CTEC Empowers Communication Access Through Technology.

What if we could give a voice to those who struggle to express themselves verbally? Join me as I explore this powerful question with my guest, Program Manager, Stephanie Maki from CTEC. Stephanie walks us through the visionary work at the Communication Technology Education Center (CTEC), where speech-language pathologists are transforming lives by crafting personalized communication solutions. From observing clients in their own environments to innovating with technology, CTEC is bridging the gap for individuals with developmental disabilities, ensuring they can share their voices with the world.

Our conversation spans the breadth of support needed for effective communication, emphasizing the pivotal role of educating families and caregivers. Together, we unravel the intricate layers of collaboration with organizations like UCP and Sacramento State, which help create a supportive network for individuals with disabilities. Stephanie sheds light on the complexities of funding and resources, illustrating the patience and perseverance required to overcome these hurdles. It's a journey of teamwork and dedication, likened to the process of learning a new language, underscoring the importance of collective effort in fostering successful communication.

Stephanie shares heartwarming success stories, including that of a young girl experiencing the joy of verbal expression for the first time, showcasing the profound impact of communication technology. We reflect on the empowerment these tools provide, from enabling micro-businesses to enhancing social interactions. As we discuss raising awareness and fostering community engagement, hope emerges as a central theme. By amplifying the abilities and potential of individuals with disabilities, we aim to inspire broader acceptance and support within the community. Join us in celebrating these achievements and exploring the endless possibilities for growth and connection in the world of disability support.

To learn more about CTEC, visit the website 

Chapter Summaries:

(00:00) CTECH Program for Nonverbal Communication
CTEC provides personalized evaluations for individuals with developmental disabilities, addressing a spectrum of needs and serving a variety of clients.

(12:28) Supporting Communication for Individuals With Disabilities
Collaborative education, teamwork, funding challenges, and patience are crucial in supporting individuals with disabilities and communication challenges.

(18:10) Funding and Expansion for Communication Program
Financial and operational challenges with funding, grants, waitlist, team structure, and success stories at Alta California Regional Center.

(31:22) Communication and Relaxation Strategies
Communication devices have transformative power, enabling effective communication and micro-businesses, while educating about non-verbal capabilities.

(36:57) Raising Awareness for Disability Program
Technology, community spaces, and hope are crucial for supporting individuals with disabilities and fostering acceptance and accommodation.

Thank you so much for listening! We appreciate you. Please visit the website to sign up for our email updates and newsletter. https://www.nonprofpod.com/ And if you like, leave me a voicemail to comment on the program, leave a question for us to ask in the future or a message for me, Jeff Holden. I may even use your voice mail message in a future episode. https://www.nonprofpod.com/voicemail. Thanks again for your support in listening, commenting and sharing the great work our local nonprofits are accomplishing.

Transcript

Stephani Maki: [00:00:00] I've had situations where I'm speaking with someone who has a communication device. I know they can't speak back to me. I'll ask them a question and their support staff says she can't talk. And I'm like, yes she can. Let's give her a minute. And so it's just really a matter of educating the public that just because I can't speak doesn't mean I don't have anything to say that is critical.

That's that's the impetus of everything.

Jeff Holden: Hi, I'm Jeff Holden. Welcome to the Nonprofit Podcast Network. Our purpose and passion is to highlight a nonprofit organization in each weekly episode, giving that organization an opportunity to tell their story. In their words, to better inform and educate the respective communities they [00:01:00] serve, as well as provide one more tool for them to share their message to constituents and donors.

Our goal is to help build stronger communities through shared voices and to both encourage and support the growth of local nonprofit organizations through podcasting. Thanks to our partners for their support in getting these stories told. Sud, Sacramento Metropolitan Utility District's Shine Awards program benefiting nonprofits for energy efficiency.

CAPTRUST fiduciary advice for endowments and foundations and Western Health Advantage, a full service healthcare plan for individuals, employer groups, and families. Not being able to speak doesn't mean you don't have something to say. An estimated 10% of the US population has a speech language or voice, disability.

Many of these people could benefit from some form of communication technology. Their disability could come from a variety of sources, including Cerebral Palsy, a LS, autism, [00:02:00] stroke, aphasia, and more. This episode, we explore the amazing work of the Communication Technology Education Center, ctech in collaboration with the Supported Life Institute.

My guest, Stephanie Mackey, program manager for the organization shares how CT E'S personalized approach empowers those who struggle with verbal communication from college students to individuals with profound intellectual challenges through innovative solutions and a strategic partnership with collaboration.

Ctec is not only breaking down barriers, but also fostering community connections and inspiring change. Discover heartwarming success stories and learn how communication devices are opening doors to expression, independence, and social integration for those challenged with an inability to communicate traditionally what current technology is providing is incredible as it can bring some of the brightest minds into the conversation.[00:03:00] 

I think you'll be inspired by the life-changing impact of communication, technology, and what ctec is accomplishing for our region. Stephanie Mackey, welcome to the Nonprofit Podcast Network. Thank you for having me here. I'm excited. What, what a story we are going to share today because it's something that many of us are aware of but don't necessarily understand how some of these things get handled.

