July, and that’s about it for now. Whew! Thanks for keeping up with me.

Friday, July 1, 2011

Presentable

Tomorrow, SmartHomes project manager Sterling Wind will be presenting at the No Barriers USA Summit on “Designing for Exceptional Needs.”

Sterling will be presenting with University of Colorado Associate Professor Melinda Piket-May and students in professor Piket-May’s class who have worked on projects to design simple adaptive technologies that aid increased independence for some of the folks Imagine! serves, including some residents of our SmartHomes.

Click here to see some videos of the students demonstrating their projects.

This is a great example of how other organizations are seeing that the technologies we are using to serve those with developmental disabilities can be applied to those with other disabilities.

Take a sneak peek at their presentation below.

Good luck, Sterling, Melinda, James, and Lauren!