Accessible Web Podcast: Phillip Seiler, Ben Wimett, and Quinby McLellan

Peter Jewett
Welcome to the Accessible Web Podcast episode eight. And we are here today with a few members of the Vermont assistive technology trial program. So, Ben, Quinby, Phil thank you for joining us. This is is a great this is our biggest group yet on our podcast. So excited about the discussion we’re about to have. Thanks so much for having us. Yes. George, you have some intros? Yep.

George Heake
I think Peters really happy that this is not a legal group.

Peter Jewett
Right?

George Heake
We had a string of renowned lawyers and it was getting pretty technical there for a while. So we’re really excited. We had this idea of Vermont assistive technology for a while and with Phil’s help, we were able to wrangle everybody and get some time. So we appreciate everybody’s time. We know everybody’s busy. So let me get into the insurance and we’ll get go. We have been with that has been with the program as an ad specialist. For nearly seven years. However, Ben has been utilizing the program and its benefits himself for nearly 30 years now and also has cerebral palsy himself and utilizes assistive technology in almost every aspect of his everyday life. Whether utilizing voice activated technology for typing the standing function on his wheelchair or adaptive gun mouth, he uses that allows him to shoot one handed when honey, Ben believes very strongly that you must look at the whole person in front of you and not just their disability and their barriers at hand. In order to have the best outcome you must look at their whole life and build a rapport with every individual in order to provide the most appropriate solution that has the bachelor’s degree in both sociology and American studies from Keene State College, enjoys hunting music photography, volunteering with both the Lions Club and Brandon as the treasure and Brandon recreation department. Eventually he believes that there if there’s a will, there is a way I love that. And Quinby McClellan join the program in October 2020 as an assistive technology access specialist and serves members of the public and folks utilizing Vocational Rehabilitation Services she’s certified and licensed. She is a certified and licensed occupational therapy assistant with experience working with individual across the lifespan and with diverse needs in communities school based and physical rehabilitation setting. She strives to offer allistic empathetic and resourceful perspective when collaboratively problem solving assistive technology solutions with people using a strengths based approach. she explores tools and techniques, techniques to support individuals at home school work in the community and with recreational interests. Quinby is from New Hampshire originally received her bachelor’s in art history from Bard College, and there’s a AAS degree in occupational therapy from River Valley Community College. She loves theater, painting, jewelry making dancing, rock climbing, yoga, cross country skiing, and of course, I add the of course gorgeous views for Burlington bypass. Last but not least, Phil Siler has been the Vermont assistive technology director since 2019, after 20 plus year career in information technology. He was drawn to 80 program because of its empowering and life changing mission, and a tremendous team he works with to support all Vermonters he has a Bachelor’s from UVM and a Master’s Master’s from Champlain College and when not working, can be found kayaking the waterways of Vermont for walking his rescue grey hat. And, Phil, when I first talked to Phil, talking about this concept, he bought up that his background is primarily IP, but he can gather the right people to really have a good discussion. And finally, the result is here now. Thank you everybody. Welcome.

Peter Jewett
Yeah, thank you.

Phil Seiler
Thank you, George.

Peter Jewett
So I guess to start, what’s the, what is the Vermont assistive technology program.

Phil Seiler
So I’ll go ahead and take this one since Ben and Quinby are the ones who actually help people. And I’m the one who just does the other boring administrative work. So, in 1988, the federal government created the Assistive Technology Act, which was designed to create programs in all 50 states and territories in the United States, to get awareness of assistive technology for those with disabilities to it was originally under the Department of Education. So, you know, for to improve education access, but also to improve access to work and more independent living. The Act has been reauthorized a number of times, most recently, in 2004. And then in 2014, maybe I think, under the wio Act, which was three habilitation Services Act, it actually was moved from the Department of Ed to Health and Human Services, and the community. ACL, what I can never work as the Administration for Community Living, I believe. And so what we do is provide information and assistance on assistive technology to any vermonter, who was interested in learning about what that is. And that is really any device or strategy that can help you live, work or recreate more independently, and just improve your access to life. So we have everything from a $2 extra long, shoehorn from IKEA, to, you know, very sophisticated, I gaze software, which allows people to type just by looking at a virtual computer screen. So it’s, it runs a full gamut. And that’s Quinby Ben’s job. So I’ll let them talk about it from the perspective of the frontline.