And I'll tee it up like that because people are gonna wonder what is he talking about. First and foremost, we have a bit of a naming. Nomenclature, we should clarify. The organization is actually supported Life Institute. 

Stephani Maki: Yes. 

Jeff Holden: However, the program is ctec. Yes. Explain that for us. Would you? 

Stephani Maki: CTECH stands for Communication Technology Education Center.

Obviously a big, long name, so we go by Ctec Uhhuh, CTEC. We are a program of supported life Institute. Supported life has been around, they were incorporated as a nonprofit back in 1991. [00:04:00] Primarily their initial program was to provide statewide conferences for individuals with developmental disabilities and for those who support them, families, staff, educators, and they're still doing those in their, their part of the program.

But about 10 years into those conferences. They started noticing that there were a number of individuals that weren't able to participate fully because they couldn't speak, decided to explore how they might be able to serve, provide a service to the that population as it happens at the time. One of the board members, her name's Bonnie Minton, her daughter was one of those who couldn't speak, so she and another speech, and a speech language pathologist named Kristen Carroll spent the next eight years working to develop the Ctec program.

There's a lot of. Research and funding obstacles, hurdles that they went through. But then in January of 2009, we saw our first clients. So we became a program under Suppor, under Supported Life Institute. 

Jeff Holden: Boy, do we ever appreciate their [00:05:00] persistence and perseverance Eight years to get this thing started?

Stephani Maki: Yes. Wow. And, and as it happens, Kristen Carroll is still our lead speech pathologist. All these years later, she's still with us working. Oh, how wonderful is that to lead the charge? 

Jeff Holden: What a, a great deal of intellectual equity she's got in terms of start to where we are today. 

Stephani Maki: Yes. 

Jeff Holden: And it's, it's quite significant as we're gonna find out.

Let's talk about specifically what Ctec is and. What a life changing situation it can be for those who are utilizing the service as well as the families that are involved with it. 

Stephani Maki: Yes, so we have speech language pathologists on staff who will meet with our clients that, and the clients have disabilities when it comes to that, involve their speech.

They may be not completely nonverbal or they might speak. But it's difficult to understand, or they might have some sort of selective mutism [00:06:00] on demand. They are not able to communicate verbally. So we, our speech pathologists do an evaluation to see what kind of technology or some other communication solution can we provide to them so that they can make selections that serve as their voice.

Jeff Holden: So more often than that, the, the disability is the inability to speak. Are there other disabilities? Compounding that situation? 

Stephani Maki: Well, the disabilities are things like cerebral palsy or autism down syndrome. So lack or the inability to speak is usually symptomatic of whatever condition or disability they the individual has.

It could also include traumatic brain injury. At some point in their youth, they have an injury that then limits their ability to communicate. 

Jeff Holden: So that's quite a spectrum. You could have somebody who is disabled to the point of. Not necessarily functioning completely intellectually as well as somebody who is [00:07:00] fully functioning intellectually, but just has an inability to speak.

Stephani Maki: Absolutely. We have clients that are, they go to college and they're, they communicate and even do a lot of their homework sometimes with their communication device, especially if it's a computer-based Windows type thing. But we also have those that have severe intellectual disability and very basic communication, don't speak at all, and those that.

Speak fairly well and even have, are able to spell and things like that. But they need some help in making others, helping others to co understand mm-hmm. How they're trying to communicate. So yeah, there's a broad spectrum on, on so many levels. 

Jeff Holden: And you mentioned that we don't necessarily have the constituent client come.

To a place you, you said we go to. So you go to the homes to do these assessments? 

Stephani Maki: Yes. The way that we approach our evaluations, we don't do any standardized testing or anything like that. [00:08:00] We observe, we engage with, we get to know what the individual and their environments, how are they communicating at home with their family or if they're in a care home situation, how are they communicating with their staff.

They go to a day program, how are they interacting and communicating there? Sometimes they've got a job or a volunteer responsibility, and so we try to schedule at least an appointment there to see how are they interacting and communicating there. It really helps us to determine what they need, what is there a size issue?

You know, do they need something small and compact or do we need to be able to mount something to on a wheelchair? There's just such a variety of things there that. When we keep everything in the clinic, we can't act, we can't get that kind of information. But additionally, with these disabilities and limited ability to speak, we see a lot of behaviors and sometimes a clinical setting really triggers those negative behaviors.

