Ep. 10 BridgingApps: The Assistive App Resource That Truly Makes a Difference 4-30-26

Disclaimer. This podcast features a conversation between two individuals regarding assistive technology, the views, thoughts and opinions expressed during this episode belong solely to the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of their respective employers. Furthermore, this discussion is for informational purposes only. Hi, welcome to assistive technology. Today podcast I'm your host, Fannie LeVote. And today we have a special guest with us. We have Kristen Riet, who is a program director and also a co-founder of Bridging Apps. And a little bit of background about me, I am the assistive technology specialist for a company called enabling devices that makes adaptive products for children and adults with disabilities. I'm also a product specialist, AT consultant and tech support. So I do a few different jobs at the company. But without further ado, Kristen, welcome to the podcast, welcome to assistive tech today. Thanks for joining us. Thanks so much for having me. This is going to be fun. Yeah, it should be fun. I'll tell a little bit, I reached out to Kristen. I have been using Bridging Apps. Kristen's going to tell a little bit more in detail, but Bridging Apps has a bunch of a database where you can find assistive apps for people that need with special needs. And I have been using their website for years. Somebody had recommended it to me and I found it's such a great resource. I think we were saying that Kristen said, you know, the company started about 15 years ago. I think I've been using it as long as they've been around and I've been recommending it. So I said, you know what? I want to get Kristen on the podcast and talk about such a great resource that I want to share with my viewers and listeners. So I'm going to turn it over to you, Kristen, because I think you could tell it a little better than I can. Sure, I'm happy to and thanks so much for that great plug. Yeah, it really has been a labor of love. So we did start. We started technically about 16 years ago, but we found our forever home at Easter Seals Greater Houston, which is part of the national kind of Easter Seals Affiliate Network 15 years ago. So this year we're celebrating our 15 years here and basically I'm the parent of two kids at the time. They were young kids and my younger son was born with Down syndrome and he has other disabilities. It's got a visual impairment. He's got autism, but at the time he was about six, six, six years old and he was about to go into public school the year that the iPad came out. So 2010 was a big year. And so basically my son was getting occupational therapy and physical therapy and speech all the things and we were trying to figure out how he was going to do school because of his disabilities. We just didn't think that he would be able to use a computer mostly because of his kind of fine motor planning. Anyway, so we were just all amazed because we had bought an iPad, so myself and other parents of other children with disabilities. We were working with our therapist in a therapy clinic and we were all kind of amazed at how certain apps were being helpful for them with communication and things like fine motor because there's no interface that you have to worry about controlling a mouse. So we were all using it for different things, but we just noticed that some of the apps that we were all using some of the same apps to work on therapeutic skills. So that's how bridging apps started. We started in a therapy clinic. Parents, therapists working together and one of the first things that we did is we wanted to share the information about which of these apps that we were downloading and using were helpful for different things. Just this amazing tool in areas of therapy, of speech, communication, shared enjoyment, engagement and things like that. And my co-founder has a technical background. He started a website. We shared the information on the website mostly with families who couldn't come to our support group in person because we are out of Houston. It's a very large area and that is how bridging apps started. Well, that's great. It's so important. We started working with the iPad when it came out like you said in 2010. It's been a little while. There was not a lot of resources. Still to this day, the iPad is still one of the best pieces of hardware with apps and compatibility. But Apple really got involved in iOS 7. They started getting into with their Switch accessibility function which wasn't existing before that. They were reliant on third party companies like enabling devices to make products to interface with the iPad. But they still don't have a great, there's no, you know, on the app store, there's no real search for special needs or, you know, accessibility, which in the stay and age of inclusion, you know, we should have that. So if it's not for somebody like yourself, you know, seeing as a need and your organization creating a resource, it's so important. Like I said, we have a database on enabling devices website. But you know, it's hard to keep it up to date. You guys do a tremendous job. And like I said, I've been, I constantly go on the site to look at things. So I see you, you know, you do such a good job of keeping it up to date and I appreciate it because