Independent Perspective 1689 with Kimberly Naus about the Rocketbook the reusable downloadable note page and pen

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 University at Buffalo Center for Assistive Technology. And your host is yours truly Ernie Churchwell. Welcome back to the program, Kim.

Guest:  Thank you Ernie for having me.

Host:  You were a fount of knowledge and it is our privilege to host you once again. But you are here thanks to the goodly auspices of TRAID. In case people missed your last appearance, what is that?

Guest:  TRAID is the acronym for Technology Related Assistance for Individuals with Disabilities. It is a federally funded program and it is free; that is the best thing about it. We all have things that come into our life that we're unaware of, and it is the center to where there are 12 centers throughout New York State. We are fortunate to oversee Western New York, which includes Erie County, Genesee, Niagara Orleans and Wyoming. And what our center is able to do is demonstrate devices, provide information to people if they have questions, if they need to brainstorm, provide public awareness, early intervention, loan program. And we also serve all ages from birth to end of life and anybody can access our program, it can be an individual with disability of all ages. It could be a family member, service provider, employer, educator, anyone who's interested in a related device so please, reach out to our center if you have any questions, just knowing it's free, is amazing.

Host:  That's terrific. More specifically, though you're here today to discuss an intriguing technology which is a melding of traditional media and digital electronics, the Rocketbook. What exactly is that and whom does it help?

Guest:  Oh, well today, being in a digital age that we are, the Rocketbook is a reusable planner and notebook. It is limitless and it’s the digital age it can be integrated to computers, Dropbox, into your phone, it's just amazing. And the one thing I like about it is it does have (inaudible) is it does have lined paper and it comes in letter format and executive style. The Rocketbook is a notebook with a classic pen and paper experience. Yes, it has a built-in digital (inaudible) is two traditional notebooks which has I mentioned, it's reusable and the reusability of it is endless. It's just taking the pen with the Rocketbook say you're in class and you're taking notes, those notes you may struggle with handwriting; well that handwriting once you upload it, converts it to standard text, which is awesome, in that format and it's reusable. So, it's a technique to where you write your notes. Once you've uploaded your notes. You just take a drop of paper and you wipe it like a dry erase and it just disappears. And then the next time you can use your notebook. So, you want to think about just organization purposes with anybody anybody's ever gone to school. You have all these notebooks and it can get, become very disorganized to where if you have this book, you have your notes, you get to your workstation, you upload your notes and converts it to standard text. If you have assistive software that can then read it to you it can then also read back to you. So, there's many fashions for this to be useful for people. So again, it's a notebook that evolves that you can write, reuse, organize, scan and you can even use Snap Grid to take a picture of it if you want to in that fashion. And its very inexpensive, it's $34. We do have the device here at our center for people if they would like to see it demonstrated we can do virtual demonstrations because I know since COVID, these are things that we do now. We'd be more than happy to assist.

Host:  We're totally out of time Kim, but you're a fount of information. If people have questions, how can they reach you?

Guest:  They can reach me at 716-836-1350. The other number is 716-836-1168. And any of our staff here at the center is knowledge and can help.

Host:  Thanks so much for being with us today.

Guest:  Thank you Ernie.

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