ALANNA RAFFEL: All right, it looks like we are good to go. So welcome, everyone, and thank you all for joining us today for the November Tech Accelerator Webinar. Our presentation topic this month is Assistive Technology for Art. 

This session is being recorded. And the video will include picture-in-picture, sign language interpretation, as well as a full transcript. You'll be able to access that video on our website. And I will put that link in the chat. The website is also where you can register for the next and final webinar in this series, which is on December 11, 2025. 

This series is part of the Tech Accelerator Program. It's an initiative funded by the Office of Developmental Programs and the Office of Long-Term Living here in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It's made possible through funding from the American Rescue Plan Act. 

The Pennsylvania Tech Accelerator project includes five major focus areas-- training and resources to build capacity for stakeholders; readiness evaluation to develop tools for successful adoption of remote supports and assistive tech; statewide assessment to plan and benchmark a Technology First Systems Change; a provider survey to assess technology awareness and resources among providers; and finally, two technology summits, which were live events hosted in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh this past spring. 

You can learn more about all of these fantastic projects on our website at disabilities.temple.edu using the links I'll put in the chat shortly. 

ALEX LEE: [LAUGHS] Yes, this is Putting the AT in ArT. First of all, hi, I'm Alex. I have my master's in Art Therapy and Counseling from Drexel. And I'm a board-certified art therapist. I'm also working towards my licensure for professional counseling. This is my colleague, Colleen. 

COLLEEN MCALLISTER: Hello. I am a recreation therapist. I went to East Stroudsburg University a very, very long time ago. And I'm a certified ATR Recreation Specialist. So I've been at Magee for 18 years in our inpatient acute rehab hospital for five years, six years, something like that. And then I've been down at our outpatient facility in our day rehab program for the past 13 years. 

ALEX LEE: Yeah, I've been at Magee for about 2 and 1/2 years now. I also did my internship here when I was in school. And I spend both time here at our outpatient as well as our inpatient hospital, which brings us to what art therapy and rec therapy look like at Moss-Magee. 

Again, we have our inpatient hospital. It's much more acute. We tend to be working more acutely towards physical cognitive goals. And then we have outpatient facility where people can continue to get that treatment and reintegrate into the community. So a lot more focus on that community building and that transition as people return home with maybe a change in functioning or a new disability. 

We do individual sessions, co-treatment sessions with physical, occupational, and speech therapies. And then we do a lot of group sessions down here as well. We exist primarily to support PT, OT, and speech. And that's definitely a part of our skill set and adapting, for me, art to meet those goals. 

And then also, it's a great way to touch on mental health and building coping skills and adapting and coping with, again, a change in function. We also, again, have a really great community down here and are working on building community resources outside of Magee as well, to help people reintegrate into their communities and remain involved in some of the creative arts and recreational and leisure activities. 

COLLEEN MCALLISTER: The other thing is our main hospital has a AT room where patients get set up with learning about what AT is and how they can use it in their personal life as well as their home, for smart homes. 

A lot of their hospital rooms are set up with AT being voice controlled, so to control their lights, their shades, their TV, all of that kind of stuff. So they get really introduced to it there. Then they have an actual room where they have a smart wall. And they can learn all different types of AT stuff there. 

And then when they transition down to here, we have a smaller AT room where we can continue growing and exploring and then adding in all the different aspects that they want, whether it's going back to school, going back to home, or exploring the creative arts world. 

ALEX LEE: So we'll start off with talking about some of our low-tech adaptive tools that we use. Then, we'll move into some high-tech stuff and then art materials and specific adaptations of art processes. 

To start off, we have foam grip tubing, which is a great addition to any paintbrush, pencil, marker, crochet hooks. They have different sizes. They fit different-sized things. There are different options. And they can be cut to size. 

Yeah, but they're just a really great option to build up the handle of any tool that you might be working with. Also, all the slides, I have links to these materials. So if anybody wants to explore that, they will be in the slides. Alanna is going to send those out to everybody. 

The next one is Dycem. It's a rubbery, non-slip mat just to help keep things from sliding. You can buy it in thinner rolls and cut it to size. Or they have thicker, coaster-like squares and circles that can be used as well. 

