Full Transcript
Jeff Thompson:
Welcome to Blind Abilities. I’m Jeff Thompson and welcome to our CSUN coverage, sponsored by Be My Eyes.
Speaker 2:
If you’re blind or have low vision,
Speaker 3:
Be My Eyes is a must have tool.
Speaker 2:
No matter where you are
Speaker 4:
Or what language you speak
Speaker 5:
You can call up on-demand visual support in seconds.
Speaker 3:
In seconds.
Speaker 6:
From a pool of more than two million volunteers
Speaker 3:
Two million volunteers
Speaker 6:
And the best part is
Speaker 7:
It’s completely free.
Speaker 3:
It’s completely free.
Speaker 7:
No matter how many times you use it
Speaker 6:
No matter how much you use it
Speaker 5:
Completely free.
Speaker 7:
Besides the option to call volunteers
Speaker 8:
You can also use Be My Eyes’ new feature
Speaker 5:
Specialized Help
Speaker 3:
To get quick, high quality
Speaker 2:
Video custom service
Speaker 6:
Directly from companies like Microsoft
Speaker 7:
And Google
Speaker 4:
All within the Be My Eyes app
Speaker 5:
On Android
Speaker 3:
Or iOS.
Speaker 7:
Join the community
Speaker 2:
Join the community
Speaker 7:
Today
Speaker 2:
Today.
Speaker 5:
On the web at www.bemyeyes.com.
Jeff Thompson:
Stay tuned for all our podcasts coming in out of CSUN. Our very own Brian Fisher from that blind tech show is at CSUN right now, and he just sent me a message from CSUN to tell you all that he’s the blind guy with the guide dog with the Bose frames on. Really cool Brian, you’ll stand out, yup.
Jeff Thompson:
And in this podcast from the CSUN coverage, we got David Raistrick, co-founder of En-Vision America. Check him out on the web at envisionamerica.com.
Speaker 9:
Enable the blind abilities skill on your Amazon device, just by saying, “Enable blind abilities.”
Jeff Thompson:
Welcome to Blind Abilities. I’m Jeff Thompson, and today in the studio, we got David Raistrick. David, how you doing?
David Raistrick:
I’m doing well, Jeff. How are you?
Jeff Thompson:
I’m doing good, and David is the co-founder of En-Vision America. Headed out to CSUN?
David Raistrick:
Yes, we’re headed to CSUN for another great year. We’ve been going for almost 19 years now so it’s always where we get to mingle with folks, get great ideas, and see what’s happening in the state of accessibility for vision impairment.
Jeff Thompson:
David, why don’t you tell our listeners a little bit about your products that you have. I know a lot of people use them. We got the business enterprise here in Minnesota. A lot of people are using that i.d. mate.
David Raistrick:
Yeah, i.d. mate is still really the standard for barcoding and using barcodes for accessibility with regard to labels, and yeah, a lot of folks use them in vending and blind enterprise program for work and jobs. It’s always been a good product to keep jobs available to folks that need them. So i.d. mate has been around for a long time and the Galaxy continues to go with it. Networking capability and that sort of thing, it really does well. So, the barcode scanner itself that we have, the Galaxy, is network-capable. It’s battery-operated. You can scan a barcode, and it speaks back all of the information in its database.
David Raistrick:
If it doesn’t find anything in its database, it will go online and search for information, and bring it back and speak that out. So, we have about three and a half million items in the database right on board. But if you scan a barcode and it doesn’t find it, then really there’s about 16 million online product, then it’ll go out, bring it back. Next time you scan it, it won’t have to go out, it just keeps it right there.
Jeff Thompson:
Oh, so it self-populates itself?
David Raistrick:
Yeah. Also, if you record your own messages, you can still record messages associated with barcodes. If it’s a 12-digit UPC for a product that’s not in there, you hold the record button, speak the information in, and then share it up for others to use. So, we have what’s called our EVA Online. This is relatively new. EVA Online is the first database that it checks when it goes online. So, it checks EVA Online. So, anybody that shares their barcodes up, it will get populated on EVA Online in a few days, and then it’s gonna be available to everyone that scans that same barcode.
David Raistrick:
Not only do you have just a full database, not only do you have the 16 million items online, but you also can share up barcodes and it’s kind of a sharing, social thing that you can give barcodes for other people.
Jeff Thompson:
Now, you can also do labels. So, if you had an extensive record collection or something, you could actually label your entire record collection.
David Raistrick:
Yeah, it’ll read any barcode. So, you can stick a barcode, an adhesive barcode for example. En-Vision has really three different styles, an adhesive kind of sticker barcode you can put on an item, and we have a version that’ll actually be dishwasher-safe too. We’ve got a clothing barcode, and then we have a tag barcode that’s on a rubber band. So, you stick those things on anything that you want to identify in the future. Scan it, hold the record button, and it’ll play back next time you scan, it’ll play back that recording.