We want them to be comfortable [00:09:00] 

Jeff Holden: and it makes sense in the home environment to to see how they function. Yes. And really understand to, again, they're gonna be much more comfortable and I can perfectly understand how you. Pack somebody up, you stick 'em in a car or a van, they end up in a, in an unfamiliar space, it could even be traumatic to the point of, oh, I'm going to another medical thing and they're gonna poke and prod and, you know, do a lot of things I don't wanna experience.

So I. 

Stephani Maki: Sometimes it's as simple as, I don't wanna put shoes on, and so to leave the house, I have to put shoes on. And so we're gonna start a whole, whole behavior cycle. Yes. Just by forcing that issue. So like I said, we can remove as many barriers as possible. Then we find it much more productive. 

Jeff Holden: Well, I'll bet some of the speech pathologists who are going in to do the evaluations have some stories to tell.

Oh 

Stephani Maki: yes. Definitely. 

Jeff Holden: The people who you serve there is. A requirement in terms of the ability for them to be covered through one of the programs, would you walk us through what [00:10:00] that is? 

Stephani Maki: Our program is not set up to be able to bill to any kind of insurance, so we rely on referrals from the Alta California Regional Center and with that, those are clients that have been diagnosed with a disability of any kind during their developmental years from birth to age 18.

And or they've acquired some kind of disability, like again, like a traumatic brain injury or something. They've acquired some disability during those developmental years. They're able to be served by the regional center throughout the span of their life. Those are the clients that we work with. Because we don't bill to insurance, we have found that they're, we really are not able to serve those individuals that have adult onset communications who've had a stroke or have a LS or situations like that.

Unfortunately, that's just a portion of the community that we are not able to serve at this time. 

Jeff Holden: Mm-hmm. What can they expect [00:11:00] from Ctec? If you've got somebody who is disabled to the point of non-communicative, they are able to get into the program. You go and you do the assessment, then what happens?

Stephani Maki: Well, it's not as simple as just going and doing the assessment. 

Jeff Holden: I didn't think so, 

Stephani Maki: because we do work to get to know their environments. There's a number of appointments and our, our evaluations actually take several months. We usually kind of a baseline is about six months. Sometimes we can identify something more quickly, especially if someone's had previous experience with a communication system.

Sometimes it takes longer if we can't get all the scheduling to work, but. What they can expect is we will provide a comprehensive evaluation, communicating with the key members of their team throughout the process. Then once we've made a recommendation, we will help them to get it funded or help them to acquire it somehow.

Usually we help them with getting insurance funding. [00:12:00] We'll send off all of the applications to the device manufacturer and they handle all the insurance stuff. We don't do that directly, or if we're able to get something through a grant program or somehow, maybe even a free device or something that might.

They can purchase on Amazon. We help get them connected to that equipment and once they've got it, we also provide training. That's, it's a a long process. They're with us for sometimes two or more years throughout the process, but that training then takes again, another several months because we are working to get those people that work with the individual, the family and staff.

We want them to be able to continue supporting that communication after we exit. Mm-hmm. The situation. 

Jeff Holden: So it's a, it's much more comprehensive than I would've imagined in terms of, you know, start to finish. And I would imagine part of that is the proper identification of what tool is gonna work best for this individual.

And to be clear, you do [00:13:00] identify and incorporate that technology piece for. The person who is disabled with speech. I mean, we've all seen Stephen Hawking. Right. And how, how that all worked. So we have a pretty good understanding of devices to help the individual communicate. Mm-hmm. That's pretty much what we're talking about.

Right? Exactly. 

Stephani Maki: That, that is what's called a speech generating device that Stephen Hawking used. His was. Very, a pretty complex system. We work with those and some that are even more complex than that. Wow. But also as something as simple as an iPad or even just a button that you can record a message on that somebody can push the button there.

There's all so many levels of technology from no tech. Maybe a laminated sheet with pictures that they can select any way that they can communicate their wants and needs is. Part of, you know that, that communication solution, communication 

Jeff Holden: process. Wow. Wow. It, it's amazing what's out there. Just, just an aside here, [00:14:00] what have you seen, 'cause you've been with an organization for a while, what, what have you seen in the course of just the last few years in technological change?

For, for some of these devices. 

Stephani Maki: One of the ones that surprised me the most, it was, it was a couple of years ago, but there is a, one of our manufacturers, it's Control Bionics is the name of the, the company, and they have what is called neuro node technology and it's pads that stick to an individual. I don't know if it's like their temple.

I'm not exactly sure that it can be calibrated with the device so that their. Intention. Their selections on the screen are captured without any physical movement. 

Jeff Holden: It's what they're thinking. There's some neuro impulse of sorts that registers and, 

Stephani Maki: and we don't see that one a lot. What we see most often is what's called eye gaze cameras on these communication [00:15:00] devices that are calibrated to the user's eyes and then.

There's a, a dwell time, how long they're gonna look at an icon. On a screen and then it will select it. It's a lot of really, really neat technology and AI is starting to work its way into communication technology. We haven't worked with it a lot. I know our, our SLPs have been researching it, keeping, you know, their finger on the pulse of it, but we haven't started using 

Jeff Holden: it yet.

