User blog
Feedback to helpers
Hi all!
Today I would like to emphasise the importance of giving feedback to our helpers about how we feel when using our tobiis. I know that the track status monitor helps a lot but I still say, that telling something face to face is the best way to express the way we feel.
I personally have found that sometimes my eyes are more tired than usual, therefore I struggle to hit the right cells on my P10 easily.
This is an example of me telling Feri, that right now there is nothing wrong with my eyes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqHYXcN3xVw
I recommend to all users and helpers to think about creating grid sets regarding what the user thinks the problem might be when they have difficulties controlling their tobiis. You could say things like, your eyes are tired, you can not concentrate well enough, you have an itch, you need the tobii higher / lower, you want to dim the screen or everything is ok, just have to relax, etc... Obviously, these are only examples, not ideas written in stone. Feel free to personalize them.
Chris
Chris has made a really important point here. Having pages with easy-to-access vocabulary (words, phrases, sentences etc.) is a great way of helping users to say what they want to say quickly and easily. Topics that you may want to talk about regularly (just like the eye-tracking specific ones suggested by Chris) can be stored in useful categories, with ready-made word and sentence options in place. So, when needing to tell your carer that there is something wrong with your eye tracking ('My eyes are tired', 'I need to be moved up/down a little' etc. you don't have to try to type the whole message.
This is true of any communication topic. Most users will always want to be able to create new and individual messages - but even for them, for those topics that you discuss regularly, like positioning, daily choices, etc. having a page of ready-to-use vocabulary on that specific topic, can be time and energy saving.
In Tobii Communicator, you can easily create a page with 'phrase categories' and 'phrase lists' which do exactly what we're describing here. Make a category e.g. 'My Positions' and add as many phrases as you need, like 'Please move me up a bit' etc. The user can independently switch between categories, add or remove phrases, and of course, select which one to say!
Training Manager, Assistive Technology EU
It is much easier to use a single cell sentence when there is something wrong with the position of the tobii or my eyes are getting tired than having to type in a whole sentence letter by letter.
I use loads of grid sets like that, my daily routine, basic needs, greetings, most common problems have their own grid sets on my P10 and I am sure that I'll have the same system on my C12, too.
I would like to hear from other users, whether they have any sort of similar system on their tobiis?
Chris
pro tobii user