TSC Talks guest R.J. Cooper, Founder & CEO of R.J. Cooper & Associates, is an inventor, technologist, and student of human behavior. RJ has always carried with him the goal of wanting to help as many people as possible. His interest in the area of assistive technology began over 30 years ago when he was studying to become an electrical engineer at the University of Utah.
In his own words: “I love what I do because my products make a tangible impact on the lives of the users by unlocking their hidden capabilities. What gives me the greatest pleasure is working one-on-one with my clients to help them tap into those abilities. For the last 18 years, I have conducted Road Trips spanning three continents to meet learners and caregivers, so I can help provide solutions that will help them overcome obstacles that they may not have thought possible.”
“When I began my career, not many people realized the potential technology would have on the lives of those with special needs. My love for people and my interest in special needs drove me to also pursue a Bachelor’s in Developmental Psychology from University of California-Irvine and a Master’s in Education, concentration in Autism Spectrum Disorder, from Arizona State University.”
RJ shares how he develops products from requests he receives globally. “On the product development side. It’s a different process. This one is very simple. I just listened to everybody who has a suggestion on what they think it necessary to create. And even if it’s one person in Australia, or China or wherever it is, I’ll try to create or adapt something for that specific person. And then, over the years, I’ve found that there are always going to be others in the world. Not many but others that have that same specific need. I offer it even if I’ve only made one just for that one person, I’ll still usually put it up at the website as a quote-unquote product. And every once in awhile, somebody else will buy that same thing that I made specifically for that one person in XYZ. And that’s where the product ideas come from.”
He also discusses some of his advocacy work in school districts both with parents and the school systems; “it’s the parents that I’m advocating for. And they have the legal right to draw me into the frame so to speak. And I’ll be sort of advocating for the child, the parents, in my opinion towards some necessity for the school district spending some money as far as they look at it. And sometimes it’s the reverse. The school district heard from the parent, the parent wants them to buy a Tobii Dynavox thing for $10,000. The school district comes in and says we think the iPad is the right tool. What’s your expert opinion? Would you be willing to assess this kid by video?”
He discusses the theory behind the development of one of his most helpful products that can help a broad range of individuals with mobility and/or cognitive issues that make it tough to operate something as simply as a television. (https://store.rjcooper.com/products/tv-controller) “I’m trying to get to something that’s so simple that my theory -and I don’t have any academic or even experiential background in this- is that if you give someone something simple enough that they can read learn it each day rather than having to remember it from the day before, which of course is the actual essence of dementia, right? So instead of a controller, like you and I have a Remote Control, which requires memory cognitive ability, physical acuity, I make a box with three large buttons on it. One is for next channel. One is for previous channels, and one is for power. Yeah, you give them the box, you put them in front of the TV, but my limited testing, but that shows that it’s enough that if they press the button, they can quickly understand what each button does. And it’s not so much remember that the next day, it’s more that each day they take 30-40 seconds, and they actually read learn it, they relearn it.”
Surprisingly enough, the field of assistive technology has not been overwhelmingly successful in integrating products into the mainstream and is one of RJ’s concerns going forward, “And every single person, even in my field that wants to believe like we’ve done some good in the world, they all say the same thing. Never. I’ve never seen anybody in the grocery store using an assistive device. I’ve never seen anybody in any academic session, other than the ones that I was called in on using something to access the computer. The only time I see these things that we’ve created over years being used is at the specialized conferences and events. That’s it. Once you get out in the real world, you rarely see anything, you don’t see it on TV, you don’t see it in the real world. The whole field has not been that successful, but we don’t want to say those words out loud.”
In conclusion, RJ emphasizes that “Many times, it’s the parent who just refuses to give up. And they’ve been rejected or had to move on to a different direction, Time after time, but they never give up for their kiddo. And somehow they push that kid with the assistance through, you know, one through 12. But they are the exception, right?”
There’s a great amount more fascinating material in this interview and I don’t want to give it all away so give it a listen and check out R.J. Cooper’s links here:
Website: https://store.rjcooper.com/
Index: http://rjcooper.com/index-ipad.html
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/rjcooper/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rjcooperinc
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/rjcooper725/
Twitter: @rjcooperinc
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rj_cooper_associates_inc/
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/rjcooperinc/
Closing the Gap Conference Info: https://www.closingthegap.com/conference-exhibitor/rj-cooper/
Apple Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/developer/rj-cooper-associates-inc/id412790299
http://atoralhistory.uconn.edu/podcasts/cooper.php
Contact info: RJ Cooper & Associates, Inc.
640 S. Grand Ave., Suite 109
Santa Ana, CA 92705
1-800-RJCooper (752-6673) 949-582-3169 (fax)
info@rjcooper.com
Thanks R.J.!
All of our podcasts can be found at https:tsctalks.com/podcast/