Smart Home Technology for People with Disability Webinar
good afternoon everyone thank you for joining we'll just wait another minute just to give everyone a chance to join all right might make a start Ash so good afternoon everyone um thank you all for joining us for today's webinar on smart home technology for people with disability I know that most of you are probably in your lunch breaks um right now so it is very much appreciated that you uh came and joined my name is Liam Highmore and I'm the CEO and co-founder of Homeable today I'm lucky enough to be joined by another co-founder Ashleigh Dodson welcome Ashleigh thanks Liam hey everyone any OTS or support coordinators on the call this afternoon that have worked with us in the past um would certainly be familiar with Ashleigh and all the wonderful work that she does for those who don't know who or what homeable is we are a victorian-based smart home provider that specializes in creating Smart Home Solutions for older people and those with disability now we've got a really exciting agenda for you this afternoon in a few moments I'll kick off this conversation by giving you a bit of context around the smart home landscape and where the opportunity lies for people with disability we'll cover some common Solutions and specific use cases as well as the key benefits of smart home technology Ash is going to introduce some of our clients and some of the solutions created around their unique goals as well as what are some of the considerations that you should be aware of when thinking about a smart home solution for your clients and finally we'll briefly touch on how ndis funding can be used and what the future of smart home technology has in store for you and your clients I should point out that we are currently planning a series of these webinars so please do let us know in the survey at the end if there is a specific technology disability or application of smart home technology that you would actually like is to do a bit of a deep dive on in the future cool so just before we get started I just want to let everyone know that today's session is being recorded and we will send out a link to all of those who registered so if you did have colleagues or friends that couldn't make it today not a problem we'll send out a link so you can pass that one onto them I do encourage you to pop any questions or comments you have in the chat uh we'll certainly do our best to answer these as we go or at the end of the presentation beautiful so let's make a start many of us are probably familiar with Smart Home Technology but what we might not be aware of is the profound impact that it can have on people's lives if we look just in 2018 60% of people with disability reported requiring assistance with daily tasks that's six out of 10 people and almost 3 million in Australia alone now smart home technology has the potential to really help with these daily tasks by enabling them to have more control over their home environment now one of the results of this is that their carers and support workers and their families can spend less time adjusting the lights, blinds, and thermostat and instead be able to really repurpose their time in a way that makes sense to them now all this is great in theory we all know that um Smart Home Technology isn't always rainbows and sunshine but particularly for anyone who has tried to set it up before knows exactly that it doesn't always work like it should I would like to actually put up a quick poll just to understand how confident you are in actually recommending smart home technology for your clients some of you may have quite a good grasp Others may find the smart home landscape pretty difficult to navigate some of you may not even know where to start and look that's that's totally fine and look if we take a look at the results we can see that most of you do find it pretty difficult and and it is difficult right like the concept of a smart home has promised a lot of things over the last decade however it hasn't really materialized for a myriad of reasons for starters there's been a lack of standardization, fragmented technologies, slow adoption rates and perhaps most importantly a one-size-fits-all approach which is particularly problematic for people with disability now experts have predicted that the average Australian household will have 33 connected devices by 2026. that's 33 devices in every home I'm not sure how many devices you have in your home but even I don't have 33. so what is clear is that this technology is becoming more and more prevalent so the question that we have is why are the people that benefit the most from this technology often the ones that get left behind now while you're thinking about that let's break down what actually makes a home smart when we say smart home I'm sure some of you picture a robotic arm making you dinner perhaps a television that rolls down from the ceiling and while these things are quickly becoming a reality when we talk about smart home we're talking about a house with interconnected devices that can be controlled remotely or autonomously now these devices are often integrated integrated into various aspects of daily life such as lighting, security, heating, entertainment and even household chores there are thousands of different devices currently on the market and I mean thousands ranging from Smart lights to security cameras to irrigation systems to pet feeders the some of the stuff that people are coming out with these days is ridiculous but the important thing is here to call out is that the devices themselves are only one part of the solution these devices need to be designed around a need and around someone's environment and I'm sure it comes as no surprise to anyone on the call here that the success of any assistive technology requires an integrated approach from the design of the physical solution to the inclusion of care provisions after it has been delivered the plethora of Smart Home Products is not good for anyone unless it is actually coupled with education, support and careful consideration