All About Juno!

Magnifiers come in all shapes and sizes for all ages and needs. On this podcast, we'll talk to experts about a brand new magnifier on the way,  learn about APH's Low Vision Strategy and celebrate Black History Month.

Guests (in order of appearance on podcast)

• Justine Taylor, APH Low Vision Product Manager
• Martin Munsen, Kentucky School for the Blind, Outreach Director
• Greg Stilson, APH Head of Global Innovation
• Mr. Louis Tutt, former EOT and special guest 

Black History Month Links to Awards - Links are directly to the images 

•  https://www.aph.org/aph-awards-plaques/
• https://www.aph.org/wings-of-freedom-award-plaque-2014-2018/
• https://www.aph.org/wings-of-freedom-award-overview-plaque/
• https://www.aph.org/from-the-field-awards-plaques/
• https://www.aph.org/overview-of-william-english-leadership-award-plaque/
• https://www.aph.org/william-english-leadership-award-plaque-1991-2002/
• https://www.aph.org/wall-of-tribute/

Juno Information

Description

The Juno™ is a portable handheld video magnifier with touchscreen. It includes all the features of a handheld video magnifier with the additional solution of Optical Character Recognition (OCR) capability. The larger screen allows the reader to view documents, while the writing-view accommodates short writing tasks such as filling out a form, signing your name, writing a check, or filling in a worksheet.

Screen Size

7-inch matte LCD screen

Magnification Level

2x to 30x

Buttons

Yes

Color Modes

24 high-contrast color modes

Touch Screen

Yes

Speech

Yes

Storage

4GB of storage, store up to approximately 600 images

Features

• Built-in stand

• Menus spoken aloud

• Time and Date

• OCR capability captures and reads aloud lengthy documents to reduce eye fatigue

• Full-page OCR

• Capture multiple pages and page navigation

• Zones – quickly jump to different sections in a book or article

• Save files using audio tags

• Transfer files from computer and flash drive via USB-C port

• Supported files – JPEG, PDF, DocX, and more

• Adjustable line and mask feature

• Teacher settings – lock out certain features to use Juno during an exam

• HD auto-focus camera rotates to support five camera positions: reading, hobby, distance, self-view, and writing-view

• Built-in User Guide

Dimensions

8.27 x 5.71 x 1.19 in. – 1.38 lbs

Contents

• Juno handheld video magnifier

• Protective carrying case with strap

• Quick Start

• User Guide

• Power adapter

• USB-C cable

• HDMI mini cable

• Two-year warranty

Connection

USB-C

Quota Funds

Yes

Warranty

Yes

Partner/Vendor

Freedom Scientific

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Welcome to change makers, a podcast from APH. We're talking to people from around the world who are creating positive change in the lives of people who are blind or visually impaired. Here's your host

Sara: 0:16

Magnifiers come in all shapes and sizes for all ages and needs. I'm your host, Sara. And as part of low vision awareness month, we'll talk to experts about a brand new magnifier on the way. Speak with an expert tester and learn more about APH is low vision strategy. Then we'll celebrate black history month with our special guest Mr. Lewis tie. First up, let's learn about a brand new magnifier that's on the way we have APHS low-vision product manager, Justin Taylor here to tell us more. Hello, Justine. Thank you so much for joining us on Changemakers.

Justine: 0:47

Thank you for having me.

Sara: 0:49

Okay. Well as a product manager, I'm sure you've seen countless devices that do so many things. Tell us a little bit more about this Juno device. What makes it so different than previous magnifiers?