As Colleen brought up in our earlier session, they're also really reusable. They clean very easily with just soap and water. So any fuzz that builds up, they can be cleaned up to stick for forever, basically. [LAUGHS] Even paint you can peel off of it. 

Next is Coban tape. Tape, in general, can just come really in handy. And it's a really simple low-budget thing. But Coban, in particular, similar to the foam tubing, can build up the thickness of whatever writing or painting utensil you're using, or whatever tool. 

We've even used it to tape things to people's hands to help stabilize it. If they need a certain angle that they can't get with another device, we'll just tape it right on. 

Next, we have a U-cuff. So a universal cuff fits most pens, pencils, brushes. And you can tape things to it. But it has an adjustable Velcro strap that goes right over your hand into your palm. They have silicone ones that attach around your hand onto both ends of whatever utensil you're using, and then these fabric ones that your utensil would slide into a little sleeve or a little pocket on the inside of it. 

We also have wrist supports. Some have U-cuffs attached, but you can also put a U-cuff over this. And it's really similar, but just gives that additional support throughout the wrist and forearm to help stabilize and get as much control as possible. 

And the next one is mouthsticks. So they're a great option for folks that don't have any arm movement. But I also find that some people that have some movement still prefer mouthsticks because they can use it with more control. So again, it's like a stylus that has a screw on the end to put in your writing utensil. And then the opposite end has a flat mouth guard that would fit right between your teeth. 

Another lower cost option that we've played a lot with is a plastic Popsicle stick or tongue depressor, and attaching a Pen Pal Holder to the end of it. It's like an adhesive, little rubbery holder that you can put pens and pencils into. Or even, we'll stabilize it with some tape sometimes. I like to give people options for trying both of these. 

Because different people have different preferences. Some people like the tongue depressor because they can use their tongue more to help control what they're doing, not just their head. And some people will prefer the mouth guard shape. They find that it's easier on their jaw, things like that. 

What else? We have easels. Pretty straightforward in the art world, I feel like. They're a great to way to prop up materials for better reach and visibility. And posturally, it's a little bit easier, so you're not leaning over what you're working on. 

But they usually have a lip at the bottom that holds your paper or your canvas, whatever you're working on. This one here also holds some art materials within it. But there's a lot of good options for those. A lap desk. 

COLLEEN MCALLISTER: So then, lap desks are good so that if you either don't have a table that's adjustable or your chair just doesn't fit under things nicely, you can put it on your lap. It's a beanbag on the one side. And then the top part is hard plastic. It has a ledge so that whatever you're working with doesn't slide off. 

Or you can tape it or use Dycem underneath it. It's very, very lightweight. And it has, I think, a handle so people can carry it and take it and be versatile with it out in the community as well-- especially if they're going somewhere and they need to eat or something like that. So you can use it for many, many things, not just art. Next slide. 

ALEX LEE: Yeah. I would say this one's good, too, if it really just needs to be that much closer-- 

COLLEEN MCALLISTER: Closer, yeah. 

ALEX LEE: --than the table is. From here, we're going to move into some of our high-tech adaptive stuff. Colleen's going to lead the way here. 

COLLEEN MCALLISTER: So with high tech, most people think it's more technology-based, and it's true. Glassouse is a great option if you don't have a lot of arm movement or fine motor skills, that you put the glasses on and your head acts as the mouse. So you can look side to side, up and down. You do need a little bit good cervical range of motion. 

If you just have slight, you can't calibrate it on there because you need to turn all the way to the side. So there is that little downfall if you don't have great cervical range of motion. But typically, we can figure something out, depending on what you're using it with. But there's different attachments to what people's needs are. So the first one is the blue foam and is a bite switch. 

The next one is a foot pedal. Then the pink, round circular one is a press switch. But they have other ones on the website. These are the three that we typically use. There is a chin switch. There's a sip and puff. And there's one other one. I can't think of it right now. A finger switch, a clicker, if you have just a little bit of a digit movement. 

They I'll just click up into it. It's Bluetooth. It pairs with pretty much all devices. I've used it on a cell phone. I used it on an iPad. I've used it on a laptop, a desktop. And it's no problem. It's just Bluetooth. It has about a six-hour battery, I believe. It is a little tight when you first get it on the heads, as people have to, their heads have to stretch it out a little bit. 

