Grid for iPad
Grid for iPad is an app designed to assist with speech, so that users can not only use it as their voice to communicate and express themselves to those around them, but also to build on language skills and personalize vocabulary.
Grid for iPad is Smartbox's answer to having the Grid 3 software, which normally runs on windows devices, now available for touch/switch/mouse assisted use on an iPad instead. The app emulates much of the same symbol based and text to speech vocabulary packages as its Windows based predecessor, and although there are a few differences in setting functions and programming, it allows users to access most of the same vocabulary packages should an iPad be found to be the best device for their assessed access needs, for example in terms of screen size, portability and keyguard needs.
The following set of videos has been created to outline several different uses of the app to assist in confident use of the Grid for iPad app. Some of the videos in this suite are focused on organizing and personalizing the settings, whilst others will give practical programming help as to how to personalize vocabulary, add pictures and create new pages. There is also a section on some of the hardware usage, such as connecting the speech case for volume, and how to operate guided access if needing to lock the iPad down into the app itself.
Grid Explorer grid for iPad
Guided access grid for iPad
How to connect a Chatwrap case - grid for iPad
How to create a jump cell - grid for iPad
Settings - grid for iPad
Grid Explorer grid for iPad - Text alternative
This video will demonstrate various aspects of the grid explorer screen in Grid for iPad, where you can add and delete grid sets, copy existing gridsets and rearrange items. The grid explorer screen can be thought of as the ‘desktop’ of Grid, because it displays all the gridsets on your account. For example, you may have your vocabulary gridset, a games gridset and an accessible app gridset. It is usually the first screen to appear when you turn on your device, however if this is not the case, you can always navigate to grid explorer by selecting the compass icon at the top left hand side of the screen. Grid explorer is an important screen for organising your gridsets, as well as adding and any new items or deleting. If you need to add any new grid sets, this is done by selecting the three dots button in the top right of the screen, and the first option “add grid set”. Here you can select from Smartbox’s pre-set gridsets. Add one from the online options or add one that you have saved in your device or a USB stick. A very useful function here is to copy an existing gridset. For example if you wanted to practice doing some editing without the fear of changing something in the original vocabulary, you could copy the vocabulary gridset, rename it and then you would be free to edit as you please. Then when confident, you could do this editing within the original. To try this, access the “add gridset” option and select “copy gridset”. Select the vocabulary gridset you want to practice with and select “add”. You will see this appear in the grid explorer screen with the label stating that it is a copy. It is always best to alter this label to be very clear it is the one you can practice in, and to do this you go to the 3 dot button, then “arrange grid sets”. You will see the screen change accordingly with little crosses appearing, and if you tap on the label of the copied gridset, you will be given the option to change the name. Labelling it something like "My Practice” and adding the date is often recommended for making it clear that this is the one you can alter as much as you wish without causing problems to the original. When you have chosen a new name, select “done” from the top left of the screen, and again to return to the normal grid explorer screen. If you wish to delete any gridsets, you can also do this by going to the “arrange gridsets“option. You will again see the screen change and all the little crosses appear on the top right hand corners of each gridset. To delete, simply select one of the crosses and confirm, and then done to return to the normal grid explorer screen. Be careful when deleting however, because anything that is deleted cannot be returned unless it has been saved elsewhere or is an unaltered Smartbox pre-set example.
Guided access grid for iPad - Text alternative
How to start/ end “Guided Access”
This is a video on how to start guided access. Guided access should be on all the time. If the device runs out of battery or is shut down completely then guided access will need to be put back on. To start guided access, triple click on the home button. You will then be asked to enter the passcode. After that, a message will appear saying “Guided access is now started”. You can also see that now the menu bar is all grey. That means, even if I click on it, nothing works. If you want to go out of guided access, triple click on the home button again. You will have to put in your passcode. 1 5 9 7 5 3. Now you have two choice, you can go out of guided access, if you click “end”, or go back into guided access if you click “resume”. You can also tweak some of the settings about “sleep” screen and if you want the screen to rotate ect. To go out of guided access, click on “end” and a message will appear saying “guided access ended”. You can also see, that the menu bar is not grey anymore. That means, guided access is now off and you have access in all the options on the menu bar.
How to connect a chatwrap case - grid for iPad - Text alternative
This video will show you how to connect your iPad to a chatwrap case via bluethooth. The first thing you will need to do is make sure that both your iPad and the chatwrap case have enough charge. If the case is not charged ( or not charged enough) it will not appear in available devices for connection options. After everything is charged, go to your iPad's settings. From there, find the bluetooth option form the menu on the left side of the screen. Tap to turn the bluetooth "ON" . From the drop down menu of available devices choose the one that says “Chatwrap“. After a few moments a message will appear next to the speechcase’s name saying „connected“. You can also test if it worked by opening grid and "speak" a sentence to see where if the sound is coming from the iPad’s or the case’s speaker.