Ben Wimmet
I’ll go first. I think, as I was mentioned in my intro, I believe, as with Quinby, all of our coworkers that you have to take a holistic approach, but you’re working with somebody, so it doesn’t matter what they’re coming initially, to me coming to Tracy and Valerie with her originally coming to us for that. We want to know what their barriers are. But we also want to know, once in your life that works, what’s the joy isn’t pleased, it’s working for you. But what you struggle, maybe you have a barrier with maybe you have a barrier around work. Okay, well. But do you also have a barrier in getting to work? Do you have a hard time getting dressed? Do you have a hard time taking your meds? Do you have a hard time? You know, waking up on time? Can you hear that a lot. So we really take that, you know, holistic approach and try to help people figure out well, maybe I’m kinda at work because I don’t have the the support and the assistive technology structure I need at home to help it level. So we really learned that whole thing picture that, yes, we lay the barrier ahead. But we also look at the things that are around that barrier. And the things they should be connected to that barrier. To really, again, looking at the problem ahead holistically and look at the big picture and not just that microscope of the actual problem, but everything that’s around it. Then we make recommendations of tools and strategies to try and it could be something as simple as, Oh, you’re having a hard time writing, but you need a you need a pencil group, or you I just mentioned that the fact that people don’t always wake up for our lives. This is our number one issue with college students. Surprise, surprise. So um, we, a lot of times we get students something as simple as a vibrating bedsheet or that they put underneath their bed. And it’s a really annoying Beep Beep Beep that they don’t wake up for and it wakes up their roommate and the roommate is angry. They just get a vibration underneath their batteries right underneath their pillow and it wakes them up but not everybody around them. Um, and then it could just be a strategy. One of our actually one of my accommodations during non COVID times is that when I travel to my office, my work schedule accommodates the public transportation schedule and that is simply Simple accommodation, but we really, we really do take an approach of the least, complex and the least expensive purse, if we can, if we can accommodate somebody’s schedule, if we can use tools that they already have in place, but sort of refine them, then we’re gonna do that. And we’re gonna, we’re gonna go up from there if we need to, but we’re always gonna start simple. Quinby have anything to add?

Quinby McLellan
yeah, absolutely. I love how you’re talking about the full spectrum. Because certainly when you think of assistive technology, you think like, oh, it must be an app on, you know, a iPad, or some computer program that’s really sophisticated. But really, it could be a really broad range. It’s such a spectrum of no technology strategies, like Ben had suggested, all the way up to something a little bit more sophisticated. But you know, someone might come to our program saying, like, Whoa, I feel like an iPad would really improve my life for for school. But maybe before that person can even access the apps on the iPad, maybe things are having difficulty regulating sensories they need some tips for focusing. You know, certainly when we look at a broad range of things, I don’t know, if I’m the only one hearing that tape back, I hope you can understand me all right. Um, but you know, we work with, you know, folks in the school system, we work with folks in the community, really, folks, you know, trying to maintain a job or look for a job. So really anything you need to do during your day, you can certainly reach out and we’ll brainstorm with you. It’s such a collaborative process.

Ben Wimmet
The one thing I want to add as well is, you do not have to have a disability yourself to come see us we do for the general public for general, work with the general public. We don’t need documentation, we don’t need a doctor’s note, we don’t need any of that fancy schmancy product, you know, paperwork, they can really delay getting people services, you can be, you know, James Smith, great, great uncle, brother. And, you know, this person has to bear and you want to get them help, but they’re not quite ready to, you know, come in and get it on their own. But maybe they would be more receptive, if the family member was the one telling them about it, or showing them some equipment to try, or whatever the case, maybe we can meet with anybody, it doesn’t have to be directly the person with a disability if they’re not comfortable.