But yeah, you can click, drag, scroll. You can get a keyboard put up and then you can type stuff out. I also like to use this with people's voices, if they can, so that you're using your head and your voice so you're not individually typing out every single word. But you can do painting, drawing all with it. It's a great resource. 

The Apple pen, it only works with MacBooks and, I believe, iPads. It does not work with an iPhone. But you can easily fit it into a U-cuff. You can weave it between your fingers. You can wrap stuff with it. 

It's just a fine-point tip, which is really nice if you're into drawing and you really want to get that defined line versus a stylus tip, which is thicker. And it's flexible, so sometimes you have to really press hard. So if you don't have a great pressure to press, it just basically can glide on it. You don't really have to do much with it. So it's a nice aspect. 

The Magic Trackpad, that is an Apple product as well. It does not work with a cell phone. It's basically a square mousepad. As you can see, the patient using it with a stylus. You have to have a light touch to click it. But you also don't have to have really grandiose movements on the trackpad. 

You can be very subtle with a slight movement, and then just pick up. And then your mouse will just follow it. So you don't have to go really crazy movement with it. I also like it because once we start thinking of high-tech stuff, from my point of view, we really think about posturing and body mechanics. 

So if somebody is really like stretching an arm out to get to the iPad screen or their head is really looking down and you're doing something that you enjoy doing for hours, you're going to eventually get pain in those areas. So trying to think about body mechanics and proper positioning so that you can enjoy what you're doing for longer periods of time. 

So the trackpad, you don't have to look at it. All you have to do is look at your device that you're using it with ahead of you and just follow the mouse and whatever you're doing. So it's Bluetooth connected as well. It's pretty small, but you can take it and do whatever you want with it. So that's a nice option. 

The Augmental MouthPad, it's a newer device that's out. It was originally designed for ALS patients. We met with the rep. He came down here to show us how to use it. And we got a personal trial. So basically what you do is that copper piece is your mouse pad. 

And you use your tongue to swipe up, down, side so your cursor will move all over to where you want. And then you tap your tongue to double click where you want to go. It's a learning curve. You can change the speed, how much pressure, how much force you have to click. 

You can use head gestures with it. You have to download the app onto a PC or a laptop, as long as it has Windows 11 or it's a MacBook. And then once that's downloaded and you change all your settings the way you want it to, you can use it on a cell phone. You can use it on an iPad. 

The retainer gets custom built to you. Say, you want to order it, they find a local dentist in your area and they do a 3D scan of your mouth. And then it takes a few weeks, maybe about a month for them to design it. They ship it to you. And then, basically, mine fit perfect. 

But if it's slightly off, you can dip it into a little bit of warm water. And it softens. And then just remold it. So if you ever have dental changes or something like that, as long as it's not super drastic, it should stay fit to your mouth. But the middle picture is a 3D printing box where it charges. 

And it lasts about, I think, it's six to eight hours as well, if you need to use it. But I'm still learning it. But you do have a slight little lisp when you're talking with it, but it's pretty minor. But your tongue's not necessarily fatigued with it. It's just a learning curve because you don't realize all the ways your tongue can do things. 

And you're just like, oh, crap. And you have to be, depending on the settings that you have, either really precise with it. So I'm still actively learning. But they help you with it and navigate. And they have customer service that you can touch base. They're out of California, I believe. But it's great, a great option if you don't have arm movement or anything like that. 

Tobii Dynavox Eye Gaze, so we use these a lot at Magee, if our patients have language deficits and they can't communicate as well. The speech therapist will usually initiate this for the patient if they feel like their cognition is appropriate to use it. Because it is training, a lot of training to know all the ins and outs. 

But also it's very tiring on the eyes. So they have to get used to and adjusted. So a rep from Tobii will come out and work with the patient. But then once they get the hang of it and they can do it, they can use just their eye movements to click on anything that you would on a computer. 

You can have apps downloaded. So you can pretty much do social media, drawing, anything that you want with it. It is a process. Some insurances will cover it. I don't know what this would be out of pocket, but I know it's not cheap. But if you need a communication device, usually, insurance, typically, we can justify it for you. 

Another great thing that is now out there everywhere. IKEA has them. You can get them on Amazon. This is a high-low desk. There are ones that are manual where you can have somebody crank it to the adjusted height that you want. 