How to create a Jump cell grid for iPad - Text alternative
This video will show you how to create a jump cell that jumps to a new page. In this video we will also show you how to copy a template page which will include all action cells. For the purpose of this video we are using Supercore 50. We are going to add a new topic, to do this we are going to go on to our “topics” page. To edit the grid you must be in editing mode, to do this press the 3 dots in the top right corner of the screen, and select “edit mode” You will notice that now we are in editing mode there is an orange border around the screen, and a label at the top telling you which page you are on. We are going to add a jump cell in a new row, to do this we select the cell and press “jump to another grid” this will bring up all of the pages available in the Supercore 50 gridset. As mentioned earlier, we are going to copy a template to ensure we have all of the action cells and sentence bar at the top of the screen, to do this we are going to select the “copy grid” option. We are going to search for “template”, when we find the “topics template” we select it. You will notice that this will bring up an option to name the grid, we rename this to “TV”. Notice that we are only taking the words “template” and “copy” out of the name, we keep the beginning as the TV page is being placed on the topics page. We then press “done” when we have named our page. We remove “15 – Topics” from the label, so that the text on the cell just says “TV”. To add a picture to the cell, we press the bottom box and select a symbol available from the options. We then press the “follow jump” option on the menu of the right side of the screen, this takes us through to our new page we have just created, we know we are on the correct page because the label at the top tells us. To see how we begin to populate content on this page, you can watch the video on write cells.
Settings - grid for iPad - Text alternative
You can access the settings from any page, whether you are in Grid Explorer or within a gridset, it will be the same process. Simply select the three dots button in the top right hand side of the screen, and then “settings”. The settings section allows you to make changes to the “voice output”, “access method”, “dictionary” options and also check “remote editing accounts” among other things. The main thing the settings will be used for is to make changes to the voice. Select “speech’” from the toolbar on the left hand side of the screen and here you can change the voice if required. A list of available voices will appear, and if you are online, there will be more that can be downloaded in a list below. Test a voice by selecting the “play” button to see how it. When you have your desired voice, select “speech” from the top of the screen to return back to the speech options, so that you can now access the “configure” option to adjust speed and pitch to personalise the voice even further. When you are happy with the voice, go back to the speech options again and here you can decide if you want the voice to speak after “every word”, or if you prefer to turn this off so that it will only speak once you have formed your sentence. Next in this section, you can also add different pronunciation if the device isn’t speaking certain words correctly, for example names. To do this, select the “plus” symbol in the top right and then type in the mispronounced word into the first box, as it is currently spelt. In the second box, you need to forget about normal spelling and try to spell it phonetically as much as possible. It can sometimes help to use a space between syllables, and you can test the word to check. When you are happy with the new pronunciation, select “save” and it will be added to your pronunciation list. It may take some trial and error at first. Another section of the settings that you can alter is the “access” section. This is where you could change the colour highlights on the cell when it is being selected and visual highlights, which may be very useful for someone with visual difficulties who might need a particular contrast. If there are more complex requirements, such as adjusting settings if somebody has a tremor and needs something to counteract repeat presses, this would be altered in the “open accessibility settings” which is within the iPad settings itself, and would usually be assisted by someone from the AAC West team. The next section that is helpful to know about is the “writing” section. In the “dictionary” section you can add words, such as peoples names that you want to be part of the predictions that come up, and here you can control the spelling and prediction elements. Under “symbols” you can change skin tone, have adult symbols available or not and also add your own particular pictures that will always show in the message box for example of a family member. The “Chat History” section is where you can go to set the privacy whether you want the device to remember your phrases or not, and view/edit these particular phrases in the chat history section itself. The final section that may need attention is the “accounts” section. When there is an email address in the smartbox and dropbox sections this shows that the iPad is connected to a remote account that can be accessed from a PC at a different location, either for editing the vocabulary or saving a particular gridset onto a USB. This is usually set up by AAC West beforehand using an impersonal account, and if you select “remote editors” you can see who is able to access your vocabulary to edit. Generally, it will only be the assistants at AAC West as shown by this single email. If you are given permission to edit someone’s vocabulary and wish to be set up as a remote editor, AAC West or Smartbox can sort this out for you and this is where you would add your email address once you have been set up.