Jeff Thompson:
Now, a friend of mine, I remember, they stock meat in a freezer, and they use the labels on packages. I mean, you go down into the freezer and you pull out a white package, who knows what it could be. That’s where they were using them.
David Raistrick:
Yeah, and you can put dates that you put it in and things like that, that just give you more information about the item. And clothing, you can not only identify the clothing but how to best washing or best practices for washing that type of garment. Yeah, and stuff like that. The sky’s the limit as far as how you can use it, what you can use it on. Anything that you can’t tactfully tell what it is relative to another item, you put a barcode on it and you can identify it.
Jeff Thompson:
And that’s just by using a barcode that you can order through En-Vision and then just pushing the button and recording your own voice, so you know exactly what you’re going to label it as.
David Raistrick:
Right. Exactly. Or you can print your own barcode. They don’t have to come from us. Avery has the eight-and-a-half by 11, I think, 100 up labels that you can get a program and print your own. We do offer them. Some folks that have large collections of items, posters or even cassette, or items like that, we’ll just allow them to just print their own sequential number. And that’s all that’s really happening is a barcode is just a number, and then when you scan it, the barcode scanner, the Galaxy, is just encoding that number and saying, “Hey, do I have 12345 in my database? Here it is. I’ll play this information for the user.”
Jeff Thompson:
David, what is the Summit and the Quest then? I saw on the website, envisionamerica.com.
David Raistrick:
Yeah, it’s envisionamerica.com. The Summit and the Quest are just older versions of i.d. mate, i.d. mate’s been around since 1997, the very first one came out. Summit and Quest are just old. We’ve got an Omni out there, so some folks are still using the older versions and they’re still going strong and love Galaxy, just the newest version.
Jeff Thompson:
Okay.
David Raistrick:
It’s got the most bells and whistles, but it’s still really, really functional for folks that want to identify an item.
Jeff Thompson:
Speaking of identifying items, now, you’ll also work with pharmacies. Can you talk about that a little bit?
David Raistrick:
Absolutely, yeah, that’s an exciting area for us and it continues to be. Our main flagship there is ScripTalk. ScripTalk is a talking prescription reader, that little tabletop device, and that device will read back the information on your prescription as long as it has an RFID tag put on by the pharmacy. What we do is enroll pharmacies into the program that will create these electronic labels on a medication. Once that little electronic label is on, what we do is give on loan to a user, a free, no-charge-to-them reader, and they’ll use that in their home to read their medication label. The ScripTalk has been growing by leaps and bounds. We’ve got a lot of different pharmacies still going. We really just keep hitting milestone after milestone of working with pharmacies and pharmacy software to make ScripTalk available to folks.
Jeff Thompson:
Now, David, this is very easy to use. I’ve seen this before. You just take the pill bottle and set it onto the base of the ScripTalk, and it gives you all sorts of information.
David Raistrick:
Yeah. I’ve got one. I’ll demonstrate it here, okay. I’m gonna go ahead and flip it on here.
Speaker 11:
ScripTalk station ready.
David Raistrick:
Okay, so this is just a little tabletop reader. It’s got an RFID antenna built into it. Really, all that means is whenever a label, one of these electronic labels gets in proximity of the face of the reader, all the information reads in and then the device really just speaks it out. I’ll go ahead and press the read button and you might hear it beep here.
Speaker 11:
Patient, John Jay Smith. Medication, Amoxicillin, 500-milligram tablet. Instructions, take one capsule three times daily. Quantity, 30 capsule. Prescription date, January 10, 2018. Use by January 10, 2019. Refills remaining, zero. Prescriber, Dr. Ben Casey. Script to [inaudible] Pharmacy. To reorder this prescription, dial area code 309-555-1212. Prescription number, 123456. Warning, important, finish up this medication unless otherwise directed by prescriber.
David Raistrick:
From start to finish from drug name and patient all the way through the warnings, it’s going to read that information. ScripTalk can be an invaluable tool for folks that want to stay safe with their medication, stay independent with their medication. We also have apps out. We’ve got the Android app, is actually out. We’re still in Beta with the iOS app, but we are enrolling people in the Beta Program now, or slowly but surely sneaking up on getting that more available to folks with iOS also. A lot of good things are happening with ScripTalk. A
David Raistrick:
Again, the number of pharmacies just keeps growing. Most mail orders do it to a Walmart line. We’ve got Rite Aid doing it. We’ve got Albertsons, [inaudible]. We’ve got Winn-Dixie. There’s just a ton of pharmacies that are doing it, but basically available on request. If an individual is interested in getting one of these devices for free or on loan, what they need to do first is give us a call. Once we understand what pharmacy they use or, either that or match them up with a pharmacy that already has it, we just need to make sure that that pharmacy is ready to put that little label on their prescription. That’s what we help with.
David Raistrick:
Think of us as like a clearinghouse and just making sure that they’re offering that label on that medication, and the user then with their reader, all prescriptions after that will be accessible to them.
