One of the things that has surprised me most about getting to know our users is the enormous range of people that can benefit from MyVoice.  People with all kinds of different histories have challenges MyVoice helps them overcome, or skills MyVoice helps them develop.

I’m excited to be helping these folks communicate with loved ones, share their opinions, or, as in this article, find meaningful employment after a brain injury or stroke.

I hope you enjoy the article!

This week, we want to learn more about your personal experiences through a quick, anonymous survey that takes less than 5 minutes:

If you’re someone who supports communication aid users, such as a family member, friend, teacher, SLP, or OT, please click here to take the MyVoice Supporter Survey.

OR

If you use a communication aid yourself, please click here to take the MyVoice User Survey.

Thank you so much for sharing your feedback.

Happy talking,
The MyVoice Team

After years of frustration, Tyler Austin, an incredible young man with cerebral palsy, is beginning to find his voice.  In this amazing radio interview, Maureen Brosnahan talks to Tyler and his parents Eric and Pam about what it’s like to live with a speech challenge, and how MyVoice is helping them overcome it together.  Please listen using the audio player below:

In the past, communication aid users often had limited choices when it came to the pictures and symbols used for their vocabulary needs.  Many kids with challenges such as Autism could sometimes have difficulty interpreting generic symbols that weren’t personal enough to seem related to their daily lives.  And many adults felt that simple pictograms were not appropriate to their level of maturity.

That’s why, when we designed MyVoice, we built in great features that let users add personalized, real-world pictures to their vocabulary.  With MyVoice, vocabulary and the images associated with them can be as personal or unique as you wish.  For many of our users, it’s so important that the images be of actual things in their lives such as their bed, clothes, or familiar settings.

MyVoice still lets you import any “traditional” symbols systems such as “PECS” if appropriate, but you can also choose photos from your own files and take pictures through your mobile device if it has a built-in camera.  So, for example, if a user is comfortable with a graphic representation of an apple, it can be used.  But with MyVoice, you can also have every variety of apple in existence with a real photo and custom phrasing.

Recently, at a family dinner celebrating the Jewish holiday of Passover, I was with my adult cousin with Autism. In less than two minutes on my iPhone, I created a list of Passover foods on the buffet and added actual pictures of the items. My cousin who loves food and has never used a touch device before instantly grasped the taps and swipes of the device and was gleefully choosing from the list of foods familiar to him but not normally found in traditional AAC aids and apps.

If you’d like some personal help trying these features out, please send me a message anytime at support@myvoiceaac.com.

Happy talking!

Tony

Tony, Andi, Alex, and Aakash of MyVoice in blue for Autism Awareness Day.

MyVoice Autism Awareness Day 2012 Contest Winners:

• iPad with MyVoice App:  Jill Johnson

  A mother of a 9-year-old son with autism and several other challenges

• MyVoice App: Erica Bergmann

  A mother of two boys, aged 3 and 11, the eldest with autism

• MyVoice App: @Marybab1

  A mother of a son with autism

• MyVoice App: Judy Gill

  A special education teacher helping students with wide a range of challenges

Thanks so much to everyone who shared their story this week.  Your challenges and triumphs are why we do what we do – develop apps for those with special needs.  In the coming days, we’ll highlight many of your stories as a way to help inform and engage others about autism.

We wish we could have provided MyVoice and iPads to every person who entered.  But for those we couldn’t, we hope you’ll consider MyVoice as part of what you do to support someone with autism.  MyVoice can be a vital bridge to communication, education, and social confidence.  For nonverbal users, MyVoice offers the ability to speak out loud.  And for emerging communicators, MyVoice can jumpstart language and social development. Learn more at MyVoiceAAC.com/autism

Last but certainly not least, here are the amazing stories that our Autism Awareness Day winners shared:

Jill Johnson’s Autism Story:

“My 9 year old is autistic. He also has Tourette Syndrome, ADHD, motor skill deficits, hypontia, sensory processing disorder, anxiety disorder and a multitude of other deficits and disorders.He amazes me daily. He is such an amazing child and son! It is so heartbreaking, all that he has had to go through (and continues to go through) at such a very young age, yet he handles it all with grace and perseverance.  He is an amazing big brother. No one could love a sibling more than he. An ipad would be extremely beneficial for him. He tries so hard to communicate with others, and has come extremely far, but it is still so hard for him! And, in addition, there are also so many wonderful apps out there for the ipad for children just like him. I think owning an ipad would help him go that much further in life and his abilities.  An ipad is something I have been wishing I could buy him myself. But when you are paying out of pocket for therapies because your health insurance only covers a very small amount of combined OT, PT and speech per year and the insurance refuses ABA therapy and just paying housing, food and bills, it is just not an expense I can take on. Add in fighting the school system every step of the way and needing an educational advocate for every meeting…Add in all the other therapies and activities that come highly recommended to you by therapists, books, autism support groups, doctors, psychiatrists, teachers, etc (such as social skill play groups and therapeutic horseback riding, art therapy/music therapy/theatre therapy, gluton/casein free diet, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, special camp for the summer, martial arts, swimming lessons and the list goes on and on and on) which is all out of pocket…well, an ipad is last on that list!”

Erica Bergmann’s Autism Story:

“I am a mother of two amazing boys. My oldest is 11 and has Autism. My youngest is 3. I wouldn’t wish Autism on anyone, it isn’t fair sometimes. But I am who I am today because of our struggles, we all are. We have met many kind , caring, and genuine people because of Autism. We have learned not to take things for granted and to enjoy every special moment and milestone, because they are amazing when the do come!!! It has taught us not to be so judgmental and not to jump to conclusions. I think the best thing we have learned is to not be so serious, to love and laugh and take things in stride. ♥”

@Marybab1′s Autism Story:

“My son has Autism & lights up my world. So many people could benefit from MyVoice App to help them communicate.”

Judy Gill’s Autism Story:

“When I was first introduced to the world of autism I was hired as an instructional assistant to be a one on one assistant with a non-verbal student with autism. We spent many instructional days developing story boards for this student, using BoardMaker, a PECS communication software program designed to help him learn and communicate more effectively with his world.This is when I learned that a st…udent is not autistic, they are not autism, they have autism. Countless hours were spent cutting velcro and laminating the pictures. While it wasn’t always the most convenient tool to use, it was effective and provided a bridge from our world to his. I was so inspired by this young student and excited about being able to help give him a voice that I chose to get into the field of special education. I quickly went back to school and pursued a license as a special education teacher. Today, I work at an elementary school as a special education teacher who helps students with many disabilities. We currently are using IPAD’s to help our students learn. We have many APP’s but do not have the “My Voice” App. I would love to have this as a tool for my students and the teachers. There is nothing more exciting then seeing students with communication disabilities be able to connect to their world. It is a heartwarming experience to see their confidence grow when a tool like “My Voice” or any other resource becomes the catalyst for pushing them over that hurdle that they were struggling to clear. The possibilities for this App being used in my school are endless. If I had one wish, it would be for all students with communication disabilities to be given this tool.”

The MyVoice Communication Aid app was built from the ground up to be a great tool for kids and adults with autism.  Right now, it’s helping thousands of people on the spectrum communicate and live life to the fullest.  Long story short: autism is really important to us.

So on April 2nd, we’re joining communities around the globe to celebrate World Autism Awareness Day.  And we want you to celebrate with us.  That’s why we’re launching the MyVoice Autism Awareness Contest.

After 20 minutes with an iPad and MyVoice, Tyler had mastered both the tablet and the MyVoice app. In minutes, he wheeled over to the hospital coffee shop and ordered his mom a coffee, greeting the staff person by name- “Hi Bev, may I have a medium french vanilla coffee”. Everyone was floored.

Having found a suitable communication system, the problem now was how to put it in Tyler’s hands. Five months later, June Chiu of the Holland Bloorview resource centre matched Tyler with Ability Online’s new funding program, Ability Gives. Together, Ability Gives provided Tyler with a new iPad and MyVoice provided the communication software.

