TFL Team Meeting - 9/7/2021

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TFL Mission

  • Increase access to and acquisition of assistive technology devices and services so Georgians of all ages and disabilities can live, learn, work and play independently in communities of their choice.

Team Meeting Expectations

1. All TFL team meetings are no/light device meetings. This means using your device professionally, minimally, as an accommodation, or for emergencies.

2. Be mindful of the time you are given for your updates.

3. Provide thoughtful and comprehensive updates to the team. This time is the opportunity for everyone to learn about TFL projects and activities.


Agenda

TFL Director Updates (Carolyn)

  • ‘’’HR’’’
    • Critical Hire Process: AT Manager Position
    • Critical Hire Process: Training Position
  • Allocations
    • Make sure these are correct - any changes by 5pm today.
  • Projects:
  • GaDOE FY20 Co-PI Gina & FY 21 - Ben will be increasing his role to help Gina and me!
  • GVRA Contract FY 21 - Moving Forward - PI Ben & Co-PI's Martha and Zerrin
  • CDC Contract - NCE through Sept. 30, 2022.
  • HHS DRRP - Aging Well ACCESS - 5 Yr. $2.5 Million
    • ISO & ICF!
  • AT3 - $50K - (May-August 31)
  • Georgia Division of Aging (DAS) - CARES Act - (April 2021 - End Sept. 30, 2021!)
  • 3 Yr HHS DRRP - AT Database - $1.5 Million - Meeting with partners from all over US.
  • Wireless RERC - $35K
  • Proposals:
    • GVRA Transition Website
    • GaDOE Year 3: Early Development
  • TFL Strategic Planning - Focused Sessions
  • Upcoming:
    • Direct Services - Martha
    • AAC Lab - DeeDee
    • AT Considerations - Gina
    • Leadership & Training - Liz
    • TFL Research - Ben
    • TFL into CIDI S&E Research - Zerrin
    • Wrap Up & Action Items - CP

Almost Complete!! CDC/F Trainings & Activities (Category 3) (Carolyn)

  • COVID-19 Simplified Text 2-Minute Videos
    • Format: 5 Simplified Text Scripts for 2-minute videos
  • New CDCF Contract!
  • Vaccine Webinar #1
  • Vaccine Webinar #2

TFL AT Acquisition Updates

Transition

  1. Credit-Able - to FODAC!!
  2. Physical files will still remain in Danny's office

Credit-Able

  1. Credit-Able applications are on hold

TFL Research Updates (Ben S., Zerrin & Carolyn)

Assistive Technology Outcomes & Benefits (ATOB) Journal

  • ATOB Vol. 16(1) - AT Services During & After the Covid-19 Pandemic
  • ATOB Vol. 16(2) - Public Health: feature our work on CDC Project
    • Calls closed in June, Peer Review is in process

Mastery of Assistive Technology (MoAT)

  • Submitted a SMART TECH Report - paper documenting the Mastery of AT project and findings
  • Seed grant proposal in K-12 area was not funded.
  • Awaiting word on NIDILRR FIP proposal.
  • MoAT presentation accepted at GA EdTech Conference (ATL, Nov 3-5)
  • MoAT presentation accepted at ATIA (Orlando, Jan 27th)

Work ACCESS

  • Team is preparing for an additional focus group on Mental Health Accommodations
  • Developing a focus group plan to discuss changes in retail settings since COVID-19
  • Resuming work on Workstations decision tree
  • Launching Validation Surveys for completed decision trees

AT Network

  • Beginning the process of mapping categories of AT from the AbleData database to the ISO 9999 classifications
  • Team has been exploring how to leverage evaluations done by TFL to help "seed" database
    • Dee Dee & Ben have proposed a template with levels at which eval data might be accessed.
    • Also looking for PowerPoint presentations and papers to include in the database.

Inclusive Tech Entrepreneurship Program (ITEP)

  • Business Coaching under Joy Harris supervision is in progress
  • Final event will be scheduled for early November
  • Working with the New America Foundation for the annual conference

NSF Project

  • Experiences of Students with Visual Impairments with Tactile Graphics in STEM Courses: Critical Interpretative Synthesis
  • Started my meetings with Dr. DeStefano
  • Will be attending SLR training next week

ACCESS Projects

  • Have been working with the project team to develop protocols for the focus group
  • Joined one session as a note taker

GVRA

  • Working with Ben, Martha, and Carolyn

Spencer Foundation

  • Submitted a proposal

GT-Microsoft Accessibility Research Seed Grants

  • Not funded

FY21 Seed Grant Program

  • Not funded
  • will be applying for the Oct cycle

TFL State Leadership Activities - (Liz)

