Maximizing Resources: Communication Access and Training Through iCanConnect

Welcome to OIB-TAC’s monthly webinars, where our presenters share valuable information and helpful resources to support professionals working with older adults who are blind or vision impaired. Let's check out this month's webinar.

Jennifer Ottowitz: All right. It is with great pleasure that I introduce our presenter today. Kristyn Leigh. Kristyn is the program manager for Perkins iCanConnect. She has over 20 years of experience as a TVI before coming to her current position, and in her current position, she helps make decisions regarding equipment and training and technical support for 23 of the iCanConnect programs that are managed by Perkins. So Kristyn, welcome. Thank you for joining us today. Thank you. Great. Well, I'm gonna turn it over to you to share more about the iCanConnect program and what, what is helpful for us to know so that we can share it with clients, consumers, friends, family, and, and anyone else that may be appropriate.

So I'll, I'll mute myself and let you take it away.

Kristyn Leigh:

Let me just make sure my slide, they're ready to go here.

Okay. One second.

Thank you for the opportunity to share about the iCanConnect program with all of you. iCanConnect is the shorter, easier to remember name for the program whose official name is the National Deaf Blind Equipment Distribution Program. So I just want you to know those two things are exactly the same program.

ICanConnect provides free equipment and training to people of all ages with both significant hearing and vision loss. Participants also need to meet federal disability and income eligibility guidelines to be accepted into the program. The main goal of the program is to help people connect with friends, family, community, and the world.

The goals are to promote independence, reduce isolation, and enhance social interactions.

The focus is on two-way electronic distance communication, so it does not include face-to-face communication and it is intended to supplement services that may come from other programs, not to replace any other federal programs for people who are deaf blind.

Here is the brief background of how the program was created. It was a part of the 2010 federal law called the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act, and it is administered by the FCC, the Federal Communications Commission, and it was started with a five-year pilot program that went from 2012 to 2017. So on July 1st, 2017, it became a permanent program, and it's currently in year 13.

It's for eligible US residents in the 50 states, Washington, DC., and the territories, including Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands. There's an organization in each state and territory that runs the local program, and all of you can find the local contact in your state by going to the iCanConnect.org website and then clicking on your state. And all of that contact information gets updated as it changes.

That's another one of the things that Perkins does for the national program. And for anybody who does not have internet access, there is an 800 number. That goes to a call center where people can obtain their local contact information. The phone number is (800) 825-4595.

So the areas of eligibility include the disability verification. So an applicant has to have a significant combined vision and hearing loss that causes difficulty in attaining independence and daily life tasks. 

And there's also the income eligibility requirement, which is based on the number of people in a household and to some extent on where you live. There's one set of numbers for the 48 states and then a different set of numbers for Alaska and for Hawaii, and it's based on the number of people and 400% of the federal poverty rate.

So those numbers get updated every January when the new numbers come out from the government. And the other way to qualify besides household income is if an applicant is already qualified for another income based federal programs such as Social Security, Medicaid, or SNAP.

So here's a brief overview of of what the program provides an individualized assessment that will identify the types of equipment and training that an individual needs to meet. Their distance communication goals that fall into the program guidelines of two-way electronic distance communication and that assessment will take into consideration any existing equipment and their current level of technology skills in addition to their level of usable vision or hearing.

It provides training equipment and it also would include interpreters or language translators as needed for the consumer to access the program.

A few things that are not covered by the program is that equipment can't be for the purpose of school and use in the workplace. It needs to be for the primary purpose of an individual's personal communication. It doesn't mean that they couldn't also use it for work if they choose to, but the primary focus is for personal needs.

The program doesn't pay for phone service or internet service. That's the responsibility of the consumer. It does not cover training or repair on equipment that was provided by another program, and it can't cover teaching some of the foundational skills like braille or typing, and unfortunately it does not cover hearing aids.

That's a question that we get a lot. But that is hopefully covered by some other federal programs.

So each local program. It determines eligibility, the amount of equipment and training and the frequency of replacing equipment within the limited funding available on an annual basis. Each state local program must comply with the FCC's rules and regulations for the program. You know, there's a, a lengthy document of policies and rules that, that govern the overall program.