A few days ago, we were delighted to join Michelle, Corey, and Adam of AbilityGives at Holland Bloorview Kids Rehab to present Tyler and his family with their new iPad running MyVoice.  It’s exhilarating to know that as a young person transitioning to more independent and adult living, Tyler is now equipped with tools for communication and learning suited to his capabilities.

See the full story at Abillity Online.

And here are some pictures from the event, showing Tyler using the iPad camera to add us to his MyVoice vocabulary:

Thanks to all the amazing people that made this great donation possible!

Our 60 Second Guide to Using MyVoice

Lately we’ve been working with the wonderful team at Holland Bloorview Kids’ Rehab and had the honour of meeting a young man who has cerebral palsy. When we showed him MyVoice on the iPad he caught on instantly. In minutes, he was ordering his mom a coffee at the hospital cafe. The possibilities for independence that MyVoice can provide made us so proud.

Sometimes these shining moments come over the phone. We recently heard from a mother who told us that our app allowed her child to tell her that he loves her, out loud, for the very first time in his life. It’s very easy to take those little things for granted, but for some people these simple gestures can mean the world.

Although we have users in 30 countries, a few weeks ago we had someone stop us in the hall at our office building to tell us his family’s story. After having a stroke his grandfather had been left unable to speak. He was able to use MyVoice to communicate with his loved ones, something that otherwise wouldn’t have been possible.

These are only some of the many stories that our users have shared with us. We want to continue to highlight them on the blog, and if you would like to submit your experiences please contact us at community@myvoiceaac.com

PROFIT’s celebration of MyVoice means so much, and will serve to help our efforts in so many ways: It shines a light on the work MyVoice is doing to give a voice to millions of people with speech and language challenges. It helps focus much-needed attention on our thousands of users, who struggle not just for speech, but also for social recognition and support. Most of all, it says that the MyVoice community is truly building momentum towards our dream of perfecting the world’s best communication aid.

At a moment like this, I want thank the many people and organizations that helped us make MyVoice what it is today. First, I want to thank my wonderful family, who have been there for me every step of the way, especially my Mom, Judy, my Dad, Fred, and my loving girlfriend, Andi. Next, all our incredible partners, including the University of Toronto, OCE, NSERC, Komodo OpenLab / OCAD, the TDSB, the Aphasia Institute, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, and Toronto Rehab.  We are especially grateful to our investors, on whose wisdom and patience we rely daily.

Most important of all, I want to thank the many members the amazing MyVoice team: my incomparable partner Aakash, Tony Gross, Matt Medland, Kante Easley, Ron Baecker, Alexandra Carling-Rowland, Rachelle Campigotto, Xavier Snelgrove, and many other contributors and volunteers. Our journey together has been the pleasure of a lifetime.

In explaining the meaning of this award, Ian Portsmouth, the editor-in-chief of PROFIT Magazine had this to say:

“Canada’s future competitiveness rests in the hands of entrepreneurs who can produce world-beating innovations, create high-quality jobs and build sustainable businesses. The winners of the inaugural FuEL Awards not only show those abilities, but are also role models who inspire youth to choose the entrepreneurial path.”

Ian reminds us of the great potential MyVoice has to create social and economic change, and I know that all of us here at MyVoice will strive to fulfill the promise of his generous and eloquent words. Our thanks go out to Ian, Deborah, and the whole PROFIT team for this great honour.

Alexander Levy

About PROFIT Magazine:

PROFIT: Your Guide to Business Success is Canada’s preeminent publication dedicated to the management issues and opportunities facing small and mid-sized businesses. For 29 years, Canadian entrepreneurs and senior managers across a vast array of economic sectors have remained loyal to PROFIT because it’s a timely and reliable source of actionable information that helps them achieve business success and get the recognition they deserve for generating positive economic and social change. Visit PROFIT online at www.PROFITguide.com.