Let me just guess. SLP speech Language pathologist? Yes. 

Stephani Maki: Correct. Great. Yes. 

Jeff Holden: Somewhat intuitive on that one. How are the. Individuals, families treated in terms, so you've got the disability with the individual that you're working with. What about the, the caregivers around them? 

Stephani Maki: There is a, a large education process there.

'cause a lot of times they'll will come to us, a family will come to us and say, we want a ctech device for our, our. Loved one. Well, Ctech, we don't have [00:16:00] devices. Yes, we provide evaluations and it's not just a one-time assessment. We have to educate them about the process and why. And sometimes it can be frustrating and sometimes people will think that we're just speech therapy and you know, with a typical speech therapy situation, somebody just comes in and works with that individual and everybody else can just go in the other room.

That's not the case here. We need the families and the staff. To be fully involved because they're going to be supporting this person's communication. We're not gonna be there all the time, and so they need to know how to encourage it and how to maintain it, because obviously the individual is usually not gonna be able to add pictures or customize pages or anything like that on this system.

That's where it's really a team effort, and it really is like learning a brand new language. If you're trying to teach somebody Spanish, you're not gonna say. Here's all the Spanish words. Talk to me. 

Jeff Holden: Right. 

Stephani Maki: We you need practice, you need support. 

Jeff Holden: Yeah. And the better the [00:17:00] team around you, the better your ability to grasp whatever it is you're being taught.

Stephani Maki: Exactly. And that's, that's, uh, a challenge we see every day. And we, we really try to work with those, the families and the staff, everybody that's gonna be a part of this individual's life, help them to be as successful as possible. Mm-hmm. 

Jeff Holden: Let's talk a little bit about collaboration. Who are some of the other organizations that you find yourself working with?

Stephani Maki: Well, largely, obviously, since we do go out to these adult day programs, we work with UCP. Reach is another one with South Side, I can't remember the rest of their title. South Side Inc. I think EGA is Elk Grove Adult Community Training. We go out to these. Day programs, so we're, they're familiar with us.

Mm-hmm. And then we also contract with school districts locally to go in and, and do assessments for school aged kids 

Jeff Holden: in In the classroom. 

Stephani Maki: In the classroom. Yes. Ideally, yes. A lot of times we will try to coordinate with when they're receiving [00:18:00] their speech therapy services already in school and we'll try and get our people out there at the same time so we can collaborate with that speech pathologist and, but we're also want to see how they're.

Functioning in the classroom. Mm-hmm. So yeah, we are definitely in the classroom with that. We also work with Sac State. We provide some workshops for their students that are in their special education and speech language pathology master's programs so that they get some hands-on experience with our communication devices.

Jeff Holden: Well, it's, it's amazing the depth of resource you've got in the community. So many people are just unfamiliar. Even people with children with disabilities. Yeah. Or somebody with a disabled, even adult at, at home. So I, I hope as we continue this conversation, it gives you the ability to, to share more because, well, that's, that's, I.

Partly a good and a bad too, because 

Stephani Maki: then that's more people. That There's more people, right. Coming to that wait list that we're talked about, [00:19:00] we and other couple of other sources that we work with, yo, the Yochai Winton Nation, yes. They kind of run the Cash Creek casinos out there. They have been a long time supporter of our lending library.

They help us to make sure we've got the technology and equipment we need to be able to. Provide devices for trials. So they've, they've supported us over the years many times. Also, the Disability Communication Fund, it's now called Ability Central. A few years back, they funded a grant for us to develop our star video training series on our website, which is just a number of videos to help anybody to better understand how to support someone having communication challenges, whether they have a.

Technology in a device or just something they don't, if they, even if they don't have anything, it provides them with tech strategies. 

Jeff Holden: And I think that's really important because you don't service post 18, so adult onset, whatever it may be, [00:20:00] stroke is probably one of the most common. 

Stephani Maki: Yeah. 

Jeff Holden: Where that speech is challenged in some way, shape or form.

Maybe not completely disabled, but. At least a process that maybe needs to be worked on to get back or may never come back. But the understanding is so important. 

Stephani Maki: Yeah. Understanding how to allow those individuals time to respond. They're not gonna just be able to answer like, I'm answering your questions.

Right. They need time to either think about it, they need time to figure out. Where are they going to find the mean? The words or the pictures that express their answer and just allowing that time is so critical. 

Jeff Holden: Mm-hmm. Let's take a quick break from our conversation with Stephanie Mackey of Ctech to allow those who make the program possible to share their messages with us.

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Scott Thomas: Hello, this is Scott Thomas with CAPTRUST in our Sacramento office.