Here's a little bit of information on how to apply. Each state has its own application and those can be downloaded from the website. Those are also listed with the state contact information. Each application must include proof of disability and income eligibility. And also an applicant has to sign what we call the consumer attestation, which is just understanding that they understand what the program is for, and it also states that they will not sell or lend their equipment.

And on the website, there's also a list of some of the types of equipment that are provided for the program, which is an area that's there for consumers to reference or anybody who would like to look at it. 

After an applicant is accepted into the program, each person receives an individualized assessment to determine the suitable equipment and training. The considerations include the individual's hearing and vision, their distance communication goals, and any existing equipment and technology skills that they have. Then the equipment is ordered and the trainers help install any software and then they would start the training.

Equipment can include a variety of things, including off the shelf technology and assistive technology software, everything from landline phones, mobile phones, tablets, computers, rail displays, signalers or either visual signalers or vibrating signalers for phone calls and software.

Each state program makes equipment decisions based on the national guidelines. Equipment repair and replacement is also covered by the program. Those decisions are basis, depending how old is the cost of repair in various related considerations. Replacing equipment with the same item for things like cables and keyboards can be done at any time if a consumer needs a new device, like an updated model of a computer or cell phone. The program does require re-verification of income eligibility if it's been longer than a year since that information was collected.

Consumer success stories is another part of our website. Use these consumer success stories for a couple of purposes. So they're short descriptions with pictures showing how a consumer specific equipment and training has made a positive impact on their lives, and we also hope that these consumer profiles will help potential applicants to see how the program could benefit them or somebody that they know.

So I just wanna share a couple of those with you. That, that shows some of the equipment that consumers are using.

Okay, so here's Tyler. He is using a computer with ZoomText. And it helps him to keep in touch with family and friends. And he also uses his computer to manage his small business and keep in touch with emailing his customers. The equipment that he received from the program includes an iPhone, iPad, laptop, and a landline phone with amplification.

Here is Gibson. One of our consumers in the US Virgin Islands is using his iPhone, and he said before he discovered the iCanConnect program, he felt alone and isolated. His phone has allowed him to stay in touch with his family and friends, and he especially likes to be able to use FaceTime with his family. And he relies a lot on on Siri to make it easier to call his friends.

Here is another one of our consumers, Larry, who's using his laptop with a large print keyboard. He is using Fusion, which is a combination of ZoomText and JAWS because he has a progressive visual diagnosis and he was decreasing vision. So he's adjusting to relying more on his screen reader and less on magnification software. 

He uses his computer to keep in touch with his email and he's also learned a lot with training and he's able to help some of his friends with some basic computer assistance. He has an iPhone to stay in touch with people as well, and it helps him to access things in his community.

Here's Jan. She's using a CapTel phone, which has visual captions that she can read while she's making a phone call. She speaks into the phone and then there's an interpreter that edits the text of what the person she's talking to is saying so that she can hear some of it, but also have the visual output for reference. 

She's an artist and she lives far from her family and friends, so she relies on her phone to keep in touch with many of them. She has a landline phone with amplification as well as a mobile phone. She uses her iPhone to take pictures and share them.

This is Jasper, I believe is the youngest iCanConnect consumer that we've had in the program. He's two and a half and he got an iPad to be able to see his dad and communicate with him when his dad's away for work. Before he got his iCanConnect equipment, they tried to use mom's iPhone, but that was too small for him to be able to see well.

Here's the website and the phone number for anybody who wants to jot down that contact information. Hopefully this program will be a good resource for some of your consumers or just anybody that you happen to meet who is struggling with the combination of hearing loss and vision loss. And hopefully we have some time for any questions that you have.

Jennifer Ottowitz: Great. Thank you so much Kristyn. And yes, we will have time for questions. But first I wanted to thank you for sharing examples of real life folks using the iCanConnect equipment and just, um, sharing how the program helped them. I know one of the things, uh, for me, I was always familiar with the fact that iCanConnect provided equipment, but I, I really was not as familiar with the training piece of it.

So I find that really interesting. Um, I also do want to, um, recognize and thank our sign language interpreter, our ASL interpreter. Niall is here. So thank you and welcome Niall. But we're gonna open it up now for anyone who may have questions for Kristyn about the iCanConnect program.

If you've used it before, um, love to hear your experience. Anisio, go ahead.

