Reposeful – Stormless – Tranquil - Serene Ah, blissful, peaceful words. I feel less stressed just jotting down these words, such calm. I actually do look for opportunities during a busy day to try and reset my priorities or just give my mind a chance to process the day and, dare I say it, rest a moment. Listening to a favorite song or perhaps catching a few minutes of one of my favorite Podcasts usually works for me – StarTalk with Neil DeGrasse Tyson, The Moth, The Infinite Monkey Cage…so many, don’t get me started! Often this is just the little break I need to reset and face the remaining challenges of the day.
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.
“Star Trek characters never go shopping.” - Douglas Coupland
By Jean Des Roches, AT Program Director
Shopping! Some of us love it, some not so much. As with most things in life, the timing has to be right to truly enjoy it I think. Otherwise, it’s just a chore. I am a terrible shopper! I run into a store, usually at the last minute and instantly get overwhelmed by the myriad of choices. I end up buying something I may not love, just to get out of the store and back to doing something that is more fun
Visionary AT
By Jean Des Roches, AT Program Director
“The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.” Helen Keller I wonder what Helen Keller might have thought about the myriad of AT available today to assist with blindness or other vision issues? As a visionary herself, I’d like to think that she could have easily imagined an entire industry devoted to the issues she knew only too well. There are lots of categories (as usual!) in the world of AT regarding vision aides. From OCR, (optical character recognition) to magnifiers to audio described DVD’s, there is a lot to review. Let’s see if I can break it down to some general areas to think about in terms of AT.