Yeah, Ben makes an important point there. There really are no eligibility requirements to access our program. You know, we’re not means tested or anything like that. It’s pick up the phone, give us a call, send us an email, and you’re into our system and working with one of our specialists. I would also add that some of our core functions that we sort of alluded to, but really didn’t discuss is we maintain a lending library of assistive technology which consumers can borrow. So for up to 30 days, not everything that we have in our inventory is available for loan for some sanitary reasons and whatnot. But for the most part, we do have a wide range of things that people can try out. And that’s really core to our mission to see if that assistive technology will actually work for them and make their lives better. Our specialists will also demonstrate items for consumers. So you can imagine we go back to the iPad and certain iPad apps can be very complex. So our specialists are able to show how they work to consumers spend that time. We also maintain a website, which has a consumer to consumer reuse of assistive technology, sort of like a you know, a Craigslist. So you can imagine certain bigger items that you maybe don’t have use for any more share lifts all kinds of bigger things like that. They can either be given away or sold on our reuse exchange. And then finally, we partner with opportunities credit union, and they run something called the independence Fund, which allows for a very low interest rate loan for consumers to purchase certain kinds of assistive technology that may be unaffordable otherwise.

Peter Jewett
So is there any cost to go and visit you all or just kind of the cost might pop up depending on if there’s assistive technology that is needed to purchase?

Ben Wimmet
Right. There’s no cost to come see us whatsoever for the general public. There’s no cause for a loan, there’s no cost for demos, there’s no cost to come see us, the only time there may be. There’s not even, there’s not even cost involved, if we just ship you an item that is 100%. Free, we do have some very, a very small percentage of our work, we can do what we call a fee for service work. Whereas an organization will come to us and say, I want my organization to be trained, let’s say making our website accessible. And if they weren’t working with you, and they asked us, we could, we would charge them a fee for that. And it’s very, I would say, it’s very fair, I could have looked at it what anybody can afford that we may get very, if people want to get the appropriate training. And we’re the people that do that we try not to make cost the barrier to the right people getting that training. But the vast majority of our services are free and have no costs. The only thing I do want to bring up and I’m sure that if I did so well is that we don’t directly sell anything. We’re not allowed to do that. But what we can do is we can point you in the right direction, we can give you a lake and say, This worked for you, this is where you live, this is where you want to purchase, but we can’t say we can’t, you know be the one that purchase it for you and then get you know, reimbursed or whatever. And then because of our fellow guidelines, we cannot say definitively, if somebody asked us, do you think definitively this? This item is going to work for us? 100%? We cannot say that because of our federal guidelines. We can strongly hint, but we cannot give a yes or no answer. And we cannot put it in writing or anything like that.

George Heake
Yeah, I’ve worked with several consumers back, when I worked at the Institute on Disabilities, we were talking before we went live. And the lending library function has been a godsend for so many people with disabilities in their families, to be able to win demonstrations to see how it works. And also to find out what is right for them. It’s, it’s absolutely amazing. And if if I could see how important is to get the word out that people can actually try. And now is your group, do you get involved? If you go through a process, there’s a demonstration, they get alone on a piece of equipment augmentative communication device or whatever? Do you get involved in helping them get financing for it? Or you just point them in the right direction? Or do you help do need to certify any cut application? Or do you advise or get involved in the application process?

Ben Wimmet
Yeah, that’s beyond our scope. We point them to the resources that are available that we know of. But as we’re going through the process of actually, you know, filling out forms are applying for various funding streams, that’s going to be up to the consumer or what other other organizations they’ve identified that can help

George Heake
whether it’s health insurance or Medicare, any of that.

Phil Seiler
Correct. Yeah.

Quinby McLellan
And same with the beginning of the process, we don’t do kind of really in depth assessment tools that are something that maybe an occupational therapist would use, that’s not you know, without within our scope, we have our own sort of way of looking at the whole person and you know, our own set of questions that we asked to better understand, but we don’t, you know, use any sort of standardized standardized assessment tools.