and so many parents and therapists are so appreciative when I give them the website. And like really, there's a place I can look for it. I said, yeah, there's reviews on there. You know, you could search by devices. It's not just for the iPad. I know you do Android and PC, correct? Yeah. We do. Yeah. It's, it's so important to have, that's the one thing that's, you know, another mission of the podcast here is to give people access to things they didn't know existed and the resources because knowledge is power. It's always been. And, you know, you empower people to have access. And again, you know, a parent is overwhelmed. They just find out their child's diagnosed with the cerebral palsy or Down syndrome. Like you said, you know, autism, you know, it's overwhelming and they need to at least if they have some resources, you know, they don't feel that they're alone and they can, they can navigate things a little bit better. Right. And that's our, that's really our goal is was initially, especially way back in the early, you know, 2010, 2011, 2012, a lot of app developers. What we noticed is it was kind of the wild, wild west of app development, especially for young children because there just wasn't an equivalent device. I think way back when I just remember those leap pads or leapsed. Yes. And that's not something that my son could ever do because of his lack of coordination. And so many app developers took advantage and put things like autism in the title of their app and desperate parents and caregivers downloaded these things and some of them were just absolute garbage. So that was our aim from the beginning is working with therapists and just us as parents and caregivers of our kids with different disabilities, motor disabilities, physical, discognitive, and putting information together in such a way that it was searchable. And it's, it's constantly evolving. The landscape has shifted so much. And we have several years ago we did add the ability to put in web based tools because we noticed a lot of developers developing for mobile devices. So for smartphones and tablets decided, hey, it's much more sustainable for us to do web based tools for whatever reason. So some of our favorite apps actually went away. So we added the capability to be able to search by web based tools. So you're going to find some of that in the database now. And at any given time, there are about 2500 apps. Most of them, I would say a good portion of them are for the iPad and smart and iPhone. And then there are some for Google Play and then there are some really good web based tools. And we're very particular about which ones we include. Right. That's great. I mean, I can understand from a developer standpoint because when you have to develop for multiple platforms, it's a lot of work because you have to maintain all those things like Android started a few years after there were a few years behind Apple for, you know, apps assistive technology. They do have some pretty good stuff. And but again, the iPad was predominantly the strong point. They were the ones the first ones out. So everybody developed for them. Then Chrome OS came out. Chrome OS has a lot of cool stuff. I have a friend that's on the Google team. And they've got some really neat stuff. But still again, you know, everybody knows the iPad. It's got, it's a very intuitive user friendly. So people are afraid of it like some of the more advanced communication devices that require training. A lot of people have iPads or they have an iPhone and they're used to know on how to use that. So it's the unknown is always the tough thing. And when people don't know how to do things, they get, you know, it may not be complicated, but until they get used to it, you know, familiarity is always important. And web-based stuff is great because like you said, it can work on anything. And I mean, the way things are today with subscription models and the way, you know, just web interface makes it easy. We have high speed internet now. We didn't have that back in 2010 as like we do now. So I mean, it all kind of goes into play and it also, you know, sometimes you don't have to even download anything, you just log in and you have the apps and you can go to a different device. If that device doesn't work, you drop on to a new one and you're still there, all your stuff safe. So whatever works as long as the kids can access it or the people can access it, that's really the name of the game. - Absolutely, and you also mentioned going into the app store either one of the app stores and we've seen over time the Apple app store used to have years ago used to have a section called Special Education. And they've redone that so many different times. There is something that they added toward the end of last year. I don't know if you've noticed because we have not found it particularly helpful is they've included the ability for developers when they submit their app to do something called Accessibility Nutrition Labels. But there's nobody that I've seen yet who's adopted it. So I'm not sure if it's a slow, kind of soft launch rollout to give people the option to include specific accessibility features for some of these things and we've kind of been watching that. But also, again, back to 2010 and 2011, 2012, there were a number of groups. There were like teachers, OT's