But the powered ones are great because all you have to do is press an up or down button, and the table will go up and down-- so if you're in a manual chair and then you want to get in your power chair, or vice versa. Or for those that maybe want to do some standing, you can make it a standing desk. It's great. Some of them, you can preset the heights that you want. 

So all you have to do is press it once, and then it goes to that height and you're good. But it's nice that you can get close to things. You're not far away. Your legs are not scraping the top of a table. But yeah, these are great. And they come in different widths and different lengths. So depending on what you're using it for, there's all different kinds. 

ALEX LEE: So we're going to jump back to some art materials and specific adaptations of those, just starting out some general materials, drawing supplies, painting supplies, clay. And then I have listed whether it's more fine motor or whether it's more gross motor, visual, tactile. It's all about finding a right fit for you, in addition to the adaptive materials. 

And another consideration that I always think for folks, especially at home, is how clean it is, or how messy, if it's something that you can do independently or if you're going to need help cleaning it up, or it's going to take hours to clean up. We want obviously it to be a good fit for your creative process, but also realistically and logistically that it matches what you're looking for. 

So drawing, painting, both really easily adaptable. Some are messier, but there are very low-mess options. The same thing goes for clay. There's a little bit of a steeper learning curve sometimes. But there are options like Model Magic, which is very, very soft and not messy at all. 

There's ceramic clay, which can be a little bit harder. What was I going to say? Oh, but it's much messier. But they're really great for low vision and folks that really are trying to engage in something much more tactile. What else? We have mosaic materials, other textiles, yarn, felt, macramé. 

We have paper. And we do a lot of 3D crafts here as well. These are all things that I think a little bit can be out of the norm, but can be really accessible for some folks. Mosaics can be much more abstract. They can get messy, but they're generally very structured. And you can do them in all different ways using stuff at home. 

Textile stuff is very fine-motor and very tactile, but it's very low mess. Not always the most easily adaptable, but we've done things like felt collages, which is a lot more adaptable than maybe crocheting or knitting. We do paper stuff, collage, origami-- same thing, pretty fine-motor heavy. 

And precision can be an issue, but otherwise generally pretty clean and structured. And like I said, we do a lot of painting of wooden bird houses or ceramic flowerpots, things like that that can be a little bit easier and a little bit less messy, very structured and adaptable to what you're working on. 

These are some of the very specific adaptive devices about art. So one is an adaptive ceramic wheel. They have tabletop wheels as well. They have a wide access to them. They're very wide, so you can fit powered wheelchairs into them. They raise and lower and adapt to whatever height is best for you. 

This is the ceramic wheel or the adaptive wheel. They have a foot pedal that can be doubled as a hand pedal. So it can be raised up to the side and a knob can be attached to it so that you're controlling the speed of the wheel with your hand instead of your foot. And they actually have arm supports on the side as well that also can be doubled for just tabletop space that's a little bit closer to your body. 

A tabletop wheel is another option. Not as many bells and whistles as the adaptive wheel, but a little bit more portable, probably, if you have your own setup at home. I don't have a link for these because they are quite expensive. 

I am working on building a list of community resources and seeing if there's anywhere in the community that has access to these things. And that is something that I can certainly share down the line. But just so that if this is something you're interested in, you have a starting point of what to ask for and what to look for when looking for adaptive art centers. 

Another one is adaptive photography. They have a lot of different arms, tripods, stabilizers, and attachments that can be attached to wheelchairs. They have body equipment that you can wear as well as bite and tongue switches. So this link at the bottom is a link that kind of gives you a breakdown and some examples of those equipment pieces. 

Photography can be great with photo editing. Ir can be a really fun, creative process in Photoshop as well as Procreate. Another option that came up was drones. And doing photography with drones can be kind of cool. And I know there's a lot of adaptive devices that relate to that as well. 

And there's adaptive crochet. This is super DIY. This photo is an adaptive crochet hook that somebody I found on Instagram, her name is Helen Zhao. I don't want to butcher her name, but it's on the screen. She has an Instagram and a YouTube channel. 

She crochet's one handed. So she created this device. I have recreated it myself using things that I already had at the studio. So for me, it was very no-cost, but you could do these things at a really low cost as well. There is a very steep learning curve to adapting crochet. But it's a really cool process. And she has a lot of great videos and tutorials online. 