of the current and future needs of who it's actually being designed for we recently completed a smart home pilot with Guide Dogs New South Wales and act where we actually installed Smart Home Solutions with the blind and low vision community now one of the key findings of this was that the adoption of this technology and overall impact was significantly higher when delivered with education and ongoing support as part of a holistic solution now you often see these Graphics like the one on the screen here with a bunch of smart home devices all interconnected around a phone or some kind of Hub to be honest I think it's actually quite a dangerous way of looking at your home we prefer to put the intended user at the middle of these devices because we know that it's absolutely critical to design with people with disability to maximize the impact and benefits that this technology can actually provide now Ash I'll let you talk about those exact benefits perfect thank you Liam and welcome everyone I'm recognizing a few names that we um came across at the Expo recently at ATSA so thank you all for coming along so when discussing the benefits of smart home technology for people with disability it's important first to focus on the direct impact this technology can have on the individual so of course the first thing that comes to mind is accessibility Smart Home Technology enhances accessibility in the home features such as voice activated lights or button controlled blinds can make these tasks possible for the individual when they weren't previously with that comes increased Independence so smart home technology can allow people with disability to manage their homes and perform tasks independently rather than relying on the assistance of others Safety and Security is also an important benefit that we often see so think about motion sensored lights that activate when someone transfers into their wheelchair instead of having to transfer in the dark or what about being able to see who is at the front door through a phone before even opening the door for people hard of hearing there are lighting options so that when a smoke alarm is activated the the LED lights flash red alerting the individual so smart home technology can also increase in individual's confidence having the autonomy to make choices not only about their environment but being able to participate in household tasks and activities is empowering all these things combine to impact an individual's quality of life so it's been found that experiencing a greater sense of Independence can lead to positive psychological effects additionally having control over one's home environment can lead to a greater sense of Safety and Security these things can further enhance well-being and quality of life so we can also look at the indirect impacts of Smart Home Technology such as reduced reliance on formal and informal carers In-Home Support is changing and with the availability and advances in cost and function of smart home technology and home automation home automation has the potential to reduce paid carer hours and also reduce the amount of care family members need to provide the impact of paid care um in relation to home automation was actually presented in two case studies so a single case study of a woman with spinal cord injury and the other was a multi-method study for individuals with functional limitations both studies measured the paid carer support pre and post home automation and both actually found that there was a reduction in the need for paid care assistance after the install in addition to this three qualitative studies described how home automation supported individuals to complete tasks independently such as turning on the light or opening and closing the blind or making a call through their smart speaker as a result of being able to complete these tasks independently Individuals described how they felt less of a burden and how it meant that carers and family members could spend time doing other tasks such as spending quality family time together with that individual so there's also the aspect of keeping people in the home and we've probably all heard of Aging in place so smart home technology could potentially prolong the need for residential aged care by keeping people safe in their homes for longer as we know most older adults feel comfortable staying in their own homes where they're familiar with their environment and connected to their existing community we also believe that smart home technology will enable people with disability to live comfortably in their homes and could potentially negate the need for an individual to enter into an SDA or SIL in some cases so those were just some of the benefits next I want you to meet some of our clients so Salma here was actually one of the pilot participants in the guide dogs pilot program so Salma is a lovely woman in her 50s who is legally blind she lives alone in a small apartment with a guide dog so Salma is quite independent having been legally blind since she was 15 years old her main goal was to feel safe and secure within our home not only physical safety such as navigating in low conditions but also feeling confident and secure enough to answer the front door so this is why we installed a video doorbell with facial recognition at Salma's front door this device captures an image of the person at the door and uses facial recognition technology to audibly announce the visitors identity through Salma's Google hub before the video doorbell was installed Salma actually kept her gate locked 24/7 and would only unlock it when she was expecting visitors it now allows her to know who is standing at the door before she opens and opens it providing her with that sense of reassurance an indoor floodlight with the motion sensor was also installed in Salma's hallway so this light automatically turns on when Salma enters the hallway ensuring that she can navigate her home safely and effortlessly this light reduces the risk of her tripping and bumping into her bedroom door frame um which were actually both common