George Heake
I could see how that probably makes it more comfortable for people to come in and get a demonstration, embarrassed. Things like that. What is your biggest challenge of getting to where we’re at now, we were talking earlier, of letting people know that you’re there and what your service are available, getting that out to the mainstream.

Ben Wimmet
You know, you bring up a very important point because I think my answer to this question might look very different. I’ll pre pandemic, because one of our barriers pre pandemic was all of our services for the most part were offered in person in one of our tryout centers. You know, we will we will do some phone calls if the person couldn’t physically get to us in a week, we had done some video conferencing, but it was really rare when the pandemic happens, our hand was sort of forced to do well, we help you, but it was up to me. I mean, we, you know, we’re still not seeing people in person. So we’re still doing everything virtually. And it really changed how we did things, there was definitely a learning curve of a couple months of, Okay, we’re doing this virtually, they can’t touch this equipment, we need to kind of relearn ourselves how to do these demonstrations for both how to put them at ease. But once we figured that out, one of the huge benefits was, all of a sudden, if you were not, you know, ambulatory, or you didn’t have an accessible van to get to us, or just transportation in general, we get to one of our locations, we also can come to you. And it’s, it’s really opened up not only people as being more accessible to people, but we’ve also found that in some cases, not all, but if some people are in their own home, or their own environment, they’re gonna open up more and give us what we really need to know.

Peter Jewett
One of our early guests, was a lawyer with the National Federation of the Blind. And he mentioned how homes as things have become digitized, instead of a thermostat that you can twist and you kind of have that tactile feeling. It’s things that become digitized. You know, maybe it’s the controls on your stove or oven, for example, that it’s, you would think that it would make life easier for folks. But actually, this this lack of analog controls has made things more difficult. What do you What are you all experiencing with that? Because I imagine most consumers don’t come to you for just one piece of assistive technology. And or maybe they do, but given this holistic approach that you have, I’m sure it’s snowballs. And you know, there’s dozens of ways to make their lives easier. So what have you found is things kind of have have transferred to digital, you find in the same thing that live life is maybe getting a little harder? Or are you finding that technologies are starting to catch up and things are getting easier?

Quinby McLellan
I think it really depends on the person. I mean, some folks feel much more comfortable just saying a voice command to Alexa versus setting up, like this phone. That’s a landline that might also be voice activated, but has like actual physical buttons and a physical you know, set set that you pull up to your ear maybe just like using their voice and saying something naturally. Makes sense. But like the whole setup process might take some extra assistance, but like once it’s set up, like you’re good, but other people like it really depends on their learning style, like you might have the same, you know, diagnosis or need, you know, coming towards your program, but the learning style is so different between those two people that you’re going to recommend completely different pieces of technology, something higher tech for one person to solve that, you know, that barrier and something you know, on the other end of the spectrum for the other person.

Peter Jewett
So Alexa, that’s interesting. So you are you setting up kind of fully automated homes at this point? Are you on the forefront of all this automation software and hardware and internet of things?

Ben Wimmet
I mean, I’ll speak for myself I wasn’t before that even the program itself was investing, Investing in smart technology I was part of the like the I’m trying not to use the keyword and can I have three different smart devices gonna turn on, but if I if I activate my Echo, let’s say I can control my life, I control stereos, I control my TV and for me somebody that only got one good functional hand, it really changed my world because maybe I you know, just got back from Hana foods or the grocery store and I’ve got you know, grocery bags on my lap, but I don’t have that free head to flip on a light switch or even even life. I have a really receptive landlord to make you things that accessible sort of automatic doors for all the doors that I need to go through. And it’s really good Made me independent. That said, I have a really technical mind. And I’ll sit there and read manuals and, and write my own code to like, program things using if this than that and all this other stuff. Some people, that’s way too complicated for So getting back to when we put, you know, it’s, we could see three people for the same thing. And they all have a different comfort level with technology, they may just want something simple, that doesn’t use technology at all, or they may be like me and want to write their own, you know if this and that, recipes and things like that. So, again, it’s whatever the consumer wants. And we go from there.