COLLEEN MCALLISTER: The other thing, we had a patient who had a hemi-arm that was not necessarily super functional. So we put a U-cuff on her, put the crocheting thing so that it just rested where her arm naturally just lays. And we were able to use her good arm and just have that be stationary, too. 

So some people, if they don't want to necessarily adapt-- if they want to use their other arm, but it's maybe just not functional enough-- that's something you can use your other arm, maybe, as a stationary and have it gripped in there. And then you're just using your good hand to crochet and do those skills. 

ALEX LEE: Yeah. I think, generally, with all of this stuff, it is not a one-size-fits-all. And there are a million different ways to make it work. It's just putting in the time and the energy to figure it out. Lastly, this is Procreate-- and more generally, digital art. But Procreate is a digital art app that's really great for accessible art making. 

It's no-mess. It's great for people with limited range of motion, though there is a bit of a learning curve. But there are a lot of free tutorials online. And they do have a lot of great accessibility settings. We have a quad amputee that does a lot of digital art making-- 

COLLEEN MCALLISTER: Without her prosthesis. 

ALEX LEE: Without her prosthesis, yeah. So it's great for that one-handed use or limited, fine-motor even. So it's really versatile, a lot of different brushes, layering, special effects that can mimic other forms of art. And it was designed specifically for Apple products. 

So it does work best on an iPad with an Apple Pencil, but it can be used elsewhere. And again, the accessibility settings are great, particularly with the iPads. Because Apple already has really good accessibility programming. So they pair together really well. And it's a really fun one to explore. 

Lastly, I just wanted to share that the biggest thing is-- what am I trying to say? It's late in the day. The biggest thing is adapting your mindset to the materials that you have and the things that you want to create. All day long, I just take what we have and make it work. 

I've taken paint brushes and taken the metal tip and bent it sideways so that somebody that uses their prosthesis could paint without having to bring their shoulder all the way up to their ear, to bring their prosthesis down. So really, just taking things and thinking outside of the box can be really fun. And I think it's just really important when adapting your creative process. 

Final considerations, chairs that raise and lower or offer additional lumbar or arm support-- this is a good one, especially, again, for pain and sitting in a position for a long period of time. It's just important to have good supports. Again, tape is something that we use for everything and anything, just to make our own DIY art materials and art setups. 

Another one is 3D printing. I shared this example earlier of, I had our 3D printing team print an ashtray as a shallow water bowl that has little divots in the side that your paintbrush can rest on, so that folks with limited like dexterity were able to clean their brushes really easily and make sure that they didn't roll away from them on the lip of whatever cup they would have used otherwise. 

So 3D printing can be a cool way to adapt some stuff and to repurpose stuff. Other considerations-- cost of materials and community resources. Things can be expensive. So again, I recommend adapting what you have first. 

I also think that trying things out in the community, if possible, is a great way to see if you like something and envision how you might engage with that process or that material before going all-in on it and investing time and money on something that might not be a good fit. 

Yeah, I think that is all we had. I am happy to answer general or very specific questions. Again, we take things case by case. So, yeah, I'll open it back up. 

ALANNA RAFFEL: Thank you, Alex and Colleen I know, it feels much later than it is. It feels like-- 

ALEX LEE: The sun is down and my brain is off. 

ALANNA RAFFEL: I'm like, is it not 8 o'clock? 

ALEX LEE: [LAUGHS] 

ALANNA RAFFEL: Thank you again so much for sharing all that great information. I'll open it up, if anyone has any questions they want to ask. I asked them in the earlier session, people have asked me about accessible beading, do you have any ideas for that? If you have any issues that have been plaguing you in your practice or anything like that, feel free to ask any questions, either in the chat or you can unmute yourself. 

As you're pondering your questions, I will pop a couple more links in the chat for you. So I'm sharing a link to the PA Tech Accelerator website, in general. That's where a recording of this with an ASL interpreter, picture-in-picture, will go once it's edited. And there are recordings of all the past, there are 16 other webinars that we've done so far. 

