desision day
its the big day ive been waiing for this appointment with A.C.T. Birmingham since before 2022. im very nervous i dont no what were doing today . i get to meet the team and my o.t is there to help to.
we discuss my lockups and speach problems and then i ask “ i now there normally Three demo’s but i think its a bit much we can manage two.
so a.c.t book tobii dynavox. to come and demonstrate there devices. ( we relised later when its too late that they not bookd liberator demonstration mine u that might be because i just finished the loan of the accent 800 )
so a.c.t. went and there returning in a few weeks with the tobii dynavox rep who is bringing the td pilot and the i-13.
demo day
well after a extremely long wait the day has arrived. i couldn’t sleep last night. i was worried about the decision i was going to make
so every turns up. i finally get to use the tobii dynavox td pilot. but the i-13 stays in the bag the whole time. which cus they relised it too. the rep goes
so i go and talk to claire in other room , i say am unsure and ask if i can put my apps on it she says yes as long as i understand that might cause problems.
last night i was asking my friends there opinions which do i choose accent 1000 with look bumdle or the td pilot with td smap ( i dont like td snap) , td talk and td copilot which is for calibration.
i reallly domt like td snap
Another early day. every one here the tobii rep sets up the td pilot. still got same issues it even stops working. so while that get sorted i clare can we go in other room i explain im still not sure and try show her what i mean on the tobii dynavox i 12 but its doing a windows update
getting frustrated as it cursors isnt staying paused its annoying me. the rep shows me so things then has to go.
i mention im not sure the td pilot is the right device for me and get told “ we going need start all over agian ( not sure if that means paperwork or i go to the bottom of the list.
So in a panick i pick the td pilot. ( because i didn’t understand what she ment by starting all over again. did she mean just the paper work or going to the bottom of the waiting list which i couldn’t cope, with the idea of that)
So we have the td pilot and the floor stand delivered. claire ask my partner to help her put the stand together while jule tries to set up the td pilot on her lap in the living room .apparently this is usually done in advance.
it decided to leave the td pilot on the floor stand as there apparently not enough room for me to move around with the td pilot around the house , but claire and julie couldnt get the floor stand through the bedroom door without tilting the floor stand.
so claire sets it at the correct hight for bedtime. they dont leave the mount plate for it with us so were stuck with the rehadapt mount plate which isnt the best best plate to have the td pilot
julie came with neil while dynavox did some training i was told not to use the td pilot unless i cou move or talk. an i can’t put any of my own apps on it either.
she said any problems get intouch with the manufacturer or A c t.
1st night
which is what we had to do apparently the td pilot doesn’t exist on the apple product database the only tobii dynavox items are apps in the app store keyboard keeps disappearing ( it done it 10 times tonight all ready they say unplug the eyegaze which tobii dynavox your not aloud do.
the weekend spent with apple tec suport
so the td pilot turning its self off and on , talikng to
well it turned its selft on and it talked to is self all night any thing that came past the bedroom window ( we have black out curtains)
cars turned it on,
it was on all night
it does this every night and every day.
after 4 days we turned the td pilot off it.
march 29th 2023
We love libby
we loaned a liberator Accent 800 last year before a.c.t came over to discuss my new device. but unfortunately that had to go back before we could demonstrate i could use it. it went back due to getting very hot very quickly.
that was a big shame as we only had under a week mabe a bit more with it . so my head wasn’t getting how things work.
5 months on
we decided to try again as luck would have it i spoke to a friend from 30 years ago . we got chating about how i would have loved his class but i wasn’t offered it as the college didnt let me do that course .
we both agreed i would have enjoyed his classes so we decided to bounce idea off each other for an update he was planning possibly online course or even go back to where it all began.
i manage get to loan the Accent 1000 from liberator the software i was use to was on it but so was the programme that got me so interested in it 30 years ago.
Discussing Discovery
You may be thinking im talking about a tv program , im not. this program is a cool communication program that helps people who struggle to communicate or have no means of communication
so as myself and Tony are boucing ideas off each other we are also reminiscing about our time at Portland College . we both agreed i would have enjoyed his class and not hated being there so much.
