Independent Perspective 1714 with guest Kimberly Naus about the Livescribe Echo 2 Smartpen.

Host:  Welcome to Independent Perspective, a public affairs presentation of Western New York Independent Living (WNYIL). Our guest today is Kimberly Naus, Director of the Center for Assistive Technology at the University at Buffalo, and I'm your host Ernie Churchwell. Welcome to the program, Kim.

Guest:  Thank you for having Ernie.

Host:  It's our pleasure. Before we get into the exciting assistive technology device of the day, you're here because of the auspices of TRAID. For first time listeners could you tell us what that is?

Guest:  Yes, TRAID is an amazing program, your tax dollars are going to work for you. The acronym TRAID stands for Technology Related Assistance for Individuals with Disabilities. And the goal for this program is to give a quality of life to the community and make it a livable community. It enables people with disabilities to increase not only people with disabilities, family members, increase awareness and appropriate use of assistive technology for people with disabilities. And it can be free for caregivers, personal individual with the disability. It could be a PT, OT, discharge nurse. Please reach out.

Host:  Great and as always, there's a particular nifty piece of assistive technology that you've come to highlight today. And it's something of an improvement on one that was discussed a while ago. The Livescribe Echo 2 Smartpen. Now that's in this day and time one doesn't usually think of any kind of pen as being cutting edge but this one is a pen with a difference. What can you tell us about it?

Guest:  Yes, the pen writes, records, plays back. You can also upload to your digital devices, to your Windows computer, your Macintosh computer. It enables students to take notes. With school now back up and running or college students, this is very useful. Useful for an employee if you're at a meeting. You take the pen out, it comes with a special note pad, you just tap record. And what I would suggest you say when you tap record you would say today is September 7, 2022. This is my psychology class notes. Then as you begin writing notes, what you miss, that pen will catch. It always reminds me of like a James Bond tool. It has a camera; it has a recorder in it. And then all you do is you plug it into your computer with the Livescribe app and it just uploads those notes, your handwritten portion and the audio. So then when you go back you can fill in the gaps. So, I always suggest when you're taking notes to skip a line on the paper. Awesome, awesome tool. They did add the Livescribe, the original one that came out unfortunately, they tried to make it better. They unfortunately did not work. So finally came out with this Livescribe Echo 2, it's awesome, inexpensive. You can we have those class notes forever.

Host:  Great. And if you've tantalized someone by this description, they can have a tryout from you, correct?

Guest:  Yes, that's the reason for the New York State TRAID program. So, at work if you feel like you're missing things during staff meetings, if you're going to school and you feel like you're missing notes with what the teachers emphasizing on give us a call. Everything is by appointment and they can reach us at 716-836-1168. And they're more than welcome to schedule an appointment. We can demonstrate this device for them and then they could borrow it. Any of these tools we have found through the years it's life changing for people just giving them independence.

Host:  That's a wonderful service. But we've come to the end of our time. So thank you very much for everything you're doing to help people with disabilities.

Guest:  Thank you Ernie and have a wonderful day.

Host:  You too. You've been listening to Independent Perspective, a public affairs presentation of WNYIL. Our guest today was Kimberly Naus, Director of the Center for Assistive Technology at the University at Buffalo and I've been your host Ernie Churchwell.