Justine: 1:01

Well, uh, do you know, performs like larger desktop magnifiers, but comes in a very compact, portable size. Do you know is a handheld video magnifier with a seven inch matte LCD screen with a built-in stands. It has physical buttons and a touch screen to navigate through menus. There are magnification buttons to zoom in and out color mode, buttons to cycle through contrast colors, a power button and a capture button. The three main features that make, you know, unique is the OCR feature, the file storage and the rotating camera. It has all of the features that a handheld video magnifier offer with the addition of optical character recognition. This allows the user to capture texts and have it read aloud. It can perform full page OCR and OCR multi-page documents. You can capture multiple pages and use the OCR changed the magnification levels and color contrast the speech rate and navigate to specific pages. There is a zone feature which will highlight and numbered the sections of a document to make it easier to navigate within a document or article. The OCR feature is great for students that have[inaudible] that need additional text to speech to read lengthy documents. There is a headphone Jack to plug in headphones and a mini HTMI port to use Juno with a TV or monitor and a USB port. As far as the file storage, you can store up to 600 images on Juneau, and there is an audio tag feature that allows you to record file names for say documents. You can use a USBC flash drive to transfer files to and from the computer. Did you know some files that are supported are doc X PDF, a text RTF, JPEG, and others. This helps teachers save assignments on Juneau for students to use in the classroom. And finally, do you now has a rotating camera for near magnification up to 30 X distance view magnification with 15 feets handwriting view? Uh, so a student can fill out a worksheet, sign their name, or do other short writing tasks or hobbies and a self-view to perform, uh, grooming tasks. So Juno does a lot of things.

Sara: 4:23

Great. Okay. And I know there's some additional information, right? So we will put those in the show notes. So all the listeners can go and see all of the features that you know has to offer. So Justine, can you tell me the ways that people with varying levels of low vision can still use this product?

Justine: 4:42

Sure. This product was designed to work with individuals with a wide variety of visual acuity levels. Do you know, has an adjustable texts size at talk menus to make it easy for any student with low vision or more limited vision to use the buttons or spoken aloud to tell the user the function of the button, the talking menu feature can be turned on or off, but it is very useful to have this on until the student becomes familiar with Juno's interface or if they need more audio feedback.

Sara: 5:28

Okay. Is, is Juno, is it available on quota or non quota? Do you know if this is a quote, a product? Okay. And then the last in most important question, do you know when Juno will be available for purchase?

Justine: 5:46

It should be available by the summer. We are working to get this release sooner, but it can take some time to go through the federal quota process.

Sara: 5:58

Okay. Well, all right. Thank you so much, Justine for joining us on change-makers. We appreciate you taking time to talk to us. Thank you for having me and letting me talk to you a little bit about Juno. And now we continue our conversation about Juno. We have outreach director with the Kentucky school for the blind Martin Munson Martin. Thank you so much for joining us today on makers.

Martin: 6:22

Sure. Well, thanks for inviting me. Happy to be here.

Sara: 6:25

Yeah. Great. Well, do you know, there's a lot of excitement about it. How do you think Juno will be received by your students?

Martin: 6:33

Uh, um, from what I've seen of it, they're all gonna love it. And they're all, you know, all of our low vision students are going to want one that's for sure.

Sara: 6:41

Okay. And right now you're in the middle of expert testing. Tell us what, what do you think about Juno?

Martin: 6:49

Uh, so, um, as part of that testing, I, I get some of the demonstration models before they hit the market, um, to try to look for, um, any improvements that might need to be made note all the great features, um, things of that nature. Um, and I'm going to tell you right out of the box, it's, it's intuitive to use, um, very easy to use. Uh, uh, it's got a very, um, very nice profile. It's going to be attractive to school aged kids because of some of the coloring and some of the features it has. So, um, again, straight, straight out of the box it's, um, you can pick it up and start using it with very little instruction. Um, but yet it has enough enough features where that it's really going to meet a lot of needs of a lot of students in the, uh, education settings.

Sara: 7:46

That's so good to hear and you're right. You know, the color and it looks pretty sturdy. So you have to think, you have to keep that in mind for especially young children, the sturdiness and the color. All right. Well, well, as an expert tester, I'm sure you've worked with countless magnifiers. So tell me how does Juno compare to the others?

Martin: 8:05

Uh, you know, it stacks up well against all the other ones I've tested. Um, and it has some features that kind of make it stand out a little bit. Um, again, ease of use, I think is one of the features that, that make it stand out and probably the best feature on here that helps differentiate it a bit from some of the others is, um, is the fact that it has the, uh, some of the other, um, handheld units effect fact that it has, uh, the, uh, camera that you can scroll up to capture information in a distance as well as, um, information near. So, uh, quite an accomplishment in a, uh, in a smaller portable CCTV. Yup.

