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TouchChat^® by Saltillo will discontinue support for iOS 9 & iOS 10 starting with the 2.26 release coming in July 2020. 

Why?

With every release, we ensure that new features can be used by supported iOS versions (currently iOS 9-13). As technology advances rapidly, it is increasingly difficult to ensure compatibility with out-of-date iOS versions. In order to provide our iOS customers with the best TouchChat app experience, we’ve decided to discontinue support for iOS 9 & iOS 10.

Anything you need to do?

We advise our iOS users running iOS 9 or 10 to upgrade to a higher iOS version, ideally the latest version. By doing this you'll gain access to all the latest updates and features - giving you the best TouchChat app experience! 

What are the new minimum supported iOS devices?

The minimum requirement for iOS devices supported by the TouchChat app is iOS version 11.0 or later. 

What if your device doesn't support iOS 11?

If your device doesn't support any of the newer iOS versions, you should know that:

• You can still use or download TouchChat app version 2.25.0 and will be able to continue to use that even after July 2020; however:
  • You will not be able to update beyond 2.25. Therefore, new features introduced after that will not be available on devices running iOS 9 or 10.

 Questions? Please feel free to reach out to us at info@touchchatapp.com.

How do I create a Virtual Background?

As of today, Microsoft Teams and Zoom offer the option of uploading your own virtual backgrounds. If you choose to use these platforms this might be an option for you! If you are not familiar with these platforms, you can learn more about them from this “Virtual Meeting Platforms” grid.

To create a communication board background there are several options.

1. Download any of the FREE PRC or Saltillo manual communication boards, saved as a photo. These are available online:
   • PRC Manual Boards
   • Saltillo low-tech boards
2. Use PRC-Saltillo FREE computer emulation software to take a screen capture of any page in the vocabulary and save it as a photo. These are available to download online:
   • PRC NuVoice software
   • PRC Empower
   • Saltillo ChatEditor™
3. Download the attached files ready to go for you.
   • PRC Manual Communication
   • Saltillo Manual Communication

Once you have your image file downloaded you are ready to upload the photo to your virtual platform and select it as your background. A quick Google search will yield a lot of great how-to videos and instructions. Here are two support articles from Zoom and Microsoft Teams.

Yes! I have the Communication Board Virtual Background - now what?

Great question! The first step here is to simply play around, and that is exactly what we did! It is helpful to have someone join your meeting to provide you with feedback about what they see, what works, and what doesn’t work. Here are a few tips and ideas to share from our exploration.

Tips

• A green background does increase the quality, but other solid colors work too. The images in this post were taken using tan, blue, and green backgrounds. Get creative with a plastic tablecloth, a green sheet, green shower curtain, green construction papers, or even a green Lego baseplate (yes it works!). We found it helped to “match” the color when you set up the virtual background.

• If the communication board is showing backwards, adjust your mirroring settings. You will have the fun added challenge to move your hand opposite from what you want to select.

• Virtual backgrounds can be distracting to adults and children alike due to the overall presence of color and/or subtle movement around the edges. It is important to consider everyone’s sensory needs. You might ask them what they think of the virtual background after you use it too. Let them tell you if they LIKE it or DON’T LIKE it (a great language opportunity).

• You can share your screen to show a video and/or activity and simultaneously have a virtual background to model. You may need to help the person on the other end adjust the speaker view so the AAC virtual background is big enough for them to see.

Ideas

• "Pop in" to a group call and surprise everyone with your communication board background! This can be a great conversation starter, so be ready to answer questions. This can help spread AAC awareness and AAC love, so consider it for your next family gathering.

• Introduce the word(s) you are going to focus on for the day. A fun/easy way to do this is to create a paper frame and tape it to the wall where that word would be. This makes it so much easier to select/touch the word too, since you can clearly see where it is on the wall.

• Model! You may have to get your body out of the way, so using a pointer or swatter like this might help. Also know, you will be moving opposite from what you would think, so it is a (really!) good idea to practice first. We found modeling on a virtual background (when you have it set up well) allows the icons to be larger and clearer, compared to a poster and/or printed manual communication board. This works especially nice if you are sharing your screen to do a YouTube video or other online activity (e.g., virtual field trip). You might need to help the family adjust their speaker view so you and your virtual core board background are big enough to see.

• Play “Word Director” (yes this is a new game we made up!) where the person on the other end of the screen will tell you which word he/she wants you to find by directing you to “go/stop,” “up/down,” or “same/different.” This can be created by making a mini green screen with a single sheet of green construction paper, instead of an entire green background. You need to assign the color to the paper and then stand about 5 feet away from the computer to capture only a single word, as the virtual background will only show up on that piece of paper. Once the person “chooses” a word you then could do any number of activities with it!

• Don’t have a green screen? Try a large green Lego baseplate! If you hold it up close to the computer you can see the entire virtual background. You can then easily reach over the top of the baseplate to provide aided language input. Since this is moveable, it allows you to quickly switch between showing the AAC virtual background and tucking it out of the way.