And we have one more after this one in December, on December 11, about assistive tech for rec and leisure, with some rec therapists from Inglis. I also put a link to the state AT Act Program. So here at TechOWL, we represent the state assistive technology program for Pennsylvania. But if you don't live in Pennsylvania, you might be interested in connecting with your state's assistive technology program. 

I'd actually love to hear maybe who's in the room, what states. Are you all from Pennsylvania? Are you from other states? Feel free to pop in the chat where you're from. And I also put a link-- Tennessee, cool. I put a link to a feedback survey. If you have a moment to fill that out, the link is there. Another Pennsylvania, great. 

So in Pennsylvania, we represent the Assistive Technology Act Program. We do have some accessible adaptive art things in our Lending Library. We have a water painting tool. That's pretty cool. I don't know if you've seen that, Alex and Colleen. 

We have Guided Hands, which you could use it for art making, lots of cool things that anyone in Pennsylvania can borrow from our library. I will put that link in the chat as well, in case you are not familiar with it. That is the place where you can borrow all kinds of tools. 

If there is an adaptive art tool-- and this goes for you too, Alex and Colleen-- that we don't have in our Lending Library that you think we should have in our Lending Library that you'd be interested in being able to trial with patients, or if anyone else has any suggestions, there's a button on that website to request specific devices to be added to our library. 

And we really do seek out what-- we want to have the things that people want. Otherwise, we don't want to just put random things in our Lending Library that nobody wants. So we really want to know what people want. So please use that button to suggest items that maybe we can add to the Lending Library. 

And obviously, I want to make sure there's lots of cool adaptive art stuff in there, but that goes for any kind of adaptive tools, assistive technology. Does anyone have any questions before we wrap up? 

LINDA GONZALEZ: I have a quick question. 

ALANNA RAFFEL: Yeah, Linda, go ahead. 

LINDA GONZALEZ: So I'm working with someone who, she'll make some advocacy presentations. And we're working on making a PowerPoint of one of her presentations. And she can use the computer and keyboard and mouse and everything. 

It is a little challenging sometimes using the mouse. In PowerPoint, it has to be very precise. If she's going to resize a text box, she has to hover the mouse just so over the edge of the box. And it's very easy to lose the cursor she needs to resize. Or if she clicks when she has the right cursor, if it moves slightly, then she loses what she's doing. 

So I was wondering if something like the Magic Trackpad is a little easier, as far as the moving and clicking. I feel like getting the mouse in a very precise spot and then clicking it without having it move out of place has been a challenge. So I wonder if you have experience with the Magic Trackpad and if it's kind of like that. 

COLLEEN MCALLISTER: I've never used it for a text box, trying to drag it to make it bigger. But it's your speed that's controlling it. So where a mouse, it's kind of on a ball and it can go all over. It's your hand. So if you're clicking and then dragging, it's however your movement of your arm is is how fast it's going to go. So you don't necessarily lose it. 

Because even if, let's say you're dragging it, and you get to here and you unclick it, then you go back; your hand can be anywhere on the [INAUDIBLE]. It still stays in that spot. So you can rest it and then go back and then click and then drag. You could be fast. You could be slow. It's to what your ability is. 

So a lot of our tetraplegics use it in U-cuffs. And they're zipping around. These young people, they beat me. I'm like, oh, I can't even find the mouse. And you can change the color of the mouse. 

So sometimes your dot on it is different, so you can change it and brighten it and make it bigger or smaller so that it's easy to find, too. And then where you're hovering to click on stuff, it's like a dot, but then there's a circle around it. And it makes it a little bit bigger to where you can click. 

So you don't have to be so precise on clicking certain things. We stumbled upon this because one of our patients was very limited with his range of motion with his arm. And he can now use his iPad with no problem. 

So it might be a little bit easier than a trackball or a regular mouse to navigate. Because I feel like you can get wild and crazy with the balls. A trackball, you can't really slow down that-- if you're going like this, it's like, shoop, off, up on the page or whatever. But I feel like the trackpad is a little bit easier. 

LINDA GONZALEZ: OK. 

COLLEEN MCALLISTER: If you have a laptop that has that little mouse pad on it, you might be able to trial that with a stylus or their finger and see how they do with it. 

LINDA GONZALEZ: Does it work similar to the trackpad on a laptop? 

