Assistive Technology. Talking Tins.

Hello again,
This weeks task has been around assistive technology. During one of our classes this week we had Trev from Star mobility in Hamilton come and talk to us about devices that can help people with their occupations and tasks.

So what are assistive devices you may ask? they are defined by Cook and Hussey ( 2000) as 'Any item, piece of equipment or product system whether acquired commercially off the shelf, modified, or customized that is used to increase or improve functional capabilities of individuals with disabilities.'

In my terms.. Assistive technology is anything that may help a person with a task or occupation and therefore make it easier.

When Trev came into visit us he brought with him switches of all shapes and sizes, keyboards with larger visual buttons, electronic talking photo albums and much more. The piece of equipment I found the most interesting and useful for a large part of the population was Talking Tins.

Talking Tins allow you to record your voice and then play it back whenever the button is pushed. This device can be used to attach to the top of food containers and the name of the food programmed in, the use of this could benefit those with visual impairments. I also feel that the use of these tins could help a number of other disabilities. They could be used with children that have learning or speech difficulties. The programmed in words could be something they need to learn and remember or the name of an object that they need to understand what it is. This device could also benefit the older population and those with memory loss. they could program in the jobs or tasks they need to do. For example a caretaker who may forget what he has to do once he leaves the shed and get to his destination could program in his jobs then push the tin when he forgets.

This piece of equipment helps people to increase in their occupations by allowing them to either understand objects or help with memory.

This is a Talking Tin...

This picture was retrieved from
http://www.starmobility.co.nz/talking-tin-yellow.html
This website is of Star Mobility, Trev and his team in Hamilton New Zealand.

Talking tins are the size of a tin or jar and light. This is a good size to fit in pockets or easily in the palm of hands.

On Trev's website they sell Talking Tins for  $59.90 for a 3 pack.
the tins can be brought as yellow ones with a single ten second message and the red ones can have sequential message of 30 seconds,

This YouTube video gives you a short and sweet overview of Talking tins and their applications.

This next video shows how Talking Tins can be used in the education sector.

Now moving on to how these devices can help out with occupational Deprivation and transition.
Occupational deprivation is 'a prolonged preclusion from engagement in occupations of necessity or meaning due to factors outside the control of an individual such as through geographical isolation,incarceration or disability.' (Christiansen & Townsend, 2010). Talking tins can help with occupational deprivation in a way that lets people preform their occupations. For example eating/ prepareing a meal, those that are vision impaired may have felt unable to do this occupation as they could not see what food they were getting out of the containers. With talking tins they can now hear what food is in the containers and complete the occupation.
Occupation transition is 'Circumstances creating a change in the nature or type of occupational engagement pursued by or available to an individual. such transitions may be the result of choice, changes in physical or mental status, life transitions, geographical change, geopolitical strife, or other factors'. Talking Tins can help in this area also. For someone who has acquired short term memory loss being asked to do a task and then going to do a task can be hard as their short term memory does not remember what was asked. this transition would be frustrating for a person who's memory was once fine. Take a farmer for instance. He may have been farming his whole life and always know what needed to be done. If he acquires short term memory loss he may forget what he has to do by the time he gets to the back paddock. with a talking tin he could programme in a message so that when he gets to the back paddock he can push the button, listen to the message and complete the occupation.

Hope this has got you all thinking about assistive devices and that there may just be one out there that could help you.

K x


Christiansen, C.H. & Townsend, E.A. (2010). Introduction to Occupation; the Art and Science of Living. (2nd. ed.) Upper Saddle River, New Jersey : Pearson
 Cook, A.M., & Hussey, S.M. (2000). Assistive technologies: principles and practice. St Louis: Mosby