Supports and Services
Carrie Hobbs Guiden
Executive Director
The Arc Tennessee
Dean Fox
Project Coordinator
The Arc Tennessee
Alex Da Fonte
Assistant Professor of the Practices, Director of Professional Studies, Dept. of Special Ed
Peabody College, Vanderbilt University
The I/DD service delivery system is increasingly turning to enabling technology to increase the independence of self-advocates. This enabling technology includes smartphone and tablet apps designed to support self-advocates in a variety of tasks. The Tennessee Department of I/DD approached The Arc Tennessee to create a project for self-advocates to assess and evaluate several apps. The Arc TN collaborated with Vanderbilt Kennedy Center to develop a standardized assessment and evaluation procedure for individuals to use. With The Arc TN support, self-advocates evaluated four apps including iModeling, Pictello, ONEder and Picture Scheduler. The results of this project will benefit anyone interested in pursuing the use of smartphone or tablet apps to increase the independence of self-advocates. We will also share future plans for evaluating other enabling technology with the ongoing support of the TN Department of I/DD and Vanderbilt Kennedy Center.