And there you are, a few easy ideas! We acknowledge this may not be for you, and that is ok too! Regardless of how you choose to use AAC virtual backgrounds we hope you have fun. Share your creative ideas on social media. If you use a PRC or Saltillo AAC virtual background, be sure to tag us so we can see what brilliance you have concocted! #aacslp, #teleslp, #aacfamily, #iteachsped, #speechies, #instaslp

Amanda Hettenhausen, M.A., CCC-SLP Senior Saltillo Assistive Technology Consultant PRC-Saltillo

Maggie Judson, M.S., CCC-SLP, ATP Augmentative and Alternative Communication Specialist Belleville Area Special Services Cooperative Instagram @the.bookish.slp

The tragic death of George Floyd in Minnesota, the worldwide protests in response, and the international movement for racial equality and justice have led to widespread soul searching over the past few weeks. At PRC-Saltillo’s core is our belief that everyone has the right to be treated with respect and fully participate in society. While our mission focuses on individuals who cannot speak, our values extend this to all individuals. As a company, we stand against race discrimination and do not tolerate it. This time is an opportunity for PRC-Saltillo to carefully examine how we may have contributed to the problem of racial inequity through racial and cultural biases in our products and actions. It is a time to look at how we, as a company, can speak not only to the national conversation, but also take steps that will have a tangible impact. 

One of the first areas of focus is on our products. We provide a voice for individuals that cannot speak. Many of those who use our products have a strong identity with their device and yet, the symbols and voices do not reflect the diversity of all those who use them. We are working within our product/engineering teams, and with our symbol and voice partners, to ensure that we provide symbols and voices that are more representative of all the individuals who use them. Additionally, this has started a much-needed conversation between AAC manufacturers about representation in the industry as a whole. We will keep you updated as we make progress on these goals, and welcome you to share your suggestions with us. 

This conversation must continue and goes well beyond our products. We need to play our part in building a world that treats every individual with dignity and respect and we will do so.

It is not an exaggeration to say that one morning I awoke to find the world had changed and that the change had me scrambling to adjust to what was now my new normal. As a brick and mortar, “boots on the ground” Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP) working in the school system, I was now in a situation that was unfamiliar—providing speech therapy services from a distance, physically separated from my students. I spent hours engaged in discussions with co-workers on how COVID-19 had rudely kicked us out of our comfort zones—disrupting our routines and bringing chaos to our plans. We maintained connections during our quarantine by sharing our confusion, frustration and fear of the changes the pandemic had introduced into our lives and workplaces. We found support in sharing our resources and hard-earned knowledge of how to maneuver this new-to-us method of delivering services to our students. 

During a phone conversation with the mother of one of my high school speech therapy students I was reminded that many students with language barriers were equally affected by the changes brought by COVID-19. These students were unable to use language to express their frustrations and concerns, or to engage others in an effort to gain information the way my co-workers and I had. She shared with me how her son, who was profoundly deaf and diagnosed with a disorder that resulted in intellectual deficits, was having difficulty understanding why his homebound teacher was no longer coming to his house. He was frustrated that he was no longer going on his weekly outings to the public library where he picked out books after his speech therapy session in which he was learning to use the TouchChat to augment his existing mode of communication—gestures and signed words. She went on to explain how her son had started to act out his frustrations. I told her that I’d look for some AAC material about the virus, so that he would have a way of learning about it, as well as gaining the vocabulary needed to talk about it to his family. 

My online search resulted in me making lots of purchases of AAC materials from paid sites, as well as signing up for newsletters and following blogs for their free AAC resources. What I did not end up with was a good AAC activity to address the virus that had disrupted my student’s life. So, as an SLP, I did what any SLP would do—I created what he needed. After watching several YouTube videos, I used Microsoft PowerPoint, ChatEditor and pictures from the Pixabay site to create a PowerPoint that when saved as a pdf file could be viewed as a PowerPoint presentation or as an iBook on an iPad or MacBook. The “book”, The Bad Germ, was created to address a few of the things that had changed in my student’s world. 

Along with providing my student the ability to engage with and make connections with others in his family experiencing changes due to COVID-19, The Bad Germ targets skills such as navigation of his device, the use of core vocabulary, and the use of spelling to create fringe words not found on his device. I wanted the book to have the added language and literacy benefit of being predictive and repetitive. I also took into consideration that he was technically a senior in high school and wanted the pictures in his book to look age appropriate. 

Our first distance session together was an epic event that took the combined efforts of my student’s mother, his homebound teacher and me. Not only was it epic in its coming together, it was epic in its results. At the end of an hour-long session there was a very tired, but happy student, mom, teacher and speech pathologist. It was at the end of this first session that I knew I wanted to share this “book” with others. I wasn’t sure how to legally do so due to copyright laws, so I contacted Saltillo. I am very thankful that I was given the opportunity to share The Bad Germ on this forum. I hope you enjoy the same success using The Bad Germ with your students as I did with mine. 

Cynthia A. Martin, M.A., CCC-SLP

Read and download the book now!