and there still are different people who try to manage databases for different things. And it's so expensive and difficult to keep up with. And we have put a lot of resources into ours. It's not perfect, but we do our best to update things and for the more, the real disability specific apps that we focus on, but also kind of to some mainstream apps that are really well designed. That a lot of our clients here in the Houston area are using. And so we try to write about personal experience and we still do have different professionals doing some of the app reviews for us. So you'll have somebody, for example, we have a reviewer who is blind. And so he is really into accessibility for gaming and things that you can do on your device. So we try to go to those different, you know, special education teachers for an education app, physical therapists for some of those types of apps. And it's just constantly evolving. And if anybody out there would like to do some knowledge sharing and do some reviews with us, we would love that. We're always looking for people to review. And everything on our website is free. We don't get anything. So our goal is to share it out. So and also guys, as we always say, we'll always put links in the show notes below so you can check out bridging apps.org and all the great things that they do. Now, if I remember correctly, do you also offer like consultation and things like that? You had done that, right, for people if they're looking for something specific and they don't have a resource to locally? We do. So early on, we actually did a lot of this virtually because, as you mentioned, the iPad was new at the time. And people just, we did just some basic kind of virtual app matching. Like you tell us some basic things about your loved one, not even a child, because a lot of the apps, it became clear to us that were helpful for young kids. Were helpful for teens and even some young adults. So we did that. Now, because we're part of Easter Seals and have been part of Easter Seals, it's so wonderful. As part of the work locally, we run three assistive technology labs. So we are part of the state of Texas AT demo lab system. They have about 26 different demo labs across the state. So we are one of them. So we get to combine kind of the mobile, the smartphone tablet, and all the apps and the work that we do there with some traditional AT and some kind of standalone devices. And so we do a lot of trainings and do a lot of consultations in person. And we go out. So we have a program called Lab on the Go. So we take things from our lab. You all probably do something similar to resource fares and stuff, right? So we take them into the community. So we are more often in our local community working with our partners, seniors, caregiver groups, parent support groups, schools. And we've had a lot of just interesting projects where we've taken technology and we've utilized apps for different purposes. And then we've done these projects where we've learned a lot. And then again, we share that out on our website. So for people, we do take phone calls from people all over. We've had phone calls even from people in Canada. And there's some great developers in Canada. So we share that out. But yes, so we do virtual and we do in-person work. And then we try to share as much what we learn. Because we're constantly learning. We share that out on our website. That's great. Yeah, it's funny. You were saying about that with almost like a lending library. Years ago, when an enabling device has started, I mean, the enabling device has been around roughly close to 50 years right now. So when Dr. Stephen Cainer, the founder, started it, there was really not really any assistive tech out there. He used to have a Mercedes-Benz van that he used to load up with all the adaptive switches and toys. And he would drive around to local centers and bring stuff. So we had like the first mobile lending library. I think he probably invented it. Because back then, like I said, there was really nothing in 1976. You know, we were just on my-- the CEO of the company, Seth Cainer, he's my boss. He's the son of Dr. Cainer. We just were on a podcast and we were talking about how he started the company real quick, interesting story. He was at a work and he was a medical biomechanical engineer. And he was looking-- he was going to be a doctor and he decided not to. So he was looking for work. And somebody says, well, go out to United's Rebo Palsy out in Long Island. They're looking for somebody. So he goes out there and he meets with some people there. And he sees that therapist and there's a little boy sitting in the corner of room and he's just slashed over in a wheelchair. And he said, well, where are the toys? And the therapist goes, there's no toys. This boy has Rebo Palsy. You know, Sarbo Palsy, he can't play with toys. And he's like, no, no, that's not-- we should have toys. So his father was a model train maker. He used to make all the scale things for the train tracks, like bridges and all that kind of stuff. So he went home in his workshop. And the first thing he did was he took a toy train set and he made a mercury switch, which you can't use mercury anymore. But we still make the switch. It's called a tilt switch. So he wired a tilt switch up to the train set so that when the boy would