Cognitopia Celebrates National Disability Employment Awareness Month

During October, National Disability Employment Awareness Month, Cognitopia will be sharing on social media a series of employment-related routines that were creating using the Routines tool that is available on the Cognitopia Platform for Self-Determination, a suite of web-based applications to support self-management at work, at home, and in school. 

Routines is a tool for task-analyzing any activity using text, images, or video to create systematic instructions. Routines can be used to support getting a job, being prepared for work, on-the-job performance, and understanding  the social and functional aspects of the work setting. Continue reading →

How Autistic Individuals Have Helped Direct Cognitopia’s Development

Cognitopia’s development of self-management applications has been shaped by people with autism in ways both direct and indirect. From the beginning we have used a participatory design process whereby students and adults with autism work with us on design iteration and testing. For example, for the last five years, we’ve had a deep collaborative relationship with a local transition program serving students aged 18-21 with autism, intellectual disabilities, learning disabilities, emotional disabilities, and traumatic brain injury. Continue reading →

Using Self-Management and Team Collaboration Tools for Pre-Employment Transition Services and Competitive Employment

Person-Centered Planning (PCP) is a common process employed by agencies that provide supported living and employment services to individuals with disabilities. Mandated by the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services at the federal level, one goal of the PCP process is to facilitate access to employment services in community settings for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), and to foster active participation in developing their other long-term goals. In other words, PCP helps an individual, their family, and their support team to maintain focus on life goals and become more involved in directing individualized supports and services. Continue reading →

Announcing the New MyLife

Earlier this week Cognitopia released a major upgrade to the MyLife ePortfolio application for IEP Self-Direction and Person-Centered Planning.

MyLife is being successfully used in elementary, middle, and high schools as well as in college programs and adult customized employment and supported living services across the United States. The new MyLife is more intuitive, customizable and user-friendly, strengthening the focus on self-determination—a core value of the Cognitopia Platform. The new design reflects the incredible feedback and suggestions we’ve received from all of these user groups. Continue reading →

Innovative Self-Management Apps for Aging in Place

More and more, technology enables our lives in ways that facilitate independence and connectivity and it seems like there’s an app for just about everything. For individuals aging in place, apps can help them stay organized, accomplish daily goals, or remotely link them to their adult children, a team of caregivers, or the support services they need in order to continue to live in their homes and thrive within their communities. Continue reading →

How Goals and Routines Connect

Managing the Routines of Daily Living

Goal Guide helps individuals with cognitive disabilities set goals, track progress, and share their accomplishments with others. In the course of developing Goal Guide we’ve spent a lot of time thinking about the relationship between goals and routines of daily living. Continue reading →

MyLife: IEP Self-Direction and Digital Storytelling

When we started the MyLife project, our focus was on the development of a cognitively accessible, multimedia ePortfolio that would function as a kind of online résumé with a person-centered planning style. The end goal was to provide an intuitive, digital tool for students as end users that would let them document and share their educational, work, and personal experiences, and interests in a way that would foster more meaningful IEP participation and help with transition to adulthood. Continue reading →

Some Cool New Assistive Technology Products

“For people without disabilities, technology makes it better;
For people with disabilities, technology makes it possible…”

John D. Kemp
http://www.viscardicenter.org

Cognitopia exhibited and presented on its innovative platform of self-management applications for individuals with cognitive disabilities at the 2017 Assistive Technology Industry Association (ATIA) conference in Orlando, Florida last month. ATIA is a gathering of people who research, create, manufacture, and use assistive technology — products, equipment, and systems that enhance learning, working, and daily living for persons with disabilities. Continue reading →

MyLife as Digital Storytelling

I recently heard an old RadioLab podcast focused on the question of “What is the Self“? That is, what constitutes our sense of who we are and how is that neurally represented, if in fact it is at all. In one segment of the show the hosts interview neurologist Paul Broks. Broks describes that sense of who we are as nothing more than the story we tell ourselves and others about our lives. The “self” is in essence that story.
Continue reading →