Anisio: Thank you, Jennifer. So I happen to be a trainer in the iCanConnect program and, I just wanted to echo the, the words from Kristyn. I mean, it's a wonderful program. I've seen such incredible stories with people that I've worked with that where the equipment and the training has enabled them to, to regain their, not only their contact with family and friends, but their self-confidence that has gone on to, has transpiring to a lot of other things, activities of their lives.

So, the other thing that I often find when I talk about iCanConnect to folks within ACB and other groups, civic groups I belong to is the fact that people will think, oh no, I'm not, I'm not, I won't be eligible because I can still hear or I can still see. And it really is obviously you have to have a dual sensory loss.

You don't have to be totally blind or totally deaf and you would be amazed how often you might be thinking that you're not eligible and you are. The other thing that it might be helpful, Kristyn, I don't know if you have the information in front of you. It might be helpful just to give an idea of what the 400% of poverty level is.

Cause again, you don't have to be totally um, I don't know what the word is, but you may still be able to be eligible when you have some income coming to you. So thank you.

Jennifer Ottowitz: Thank you, Anisio. Yes, excellent points.

Kristyn Leigh: Thank you for, for those points and that is why we, instead of saying deafblind, we often say, you know, hearing loss, vision loss, um, to try to, you know, kind of get more people to understand that it is the whole spectrum of the combination. Um, of those two, two things, and I don't actually have the numbers in front of me. Um, but like I said, it depends on the number of people in the household, but I wanna say.

You know, don't quote me on this number, but for like a household of one person, it's probably like close to 60,000, maybe a little above or below that, and then it's roughly like $20,000 more for each additional person in the household. That would be the, um, 400% of the poverty level.

Jennifer Ottowitz: Okay. And I'm gonna check in with Karie, uh, our behind the scenes person, cause I think we had a question in the chat before. I know we have a couple of hands raised.

Kristyn Leigh: Yes. There was a question about how long it takes after equipment is ordered, I think.

Karie Pinnix: Yeah, Thomas Dailey, he responded, how long does it normally take for items to arrive once recommended?

Kristyn Leigh: So that, that varies widely depending on what the equipment is and how much equipment. But usually, I mean, a couple of weeks, you know, unless things are on back order or, you know, companies are releasing new models. I mean, there's some things that sometimes hold up the process, but the orders, the equipment is ordered as far as I know, for all of the programs.

It's ordered as it is needed. There's not a warehouse of equipment that it comes out of.

Jennifer Ottowitz: All right, and Mary, how about you? Great. Glad that answered your question, Thomas. Mary, how about you? I see your hand just raised.

Mary Kay: Hi, yeah, good afternoon. My name is Mary Kay. I'm with the Independent Living Specialist with DCRSA, uh, Department of Disability Services and I work primarily with seniors who are 55 and older.

I work in the older blind program, as well as independent living across the age. And the iCanConnect program has been an extremely beneficial comparable benefit for our program and offering a lot of the seniors additional supports with upgrading or, you know, providing the phone.

And there's even a special phone for folks who are blind, and I forgot the name of the phone, but there are various models of phones that are available for individuals who are not as tech savvy, but have the desire to have a phone that can help them stay in touch with their family and friends.

So it's been an extremely beneficial program, especially with the seniors I work with. Thanks for this presentation and thanks for having this.

Jennifer Ottowitz: Thank you for being here and thank you for sharing that. It's wonderful to know that it's such a helpful resource. Uh, Kristyn, if you had anything to, to add before we go on to our next person.

Kristyn Leigh: That's great. We'll go to the next question.

Jennifer Ottowitz: I, I do wanna say though, too, just to follow up with what you said, Mary, it's great because it's not all high tech solutions, right? You don't have to be a super techie person to benefit from the equipment that can be provided as well as the training. So, Beth, how about you?

I see your hand is raised.

Beth: Hi. Yeah. I just wanna thank you for all your information, all your dedication, and especially the resources that are on the internet. I love YouTube, cause you have all your videos up there. And just taking the time to go through them is real helpful. I am a service provider with independent living in my area and so I, I appreciate getting some of this training and also to have it available for my clients.

So thank you so much.

Kristyn Leigh: Well, thank you.

