How many of us have used videos to learn a new skill? YouTube to show us how to change a tire or plumb a bathroom? Or TikTok to teach us a new recipe? Video prompts can be very helpful when you are learning something new.
We are thrilled to pilot an exciting new technology to provide on the job support to people with significant disabilities. Avail® is a robust, evidence-informed job coaching software that draws on the strength of video modeling, customizing it for individuals who have intellectual disabilities or other types of disabilities where memory and processing are challenged.
Avail allows us to create customized videos and photo prompts for individual Peckham employees, for a particular task or job, or even a particular work location. Avail also includes a real-time data management system that allows support staff to administer assessments and monitor progress toward task completion and independence on the job.
Our Peckham project team includes our vocational rehabilitation and social enterprise staff. We are also partnering with three other organizations in Michigan – Services to Enhance Potential (STEP), New Horizons, and Community Enterprises of St. Clair County.
We are happy that Dr. Hung Jen Kuo, Assistant Professor at the Michigan State University College of Education, will be evaluating this new technology on its useability and efficacy in helping people become more independent in their work tasks.
This exciting new pilot provides an innovative way to address the digital divide facing people with significant disabilities. It helps put technology at the forefront where people with intellectual disabilities can get comfortable with using technology as a way to learn. Avail truly supports remote service delivery at a time when we are all looking to expand our remote service capabilities.
Thank you to Incompass MI for your support in creating the coalition of partner organizations, and to the Peckham Community Partnership Foundation for its financial support of this pilot.
The following video shows Avail used in a case study from a pilot project in Colorado, and really showcases the potential of this new technology