And I will just add on top of that, that smart home technologies seen in our scene nationally really is a huge game changer for improving accessibility for individuals. A lot of our other state programs are setting up demonstration smart homes. I believe North Dakota, has got a 1000 foot tryout space, simply dedicated to Smart Home tech, Alaska has been able to do some really amazing, innovative things. And we’re certainly looking at for us as well. But but that, you know, the security part aside, which is always a something that we have to sort of keep I put my it hat back on get a little worried about that a little bit. But but there’s no question that it’s so enabling, if it’s done, right.

And I think a good follow up to Phil is that when we do a demonstration of say, a smart home piece of smart home tech, or you know something on an iPad, or whatever the item is we have, I’m gonna go on a limb and say we have about 2000 pieces of equipment in our inventory, whatever that equipment is. They try it out on our perfect little try out center if they’re meeting with us. And it may work great for them. But they get home in their own environment and their maybe their work and maybe school and maybe home. It may be their sister’s house for all we know. But maybe that device in our perfect little trials that worked great for them. They get home and it was too overwhelming or just didn’t work. Now, we want to know that feedback. So we can go back and say, Okay, this didn’t work. But what didn’t work about it so we can revisit it with you. And kind of look at it with any we that does bad thing if it didn’t prove it, if it doesn’t work. That’s not a bad thing. For our eyes what is a bad thing, If you get done a 30 day trial. And one of the questions is in a survey is worth for you. Basically, yes. No, I’m not sure what we really want and what we’re really looking for, is it clear yes or no from the consumer. Because if they change that, though, I’m not sure box, we didn’t do our job properly. So if people are struggling with equipment where they get it back home, we want to know that and we want to know Okay, maybe they just need to toggle on a setting. Or maybe we need to look at a different device or recommendation.

Peter Jewett
So we’ve been talking kind of high tech solutions. When we visited the assistive technology tryout center in Burlington we, we kind of discovered it around 2016 2017 and went up and visited. And I was really struck by the the kind of low tech devices that were there. There were some Power Wheels that had been retrofitted so that kids could use them as kind of a fun way to get around. There was a there was a device that had been built to help a woman that was working in a Coffee Company, a coffee roasting company to allow her to be the one in charge of filling bags. So what kind of, you know, what kind of support do you have for low tech devices? And you know, it was almost like in you know, a mad inventors workshop, some of the stuff that I was seeing in there. So what kind of stuff do you do on that front to really make custom, you know, hardware solutions?

Quinby McLellan
Yeah, there’s a lot of sort of just DIY as part of our job which is just so fun because, you know, there might be some things that you purchase, you know, off of the internet, whatever website it is, but then it doesn’t like fit your body or doesn’t fit, you know, your workstation or doesn’t fit your chair. Um, so we can kind of go in and use all sorts of tools to, you know, foam and, and whatnot to make it really fit well. And, you know, the same thing that we had kind of talked before, like, some folks might come to us looking for a way to communicate. And they might think, okay, it must be an app on an iPad, that will work for me. But maybe there are other pieces about managing the iPad, like remembering to charge it, or you know, not getting distracted by the other apps on it, if it’s not a designated communication device, or, you know, can I use that to communicate whilst horseback riding probably going to be challenging, so maybe there’s some low tech communication for us we can create together that are, you know, waterproof, you know, something you wear around their wrist, for example, while horseback riding or while skiing where you can communicate using the same symbols, you would maybe on an iPad, if they worked for that person, but certainly we can explore like, all sorts of different things. You know, also like with folks, you know, who are trying to access their home in a safer way, and maybe they have low low vision, so maybe it’s altering the lights, you know, decreasing the clutter, some kind of like basic strategies to start, and then we might create some low tech pieces in the bathroom. So it’s easier to find with, you know, higher contrast, if it’s someone with dementia, there’s just so many things we can do. And it’s a very individual basis. And oftentimes, like, we can even repurpose or slightly alter something they already have, so they’re not having to suddenly buy like 10 new pieces of equipment, maybe there’s something that they already have in their house, or use for something else that we can repurpose,