I specialize in working with local nonprofits and [00:22:00] associations annually. We survey private and public nonprofit organizations across the country to better understand challenges they see in today's environment. In our more recent survey, we heard concerns about proper board governance, mission aligned investment, and how to implement alternative investments.

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Jeff Holden: How about funding? Let's talk a little bit about how the organization, organization is funded. Because you, you don't work with the insurance companies and you're in a different space because you don't literally manage the equipment per se.

You're this, this intermediary, you're the go-between the patient. And a variety of different resources. Yes. So how does one get a, the funding individually and or how do you get paid? 

Stephani Maki: So, the referrals from Alta, California Regional Center, [00:23:00] Alta then pays for the services that we provide to their, their referral referred clients.

And that funding comes through DDS and state state funding in. There's a lot of backend on that I'm not privy to, but we do have an established rate with the regional center and they will pay, they pay us for the services that we provide. Okay. But those services need to be indirect support of the client.

There's a lot of other things that that go into that. We've got schedulers who, who handle all the scheduling for our staff because they need to coordinate what direction they're gonna go. So if you're going to Elk Grove, you're kind of doing all of Elk Grove, or not jumping around to Roseville or Placerville.

So that we have administrative staff, we can't bill the time that they work. Then all the time that our staff is in the car traveling to these appointments, that is also time that can't be billed to mm-hmm. The client. But it is time that is paid to the staff, and so helping to bridge that, that [00:24:00] funding gap is.

Critical need of ours. 

Jeff Holden: Well, and what an, what an important part of the conversation because that would come under the unrestricted funding part. Because it's administrative. Yeah. It's travel, but it's still part of the expense. 

Stephani Maki: Yeah. And it also kind of falls under travel and a lot of the grants and things that we research, they won't, they don't wanna cover general operating expenses and they don't wanna cover travel.

And so then that, it gets a little tricky. How do, how do we find that funding? So it's, it's been a struggle. 

Jeff Holden: So there is, there is a bit of funding beyond Alter Regional, which is that you do apply for grants, you have some opportunities to. To generate some revenue or income from different resources. 

Stephani Maki: We, we have to be real careful right now about the grants that we do apply for, because so often there are specific deliverables that are expected, and since we are short staffed mm-hmm.

We don't have the capacity at the moment to, to take on additional. Responsibilities outside of the client service. [00:25:00] So we're, we try to look for, for grant opportunities that are a little bit less restrictive. We recently received a thousand dollars grant from the South Sacramento Rotary Club and so using that where we can to, to fill the funding gaps.

Jeff Holden: Sure. Love those service organizations. Right? Yeah. Stephanie, with regard to some numbers. One of the things you mentioned a little bit earlier in the conversation was a a wait list. What are we looking at? How long is the wait list? 

Stephani Maki: Well, right now we previously, we've never had a wait list, but back in October we got to a point where the referrals were coming so quickly that we just couldn't keep up.

We did have to start a wait list, and right now it's about six months long. That representative, right now, 30 to 35 clients. Try to take a dozen or so every month or so. Mm-hmm. As, as we wrap up other clients, and that's largely due to the fact that we are short staffed. 

Jeff Holden: Mm-hmm. Yeah. And we'll talk about that in just a second.

Yeah. [00:26:00] So waitlist is one of those numbers. Budget. What is roughly the budget you work with annually? 

Stephani Maki: Typically, our income budget is about $600,000. Okay. A year currently. And we ride the over and underline pretty closely, I would imagine. Yeah, I would 

Jeff Holden: imagine. And then what about. Numbers of employees, how many people do you have that work for the organization?

Stephani Maki: Well, not for the, I can't speak for the whole organization, but for our program. For Ctec, yes, for our program. Myself as the program manager, and then we have three speech language pathologists who primarily do the evaluations and case manage. Then we've got. For what we call A A C trainers and a A C stands for augmentative and Alternative Communication.

They provide training and support. Once individuals have received those devices, they're the ones that are going out and educating the families and training everyone. Most of them are part-time. Mm-hmm. But then we also have two have an office manager and [00:27:00] an administrative assistant who do all of that background administrative stuff, but primarily they do all the scheduling.

So that we can be as efficient as possible in our travels. 

Jeff Holden: Yeah. And keep everybody in the zone where they should be for that particular day. 'cause you're right. 

Stephani Maki: And then we do have one other little group of individuals that work for us. They are our A A C mentors. These are four young ladies that are device users.

They are clients of ours, but they're also paid staff. And they meet regularly each month to plan and facilitate what we call jazzy talkers. Jazzy Talkers is a social group for individuals who use devices. They meet on, on a Friday each month. We have an in-person group. We also have an online group, and these ladies plan those meetings and then they lead them as well.

And we're, we're working on some additional things we might be able to get them involved in. Occasionally they do sit in on a client session so that that individual can see what's [00:28:00] possible. 

Jeff Holden: How neat though, to have a mentor of sorts. Yeah. Somebody who gets it, you know, they've got the device, they, they understand what you're dealing with.

