Press Release
Date: February 2011
Hannah and Assistive Tehnology
By LINDA D. ANDERSON SMITH
Public Relations Director
Champaign Residential Services Inc.
Assistive technology in today’s world provides a broad range of solutions for people with disabilities. There is a vast array of available technology that helps people to adapt to most any degree of computer usage.
For John Hannah, a consumer advocate for CRSI since 1995, assistive technology has been key for many years in his ability to independently carry-out his role as an advocate for individuals with developmental disabilities.
Hannah’s job situation is unique because he is not only a full-time employee working with consumers; he is also a consumer of services.
His primary role at CRSI is to advocate for consumers; and to do this, Hannah conducts interviews, communicates with individuals by e-mail, writes reports and makes recommendations on behalf of consumers served by CRSI. His understanding of consumer needs and wishes is unparalleled.
Therefore, providing assistive technology and human support for Hannah is invaluable to CRSI in accessing his many talents in communicating with and on behalf of individuals with developmental disabilities.
To help him in his job duties, CRSI has equipped him with Dragon Naturally Speaking and JAWS software; as well as ergonomically contoured keyboards (with keys arranged in alphabetical order) for his home and office.
Dragon Naturally Speaking from Nuance is speech recognition software that allows for voice control in the digital world. It turns ideas into text simply by speaking into a microphone. Hannah is adept at creating Word documents and e-mail, controlling computer functions, and navigating the Internet simply by talking; and his computer does the rest, three times faster than typing according to the Dragon website.
www.nuance.com/dragon
The JAWS software from Freedom Scientific is a reader program that Hannah uses to hear the content on the screen. The program’s “voice” audibly reads the computer screen. www.freedomscientific.com
The alphabetical keyboard from Kinesis assists him with finding letters and numbers as fast as the rest of us using the typical keyboard layout. www.kinesis-ergo.com
“This (technology) helps me to do reports and saves me from having to record an interview with a consumer”, says Hannah. “I really like it and it has been updated many times.”
John Hannah is supported by Advocacy Director Kathy Rader who assists him with his communications and report writing; as well as CRSI’s technology department which makes sure that his access to the latest technology programs is kept current. The CRSI team is available for any questions or technical issues he may have.