TRAID Project; Homelife Rechargeable LED Motion Sensor Lights

Independent Perspective #1629

Guest:  Kimberly Naus

Topic:  TRAID Project; Homelife Rechargeable LED Motion Sensor Lights for safe navigation of home at night

Duration:  05:34

Published:  January 12, 2021

Host:  Welcome to Independent Perspective, a public affairs presentation of Western New York Independent Living. Our guest today is Kimberly Naus, Director for the Center for Assistive Technology at the University at Buffalo, and I’m your host, Ernie Churchwell. Welcome back to the program, Kim.

Guest:  Hello Ernie, thank you for having me.

Host:  It’s our pleasure because you always bring exciting information on Assistive Technology, or AT, for our listeners, and how it can help keep people with disabilities improve their lives. But your appearance here is made possible in large part by the TRAID Project. If you could just sum up what that is.

Guest:  Yes, the New York State TRAID Program is a program that is funded with our federal dollars. TRAID stands for Technology Related Assistance for Individuals with Disabilities. The services are available to individuals with disabilities of all ages, their family members, service providers, employers, educators or any other individual that may be interested in finding out a little more about assistive devices or they know somebody with a disability and they need to match an assistive device. We are resource that they can call and brainstorm. Our goal is to ensure that people live a qualified life, and increasing awareness, and using the appropriate devices that are needed for those individuals.

Host:  Well as we know from past experience those devices can range from very high tech to something that you could throw in your backpack and take with you, so it's all a matter of knowing what's on the market. In particular here, you’re going to talk about something that can help the safety, particularly older individuals. The Homelife Rechargeable LED Motion Sensor Lights. That sounds complicated but I'm sure that you’ll make it easily understandable to our listeners. Who is this for and what will it do for them?

Guest:  This can be a device for all individuals but what sparked this device is I had somebody call the program and you know they have somebody that has dementia that struggles with turning lights on and the person is falling. So in speaking to her it was brought to her attention that an easy fix could be these LED motion sensor lights, and what's nice is there’s no plug, there's no battery. It's just a matter of charging in a USB port just like you do your phones. And what my recommendation was to this individual was placing the lights underneath the bed, underneath the dresser because when you think about it, you talk about these motion lights putting them under cabinets, putting them in the closets. This is where you think outside the box by placing these lights on the floor under the bed. The individual would get out of bed, light would come on as their walking their path to the bathroom. Wherever the lights are placed, they will come on for a significant amount of time enabling that person to safely get back into bed. They will work for four hours straight but they come on and go off at an appropriate time like I said to enable this particular person to get back into bed. The young lady called back after borrowing and she was just tickled beyond belief; she said the safety within her home has been immense. She's been able to sleep at night knowing that their loved one is safely getting out of bed, and getting into the bathroom, and back into bed, and the lights aren't left on, they go off once the person's back in bed.

Host:  Kim, we’re running very low on time, and I’m sure people will have questions. How can they reach you?

Guest:  They can reach me at 836-1350, again that's 836-1350, and don't hesitate to call just to brainstorm just as this young lady did for her loved one.

Host:  Thanks so much for being with us, Kim.

Guest:  Thank you, Ernie.

Host:  You’ve been listening to Independent Perspective, a public affairs presentation of Western New York Independent Living. Our guest today was Kimberly Naus, Director of the Center for Assistive Technology at the University at Buffalo. And I've been your host, Ernie Churchwell.