occurrences before the install motion sensor lights were also installed along Salma's footpath leading to our front door before the solar lights were installed Salma would rely on a friend to walk her to her front door at night time the lights along the footpath now allow her to feel confident and safe enough to walk independently to her front door so we also have Jacob so Jacob is a 32 year old man who is quadriplegic with the use of his upper limbs he lives with his girlfriend in their apartment so for Jacob when speaking to him we found out that Independence was really important to him and he always strives to find ways to perform tasks without relying on the help of others so for Jacob it was important for him to have a greatest sense of control over his environment which is why we automated his existing blinds in his living room and bedroom he controls them via the app on his phone with voice and with schedules so previously Jacob had to actually leave his blinds down 24/7 because he couldn't reach the cord leaving him with no natural light um by automating his blinds he now has the ability to control them whenever and however he likes in Jacob's bathroom we in sport installed smart down lights which were installed to a motion sensor as Jacob enters the bathroom the lights automatically turn on which means he doesn't have to use the light switch which was previously difficult for him to reach in addition to this to regulate the temperature in his home an infrared receiver was installed so that he could effortlessly operate his air conditioning unit using the smart home app or his voice when the remote control is out of his reach and we have Felix so Felix is a 15 year old boy with autism spectrum disorder ADHD and dyslexia who lives at home with his mum and siblings and although he's very tech savvy um Felix relies on frequent prompts to navigate through daily activities and struggles with things like time management, organizational skills and responding to external cues he requires frequent prompts from his mum for activities such as waking up to his alarm closing cupboard doors in the kitchen and answering the front door when he's alone which is why it's important to for him that we created a solution that helped him with routine and consisted of multiple triggers and external cues in Felix's bedroom we installed smart lights connected to his Google Hub so these lights automatically turn on on when his alarm goes off ensuring that Felix wakes up on time so to prevent habituation we actually set his alarm up so that it's a different sound every day of the week to promote Independence in the kitchen we fitted sensors to his cupboard doors so when a door remains open for an extended period of time an audible notification is sent to Felix's Google Hub telling him to close the door a blue LED light around the kitchen roof also illuminates um this so these prompts provide both Visual and auditory cues reminding Felix to close the cupboard door a video doorbell was also installed to give Felix the ability to verify visitors via his phone before deciding whether or not to answer the door this provides him with autonomy and alleviates his anxiety when encountering unfamiliar visitors his mother also gains peace of mind as she can monitor the doors activity remotely so as you can see um three very different individuals here when most people think of smart home technology and what can be done for people with disability they often think about people with physical disabilities and whilst it's true that smart home technology can greatly benefit these individuals it's important to remember that smart home technology can help a range of people with different needs if it's set up and adapted to their unique goals and requirements like with we saw with these three individuals so when recommending smart home technology for your clients there's a few things to consider the first one is the type of install are low-cost assistive technology devices going to be suitable for your client or do they need a complete home modification often you can modify existing parts of the home by adding low-cost at for instance installing motorized controller to existing blinds to automate them for individuals with more complex needs a home modification may be required this is what would be recommended if the individual used any eye gaze technology for for instance so the environment is also an important factor and designing for the whole house you really have to take into consideration everyone who lives there take Phil for example who has cerebral palsy he loves apps and all things Tech so he would pre prefer to use his smart home app on his phone to control his devices his wife may not so you need to ensure that whilst you're designing a solution for Phil the house still has to be functional to the rest of the household whether or not someone is renting or owning will influence things as well this will obviously change what you're allowed to install and the process of seeking permission as well probably one of the most important things to consider is the individual's interaction preferences for users to be in control of their homes it's necessary to provide a way of interacting with the devices that is accessible and functional to them there are multiple ways to control and interact with Smart Home Technology such as apps, switches or buttons, voice, sensors and setting up automations through those schedules devices can also have multiple control methods for example someone may benefit from having the ability to control their devices with their voice they may also benefit from a switch on their wheelchair for when they feel short of breath and they're unable to voice those commands another really important consideration is choosing Which smart home protocol to use in their home so I know when I first heard protocol I had no idea what that meant at all so a smart home protocol is essentially the language that devices use to communicate with each other so the most common is Wi-Fi which you would be familiar with in your Google homes your Alexa's