Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Waking Up - Emma
• Grooming - Hassan
• Cooking - Helen
• Transportaion - Ken
• Shopping - Sara
• Dining - Roberto
• Homemaking - Jean
• Technology - Lee
• Hobbies - Armand
• Entertainment - Tim
• Bedtime - Kayla and Joseph
• What's Next?

This Guide is made possible by the funding, contributions, and support of the California Department of Rehabilitation, the AT Network and the Alliance for Technology Access.

Introduction

We’ve all experienced moments during our daily schedule—waking up, driving, making dinner—when we’ve thought, “I wish there was something to make this easier” or “It would be great if I didn’t have to wait for another person to help me with this.” Nowadays, the chances are good that someone else has had the same thought and turned it into a product. The need for readily available information about these products is why we wrote “A Guide to Easier Living with Technology.”

In some cases, good solutions may be obvious; others are ingenious. You may be surprised how many are low-tech, although if you like electronic devices you’ll find plenty of available options. Additionally, while a growing number of these devices are available in local stores, several may still be available only through mail order.

Rather than cataloging every type of technology that you might find useful, this guide presents some sample situations you might encounter during a typical day and suggests product categories or strategies that others have found useful. We’ve also interviewed some of the people that the Alliance for Technology Access has worked with over the years and shared their stories about how they’re using various devices every day. The guide ends with a listing of resources that can help you research the products most relevant to your life.

We’ve learned a lot while putting “A Guide to Easier Living with Technology” together, and we’re thrilled to be able to share this information with you. We hope you’ll use it on a regular basis, both to look for specific solutions and to think about what else might be available.

Jane Vincent, Author
Russ Holland, Editor