Yes. And a from the meetup, so to speak, your, your jazzy, 

Stephani Maki: jazzy talkers. Jazzy 

Jeff Holden: talkers as they get together. That's, that's very cool. But the ability for others to see. I can integrate in some way, shape, or form. There is some normalcy to what I'm doing and these people know what I'm dealing with. 

Stephani Maki: Actually, I will share something that was remarkably different, but very encouraging.

That happened back in May at the, our Jazzy Talkers. As I said, we do work in school districts. We were working in one of these special education classrooms and they, it was classroom was full of like six to eight year olds, and their teacher wanted a field trip. For them to come to our Jazzy Talkers meeting.

And so we were at one of the local libraries and the class came, there was about 13 students plus teachers aids [00:29:00] their school speech language pathologist and parents. And they came, they observed. They interacted and it was, it was successful. We were really nervous because primarily the Jazzy Talkers group is usually adults.

And then to have these small kids, are they going and with special needs, are they going to be able to. You know, really get anything out of it. But they, they were very curious about these devices and it was a really good experience. 

Jeff Holden: You know, I think as the technology changes and we all become so integrated with devices, the abnormality, let's say, right, of seeing somebody with the screen and pecking away from a wheelchair.

Isn't gonna be so abnormal anymore. 

Stephani Maki: Exactly. And that's what prompted this, because there were a couple of students in the class who were using iPads for communication. Other kids were curious and the teacher recognized that and was able to capitalize on it. 

Jeff Holden: What a wonderful teacher to pick up and recognized that this is an opportunity.[00:30:00] 

There's an organization called A Touch of Understanding, and they do something similar. They take. The tools of a variety of different disabilities into the classroom. 

Stephani Maki: Actually, one of our mentors works with a touch of under ah, understanding. Yes. They, 

Jeff Holden: they did an episode with us a while back. Yeah. And I had the opportunity to experience mm-hmm.

A classroom, you know, going through all the Yeah. The process. It was amazing. Just amazing. It's great to hear. Yeah. Well, good. See, there's another, you know, a collaborative collaboration Yeah. Effort that you wouldn't even think of. Let's imagine for a minute that I. Money wasn't an object, and somebody says, yeah, Stephanie, gimme a really good reason to write you a blank check.

Stephani Maki: Oh, 

Jeff Holden: what? What would it look like? 

Stephani Maki: Well, as I said, we've kind of rid, ridden that over and under on our budget so tightly that we have to consider every dollar that's spent. But our first level would be to be able to fully fund the program and [00:31:00] provide laptops. Phones and transportation for our staff under the company instead of using their own, because you know, they are using their own laptops, their own phones and their own cars for all of this travel and work that they're doing.

So to be able to provide that to them would be our first level. 

Jeff Holden: Well, and that might also attract more people. Yeah. Making it easier to recruit and, 

Stephani Maki: yes. Yes, because that, that is an obstacle if they have to use their own equipment that. Isn't, isn't the most attractive, uh, hiring perspective. But then the next level of that is that we would, we'd love to be able to have some satellite offices because there's a huge part of Northern California that inquire for services that we just can't get to them because we go out.

They're just too far for us to go to. If we could have some satellite. Develop some satellite offices, that would be really helpful. And I guess the, probably the ultimate dream goal [00:32:00] way down the line, I guess, would be to have something like a coffee shop that perhaps working in that coffee shop or some of our higher functioning clients.

It also has spaces where groups like Jazzy Talkers can gather, or we could meet instead of going out in the community to a Starbucks or something, meet clients in this coffee shop, so it still feels comfortable with some other, you know, gathering rooms for, for other purposes. That is kind of like that ultimate dream goal.

Jeff Holden: I'm thinking of some organizations that might have the capacity to create that sort of an environment who I won't mention here because. And they would shoo me. I think that's a brilliant idea. It's, it's a coffee shop. For those with these speech disabilities to experience all levels of device and communications to where they would really be able to not only communicate and associate.

But build community amongst themselves. Yes. And then that [00:33:00] transfers into whatever digitally they can, they can push out and then jazzy talkers and the whole thing just expand. 

Stephani Maki: Yeah. We've, we have expands, we have lots of snippets of ideas that could really enhance that. And another portion of that level is to develop a literacy program so that once they have their communication devices, it really helps to expand their.

Capacity for communication. Mm-hmm. And further enhances their lives. And again, using that kind of a situation would be part of that. 

Jeff Holden: And now back to the reality of the situation. Yes. Which is, we know already one of the challenges is if you have a backlog of people wanting the program, the demand is greater than the ability to service it.

What is it that's causing that 

Stephani Maki: Our primary need fundamentally, in order to be able to conserve our clients efficiently and. Eliminate that wait list is we need staff. We are looking for speech lang licensed speech language pathologists or individuals with [00:34:00] master's degree in special education or assistive technology who have some of that background with the alternative augmentative and alternative communication.