Sara: 8:51

Yes. Yes. All right. So talking about magnifiers, what should one look for when selecting a magnifier for their student or child?

Martin: 9:00

I think probably the, well, the first thing you need to do is kind of know what the needs are of your student and know the environments that they're going to be using that magnifier in, and then, um, start shopping around for the magnifier that can meet those needs in those various environments. So, um, you know, if you're, if your student needed to do a lot of writing under an, in a magnified motor with a video magnifier, this may not be the model for them, but if they need to do, um, just a lot of access to information both near and far and have something portable, this is probably the best one that they could use. So matching the student's needs to what the, um, what the video magnifiers can do for them, I think is the most important thing to look at it. Yeah,

Sara: 9:53

That is, that is okay. Well, thank you so much, Martin, for joining us on Changemakers. Sure. Great. And it sounds like, you know, it's going to be a big hit,

Martin: 10:02

You know, again, happy to happy to offer my opinion. And thanks for having me on

Sara: 10:08

The future is big and bright as each device evolves and improves with the latest technology. The possibilities are truly endless here to talk about the future of low vision devices is APH is kind of global innovation, Greg Stilson hello, Greg. And welcome back to makers. Hey Sarah, thanks for having me again. There's a lot of excitement about Juno right now. How does Juno fit into APHS new low vision strategy?

Greg: 10:35

So, you know, there is for, for magnifiers. And the, the interesting thing is as myself as, as a blind individual, right? I I've been developing products for, for folks who are braille readers or, or blind. Um, and I've done a little bit in the low vision space. What's interesting about the low vision space is that there is almost no two products that worked for the same two people, right? So, um, Oh, I'm sorry. There's no, there's no one product that works always for the same two, two people. And I say that because low vision can be so different, right? Like certain people may have sensitivity to light in a certain fashion. Some people may have, um, you know, issues with different colors or have different regions that they can see. Right. Um, so creating a one size fits all approach is really, really difficult. And I will, I will say that, you know, for APH our strategy isn't to create these one size fits all products, but really to develop a portfolio of products that can, can work for a range of people with a range of visual conditions. Right. Um, and whether they're different sizes, different functionalities and things like that. Our biggest focus here is to, to not just make them tremendously basic products. Right. I understand that there may be basic features in them, but we always want to really push the boundaries of what we can do. Um, and that, you know, that that includes, you know, connected devices and things like that. But really for, for our strategy, it's, it's creating this, this wider portfolio of sort of next generation products.

Sara: 12:11

Wow. That's so cool. So as the Senior Director of Global Innovation and Strategy, you're developing ideas and products with an eye on the future. So what can you tell us about is low vision portfolio?

Greg: 12:24

So we've got, you know, right now we have, we have the video mag HD, which is a sort of a smaller, really basic magnifier. Um, but it's super rugged, then Juno is going to be there and then we'll have products like Jupiter and MackConnect. Um, but you know, when you look at say MackConnect, right, MackConnect's been around for a while and we, we always are looking at what's going to come next. And what are the, what are the features of these next products? But one of the things that we don't have are, you know, larger desktop style, uh, devices with, with larger screens, right. And APH, yes, we are an education first company. Um, and we really focus on the classroom, what we can do, but, you know, we are expanding, you know, with things like the, the, the connect center and really trying to bring our products global and things like that. We do have an eye on helping people at all stages of their life. So, you know, for us, I would say we're looking at products with different sizes, different functionalities, but most importantly, different, uh, or making sure that every, every device is connected to today's modern technology. And that means say moderate, uh, connected to the cloud, um, ensuring that they can all be wirelessly updated, can, you know, connect people, um, at the same time that they need to, you know, read different things and, and, um, access different things in the classroom or at work. You know, as we know, our life is not just all work, right. There's so much entertainment, there's so much social media. There's so many photos that people want to see and things like that. So making sure that the devices don't just focus on work, but almost every aspect of somebody's life.

Sara: 14:00

Wow. So this next question, you, you pretty much just kind of answered it, but I want you to elaborate a little bit more. What do you see for the future of magnifiers?

