Saturday, May 16, 2009

Software services for cognitively disabled persons

Sure, this is marketed for "elderly" users. The reality is that it's a solution for cognitively impaired persons, it's just that a lot of them are elderly.

Not all though. This approach is what we need for many young adults and adults with cognitive disabilities ...
Easier E-Mail for the Older Generation - The New Old Age Blog - NYTimes.com

... Mr. Hughes got together with his business partner, Ali Syed, to design an e-mail system that no senior could resist: no logins or links, no ad boxes or news flashes, no pokes or Twitters — only personal e-mail messages and photographs, with a caregiver making sure that everything is running smoothly. 
They named it PawPawMail and created a Web site, pawpawmail.com. Anyone can use the software for $5 a month and run it on any virtually P.C. or Mac, including old clunkers gathering dust in the back of closets.

... What distinguishes PawPawMail from other programs is that it is a managed system aimed at caregivers as well as seniors. “PawPawMail is built entirely around the idea of two users,” Mr. Hughes said in a recent e-mail message. “The senior user who actually uses the e-mail account, and the caretaker/manager who helps set the senior up, gets his or her address book going, and screens mail from unknown sources to prevent contact from all the ridiculous number of scams that are directed at seniors...
This is something I've hoped to see for some time, and that I've often contemplated doing myself. I hope Mr. Hughes business grows well.

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