raise his head, the train would go around the track. So he brought it back to UCP, put it on the boy, and he saw that when he erected his head, the train would go around the track. And he was smiling, and he was engaging, and he can navigate the world better. And that's how the company started. And then he started making things out of necessity. But yeah, it's important to give information, like I said, because therapists, they don't have a lot of time. It's a busy job. They have a case load, and they have to do paperwork. I mean, now we have a lot of AI stuff that I've had on the show. To help the case load make it more, you know, work smarter, not harder. But still, you only have so much time in the day to venture out. And you don't want, like you said, you want something that's going to work. You don't want something that's going to be garbage, or it's going to be frustrating. And then you just don't go anywhere. And it's no good. So I appreciate what you guys do. And like I said, I always recommend your website and all the great stuff that you do. So we're super, super thankful for that. And a lot of therapists are too. Well, we appreciate that. And we would love to get more therapists and anybody involved who wants to, because as I mentioned, multiple times everything is changing. It's constantly evolving. There are new apps all the time. And then part of the thing too is that people don't know what they don't know. And giving them ideas for utilizing a particular app. Because one thing we found early on is that some of the apps we were using them, or just other professionals were using them, or other parents were using them in ways that the app wasn't even designed for. And so that was kind of the-- those were the golden nuggets and things that were really interesting to learn from each other. And again, not everybody-- you can't go to a support group. So that was why sharing all this stuff virtually, we were lucky enough to have a digital content writer. And so we do-- I wouldn't say daily, but we have blog posts at least four days a week. There are all sorts of different topics. The majority of them are related in some way to technology or projects that we're doing involving different technology to give people ideas. And then as we kind of encounter different use cases for things, whether it's apps and a smartphone or apps and a tablet, or other devices, again, wearables is becoming kind of a big area, especially for say in which generation like myself caring for a young adult, as well as older adults, they're just some really exciting things coming. So we're kind of moving and doing some work in that area, too. So love it. Yeah, no, this is all good stuff. And like you said, you're sharing all this great information. People appreciate it. And it is so hard to, like you said, go through different things to see works. And I like that they're thinking outside the box. people are using things in different ways. With this, industry or this, you know, this area that we serve, there's no one size fits well. It's not a cookie cutter type of business, you know. It's, there's needs every day evolving, you know, we think you'd have everything figured out. No, there's always going to be a need and there's always, like you said, some people respond better to certain things. So people using things like, oh, we didn't, we didn't realize the app could do that. You know, we didn't write it for that purpose or the developer didn't write it. But if it works, you know, that's, that's a great thing. Right. And that's the idea too. If I had to describe bridging apps in one word, at least the online portion, it would be shortcut. And that is what we have aimed to do is try to shortcut the process. Because as you mentioned, therapists are writing notes. Teachers don't have time. Teachers are being asked to just do everything under the sun. And so, yeah, giving people options. We also, I think there's always an interesting discussion, especially when there's something that comes out about screen time. So we have very strong opinions about screen time here. Because often people with disabilities, especially kids with disabilities, when these recommendations are given, they're often overlooked population and not given in any of the stats. So if you hear a stat that, oh, kids, our kids are today are watching 10 hours of stuff on their screens that you're not really talking about kids with disabilities who rely on certain aspects of certain devices. And no, nobody should be on it all the time. But think about your daily life and how often you're on the screen. So we talk about intentionality a lot, whether it's an adult with an intellectual disability or a parent of a young child with a disability. There's often a lot of guilt there about using technology. So we try to help destigmatize that and help build confidence and resilience and saying, hey, these are tools that enable your child, just like that story about the switch and the train causing effect. I mean, it's just critical to get that point across. Yeah, I mean, I agree. I mean, I have three teenagers, so I know the whole thing about screen time and even for myself. But it's tough because somebody with special needs, they may physically not be able to do anything that working on an iPad might be their whole world. And that's, so yes, you