Annual Report

NEW HORIZONS WITH iPADS: ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY, ADVANCING COMMUNICATION In 2012, Beit Issie Shapiro started to unleash a whole new world of communication for children with complex disabilities. Thanks to a pilot program generously funded by the Ruderman Family Foundation, Beit Issie Shapiro began developing therapy through touch screen devices (such as iPads), enabling our children to express their needs, to increase their cognitive learning and to develop and strengthen their motor skills. The initiative also promotes inclusion, giving our children a profound new connection to the world by enabling them to play and interact with their peers in social settings. At home, the children can use touch screen devices both to communicate with parents and siblings as well as for recreation, providing parents with much-needed respite. Beit Issie Shapiro was selected by iDigital, the Apple value-added distributer in Israel, to co-develop the most effective apps for this population and to generate far reaching exposure. Moving forward in 2013, our vision is to establish a Touch-Screen Device Technology Hub that will benefit hundreds of thousands of people with disabilities in Israel (at least 10% of the country’s population) and their families – and impact on the tens of thousands of professionals, therapists, teachers and others who work with them through guidance and training. This initiative will be accompanied by the relevant evaluation and academic research.

Special thanks to our overseas friends and the

3