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The AT Bargain Basement

Marvin Williams
AT Specialist
DATI New Castle County ATRC

Hello True Believers and welcome to another exciting edition of the AT Bargain Basement! I am your master of ceremonies for our Bargain Party, Marvin Williams. For those long-time ‘Basement Heads, welcome back, and for those of you who are new to the Basement, welcome!

Our first bargain is the Recordable Talking Alarm Clock-Pill Reminder. This is one slick clock, and the voice on the clock is nice and clear. It’s a female voice (male voice isn’t available), so if that works for you, you’re set. The great thing about this clock is that it has six different alarm settings. You can use these for medication times, timed prompts for activities, or whatever you want. Along with the alarms, you can record individualized messages for each alarm. So you could have a personalized alarm that reminds you to take a specific medicine at a particular time or perform an activity at a given time. The unit is highly portable, so you can take it anywhere. It takes batteries, and you can purchase an AC adapter so it can be plugged into the wall for power. This AT bargain is a steal at $39.95 (shipping not included). If you want the AC adapter, it will cost you an additional $5.95. After having a
chance to check out and play with this baby, I highly recommend it if you’re in the market for a talking clock with multiple alarms. You can order the unit from LS&S, www.lssproducts.com or 800-468-4789.

Our next nifty gadget is The Wilson personal voice recorder. It has two-and-a-half or five hours of recording/playback time. Yes, you can double the recording time by simply flipping a switch. It’s just that easy. Why the choice? It’s a matter of recording quality. If you want a higher quality recording, go with the 2.5-hour setting. If quality isn’t critical then the 5-hour setting is for you. Another nifty thing about this device is that it has a very simple interface. There are only three control buttons (not counting the recording time switch mentioned above): one for recording messages, one for playing and pausing messages, and one for deleting messages. That’s it. So if you’re usually lost in the sea of buttons on most recorders, this may be one for you. It even offers a USB port so you can connect The Wilson to the computer and save your messages. At only $29.95 (shipping not included), available at www.talktothewilson.com, it’s a pretty neat little bargain.

My last bargain is actually a hint that I shared several years ago and comes from a Basement Regular who wished to remain anonymous. Her tip was for making house hallways a little easier to navigate for folks with a balance or mobility problem. Her simple tip was to add a handrail to both sides of the hallway. Having handrails down both sides of the hall takes a pretty wide hallway since the minimum distance between handrails is supposed to be 36 inches. So you may only be able to put up handrails on one side of the hall. Still, for those folks who have difficulty navigating a long hallway, handrails can be a godsend. If you are a do-it-yourselfer or if you know one, this simple project can be completed for less than $100, depending on how fancy you want your handrails. Now, handrails, like most everything else in a house or building, have design and building specifications that must be followed. Those can be found online, at your local library or by contacting the county regarding specifications for handrails. As with any home modification or improvement project, never proceed unassisted if you do not know what you are doing.

There is a new way to check out more of my AT bargains as well as some of my other thoughts on happenings in the world of assistive technology. That’s the AT Bargain Basement Blog (ATBBB). It’s also got a podcast you can subscribe to if you prefer listening to my ramblings instead of reading them. You can find it at www.atbargainbasement.blogspot.com. You can also follow me on Twitter @mwilliamsAT.

And that will do it for this installment of the AT Bargain Basement. As always, if you have a bargain you would like to share with us, please call or fax it to me at the New Castle County ATRC or email it to me at marvinw@udel.edu. I will gladly share your bargain or tip with the group and give you 10,000% (yes, ten thousand percent) credit. So until next time remember: just because something’s inexpensive doesn’t mean it’s cheap!