Where It's AT – Assistive Technology Blog

The Governor’s Office of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (ODHH) and the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation (DLLR) are hosting two workshops in October in honor of National Disability Employment Awareness Month, a national campaign to raise awareness about disability employment issues and celebrate the many and varied contributions of America’s workers with disabilities.  Designed for job-seekers who are deaf, hard of hearing, or deafblind, the workshops will include information on basic job seeking skills activities.

The first workshop will be held on Tuesday, October 15, 2013, at the Frederick County Business and Employment Center, 5340A Spectrum Drive, Frederick, Maryland 21703.  It will focus on job seeking skills for people who are deaf and prefer using sign language to communicate.  The second workshop will be held on Thursday, October 31, 2013, at MontgomeryWorks, Westfield Shopping Center, South Office Building, 11002 Veirs Mill Road, Wheaton, MD 20902.  It will focus on job seeking skills for people with a hearing loss or who are hard of hearing.   Both workshops are free and open to job seekers who are deaf, hard of hearing, or deafblind.  Professionals working with people who are deaf, hard of hearing, or deafblind are also encouraged to attend.

Registration is required. For more information, visit http://www.odhh.maryland.gov/pdfs/NDEAMWorkshops2012Flyer.pdf or contact Zainab Alkebsi, Deputy Director of ODHH at Zainab.alkebsi@maryland.gov.

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Coming this Fall to MDTAP

Contributed by Joel Zimba, Special Projects Coordinator, MDTAP 

The leaves turn, Hockey season begins, and new technology begins arriving at MDTAP.  One product we are all excited about is the Prodigi from Humanware.

Prodigi is a fully digital video magnifier.  This sounds much more complicated than the reality.  Simply put, Prodigi takes a picture of an entire page (no fumbling with XY tables) and magnifies the text as desired.  Most functions are controlled via a track pad.  Pinching to zoom and tapping and dragging your finger around a page will suffice for most situations.

The digital aspect of Prodigi provides other useful features.  The text of a page can be read aloud, either in its entirety or just the section you want.  If a particular contrast works best for reading text, just the text contrast can be changed while leaving pictures or graphs unchanged.

Additionally, Prodigi includes a hand-held portion.  Pages can be stored on the small tablet half of Prodigi and read later.  The hand-held unit can then be connected to the desktop portion of Prodigi for viewing on the much larger (21 to 24 inch screen).

Video magnification has changed dramatically in the last thirty years.  CCTVs used to be heavy, bulky and loud.  Magnification and focus were controlled manually.  In the mid-80s, hand-held video magnifiers didn’t exist. Today, we get access to the advances technology has brought us, and the Prodigi is a great example of such.

To learn more about Prodigi, go to:  www.humanware.com/Prodigi