Jennifer Ottowitz: And Kristyn's contact information and the website, iCanConnect website, are posted on our webinar page as well, so you can find them there. Any other questions? Um, you don't, you don't even have to raise your hand. You can just jump in.

Niall (interpreting for Carol): Yes, I have a question.

Jennifer Ottowitz: Yes.

Niall (interpreting for Carol): Can you hear okay?

Jennifer Ottowitz: Yes, go ahead.

Niall (interpreting for Carol): Hello, this is Carol here. What is the capital letters SNAP. What does that mean? C-S-N-A-P.

Kristyn Leigh: SNAP. It's the, um, used to be food stamps. It's the same program. Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, I believe.

Niall (interpreting for Carol): Thank you.

Jennifer Ottowitz: You are welcome. Any other questions?

Or comments if you've used the program or know someone who's used it?

And Kristyn, I'll just turn it back to you. It is just to see if there's any other, um,

Niall (interpreting for Carol): No, I've not used it.

Jennifer Ottowitz: And any other information you'd like to share or, you know, kind of common questions that you get. You did mention about the hearing aids, that's a common one. If there are any other common questions you get or, um, things you'd like to share.

Kristyn Leigh: I mean, I guess some specific questions about, you know, some of the technology, because that's one of the areas that I work with. You know, like, do we provide smart glasses? The answer is no, not at this time.

Pretty much, you know, just some sometimes specific questions about who qualifies and about applications, but like those are, if you have specific questions, you can always ask your local contact.

I will say that the information that I didn't have the numbers on the top of my head about the exact figures for income qualification, there's a, a page in the application. So somebody could look at what that number is before they apply, if they were concerned about whether they would meet that requirement.

Um, the information about what qualifies as significantly hearing impaired and the visual impairment definitions are on the, the form, that's the disability attestation that has to be completed by somebody who can attest to the facts that the applicant meets the disability qualification.

Jennifer Ottowitz: Right. And I know one question we, I would often get asked was, what, what kind of phone is best for someone who's blind?

And I imagine for someone who's blind or has vision, uh, vision loss and hearing loss, um, so, and again, can you just again, share in terms of assessments to figure out the particular type of device that something iCanConnect helps with?

Kristyn Leigh: Yes. So typically the trainer will meet with the, um, participant like in their home and have some demo equipment to show them.

So if they've never seen a smartphone, you know, or they don't know exactly what features they need in a landline phone that's more accessible to them. They would have some of those things to show them.

When I call them to schedule the assessment, they would maybe ask a couple of background questions to find out what they're interested in so they know what demo equipment to bring and, and they typically have an Android phone and an iPhone, and maybe like the BlindShell phone and like all of the options to show them so that the person can make an informed decision of what's gonna work best for them. And I will say that if somebody gets a device and maybe it's not working out for them, there is a process whereby, you know, changes can be made as needed on a case by case basis. So it's not like you get one phone and that's the phone you have to use.

You know, like we sometimes have people that think something's gonna work, or maybe something else changes, like their vision changes or their hearing, you know, decreases and then, you know, maybe they need, um, sort of a reassessment that is part of the process.

Jennifer Ottowitz: Oh, that's great to know. Cause yeah, sometimes things do change in life, right?

Kristyn Leigh: Yes.

I, I venture to say, I, I have gone through many, many phones in my days, not just the ones since I, I've had all my life, so yeah, for sure. Great to know that. All right, anyone else, comments, questions from the audience?

Anisio: Hi, this is an easy question since nobody else is talking. Um, uh, I think what, what Kristyn said is so true. I often, you know, right now everybody thinks that the iPhone is the best thing after sliced bread. And it is. I mean, I use mine all the time. But it's just not for everybody. And there are times when an iPhone has been recommended and ordered for a client.

And when I start working with them, it's obvious that they're having a lot of problems with the gestures. Maybe their hand dexterity is not that great, either because of arthritis or something else. And I tend to work a lot with older people as well. So I find that, you know, I show them a BlindShell that you mentioned and all of a sudden they say, oh my God, I can use this.

And, it's relatively easy, at least with the program that I work with to exchange from the iPhone to a BlindShell. So the flexibility of the program is really critical as well.