but it's important to know that there are other solutions that aren't as dependent on Wi-Fi for example zigbee So zigbee based smart home protocols use low frequency low radio frequency which actually allows them to penetrate through walls much easier so this may be ideal for someone who has poor Wi-Fi or multiple devices in their solution picking the right device and protocol is essential to ensure that the devices actually work seamlessly together so next you have to think about how these devices are going to be powered and what is going to be best for your client the choice between powered and battery operated smart home devices depends on multiple factors such as individual specific requirements, availability of power outlets and ease of battery replacement or recharging so Mains powered devices so actually being plugged into a power point um offer a uninterrupted functionality but as I said often require an electrician to install an a generally higher in price battery operated devices provide flexibility and a low-cost alternative but require periodic battery Replacements or recharging so switches or buttons are a good example of devices where battery is a good choice because of their load functionality the batteries can last for longer periods of time and they're quite flexible and mobile they can be taken anywhere rechargeable batteries can reduce the need for frequent replacement and they're actually found in the devices such as the video doorbells the smart cameras so they only need to be charged every few months or so so app account and password management is critical with Smart Home Technology having numerous devices connected may result in incompatibility issues and lead to a solution that just doesn't work to get the most out of a smart home it's advisable to choose devices that belong to the same ecosystem so if you have devices from different brands and multiple different ecosystems you end up with multiple apps so this obviously can lead to confusion and just not a good client experience either it's not functional so keep in mind that each of these apps also require accounts to be made with that passwords to go along with it so that's also something that you really need to be mindful of whose responsibility is it to know all the account information and passwords required to sign in and what happens if the password is forgotten another question you have to ask yourself is whether subscriptions are appropriate for your client will their ndis plan cover a subscription for next year devices that use any memory often require subscriptions for example so the facial recognition feature of the Google Nest doorbell stores individual faces so people have to actually pay for this storage which is in the form of a yearly subscription to Google through the App Store so yeah subscriptions is definitely something to keep in mind so how can participants use their ndis funding to purchase smart home technology so for all you plan managers OTS and support coordinators you will probably know this but for those of you who don't smart home devices can either come out of a participant's core consumables budget under low-cost at if their solution is under fifteen hundred dollars or if they have available funding it can come out of their capital so we can actually work with the participants OT to provide them with the necessary information needed to help support them when they're writing their report as part of our process we develop a design brief so in this design brief we actually match a participant's goals to their solution which can assist that OT report writing process so on top of this we can also provide a pricing guideline for an install so that it can be taken into consideration to get the funding into the client's Next plan in 2021 ndis spending on AT remained a minor component at below five percent and with this smart home Technologies are a marginal subcategory with the advances smart home technology has made and the impact that it can actually have on people's lives we hope this changes soon Liam I'll hand it back over to you now being the smart home nerd that I am it would be remiss of me not to talk about the future of Smart Home Technology now one of the key barriers to widespread adoption of this technology has been the interoperability issues associated with this Tech that Ash spoke about before up until now if you have for example an Apple iPhone you are often forced into purchasing an apple homepod speaker for your smart home to work now the good news for everyone is that this is all starting to change many of you have heard about a new smart home standard called Matter which essentially will allow your Google products to work with your Apple products which will work with your Alexa products it's probably a topic for another webinar but this standard will make it much easier for consumers to unlock the potential of smart home technology now Smart Homes today in 2023 I don't think are smart they're connected absolutely they're connected but I don't think they are smart and I think it's important to differentiate these two because having a connected home means that your phone can connect to your thermostat which can control the temperature in your living room smart home means that your home can detect that you are feeling unwell and then raise the temperature automatically to keep you warm and healthy Smart Homes will be able to boil the kettle in anticipation of you wanting a coffee they will automatically lower the benches when they detect that someone uses a wheelchair enters the room this transition from a connected home to a Smart Home has already begun and is really being driven from the data that these devices in our homes and in our pockets actually collect now we believe that this data can provide incredibly valuable insights about your clients which is why we're actually developing a new feature called Smart View which essentially leverages the smart home devices already installed in the homes to provide proactive care now this feature is being developed in collaboration with occupational