  • Tools for Life
    • Data Reminder: Don't forget to enter in your public awareness and I & A data. Include your presentations, trainings, public awareness, education, etc. in the database each month.
    • TFL Policy and Procedures - Keep going! Follow up in late October.
    • Webinar archives - Are any of yours missing? - Tori continues to update and organize and will be reaching out
    • TFL Website, wiki - Liz, Kayla, Tori and Shaina - Soon!
    • Training plan - host more virtually - we're doing it!
  • GCDD Accessibility Grant - Universal Design for Learning and Plain Language - Awarded!
    • June to September 2021 - $13,000
    • Liz, Norah, Tori (Carolyn and Trish support)
      • Met with GCDD team to start plan for trainings and creating the plain language guide
  • Credits - Training Team
    • CEU's - Continuing Education Units approved and distributed by the AAC Institute
    • CRC's - Certified Rehabilitation Counselor Credits approved and distributed by the Commissioner Rehabilitation Counselor Certification or CRCC
      • All applications must be submitted no later than 30 days before the live event.
  • CDC/CDC Foundation - Carolyn-PI, Liz-Co-PI, Norah - Content Creator and Manager, Trish-Project Support
    • COVID-19 Accessible Materials for Individuals with Disabilities
    • Issue Briefs on 1. Planning Accessible Meetings, 2. Creating Accessible Text Docs, and 3. Creating Accessible PowerPoint Presentations
    • Submitted July dissemination report
      • Planning for upcoming CDC trainings
        • Training 2: Communicating with People  who are Blind or have Vision Related Disabilities - Tuesday August 17 at 3:00PM, prep at 2:30PM
        • Training 3: Communicating with People  who are Deaf or have Hearing Related Disabilities - Tuesday August 31 at 3:00PM, prep at 2:30PM
        • Training 4: Communicating with People with Extreme Low Literacy Including People with Cognitive or Intellectual Disabilities - Tuesday, September 14 at 3:00PM, prep at 2:30PM
  • Social Media - Send articles, webinars, videos, general information, etc. for posting to Tori
  • Graphic Design Projects - Kayla
  • ATAP (AT3) - AT Reuse Activities, AT Database - Carolyn, Liz, Trish(support)
    • Webinar - Completed!
  • TechSAge 2 RERC - Training and Outreach Check out the RERC TechSAge website to learn more. - Carolyn and Liz
  • Webinars - WORK ACCESS series; Wired Wednesdays
  • Wireless RERC - Training and TA - Outreach & Public Awareness - Carolyn, Liz
    • Submitted July report! Getting ready for August!
  • Work ACCESS - Decision Tree/AT Software KnowledgeBase - Focus groups, trainings, webinars - Carolyn, Liz, Tori, Rachel, Sarah, Ben

TFL K-12 Initiatives and Updates (Gina)

K-12 Updates

  • Year 3 Statement of Work GaDOE has been submitted, we still discussing some expansion opportunities
  • Actively supporting current K-12 deliverables
    • 3 Consultations submitted last week
    • loan extensions / loan requests
    • GaDOE Video Series – complete – GaDOE has not released all of them so we cannot release them publicly yet
    • Core Vocabulary, September 14, 2021 3:00 -3:30 (DeeDee) – 3 / 3 in GaDOE Webinar Series for Year 2
    • Current focus EdTrade soft launch & feedback
  • *Direct Services Team Meeting – GaDOE refresh – looking for a time to reschedule
  • Presentations related to GaDOE Partnership
    • DeKalb County School Psychologist, September 15, 2021 (Gina) – TFL & GaDOE Partnership
    • Teachers of the Visually Impaired (TVI) Consortia, January 21, 2022 – TFL, GVRA & GaDOE Partnership presentation
  • Tools for Life Demos/Loans/Presentations
    • Texthelp – request training rooms November 9 or 16, 2021 – Texthelp Talks – in person
    • Emory Autism Center – AT / AAC for the Neurodiversity Class, November 9, 2021

GVRA Project (Ben)

Contracts

  • GVRA Contract and Walton Subcontract have been approved and signed!
  • WorkTag #s have been assigned for both GVRA project and Walton Subcontract.
  • Next steps: Software purchase orders and payment

Team & Project Plan

  • Ben has met (or is planning to meet) with team members to discuss allocations and project roles
  • Updated Project Plan Gantt Chart is available on Teams site.
  • August Report is in progress (Due by 10th)
    • Drawing from 5 different reports in 4 areas of CIDI
    • Once report is established will need to automate process

GVRA Updates

  • Ben met with Jeff Allen on 8/31 (GVRA Lead on this project) to discuss reporting.
  • Planning to meet with GVRA Transition team in September to discuss
    • "Pilot within Pilot" to model reporting for K-12 Districts
    • Plans to incorporate IPSE programs into project

TFL Direct AT Services - AT Access Updates (Martha)

  • Device Demo 10/1/ 20- Present All Centers 116
  • Device Demos 10/1/20- Present TFL 20
  • Device Loans 10/1/20- Present All Centers 147
  • Device Loans 10/1/20- Present TFL 51
  • Device Reutilization 4162