Ben Wimmet
right, one of my favorite low tech solutions, and we get this a lot. I work in a very noisy environment, well, where’s your desk in relation to the copier? Or where everybody gets their mail? Or where everybody gets, you know, everybody cutting corners and chitchat, while it’s right there? Well, can we just move your office or move your desk, and, you know, 90% of the time, that works, and there’s no technology, it’s just a strategy. Oh, we needed to move this employee. Um, I think one of my favorites that I use a lot is I drop stuff all the time. So I’m using simple things like right now, I have a little teeny, tiny lanyard, that I put on my wheelchair joystick, so that if I need to access my remote from my doors, or my car or whatever, I can still do that. But it’s actually wrapped around my joystick. So I can still access it. But if I drop it, or I have a Moses button, it’s not gonna get chucked across the room. It’s, it’s an IMAX, we showed that to a lot of my consumers, and they went, Oh, I need that. And it’s simply, honestly, if your mom or your grandma or whoever has a wallet with a little wristlet that they don’t use, take it, those things are great. The one that I use, I got out of like, Xbox controller case or something. It’s just like Quinby alluded to, usually you already have is one of my favorite, favorite things to do, because it doesn’t cost any money. You’re just repurposing what’s already there.

Quinby McLellan
Yeah, another examples of that, Oh, I’m sorry, George. Oh, just another example, like I had an occupational therapist come to me looking for some really high tech solution to she was teaching a child kind of cause and effect just wanted this child to interact with their world. It was a child who was blind and had some other neurological conditions. And they wanted them to interact with their siblings. And this child wasn’t really interacting with anything. They’re kind of laying in bed most of the time. So they’re just looking for Oh, like, Are there some switches where, you know, they hit this button, they can make this toy go? Or, you know, can we record a whole bunch of music and activate it with this high tech, you know, and we did explore those but then I was also you know, thinking well, you know, you can play with temperature, like warm like lavender, I pillows, you can heat up in the microwave, or, you know, you can use just like a tambourine like behind the pillow and whenever the child kicks or have like, little bells around their ankle, that that’s teaching cause and effect. Or maybe they’re, you know, some other things, you know, throughout their day where they can learn the texture of the diaper that they you know, are often you know, changing so just having them exposed to things During their day that, you know, it was much easier to train and teach the family as well when it was low tech and stuff they already have in the house not having to suddenly like learn how to use all these switches. And then at the same time the child is learning to interact with the environment that is their home, and the objects that they already are using throughout their day.

George Heake
I had an aunt with low vision and was decreasing fairly rapid within a year. And she enjoyed cooking. And she had a stop for a while because she had a not an accident, but it was a close call with a toaster oven. And someone from came in and put, I think it was dots of nail polish on the controls of the oven. And it was so simple. But it made her so happy. And really changed her life because she was depressed that she couldn’t talk because it was a sign of Okay, she wasn’t independent anymore. And it was really something that was a big part of her life. And just something she thought she once stopped talking, she was the biggest evangelist in the senior home, hey, call these people, they’ll really help you. It was such a low tech solution. And it was it was brilliant. So

Peter Jewett
is it ever too early to call you guys you know, is it ever is a family member? If you start to see a family member or friend or really no employee?

Quinby McLellan
Not at all, I mean, I’ll give another example like I will have, I’ve had some folks come to me, you know, looking for strategies to make knitting easier or painting, or other crafting abilities may have arthritis or early, you know, things like that. And, you know, yes, there are lots of higher tech tools that you can explore. But you can also just like, use wider paint brushes or wider needle, instead of having to do something drastically different right away.