Greg: 14:11

Well, I think we're all waiting for that dream magnifier that is, you know, put in a pair of glasses just on our face. Right? We've got this, um, we've got these really small handheld magnifier as we have larger magnifiers, we have connected magnifiers. Um, I think we're all watching, um, the mainstream, uh, world, because the, the concept of VR and AR augmented reality and virtual reality, um, is really going to bring forth the technology and bring down the price so that organizations like ours can take advantage of these, these upcoming products and, and, and miniature realizations. I would say, be able to, um, essentially, I mean, I have this, this vision that someday somebody is going to be able to just put on a pair of glasses, touch a touch pad on the side, or a sensor or something like that, and put it immediately to the magnification, the color, if they need to read something, um, be able to just look at something and have it immediately in the color contrast that they like. Right. But until we get there, um, because we've, we've still got a ways to go there. Like I said, I think that, um, our, our vision is connected devices and having a portfolio there, but taking advantage of a lot of the AI work, that's gone on a lot of the, um, you know, the, the, the photo optimizations, the, um, optical character recognition being able to do on the fly character translation and being able to, to combine, um, text to speech with magnification. And that's something that we brought forth in Juneau is, um, as Justine had mentioned early on, is that, you know, this is one of those things where you can snap a photo and if your eyes get tired of trying to read, um, you can press a button and have it read to you. And I think that having that multimodal approach of reading and learning, um, will really benefit a lot of users.

Sara: 16:12

Wow. Wow. Well, I'm excited for the glasses with the magnifier. That sounds so good. I'm waiting on it. Oh my gosh.

Greg: 16:24

So I'll call out to any vendors who are working into this, um, magical glasses space, uh, APH is super interested. So let us know

Sara: 16:36

That's right. That's right. Let us know. That will be such a such a game changer. Oh my gosh. I'm excited for that day. I am. That's going to be such a cool thing to see that is all right, Greg. Well, thank you so much for joining us on makers. We, as you can tell, we're all excited. I'm excited for Juno to come out and all the other wonderful products you have coming. That's going to be, it's going to be a fun time.

Greg: 17:01

We are, we are super fired up and, you know, it's, it's this product vision that we have here at APH, but it's also the vendors that we work with. You know, we work with companies like vis Pharaoh for products like Jr, or excuse me, like, uh, like Juno and Jupiter. I mean, we work with product or companies like Humanware for, for products like the Matt connect. Um, and I, I forgot that we, uh, that, um, that the video mag HD is also a, uh, a Sparrow product too. So, you know, as we, as we focus on the user experience here at APH and really pushing these products, um, limits in the classroom and being able to really optimize them for students, um, it's our vendors that we, we really, um, appreciate and love working with and, um, really allow us to push envelope on what we can do with these products. So kudos to the vendors. And we are, we are always looking for new partners. I, in this, in this roadmap that we're working on, so super excited about it.

Sara: 18:02

Well, thank you so much, Greg, for joining us on Change Makers. We are very excited for all the products you have coming and next up on Change Makers. We'll continue our conversation with Mr. Tutt in honor of black history.

Greg: 18:14

Thanks so much, Sara.

Sara: 18:18

All right. We're back with Mr. Lou Tutt, a former EOT who has represented three different schools for the blind and on the previous podcast, Mr. Todd talked about his childhood and his education, especially during the time of the Brown V board of education decision, which was historic, which is when they declared that segregated schools were unconstitutional. So we have Mr. Tuck back and tell us about as a teacher, as an adult, we, you were a teacher in some of the schools that you taught were segregated as an educator. What was that like you teaching at a segregated school and now you're helping integrate. How, how was that? What was that like?