COLLEEN MCALLISTER: It does. It's just a little bit, I feel like, bigger than laptops. And I feel like because it's so small, you sometimes have to-- I'm able-bodied with my hand, so I'm able to just whatever and do. 

I feel like it's bigger, so you don't have to readjust for a while. So if you want to try something like that and see if that's easy for them. Because I think with that trackpad on a laptop, though, I think you have the buttons below it, if I'm correct. 

LINDA GONZALEZ: Yeah. 

COLLEEN MCALLISTER: So you still have to click them, whereas this you just have to press down on the trackpad. 

LINDA GONZALEZ: Oh, I see, OK. Yeah, that sounds interesting. 

COLLEEN MCALLISTER: Yeah. So I feel like our patients that are tetras that maybe only have tenodesis available, they're zipping through it with no issues. 

LINDA GONZALEZ: Awesome. Thank you. 

COLLEEN MCALLISTER: You're welcome. I hope that answers it. 

LINDA GONZALEZ: Mhm, yeah. 

ALANNA RAFFEL: I don't know if we have that in the Lending Library. And I'm wondering-- 

COLLEEN MCALLISTER: Honestly, I didn't even know Apple made it. 

ALANNA RAFFEL: OK. 

COLLEEN MCALLISTER: I just was trying to figure out, there's gotta be something out there. And their last update was 2018. But they sell it. It's still on their website. They're selling them. 

ALANNA RAFFEL: All right, I'll have to check that out. Maybe it's something we need to add to the Lending Library. I'll also take an opportunity, I feel like I'm always learning so much from other people and other people that are part of this conversation. 

So I just wanted to give an opportunity, if anyone else has a favorite adaptive art tool or cool thing that they have discovered that other people might be interested in, feel free to pop that in the chat, if you want to share with other people something that you think is cool, or a social media account of a cool-- like the one you mentioned, Alex, or any-- 

COLLEEN MCALLISTER: What we have tried-- sorry to cut you off. 

ALANNA RAFFEL: No, go for it. 

COLLEEN MCALLISTER: Because we're at an outpatient, sometimes I'll just make things for splinting material. I've done a two, it's like two circles connected together with a little one. And if they don't do well with the U-cuff, it's like two fingers hooked. And then it's kind of like-- can I have your pen? 

ALEX LEE: Yeah. 

COLLEEN MCALLISTER: --kind of angled like this. And then they can do it a little bit better that way. I just make things up. I've done it for mascara, if you're making mascara. And then tetras can do that, or lipstick. We'll find a way and make it work for them. And not everything works the same for everybody. 

Even if you're the same diagnosis, the same level, you always present a little bit different. So we're tweaking things left and right and just trying to be creative. And then somebody's like, well, turn it this way. And then it's like, game over. It's, oh, yeah, why didn't I think of that? 

ALANNA RAFFEL: Yeah. It's so nice to have an opportunity to problem solve like that. I feel like I interact with a lot of people who aren't necessarily in rehab, aren't necessarily seeing clinicians regularly and don't have as much opportunity to problem solve and be creative with someone. 

So it's so nice to see that folks have the opportunity to do that with you and can bring that home with them into their life. And I feel like it's so powerful to have someone just problem solving with you to figure things out like that. 

COLLEEN MCALLISTER: Yeah, there's a lot of things that you can look online that they're a million dollars. And you're just like, I really don't want to spend that much money on something, so if you can have somebody who's even handy in your house that can build it. 

Or like what we said, instead of buying Coban, if you're just building up a pencil or a pen or whatever, you can literally just get a couple rubber bands and build it up that way. Then you have that rubbery, tactile. 

ALANNA RAFFEL: Yeah. 

COLLEEN MCALLISTER: And it works just as well. 

ALANNA RAFFEL: For sure. Yeah, or instead of Dycem, I sometimes recommend shelf liner. 

COLLEEN MCALLISTER: Yeah. 

ALANNA RAFFEL: Yeah. Dycem still is a special material that shelf liner doesn't replicate. But sometimes we can find things that work. Awesome. Well, if there are no other questions, we will say farewell for now. And we'll see you on December 11. I popped the link in the chat. Oh, Meredith, did you have something? 