George Heake
Do you find it more challenging to find solutions for people at home school and employment? Or is it difficult to work with employers and make suggestions for in the workplace? Do you get more resistance in any three of those areas,

Ben Wimmet
I would say when it comes to employers, they’re usually the most, I would say the receptive and the three. But if an employer is coming to us, usually it’s because they’ve identified a barrier or something that employee is struggling with. But otherwise, they’re really good employee. And they want to be able to keep that individual and they want to be able to, you know, keep that individual happy. And as part of their team. So they come to us. Usually if we make any recommendations, they jump they know us but that’s that’s more often the case on the various we do run into but very, very rarely do we run into a funding issue. We do run into funding issues with schools and individuals a little bit more often. But I want to say that with a little bit of a caveat. Because yes, we have iPads, we have apps that get expensive. And we have, you know, some computer stuff, they can get expensive, but most of our inventory, I’m going to say is $60 or below. So we tried to whenever possible. Now I have the financial piece be a barrier to success. I’m not gonna say we get it perfect all the time, we can eliminate it. But that’s where, you know, things like those all ironed out about that we’re a partnership with the Opportunity Credit Union to come into play. There are some state funding resources through the independent Vermont Center for Independent Living that can help folks. Again, some of this stuff, it kind of goes back to my point of where there’s a will there’s a way. And there’s been very few instances in my seven years here where I’ve recommended something, somebody that they haven’t been able to obtain, because that’s part of what we’re economists to know when we’re doing our initial kind of meetings in subsequent ones is, Am I recommending something that’s feasible for somebody to obtain? So we’re really cognizant of that.

Quinby McLellan
Yeah, and that’s usually part of some of the initial questions too. It’s kind of like what programs are you already using like for work for example, and, you know, I’ve run into a barrier even recently where you know, there are all these sorts of settings you can adjust on your personal computer to You know, help your vision and other, you know, accessible ways of using the computer. But maybe those programs don’t work in the work setting because they’re like restrictions or whatever with the program that that employer uses. So sometimes there’s a little bit of pushback there. But we usually can find a solution. Even if it’s low tech, that is something you put on top of the computer or get a larger monitor, or something, you know, if you can’t zoom in to the particular program.

Ben Wimmet
We want to see as well that sometimes Quimby, myself and our colleague, Tracy, who’s not here today, that does what we do in central Vermont, and the Northeast Kingdom. We we are, our title is Assistive Technology Specialist. But it’s very, very hard to specialize in everything, you know, our field, whether it’s Tracy, Quinby, or myself, we don’t know everything, and we’re not experts in everything. So I say that to say that it’s very common for us to say that we can provide you this technology, but you also want to work with an occupational therapist or physical therapist. And we can, or speech language pathology is another big one because we do have the iPads available every you have the software, and we can teach people the software. But I don’t have the background to teach somebody communication skills, let’s say. So that’s my partnership with, you know, an SLP in the person’s area that maybe takes their insurance there. I’ve even had people that have just believed their mission and just believed in helping people over the years. So if I get down to you know, if I make a referral to somebody, and they try every avenue for funding, a lot of those as LPs and OTS and pts, especially if they’re private, and they work for themselves. They’ll donate their time, if they’ve really exhausted every every avenue. It’s amazing what Vermonters will step up and do for people if they need to.

Peter Jewett
And remind us where the where the tryout centers are located around the state.

Phil Seiler
Yes. So Ben mentioned his is based out of Castleton serves sort of the southern half portion of the state. Quimby’s is in Cherry Street and the vocational rehabilitation offices next door to the health department. And then our largest one is in the Waterbury state office complex right in the central lobby. And that services the northeastern north, northeast side.

Peter Jewett
awesome. So hopefully COVID pass at some point and those get reopened. And it sounds like you’re all pretty well versed at this point in doing things online in the interim.

Phil Seiler
Oh, yeah. Yeah. I think that the reality is for we’re going to be hybrid for some sure, for some time in the future. And it’s really been very enlightening to be able to do as much as we could. remotely. There’s certainly no substitute for in purpose in person in certain cases. But it has, as been noted, extended our reach, which has been very useful.

Peter Jewett
Awesome. Well, I I’d be doing myself a disservice if I if I let you guys off without asking you, Ben. What’s your plans for the upcoming hunting season? It’s creeping right upon us.