therapists and carers and is actually designed to detail key trends in client Behavior through their device usage to assist with things like assessments it can inform you of any abnormal patterns such as a fridge not opening for 24 hours or the kettle not being boiled for a couple of days we are at the very early stages of this as is the industry and we are looking for any interested occupational therapists or anyone interested in having early access to this technology to essentially help us identify these new use cases so if you are interested in helping us co-design this feature then please tick yes in the survey which will be sent to you as soon as this webinar finishes or using the QR code on the next slide look that's about all we have time for today I will open the floor up to any questions you have about anything we covered today or even anything about Smart Home Technology more generally so if you want to just pop any in the chat over on the left maybe you have a question about a client or a specific technology um while you're thinking I do have one for you Ash and it's more related to where can the OTS and everyone else on the call today go if they're looking for more information on smart home technology for example yeah that's um a good question and I know for a fact that there is so much um so much information out there it's hard to really know where to start um so firstly as you said we we are hoping that this is one of many um webinars so I guess if you want um to learn more about it let us know in that survey and we can really tailor these webinars around the information that you're looking for um we're also actually offering in-services for organizations in Melbourne so if you have a few clients that you think May benefit and you really want to learn more we'll actually come to you um and yeah we can bring all the tech along we can talk about more of our clients and how it could help your clients as well um yeah sorry there we go no that's right I was Emma I hope that answered your question um she just asked whether we provide consultancy to OTS at yeah yep so that can be in through the in Services um but also we're happy to be contacted at any time so if you go onto our website you can just click the contact us otherwise our email is team@homeable.com.au and I'll be monitoring that and yeah always happy to jump on a call and have a chat um another question from Jackie are you Victoria based or do you also Branch out to Regional and central New South Wales yep so being quite new we are just focusing on Victoria right now it is in the goal within the next six months that we will actually have expanded into New South Wales um especially because that pilot program with guide dogs was based in New South Wales as well thanks Ash um a question from Michelle hi Michelle I'm curious to know why you said eye gaze users should pursue home modifications versus low-cost at I can take that one um if you want Ash so typically when we're integrating for example eye gaze and again I should preface this by saying we haven't integrated eye gaze technology with any existing home systems yet but I think the point here is when we've sort of go into a home with existing complex um technology sometimes it does require home modifications to essentially integrate it with sort of what whatever is there versus perhaps a low-cost at which can simply be retrofitted to an existing solution but I think the important thing to call out is that it is obviously Case by case and during that sort of consult consultation process we quickly identify whether a home mod or a low-cost at is is appropriate for that specific use case I hope that answers your question which I otherwise reach out if it doesn't um Ash maybe one more for you given that you are usually the one on the ground um with clients I'm sort of interested as to how do most clients actually want to interact with their home and maybe you can give an example yeah so as you said and as we've said throughout this whole thing it really does come down to the individual so not one type of interaction preference comes to mind um a lot of clients do like to have that voice control um but as I said previously it's important to really think about go into um go into it thinking about the client and then working from there so we never go into a consultation knowing straight away what the individual will want um or what's going to be best for them either um so yeah we go with an open mind and often we find that they do want multiple methods of interacting um so yeah voice is obviously a big one um through the Googles and the alexas a lot of clients actually do have um like the smart home speakers already set up so that's where we can come in and automate their blinds and integrate it with their Google hubs um which they're already familiar with and then as do you find that specific say disabilities tend to have specific preferences about how they interact it for example the guide dogs program that you did with the Blind and low vision community what was their sort of preferred preferred preference yeah so um the participants really loved voice as I said so um you'd think about so they for an example they would um they need to find their number for their doctor so they go on to their phone they type it in they then the voice over on their iPhone takes them through all the information on that page before it actually gets the phone number whereas they can use their Google Hub to Simply ask what the phone number is and it will relay it back to them straight away so yeah that's one thanks Ash look I don't know if we have any more questions um really appreciate your tuning in this afternoon we know how busy you are this time of year and certainly don't take your time for granted as we said earlier if there is a specific topic you would like us to explore or a question that maybe you weren't able to ask today please do let us know through the survey appreciate you all for joining I hope you learned something and can't wait to speak to you all again soon thanks thanks everyone
2023-06-27 05:25