have to, like you said, you can't be on an all day, but it's a tool and if it's allowing them to do things and explore and learn, it's not the same as a screen time for a kid that doesn't have disability, that where they could go out in the park and go play basketball or baseball where somebody's bound to a wheelchair and they have limited mobility, then that might open their world for them. So it's a whole different set of rules, I think. Right. Now, agree, agree. You also, I wanted to touch base. I know we spoke before we got on camera. You also do, do you do like a lending type library with physical products, not just the app, right? We do. So we do it in a couple of different ways. So it's, it's not, it doesn't fall under my program, but under our adaptive play program. So we have adaptive play groups for kids with disabilities who, for whatever reason, either there's not something in their neighborhood where they feel comfortable going to participate in some physical activity like yoga or dance or, you know, karate or martial arts or things like that. So here at Easterseals, we host these adaptive play groups. And so we integrate some of the toys, adapted toys, both from enabling devices and devices that we've made, made switch adapted. And we lend those out, free of charge to two families and then they can come swap them out. And then the other thing because we are one of the assistive technology demo centers for the Texas one anyway, Texas technology access program has these demo labs throughout the state. We are kind of the first stops of somebody calls us or somebody comes in to Easterseals and they want to know, you know, what technologies might be helpful for a particular disability, like vision disability. We can show them a variety of options from our lab, including mobile devices and some of the apps like seeing AI or some of those really helpful tools. And then they try it out in our demo lab and then we help them fill out a one page form where they can borrow it for up to 30 days in their home. It's shipped to their home free of charge, provided with prepay packaging and then they ship it back to the lab in Austin. So yeah, in a couple of ways we do that. And then when we do our lab on the go and we take devices into the community, it's not for lending purposes, but it's right exploration and really education about here something things and some new things that are available now. And again, most people have no idea that some of these things exist for their loved one of pretty much any age and even any disability, whether the person acknowledges or even identifies as having a disability, not all of us have like age-related things that we could use help with. So it's kind of interesting that so there's the kind of the three areas where we do that. That's great. It's tough because I talk to people so many every day and people don't, they may, you know, if you're fortunate enough to live in an area where you have a lending library or those type of resources, some states don't have that. And you know, I could only speak for our company, I work for a, you know, we're a small company, we really can't do a lending program on any kind of large scale because we're just, you know, we just can't do that. We can't manage all that and stuff. So as always, I always try and keep a database of, you know, of states or places that I know that have resources that when people call up and say, I'm like, where do you live? And they're like, okay, well, you should check out XYZ. They have lending libraries. I mean, in New York, wherever we're at, they do have plenty of lending or resources to at least explore the technology, like you said. So it's, it's, um, again, letting people know about all this stuff and what exists. So nobody wants to have a disability, but in this day and age, we have so much technology at our hands. It's a, I don't want to say it's a good time, but at least you have a lot of things that can give people dignity, better quality of life. They can live their life, which much, which, with ease, with more ease and this better quality. Like you said, even like not just kids, you know, senior citizens, just age-related things, you know, somebody who has dementia or some other, maybe some other mobility issues, just, just because they're getting old, it's good to have, you know, all this stuff accessible to them. Absolutely. And again, we started out the origins and stories with young kids, but immediately, again, both with the website, we, we were getting messages that older adults and just parents of, adult children with different sorts of disabilities found the information useful. And so we really do work with all ages and all disabilities now. We have the, you know, the fortunate, you know, place to be here, where we are in the Houston area, greater Houston area and being part of Easterseals, is that we get to intersect with a lot of different types of clients of different ages with different disabilities who are on that kind of pathway to try to figure out, in many cases, as you said, someone has just been given a new diagnosis and they want to do everything possible to, to assist. And so many of, I think a lot of the time that we've spent now because of the devices that are out thinking specifically about tablets and even laptops, there are so many built-in