  • Wired Wednesdays- Ciara is working on September and October. WATAP will be covering November and December. Wired Wednesday will be this Thursday due to scheduling conflict and Ciara will be covering Morphic
  • Wrapping up DAS Contract- waiting on a few more items to come in to be mailed
  • 16 individuals received AT
  • All assessments have been mailed to counselors
  • working in several demos for DOE and parents that have contacted us
  • Have received 2 requests for TFL presentation from 2 Aging organizations

AccessGA Initiatives and Updates (Johan)

  • AccessGA
    • Captioning of Governor’s Mansion Clock Videos (all videos completed)
    • Satisfaction and Future Needs Survey
      • Scoping out future webinars, trainings, web a11y evals and technical assistance
      • Georgia Public Library Service Completed
  • Fee-for-Service
    • Shepherd Center: Web Accessibility Evaluation and Trainings – SOW being created
    • UDOIT Tool Evaluation for Brightspace LMS
      • Credentials received last week – evaluation underway
    • USG HR: Survey of Needs in Progress: Disability Awareness and Digital Accessibility Training
    • JCC Chicago
      • Web a11y evaluation and technical assistance requested
      • awaiting testing environment
    • Central Piedmont Community College
      • possible trainings in the areas of disability awareness and digital ally
      • possible web eval and technical assistance
    • BLH/NLM
      • Needs Assessment reviewed with NNLM/NLM last week
      • Scoping out training needs, a11y evaluation and technical assistance
    • Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) pending
      • Needs Assessment
      • Accessibility Trainings
      • Technical Assistance
      • Web accessibility evaluation and technical assistance
    • UX Initiatives
      • Several ongoing projects in the coming weeks/months involving UX
        • Aging Well Access
        • Dementia Access
        • Washington AT Access
        • AT Network
        • AT3 AT Access

AAC Programs (DeeDee)

  • Setting up AAC Lab laptop
  • Display equipment has been received
  • Planning an office day to begin setting up displays and plan posters

Display materials planned:

  • Device information
  • Posters/handouts on elements of AAC and Access (i.e., types of AAC devices, core words, switches, scanning access, etc.)
  • Handouts on implementation strategies, product information
  • Information on access from Pittsburg AAC Language Seminar - Karen Kangas
  • Model as a MASTER PAL for communication partner training
  • Considering list of training resources

TFL & ADA 30th Celebration

  • Hashtags:
  1. ThanksToTheADA
  2. WhatCanYouDo #ChooseToInclude #Disability #ADA
  • November
    • Veterans
      • "Honor all who served - In times of war - In times of peace"
    • Publications & Fact Sheets
  • Veterans - ADA Fact Sheets & Publications from the ADA National Network
  • Veterans Resources from the Southeast ADA Center
  • Veterans & Families Resource List from ADA Live!
  • ADA Live! Episodes by Topic - veterans
    • Social Media
  1. HONORINGVETS – Show your Support on Twitter
    • VAntage Point Blog from U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs
    • Greenlight a Vet Program and help show that every Veteran has a story
  • December
    • Shaping a Universal Future
      • National ADA Symposium - Save the Date! Registration opens in January.
  • Resources: International Day of Persons with Disabilities (IDPD)
  • United Nations (UN)– International Day of Persons with Disabilities
  • Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD)
    • Sharing ADA Stories
  • StoryCorps & Disability Visibility Project
  • StoryCorps MobileBooth Tour
    • ADA Legacy Project - Preserve. Celebrate. Educate.

Open Enrollment begins October 21st!

  • Open Enrollment for 2021 Benefits selection begins tomorrow October 21st and ends November 6th. This is an active enrollment - meaning you must log into the system and confirm your benefits even if no changes are being made. Additionally, you will need to certify you and your dependent(s) (age 18 and older) tobacco use status. Tobacco users will be charged $100 per month, per person for using tobacco products and system automatically defaults to tobacco user.

Action Items & Follow Up

  1. Complete your Open Enrollment for 2021 - 11/6
  2. Complete Your GT Compliance - 11/17!
  3. TH - Create and Share your Social Media posting plan for TFL's 30th & ADA's 30th.
  • S&E and Policy Synergies with Research Presentation Set up: CP
    • Action: Calendar invite: CP
    • Action: Send out PDF: CP
    • Action: TFL Team review & give Feedback
  • ACCESS for Aging Well Overview Set up: CP
    • Action: Calendar invite: CP
  • AT Network Overview Set up: CP
    • Action: Calendar invite: CP
  • AT Lending Library Issue
    • Action: Annabel will set up to Discuss & Resolve with Rachel
  • CDC/F Category 3
    • Action: Send out Announcements Nationally & Reminders - Tori
  • TFL Report to HHS | ACL & to Congress
    • Action: GaDOE Co-Op - Need $$ Data from TextHelp
    • Action: CIDI S&E - Need $$ Data from TextHelp
  • Ga DAS - Start Date/Nov. 19th Training
    • Action: CP will get info Jeni