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Seven Hills Foundation

Jean Des Roches

Program Director

Assistive Technology

"My name is Jean Des Roches, I am the Assistive Technology (AT) Assistant Vice President for Seven Hills Foundation. I invite you to access helpful tips, tools, information and resources as I share them here."

Why AT?

Assistive technology promotes greater independence by enabling people to perform tasks that they may have difficulty accomplishing.

Assistive technology, or AT for short - is an umbrella term that includes assistive, adaptive, and rehabilitative devices for people with disabilities. AT helps by providing enhancements to the methods we use to accomplish tasks and goals.

Seven Hills is committed to enhancing the education, communication, recreation, and social opportunities of individuals we support. This work is enhanced by our increasing ability to provide access to Assistive Technology through secured funding from private and corporate grants, individuals and through the generosity of our funding partners.

Thanks to grant funding, Seven Hills has been able to purchase, configure and deploy an impressive amount of vital technology across our various programs. 

Oct
26 2015

No Time to Lose!

By Jean Des Roches, AT Program Director


No Time to Lose!

Most of us have worked out how best to manage our task lists. I use several methods such as sticky notes, voice messages, iPhone calendar, Outlook calendar and Priority Matrix. Each of these is progressively more technical, and each with its own merits and success rates. What would you do if you had a physical or cognitive glitch limiting your ability to jot down a reminder or perhaps even remember the steps to simple everyday tasks? I was recently asked to help brainstorm some possible solutions with one of our teams for someone with those very issues.

Sep
24 2015

Listen to Many

By Jean Des Roches, AT Program Director


Listen to Many

“Listen to many, speak to a few.” - William Shakespeare I usually like to place a quote from someone, someone more witty and insightful than myself, in every blog posting. This quote from Shakespeare, bane of my middle school existence, seemed to sum up the power of listening. As someone who enjoys nothing more than talking until there is nothing left to talk about, listening did not come naturally for me.

Sep
11 2015

Testing 1 - 2 - 3

By Jean Des Roches, AT Program Director


Testing 1 - 2 - 3

So, I sat down this morning to write my next blog post, which was going to be about ergonomics. I chose ergonomics as a topic as I was uncomfortable in the position I was sitting at my laptop. (It’s all about me …) Anyway, then I remembered that Windows has a built-in voice recognition program! If I were to use voice recognition, I could sit back comfortably and simply dictate my blog post, not worrying about my ergonomics for a few minutes.