Mr. Tutt: 18:59

Well, it was, uh, it wasn't a surprise at first when, when the TC walking up school principal, uh, call me to his office near the end of the 1967 68 school year to say, Mr. Todd, uh, the school superintendent of Gloucester County now most integrate teachers into the segregated schools, namely longer high school. And you have been recruited to go down the Gloucester high school as a phys ed teacher and coach. And so there, I sat in Mr. Johnson's office and thought, Oh my, wow, this is going to be different. And, uh, so, uh, I mean, I couldn't say no. I mean, I could resign and move on somewhere else, but I was one who believed that the integration of schools, since the Brown vs board of education decision came down, if I could play a small part in that, then you do it. And along with me were two other teachers from TC Walker that were going down an English teacher and a history teacher. So there were three of us, you know, go on down to, uh, Gloucester high school com uh, the, the fall of 1968. And so, uh, so I went down and as I being a coach, uh, I got to know a lot of the white kids early on in August when football practice began and they got to know me. And so, uh, the first day of school, when the principal introduced the new staff, you know, there I was with my two other colleagues from TC Walker. We stood up and said, uh, who we were. And there we were, you know, in a school with, with a great majority of white teachers, white students, although there were, you know, black students came down to the school at that time, too. So for the black students who came down, they had three of us with whom they could relate if they have issues or problems in the school. Uh, and so that was good. And being, being a coach, you know, you get to know students, uh, uh, maybe a lot better than maybe an English teacher or a history teacher might because you're you involved, uh, uh, with them not only academically, but athletically as well. So, uh, it, it, it went well, it went well. Uh, but I knew that during that year that I was going to need more education, uh, if I was going to stay there and I needed to pursue, you know, a master's degree in the field now, uh, my experiences there were, were, were very good. I had one bad experience there at the school. Uh, in one of my classes, I ask a white student to perform these exercises with the class. And that student said, no, I'm not. And I sit in my class. Yes, you will. Wow. And he said, well, I won't. And I had the KU Klux Klan at your house tonight. Wow. I said, okay, bring them on, bring them on. And so I had friends in Gloucester, so I went to my friends and glossy and said, I got threatened that the KKK is, will come to my house tonight. They said, don't worry, we'll be there too. So at my house at, at night, there were those who were supporting me. And we had an arsenal there ready for any outcome that the KKK, my truck.

Sara: 23:32

And what year again was this?