Jennifer Ottowitz: Awesome. And Kristyn, is it safe to say that iCanConnect is somewhat underutilized that there's room for more people to utilize the program?

Kristyn Leigh: I think so, because I feel like in a lot of states we're not necessarily reaching all the potential applicants, especially among the older folks, which is why I was so happy to be able to reach out to your network of people because there's a lot of age related things that can cause issues with visionary hearing and people don't even know that they qualify for this program because some, some of our states, the local contacts that, um, run the iCanConnect program might be more affiliated with the services for the, the deaf or visually impaired, which tend to be more the vocational rehabilitation type programs.

I think there's always room for more applicants in the program and I think especially the people that are a little bit older that aren't, you know, in other programs related to work goals and school, just reaching them. So that's why I was especially grateful for this opportunity to talk to your program because I know that you work with people over 55, which is I think kind of the biggest growing area that that needs to know about iCanConnect. 

Jennifer Ottowitz: We are very thrilled that you could join us and share more. All right. Anyone else? Any last comments or questions before we wrap it up for today?

Karie Pinnix: Oh, just as an FYI, I'm going to paste iCanConnect's website into the chat if it's helpful for anyone.

Jennifer Ottowitz: That'd be great. Thank you so much, Karie.

Kristyn Leigh: Mm-hmm.

Jennifer Ottowitz: And again, you can also find that link on our webinar page along with Kristyn's contact information. And as starting next week, um, probably near the end of next week, you'll be able to access the recording of today's presentation or share the link to it. The transcripts will be available as well.

And again, you can go to OIB hyphen TA C dot ORG. So OIB hyphen TAC.org. Click on continuing education and click on webinars and click on today's topic. The direct link is also in the chat as well.

Mary Kay: Is there room for one more question or?

Jennifer Ottowitz: Sure. Yeah, please.

Mary Kay: I just wanted to, because I live in DC. Is this program pretty much covered for the next five years in terms of budgeting?

Kristyn Leigh: As far as I know, yes. I mean, it goes in five year cycles for the certifications generally, and we're in year 13.

So in a couple years would be the next five year cycle. The funding comes out of the TRS fund, the Telephone Relay Service fund. And,

Mary Kay: Okay, good.

Kristyn Leigh: It's funded up to $10 million a year. That's where the money comes from.

Mary Kay: Oh, wow.

Kristyn Leigh: Not from the government.

Mary Kay: Okay. That's great. That's cool. That's good to know.

Kristyn Leigh: I mean, it's a government fund, but it's not like a congressional appropriation. But it also hasn't changed in 13 years, so we always hope

Mary Kay: Okay.

Kristyn Leigh: that it will be reauthorized to the 21st Century Communications Access Act. That hasn't gone through Congress yet, so there's a chance that it could be expanded, but, um, nobody's on that.

Mary Kay: And what year did you say the next, it's due for renewal?

Kristyn Leigh: The next certification would be

Mary Kay: Certification?

Kristyn Leigh: In 27.

Mary Kay: 2027. Okay.

Kristyn Leigh: Yes.

Mary Kay: All right. Thank you so much.

Jennifer Ottowitz: Great question. Thank you for that.

Alright. One last chance for any other questions before we wrap it up?

Kristyn Leigh: They can email me or, you know, if they think of more later, my contact information's there, so.

Jennifer Ottowitz: Please do. And I know Kristyn, you know, Perkins does manage, you mentioned this, I'm sure, 23 of the programs. The other programs, you know, if you go to the iCanConnect website, they can find out the contacts for those other programs there, correct?

Yeah. So, all right. Well with that, I'd like to just, again officially thank Kristyn for joining us. Thank Niall for joining us. Thank Karie for all her behind the scenes work. Um, and hope you all will help spread the word about iCanConnect and connect people who have both combined vision and hearing loss at any levels, um, to the services and, and programs and resources that iCanConnect has to offer.

And we also hope that you'll join us back April 25th for our next webinar, exploring effective models for retreat training. So until then, take care and have a wonderful day.

Thank you. This has been OIB-TAC’s monthly webinar. Thanks for tuning in. Find recordings of our past webinars on our YouTube channel and discover all of our many resources at OIB-TAC.org. That's OIB-TAC.org, like us on social media and share our resources with your colleagues and friends. Until next time.