And then they wanna develop it more. 'cause even if they don't have all of the, that background and know about all the devices we can pro, we can train them. Mm-hmm. We, we have that and we've got the depth of knowledge in our existing staff. But that's the thing is we need people to be able to help us provide those services.

Jeff Holden: You had mentioned roughly about 30, 35 on the wait list. How many people are serviced at any given point in time? Actively, 

Stephani Maki: actively. Our, our client list is between 290 and 320 clients at any given time. 

Jeff Holden: Wow. 

Stephani Maki: And throughout the course of a year, we generally will see about 500. 

Jeff Holden: Okay. I get it. Mm-hmm. Now I get it.

I, when are not have imagined it'd be that many people. 

Stephani Maki: 16 years ago when we started the, the projected capacity for the program was 80 clients in [00:35:00] a year. Mm-hmm. The demand has. Really outpaced the original program design. And so we just need to find, get all of the infrastructure in place to be able to continue to scale with the demand.

Jeff Holden: At least you have the processes in place, you have something familiar that's working. Yes. And you have the relationships with the people that you need to have the relationships with, whether it be collaborative or technologically. You just now need the, 

Stephani Maki: we need additional relationships. You need additional relationships that 

Jeff Holden: are paid and, and work with you.

You shared the story of, of the Jazzy talkers, Uhhuh. Any other examples of maybe people who have started up through Ctec to where they've become truly functional that you could exemplify for us? 

Stephani Maki: I've got a, a few stories that I, I could share. The first one that happened when I started with the program nine and a half years ago, I was the office manager sitting at the front desk.

One of [00:36:00] our clients came in and after his session, he came out and it happened to be my birthday, and he sang happy Birthday to me using his communication device. And it was the sweet, it was so sweet, one that will always stick with me. A couple of years later I was on the phone trying to schedule an appointment for a little girl.

She was four years old, had just received her device, and while I'm talking to her mom, her mom was so excited she couldn't help but share. When she had asked her daughter what she wanted for lunch that day, she was expecting that she would just was just gonna make peanut butter and jelly, but asked her using her device.

This 4-year-old told her I want tomato soup and grilled cheese. And mom was so ecstatic that never would've guessed that's what she wanted. And. Never would've guessed that she could communicate that clearly that quickly. But guess what she got for lunch that day? Tomato soup and grilled cheese. 

Jeff Holden: You know, and as we're recording this, it's just a little bit after lunchtime.

I'm getting hungry 'cause I love tomato soup and grilled cheese. 

Stephani Maki: So those, those are just a few. But we have have individuals [00:37:00] who are able to start micro businesses and, and communicate with their clients and their customers using their communication device, but they're able to. Sustain a business now that they have the means to, to communicate, 

Jeff Holden: I would imagine there's opportunities, just they're immense.

Mm-hmm. In terms of the capabilities, once somebody recognizes what they can do that nobody knew that they were capable of doing to where they can fully function through the device as if they weren't disabled through their speech. 

Stephani Maki: Yes. I've had situations. I'm speaking with someone who has a communication device.

I know they can't speak back at to me. I'll ask them a question and their support staff says she can't talk. And I'm like, yes, she can Uhhuh. Let's give her a minute. And so it's just really a matter of educating the public that just [00:38:00] because I can't speak doesn't mean I don't have anything to say that is critical.

That's that's the impetus of everything. 

Jeff Holden: That's a great line. 

Stephani Maki: It is not mine. It is one that is just off, often used within, within this community. 

Jeff Holden: Mm-hmm. So you see a lot of challenging things throughout the course of every single day. What does Stephanie do to relax? What? What do you do when it's over? 

Stephani Maki: I.

I work very hard to schedule a couple of days off each month so that I can sew. I'm a quilter. Oh, I, I love to make quilts. Working with color and fabric really relaxes me and makes me happy and feeds my creativity because, and then I can come back to work with that with my creative brain activated again.

Sometimes you just get stuck in what has to be done and you can't think outside that box. So yeah, quilting is my quilting, is my therapy good. Well, and I can 

Jeff Holden: understand that my wife loves to color and it, you know. Mm-hmm. The stuff [00:39:00] she colors though is extremely comprehensive. It's like, it's not like a coloring book.

It's a very detailed, 

Stephani Maki: my one, one of my daughters is like that too. Right. Amazing. That, that's creativity's amazing. 

Jeff Holden: And she gets to just. Blank out. It's almost meditative. 

Stephani Maki: Exactly. 

Jeff Holden: And I, and I understand it. I tried for about a minute. 

Stephani Maki: Yeah. Another, another thing that I, I do, it's with my husband, is we like, we both like to play disc golf.

