"I'm always looking for something for learners to *do*, and not just practice or pretend. So my colleague at the time, Bryan, came across this nifty device and told me about it. I didn't think that much of it because I put it in the 'cute' category. I took it on several of my RoadTrips and there were a few professionals that lit up, saying "That would be great for Nicholas!" I gave a few away and loved to hear that one boy was telling jokes at his middle school lunch, using his switch and a microphone! Impressive." RJ
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So I decided to take a bunch of them to 2004's year's Closing The Gap conference, our biggest event of a year. We put around 20 of them on the top of a shelving unit on which we were offering 4 of our most popular products at special show prices.
Boy, was I surprised. People were very excited about them. We sold out almost immediately! Once again, people had certain users in mind right away. I do hope to hear more stories like above!
There are 2 switch inputs. The top one for telling a new joke, and the bottom one for repeating the last. Also has a headphone/speaker jack on right (as shown with optional carry case/speaker above).
By itself it's not as loud as I would have liked, but it's great anyway! If you get the *optional* carry case/speaker, then it's plenty loud! You can even plug it into a sound system for a real 'comedian' experience for an audience!
The pictures show my daughter, Courtney, around 6 years old, modeling it for manual use. For switch use, the strap is nice to be able to hang the speaker on a wheelchair tube, and obviously the user would not be operating it manually ;-)