Mr. Tutt: 23:35

1968. Wow. So we were all there waiting, waiting for them to burn crosses or do whatever. Cause we had an arsenal and we're going to do we have to do well. It never happened. They never came through, it was a veil threat, but it wasn't a threat. But, uh, all in all, uh, I got along well with the white students, uh, at the school. And, uh, there's one white student who works for NASA now in Alabama, who comes up to DC every year. And he and I get together. And he was just a young 15 year old when I met him. And now we get together. We talk about our times at integrating Gloucester high school, such a wonderful experience. Well, this past year, 50 years later, gosh, it had a high school, had a reunion of the class of 1969 in Gloucester. And I went to the reunion and here were these old white teachers, old black teachers, and all these students who had gone to school there in this one place together. That's like the crowning experience here. We were struggling in 1968 in 1960 and 19 in 2019, here we are all together thinking about what it was to make the integration of the schools in Gloucester County successful. We did, but, but Sara always stayed there a year because I didn't believe I get grandfathered in like some of the white teachers. So I thought I need a master's degree. Then I'll come back with a master's degree. There was no question. You have to keep me. So I went to graduate school. I never came back. I didn't honor my legal absence because I got involved in the blind and deaf and then it was blind all the way from 1970, 1971 to 2019. One thing I might say Sara, that when I was a senior at Norfolk State University, uh, I got to visit the, uh, Virginia School for the Deaf and Blind in Hampton, Virginia. So I went over there to see how they taught blind and deaf kids. I never saw the blind kids because the school had more deaf kids and blind kids. And all I saw was deaf kids, all right. At the school and many, you know, there, there were about a dozen deaf blind in America. And so the one I got to work at was Colorado. And that wasn't till 2003. And I went there as principal, but I always wanted to know what it was like to work at a combines who are dual school, deaf and blind students. And certainly, you know, there's more deaf folks in blind folks. And so at those schools, more deaf students than blind students in a number of deaf teachers as well. So that was a good experience for me going there. But what I didn't realize Sarah, when I went over to the school for the deaf, the blind, a Hampton, that there was another School for deaf and blind up in Staunton, Virginia, which was a white school for the deaf and blind. So many States, especially in the South, had two different schools, a black school for the deaf and the white blind or deaf and blind. And if the school wasn't combined, if there were black students on the campus, they were separated from the white students on the campus. They were separated in the dorms. Wow. Yes they were. And so there were several schools like that that were also segregated in terms of blended should definitely Sara. Yes. Now, uh, so many of those schools in most rare in the South, uh, had a big decision to make because it was too costly for the state to run two different schools. So one of those schools in those States, black or white have to close and integrate all the students on one of those campuses. And of course, Sara, what happened was that the black school was closed and the black kids went to the white schools. So the blind and deaf, and that's how that all, uh, occurred. So today, uh, if a state, not all States have a school for the blind school of the deaf and many States have dual schools, those schools now certainly obviously are, are integrated, uh, Sara. But, uh, she was,[inaudible] not only did it include education, uh, you know, general, but these schools are deaf and blind were segregated as well. They were so interesting. Yes, absolutely. Very much so. Um, I, um, had presented at different conferences around the country, in the field of blindness and on motor skills. And, uh, it's been, it's been a real good experience, uh, doing that. And I went to a conference in Mississippi a few years ago and Mississippi had two schools and they just integrated the schools the last 10 years. Wow. In Mississippi. And so, uh, I knew folks from that school, from the black Mississippi school and the white Mississippi school. And they had a tough time integrating because you know, the whites didn't want to do that and they want to be involved with, uh, you know, the black blind students. And you would think blindness, you know, blindness, you can't even see what color, well, let me tell you the attitudes from Y blind kids, parents and family certainly made it known, uh, terrible names that blacks were called by white segregated parents and students. So it was, it was awful, but we'd got through it. And now today there are no more segregated schools for the blind in schools. There's either one school in that state and they all go to that school regardless. You know what it took. I remember Sarah, a few years ago, I came down to APH and did a black history thing there at APH. And I don't know, I probably burned boy your diabetes before you came there. You know, that name Burt Boyer. And I do not. Okay. Burt Boyer, uh, worked at APH, but he also, he also was blind, uh, white with albinism and Burt, uh, uh, went to the, uh, school for the body in West Virginia. I mean, in Virginia and in Louisville. And there, those in Louisville who remember, uh, the integration of the Kentucky school for the blind there in Louisville was one of the segregated schools as well. And so Bert and some of my friends who became superintendents who were blind, they remember the integration of the Kentucky two for the ride way back when and what it was like. Yeah. So, so it wasn't very different from what it was like for, for quote, regular black and white kids didn't make their schools as it was for blind black and white kids to integrate their schools. But it was a little bit more because they hadn't had the dormitories that may be living together in the dorms as well. And how was that going to work out? So it was huge now at the Maryland School for the Blind where I was for 13 years, that school doing segregation, they did integrate, but they had on the, on the same grounds, but they had separate schools on the same grounds. So it wasn't really a school for the blind, but they had a white campus and a little black campus at that school. And then schools for the blind years ago, Sarah, the head of the schools lived on the campus. Okay. All right. So I live on the campus at the Missouri school. I live on the campus at the middle of the school. Of course they were integrated by that time that I came. But you can imagine what it was like for these kids to live in the same dorms with, you know, white parents. And she didn't want those blind black kids, you know, sleeping in the same room with my white blind kid. So it was all a bunch of terrible that we had to go through to get to where we are today. And so, but that's, that's, that's the history, Sarah, that's the history. And, uh, and we must remember that that many, many whites were certainly pro integration and we're on the front line, you know, helping that happen. They start losing their lives as a result of that. So we don't want, we don't want to just dismiss the fact that there were whites too, who joined this, uh, uh, pursuit of integration of schools are blind as well, uh, during the fifties, sixties and seventies. Uh, so I was a small part of that. Yes.

Sara: 34:48

Okay. And be sure to check out our next podcast. We'll hear Mr. Tutt talk about teaching in integrated schools. Um, Mr. Todd, thank you so much for joining us on change makers and we look forward to having you back.

Mr. Tutt: 35:02

Okay. Well, thank you, Sarah. It's so good to meet you. You are an outstanding interviewer.

Sara: 35:11

They thank you. And we will talk to you soon.

Mr. Tutt: 35:16

Thank you

Sara: 35:18

Very much for listening to this episode of Changemakers. We hope you enjoyed yourself. Be sure to find ways you can be a change maker this week.