Oh gosh. So we'll go out. That gives us a little bit of exercise and, and fresh air so that those are, those are the two things I do when I'm not working, 

Jeff Holden: and that's one I don't understand. I see people playing it all the time, and I'm amazed that anybody can even get that disc into the basket wherever the basket is.

Oh, it, it's so much 

Stephani Maki: fun. Even if you don't make it into the basket, it's still fun. And 

Jeff Holden: you're right, it's outside. You usually in a, a wooded area. I 

Stephani Maki: call it a hike with a purpose. There you go. 

Jeff Holden: Exactly. How does somebody that's interested in the services that you provide get in touch with ctec? 

Stephani Maki: For the most part, I primarily recommend contacting your regional center service coordinator [00:40:00] and asking about a CA referral for a ctec evaluation.

Understanding that there is still that wait list, but we can at least get you on the list. 

Scott Thomas: Mm-hmm. 

Stephani Maki: If your individual is school aged, then contact your school district about getting. A communication assessment. If there's no staff within that district who can provide the appropriate assessment, you can ask about Contra, having them contract with Ctec, and we can come in and do that assessment, but the district has to contract with us for us to be able to do that with school-aged kids.

Then if you're not sure, then you can always reach out to us through our website, which is ctech aac.org, CT EC aac.org, and email us through that. We'll get back to you with the next step, proper next steps, 

Jeff Holden: and that's also where we can find the video for communication and and communication disabilities.

That's on that website. The 

Stephani Maki: Our Star Video training series is at the [00:41:00] bottom of our, our. Website and it's a, it's a whole training series. There's about 15 videos and you can actually get certification with that too as well. 

Jeff Holden: Oh, wow. Wonderful. We also have 

Stephani Maki: a calendar of events. We provide online training each month for some of the more common communication applications and, and it also has our jazzy talkers schedule.

I was gonna ask, are they there 

Jeff Holden: so people know when they're uh, they're meeting, yeah. Now 

Stephani Maki: there's also a few success stories. Some of our clients, we have some video. Footage of some successful clients that might be interesting as well. 

Jeff Holden: And we will have that website address in the show notes, so you don't have to remember all those letters.

Yes, because I would dyslexia them. They'd be all screwed up if I even tried to repeat them. 

Stephani Maki: Like I said, it's even harder to just say them individually. 

Jeff Holden: Well, Stephanie, you're not the highest profile, highest visibility organization. And I think part of that is because. The people are not the highest visibility because they stay at home.

Yes. They're not out in the [00:42:00] community as much as they could be and hopefully will be as we build this coffee houses for them to, to meet and, and, and gather. But I. What you do needs to be amplified. So others are aware that you do exist and you have the capability through technology to help these families, help these students, help these adults who have been dealing with challenges all their life.

And it's amazing to know, a, that you exist, but even more so that enough people know about it, that there's a waiting list. 

Stephani Maki: Yes. 

Jeff Holden: And the waiting list is growing. That's the good and the bad of it all. But it's a need obviously, that the community has that. Has to be shared and people have to be aware because if you get to the, the waiting list, the odds are good.

You're going to get serviced at some point in time. 

Stephani Maki: Yes, exactly. But it's, it's really important to make sure that those families know that there's hope, that there is something out there that can assess what [00:43:00] can help. Mm-hmm. And so, yeah, we just really wanna make sure that. The disabilities community knows, and even beyond that, that the general community knows because the more the general community knows, the more they can accept and accommodate and work with those who have the disability.

Jeff Holden: Mm-hmm. From the smallest four years old you mentioned, we, 

Stephani Maki: we work with them as little as 18 months old. Oh my goodness. They, you'd be amazed at what they can do with a, an iPad and you start them early, they're really gonna 

Jeff Holden: go through the program. Well, yeah. All the way up to 18 in the identified disability, but for those who have come into the program for the rest of their adult lives, 

Stephani Maki: yes.

Primarily, probably about 85% of those that we work with are over the eight or 22 years and older. You know, they've had these disabilities for years and sometimes it, you know, be working with someone who's 45 and it's the first time they're actually getting some method of communication that is [00:44:00] effective.

And so at that point, so many people think they can't do it, and they really can. 

Jeff Holden: Mm-hmm. Well, and and your key word there, hope. Yes. The ability is there. We just have to know. We have to know that it exists. Identify is there. Identify, 

Stephani Maki: identify the right solution that will open that door for them. 

Jeff Holden: So through the classrooms, into businesses, into integration in some way, shape, or form for those with disabilities in a communicative.

Space. Yes. Because it's, it's everything. Thank you so much for what you do, and I'm so glad we had the opportunity to connect, to get this story told. 

Stephani Maki: Yes. Thank you so much for having us on. We appreciate you getting that word out and just being able to tell our story because there's, there's so many stories within our, our program and they all deserve to be heard.

Jeff Holden: Well, thank you. However, that story gets told. Right, 

Stephani Maki: exactly.

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