Loaner Tobie Doesn't Work

[hovihea]

My husband's speech has gotten so bad, only 2.5 of us know what he is saying and only half the time. It took forever to get speech therapist apt for their report then finally had to use my insurance's case manager (sort of a white glove service) to hurry up the sales rep at Tobei. So finally it got submitted to my insurance which is primary then has to go to Medicare. In the meantime the sales rep made a 4 hour trip to bring a loaner, a used eye gaze that she could not get to work and spent the bulk of her time here on the phone with tech support to no avail. She left it anyway on a big huge stand (cause I need more furniture to navigate around) and I haven't heard from her since. I'm so frustrated at how everything seems to be a hurdle and nothing is easy or comes quickly with this damn disease except for maybe progression...
Any ideas on how to get a used Tobei that has been wiped to work? Any ideas on how to get this process moving faster?

My apologies for the rant, I know this isn't the rant section...

 

[lgelb]

i am sorry that I have no experience with these, but does your husband have enough movement to maybe operate a switch of any kind (e.g. chin, head, finger, cheek...), or a head or tongue mouse? If so, these would be other options for him to generate speech, on a computer, tablet or smart phone.

As for the Tobii you have, if you search on the model number, there are a number of setup guides on line.

Best,
Laurie

 

[BlueandGold]

I cannot talk at all. I have no use of my left hand and limited use if my right. My Speech Therapist won't even submit a report to try to get me a Speech Generating Device. Says I'm doing just fine with my iPad. Told her it is of no use in public because of the lack of volume. She scoffed and said "you don't need an expensive device at this time".

Vince

 

[lgelb]

Vince, we've done threads on jacking up iPad volume -- you might search here -- the most portable/affordable solution may be Bluetooth speakers. No wires, significant boosts at $30 or so. You can search on Amazon for the features/price that fits best.

 

[texastc]

Vince

What Laura said...we got Tracy a portable bluetooth speaker...Ispeaker...hung it on the headrest of her chair...sounded like it was coming from her and she could control the volume thru the Ipad i think...

 

[gooseberry]

The new tablets, plus speakers give you an amazing option. The tech person at the VA was amazed at the accessibility options on Steve's Samsung tab pro. She thought only apple devices had the capability for speech to text, text to speech etc. Samsung also has voice command for searching online etc. After trying some demo speech devices, Steve stuck with his tablet. He couldnt remember how to operate the other devices.