Ben Wimmet
Well, actually, that’s a good clearly good assistive technology piece for you. Last spring, I realized that I could no longer see down the sights of my gun without, something happened my vision mother to stigmatism or So thank you, but I don’t know what’s good. But I couldn’t hit the broadside of a barn the shotgun was pretty bad. So slowly but surely on the fly, I had to adapt and start using scopes and start using what are called red dots sights. Ah, it’s really simple and say this 40 50 dollar piece of equipment that I’m not planning it looks like a scope but it’s not what it does is you you say the rifle and shotgun in or whatever. And you do this little dot projects. Um, well. For some reason, it’s easier for my eye to see so I put those on a muzzleloader and a riffle I gotta get used to having magnification, and kind of probably did all that. And then last year when the pandemic started, my dad has Lyme disease and it’s kind of progressed and gotten worse. So we really, and he’s kind of, he’s not only my dad and my best friend, but he’s also my hunting partner. And we realized if this was gonna continue, I need some help. so I was talking about a few minutes ago, Vermonters really rally behind people and stepping up, well started a GoFundMe for this alternative wheelchair thing, it’s literally a tank that I can drive over logs, drive in half a foot of water, snow ice, nothing bothers did cut these big giant tracks on it. And I did a GoFundMe campaign thinking that, you know, it was gonna take me a year to raise $20,000, which is what he needed for the device, and then a piece of equiptment to haul it in because it’s so wide, you can’t put it in a van. And I raised the money, it six days, and I’ll see that again, just to reiterate that if, if there’s a need for Vermonter, and you speak about it, Vermonters are awesome people, and they really kind of rally around people that really need the help, if you good to hear community or community is going to be good to you. And for me personally, that was just a wonderful experience that almost a year and a half later, every time I think about it, I get a little choked up because it was really like, Whoa, this is gonna happen.

Peter Jewett
So is this gonna be your first fall in the woods with it?

Ben Wimmet
No, it’ll be my second but I did an opening day of turkey season last year. I did get a turkey within like an hour and a half of using it out there. So it’s very versatile. Very quiet. very stealthy for such a big piece of machinery.

Peter Jewett
Awesome. Awesome. Yeah. What are you hunting Turkey? I assumed deer

Quinby McLellan
I’ll be hunting deer. My poor mother. I don’t I don’t think anybody exists from October through to self, your eyes start with muzzleloader rifle. Then I go Hunting over, in New York State. My mom’s about ready to divorce my dad at that point. But we will see, thanks mom!

Peter Jewett
Awesome. Awesome.

George Heake
On that note,

what can we do to help get the word out? What what you’re doing and where you are. I mean, what, what could help in the community just in terms of outreach of making people aware of where you are what you do.

Ben Wimmet
If anybody is working with people, and they even think they might benefit from our services, give us a call. Because the last, the only thing we want to do if we are not the appropriate ones is giving you a referral or get you a number to somebody that is the right person to help you.

Peter Jewett
Awesome.

Phil Seiler
We have no question. No question, that word of mouth is really our bread and butter. It’s people who have had successful contacts with our program, spreading the word. So that’s really the evangelism that we look for. Cool.

Peter Jewett
We’ll make sure to put all the contact info up in the blog post when we post this live. Um, well, I’ll post this after the fact. And there’ll be on YouTube and it is on Facebook Live right now. So yeah, we’ll put all the contact info. And thanks for all the work you’re doing. This is this is awesome. And this is it’s been great chatting with you all today.

Phil Seiler
Thank you.

Quinby McLellan
Thank you.

George Heake
It was well worth the wait. I’m glad we were able to do it. I was really excited about this. So it was Peter. And we were not disappointed. Thank you very much.

Peter Jewett
Apologies to anyone watching. I didn’t turn on the closed captioning. We had some technical glitches until when we were starting. So I didn’t turn on the closed captioning until about 15 minutes ago. So anyway, we’ll have a transcript and my bad but thanks, guys, and see you next week for our next episode of the podcast. Later all.