MEREDITH MCDEVITT: I wanted to ask, so I teach elementary art education-- I'll turn my camera on, sorry. Hi, everybody. I'm in my classroom right now. And I teach a group of six children who are severely autistic. All the children are non-speaking. And they use assistive technology to communicate. 

And I thank you so much for sharing all the tools. I'm definitely going to look into those tools. I was just wondering if you had any projects? This is my second year teaching them. I'm a Conshohocken Elementary in Conshohocken. 

Yeah, I just wanted to see if you had any recommendations for how to structure their studio time. I'm keeping it very open-ended right now, where I have stations set up. And they explore a different station and they hop to a new one. But yeah, if you had any advice or anything you wanted to share with me? 

ALEX LEE: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, we do a lot of different projects. Again, I feel like you probably would be able to agree that you encounter this, but after working with a patient once, I'm like, OK, I know the amount of structure that you need. You know what I mean? 

You tend to, the more you work with people and the more you work with a given population, you can anticipate what's going to be better and what's going to fall apart or be too much. So I feel like something I've learned is adding structure to two things that maybe aren't structured by adding steps to it or not bringing out a material right away-- like showing examples first, letting people get into that. 

And then when everybody's done with that, OK, now we're going to bring out the supplies. Now, gather your supplies, whatever-- and really implementing a lot of steps to try not to overwhelm almost. I find a lot of difficulty with that, especially at the main hospital. 

If somebody wants to do mosaics, we have boxes, many, many boxes of mosaic supplies. I'm like, what color do you want? What shape? What size, whatever? I go to bring them all out. And then I'm like, there are five boxes on the table. This is too overwhelming. 

So starting with one and then noticing that somebody's going for the red ones. OK, I'm going to show you this other box, really building in that structure. As far as projects go, we'll do simple things like tape paintings, where we'll put tape in a geometric spot on canvases. 

And then you can paint them in all different colors. You can blend the colors. You can do whatever. And then it dries, you take it off. It's simple, very abstract stuff. Collage, and even felt collage can be really fun because it's tactile. And you can really build. It's simple, too. 

It's not overwhelming with images. It's more focused on shape and color-- so even just breaking down some of the elements of more complex things into something that's simpler. Yeah, I don't know. I could talk about different projects all day. So if you want, I'm happy to-- 

COLLEEN MCALLISTER: Maybe depending on your students, how they learn, some people are very abstract and they can do well with abstract. And others need break-down, step-by-step. You give me a blank canvas, I'm like, I have no idea. And our patients, some are really good and they can just go to town and do their own thing. And the other ones are just sitting there staring at each other. 

So I feel like if you have a mix of them, then you can have one section being very structured. And the other one, if they want to explore and create on their own, having that, and they can go to their own section, that could also help, too. Versus, if they're like, I don't like to follow these steps. I want to do my own thing and be creative. That can help as well. 

ALEX LEE: Or materials that they can get more creative with. Watercolor is a good example where you can get kind of crazy and messy with watercolor. But it's otherwise pretty straightforward. And you can follow that step by step. Another one is tissue paper, things like that where people tend to approach it the same of, oh, I'm going to lay this flat and I'm going to layer it. 

And then you have somebody that bunches it up and glues it that way and makes it three dimensional. And you're like, OK. You totally took it and ran with it. So stuff like that where you get a little bit of the best of both worlds and people can push their creativity, if that's what they're into. 

MEREDITH MCDEVITT: Thank you so much. I appreciate your time. 

ALEX LEE: Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for the question. 

ALANNA RAFFEL: Thanks. Now I want to go play with tissue paper. I put a link to an adaptive art list on our website, as well as a link that, Meredith, if you or anyone on the call is interested in connecting with a TechOWL staff member, Pennsylvania-specific-- Tennessee, you might have to connect with your own state-- to set up an appointment with a AT Specialist. 

Everyone, if you're in the area, can come visit our community space on Temple's campus, where we have some adaptive art stuff and other fun 3D printed tools and things like that. So I will make sure to also send all this information out, including the slides, to everyone who was here today. So thank you, thank you again to Alex and Colleen. And we will see you on December 11, everyone. Bye. 

COLLEEN MCALLISTER: Bye. 

ALEX LEE: Thanks, everyone. 

COLLEEN MCALLISTER: Thank you. 

ALANNA RAFFEL: Thank you.