Jeff Thompson:
And that’s ScripTalk. Well, David, tell me about ScriptAbility.
David Raistrick:
ScriptAbility is the generic kind of software that goes into the pharmacy. We have our ScriptAbility pharmacy software. The pharmacist would know us as ScriptAbility. The patient knows us as ScripTalk. ScriptAbility also has ScriptView, which is a large print label, which is just another type of label that a pharmacy can offer. Some pharmacies offer all styles of labels. We also offer Braille label. If a pharmacy is interested in offering all three, they can do that. If they want to just offer ScripTalk, they can. If they want to just offer ScriptView, which is the large print labels, they can. We kind of give the ScriptAbility a suite of product that allow pharmacies to label for folks that need accessible labels on their meds.
Jeff Thompson:
Well, that’s really innovative, David, because that way a pharmacy can just get into ScriptAbility and provide this service, but just by making a phone call to you guys.
David Raistrick:
Exactly, exactly. And that’s what I would say to any individual too that’s ready to get going with ScripTalk or whether they’re ready to get going with ScriptView, just give us a call and we will walk you through what it’s all about and how to get that reader and really how to get signed up with the pharmacy to do it.
Jeff Thompson:
What number is that, David?
David Raistrick:
Okay, I’ll give you the 800-number. It is one 1-800-890-1180.
Jeff Thompson:
That’s great. This is really exciting stuff. I mean, all the way from the i.d. mate, which I’ve seen for many years. When I first saw the ScripTalk working, it was like, wow, that’s impressive, because so many people with low vision, especially with all the information being read to you. If someone who has a pharmacy, can they suggest that they contact you if they don’t provide it?
David Raistrick:
Absolutely. That same number is fine. If they’re a pharmacy, they can definitely contact us. For pharmacies, we can walk them through how to do it. We can get a pharmacy up and going in a couple of hours with ScripTalk. It’s not difficult at all for them to do. We integrate with most pharmacy software systems now. That’s been our big job, is to make it easy for the pharmacy software to communicate with our label software. That’s been our goal this last few years, is to make sure that we’ve got pharmacies that can accurately send directly from their pharmacy system right to the accessible labels.
Jeff Thompson:
Now, you mentioned the app. I just want to go back to that for a second. What benefit would I have if I have the app in my phone?
David Raistrick:
Right, so the ScripTalk mobile app will allow you to, without having one of these readers on your countertop, you can just take your mobile phone and read that little electronic label directly from it.
Jeff Thompson:
Oh, really.
David Raistrick:
On Android, all you really need is to make sure that your phone is NFC-capable, NFC, Nancy, Frederick, Charlie, capable. If it’s NFC-capable, then you can download that ScripTalk mobile app, and then you can read them right on the phone. With iOS, since we’re in this Beta Program, we’ll sign you up for the Beta. You download a program, which will install the app on your phone, and then the same thing. Every time, you read directly with your mobile phone rather than having a separate device. For a lot of folks, they need to have that separate device because either they don’t have mobile phones or have difficulty with those. But for anybody that is really, really good at using accessibility, whether it’s voiceover or talk back on the iOS and Android, it really works well.
Jeff Thompson:
There’s basically something for everyone.
David Raistrick:
Exactly.
Jeff Thompson:
Well, that’s great.
David Raistrick:
We also have deaf-blind. We have products for deaf-blind, so they can use ScripTalk too. With that, they just plug in their ScripTalk via USB into a Windows computer, and when they scan their medication, it pops up on their computer screen, and then they can use their Braille display to get the information directly from the Braille display.
Jeff Thompson:
Oh, that’s awesome.
David Raistrick:
Yeah, we have options for really everybody.
Jeff Thompson:
Well, that’s great. You guys really moving fast in the last few years with all this inclusiveness. Good job.
David Raistrick:
Yeah, it’s exciting stuff.
Jeff Thompson:
All right. Well, David, thank you so much for coming on and everybody, check out envisionamerica.com, call the number, and yeah. Thanks, David.
David Raistrick:
Thank you, Jeff.
Jeff Thompson:
And a big thank you to Stephen Letnes and the Able Artist Foundation for the beautiful music used in the Be My Eyes promo. You can find out more about Steven Letnes and the Able Artist Foundation on the web at www.ableartist.org.
[Music] [Transition noise] -When we share
-What we see
-Through each other’s eyes…
[Multiple voices overlapping, in unison, to form a single sentence]
…We can then begin to bridge the gap between the limited expectations, and the realities of Blind Abilities.
Jeff Thompson:
For more podcasts with the blindness perspective:
Check us out on the web at www.BlindAbilities.com On Twitter @BlindAbilities
Download our app from the App store:
‘Blind Abilities’; that’s two words.
Or send us an e-mail at:
info@blindabilities.com
Thanks for listening.
Contact:
Thank you for listening!
You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities
On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com
Send us an email
Get the Free Blind Abilities App on the App Store.