accessibility features now that most people don't realize what they have available. Already available to find ourselves doing a lot of consults and just a lot of training. And even if it's just teaching somebody one feature, it literally makes the difference in their abilities to do some basic activities of daily living. And so that's super exciting that a lot of this stuff is being just integrated into operating systems. But we also find there's a lot of fear around messing up their device, messing up their laptop if they try to change it accessibility features. So now it seems like all the tools are to, let's use the simplified version of this and that teaching people, just shortcuts, putting shortcuts, setting them, you know, showing them how to set up. So that's kind of the challenge now is like, is digging through and navigating through the complexity because there's so much more, I mean, there's so much more on your iPhone now. And, and, and, and Sam songs that ever were and finding those things and showing people where they are is a challenge. Well, now with the assistance of AI that makes they can ask their like either Google or they can ask Siri to help them, which is great. Yeah, because you can simplify the phones. You can don't, I don't want to use the word dumb it down, but you can make it very easy, like minimal apps for, you know, people that don't need all that stuff. And the other thing that's, that's an emerging tech, at least in this field is like, I don't want to say it because I'll set it off. I have one of my house like the Amazon products and Google has their nest products. They, they can be an assistant, they can help, they can, especially people with dementia, like did you take your medicine? in today, I mean they have these built in tools right in the house. So it's it's interesting. I had somebody on from another organization they were working with all this stuff is great, but people that don't have, you know, perfect speech, they are articulation. These machines don't understand them. So they're actually helping to work to create a database for people with not perfect speech so that they could utilize these devices. You know, these are the things like you said, you know, mainstream stuff, but there's a portion of the world that has disabilities that can utilize this equipment. It would be perfect for them, but it doesn't understand how they speak or articulate. So they're cut off from that. But so now, you know, hopefully people are being more aware and they're making this stuff more accessible to more people. Right. Right. And just the awareness that that that's an issue. That's a barrier for a lot of people to use some of those just, you know, very inexpensive but powerful devices in their homes. That's yeah, the recognition of that is it's pretty exciting where that can go. So well, anything else you want to share with us, Kristen, before we wrap it up, I you gave us a lot of information and I'm like I said, so grateful that you were on today because it was definitely a good podcast to share with people. Well, I appreciate you having me on. I would just say just check it out, bridgingapps.org. There's so much there are app database. Let's call the app search tool. So if you go to bridgingapps.org, you're going to find the app search kind of right in the middle of the navigation and then everything around it. We've got videos, how-to videos that we make. We have a really active YouTube channel and we do a lot of little how-to's two and three minutes, sometimes less. And we also have two bilingual digital trainers here. And so we're doing a lot more videos in Spanish. And so that's been really appreciated. And some of our most popular videos are some of the most basic things. And again, something that we do and that you can do again, if you're anyone out there who's a caregiver or even professional working with somebody is, the mind-blowing concept of putting a shortcut on somebody's phone of YouTube video, right? Or a little training or turning a website into a shortcut on somebody's phone so they can watch somebody something over and over again. We just do that all the time with little, if we teach something, then we try to, if there's a video that goes with it, we do that. So engage with us in whatever way. We have a newsletter that goes out or you can just follow us on social media for the social media, for the highlights, some things that we do because we're, you know, we're in it every day. And I would just, the last thing I'll say is that everybody on the Bridging Gaps team, we're a very small team, but all of us are caregivers. So we're caregivers in different capacities. IDD, older adults, dementia, medical issues. So we have a lot of lived experience and we'd love to hear your story and what has been helpful for you. So that's where I'd love to read it. That's great. Thank you again. And guys, as we always, we'll always put all this helpful information in the show notes. Kristen gave us a lot of info to digest. So we'll put links to everything so you can access all this right here, you know, from the podcast. So again, Kristen, thank you for being a guest and sharing Bridging apps with us. And I'm your host, Vinila Bodhi. This has been Assistive Technology Today podcast. We'll see you all on the next podcast. Take care, everyone.