Tony had a extremely bad stroke which meant he lost his speech ect. this must be so difficult because as the shoe is on the other foot so to speak.
you loose your speech and your at a loss how to communicate with everyone around you, also people’s attitudes change and you get spoken to like your a young child. or worse spoken about like you’re invisible. the problem is hospitals don’t understand the problem from the patients perspective, they know it from a medical perspective.
and this is where both Tony and i agree is the most frustrating part , if you bring your communications device in which is a lot of money and the hospital isnt that happy you do that , you then get asked all about your equipment
how much does it cost, can you demo it to us etc and before you know it your the centre of attention for all the wrong reasons. they nolonger ask how are you feeling today, have you got any piain etc but you get ask what voices can that thing do can it tell jokes, how do you work it.
I’m not saying nurses and doctors and hospital staff can’t express an interest in my voice device . what i am saying is
hello im your patient im not here to demonstrate my speech aid to you. i dont mind but i only show you once if i want to. im not a museum exhibit. i am your patient.
So im loaning a Accent 1000 and we asked to loan the eyegaze bar as well. the eyegaze bar came on the 30 thof march. And didn’t work. so we emailed liberator tec support and they collected the eyegaze bar today ( 31st march) now that was quick.
Liberator tec support are extremely quick the staff at liberator are extremely friendly they pride themselves on getting to no the person first,. they remind me of my old friends from toby churchill, who would go out of there way to come to personally see you just to check the device and have a chat. ( mick and vernon i miss you)
i get the same warm friendly feeling with mark , and the rest of the staff from liberator.
A.c.t
Act came over just as we had had to send the accent 800 back. and we didnt have long with it to say yes it was the right device. i also was desperately wanting to try tobii dynavox td pilot. tobii dynavox wouldn’t loan it me until i saw a c t. so when my appointment came act booked the rep to demo it yeah it was ok but when you have 12 sets of eyes watching you your nerves eventually get to you, also the rep said i may as well cancel your place on the loan list if your having one
now the nervous really kicked in id been waiting a year for this moment. i wasnt sure. Act wanted a decision there and then ifront of the tobii rep. i said i wasnt sure. got told if your not sure we will have to start all over again.
Starting all over again did they mean paper work or go to bottom of the queue i panick and made the wrong decision. i picked the td pilot.
ive regretted ever since
TD Pilot problems
it locked me out and apple contact apple. its not listed on there product database. apple remote in and reset ask me to back the device up to the computer ( rep had to break case to disconnect camera) we explan we couldn’t unless apple gave me the ok to unplug the camera and they new that id need permission to do that. so i got permission to unplug the camera ( if anything went wrong it was apple tec support fault not ours) so we then had a rest non apple look alike ipad pro 5th generation that need connecting and backing up to the computer
so plug in usb wire and link to itunes it started backing up then disconnected from the remote in with apple. i was stuck this was saturday id been taling to apple tec support since friday night so had to do this all over again sunday. it changed its name twice as well . lucky the tec guy too my details and loged in that it was a tobii dynavox td pilot from act it disconnected apple again at same point id been on line since friday. i was tired. i email tobii dynavox got no answer for 4 weeks except to ask me fill in a survey. at the end of the 5th week i had an emai7 asking me what did i think of the help they gave me to sove my problem . i just replied i never got any help to solve my problem and still havent we put the td pilot in its bag. and there it stayed till last weekend when i need to do the monthly connection to the net for updates
i couldnt get it to turn on, then when it was turned on i couldnt log in to my td snap account ( snap core first )
nothing was working. so back in the bag it went
im also not allow use it if i can talk or move, its not allowed out the bedroom or off the floor stand. so i cant practice at all unless i cant move or talk. when you the pause the cursor it wont stay paused, if it see any movement from the bedroom window it thinks its me and begins to talk we have blackout curtains and it still see movement from outside. it talked to its self all night just wont shut up so it went back in its bag . disapearing keyboard .we have nothing to do with it i do a seperate post listing all the problems but you get the idea
i don’t recommend the tobii dynavox td pilot to anyone.
So back to the Aceent and discovery i went. no waiting days for help there help is instant. apologies as well and there so understanding. i love you liberator
Sian's World 