[Athen] [cio.itag] Accessible medetation and mental health application

[Sorensen, Neal B]

Peter,

This type of app is a bit of a passion of mine, so I have a lot of ideas for you. I’m not sure I would classify Headspace as a “mental health app” as it is mainly focused on mindfulness meditation. Marketing would have you believe it can help with all things, but that’s not necessarily the case. Don’t get me wrong, I like Headspace for beginners of meditation, but it doesn’t have all the answers the student government may be looking for.

If you’re looking for another option, one I like is “MindShift” which is a free app from the Anxiety Disorders Association of British Columbia. It has a much more comprehensive set of tools, and the app is more accessible. It still has plenty of guided exercises using audio (much like Headspace).

I’d like to recommend another app which I have used for years. It’s called SuperBetter, and it is a sort of self-help game. It lets you pick a goal to work on, then users are given simple everyday “Quests” and “Power-Ups” users can complete which help to build emotional, mental, physical, and social resilience. It all builds up to reaching an “Epic Win,” or successfully reaching your goal. It enables people to be their own hero. I love it, honestly! This app is free to use, and there are multiple ways to use it. There is a website, and an iOS/Android mobile app. Honestly the Android app needs work, and it’s best to sign up online then log in to the app, everything else works well.

Hope this gives you some ideas. There are a lot of apps to help with mental health, but some are more efficacious than others.

Neal Sorensen
Access Specialist
Accessibility Resources
Minnesota State University, Mankato
132 Memorial Library
Mankato, MN 56001

Phone: 507-389-5242
FAX: 507-389-1199
Email: neal.sorensen at mnsu.edu<mailto:neal.sorensen at mnsu.edu>

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From: athen-list <athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu> On Behalf Of Scott Marshall
Sent: Monday, February 18, 2019 3:03 PM
To: Bossley, Peter A. <bossley.5 at osu.edu>
Cc: ITAG <cio.itag at lists.btaa.org>; Access Technology Higher Education Network (athen-list at u.washington.edu) <athen-list at u.washington.edu>; The EDUCAUSE IT Accessibility Community Group Listserv <ITACCESS at listserv.educause.edu>
Subject: Re: [Athen] [cio.itag] Accessible medetation and mental health application

Hi Pete - Don't know about accessibility of the app but the one in the same class as Headspace that's frequently mentioned is called Calm.

scott

On Mon, Feb 18, 2019 at 1:41 PM Bossley, Peter A. <bossley.5 at osu.edu<mailto:bossley.5 at osu.edu>> wrote:
Greetings higher ed colleagues.,
Our student government has approached us with a desire to procure an application that provides some supports around mental health issues to provide to students on our campuses. Their initial ask was around Headspace<https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.headspace.com%2F&data=02%7C01%7Cneal.sorensen%40mnsu.edu%7Cedd77896f34e4033e2fa08d695e51586%7C5011c7c60ab446ab9ef4fae74a921a7f%7C0%7C1%7C636861208475045541&sdata=M4BD2vS%2BVk9WacUYRpBXEBQg6cHhXF0nVuLliyxO5rM%3D&reserved=0>  but this application and web site has a number of accessibility issues that we would need to work through in order to offer this to our campus community.
Is anyone out there using something similar that you know to be accessible that you could share with us?
Best,

[The Ohio State University]
Peter Bossley
Director, Digital Accessibility Center
ADA Coordinator's Office - Office of University Compliance and Integrity
Student Life Disability Services
950 Lincoln Tower, 1800 Cannon Dr, Columbus, OH 43210
614-688-3028 Office
bossley.5 at osu.edu<mailto:bossley.5 at osu.edu> accessibility.osu.edu<https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Faccessibility.osu.edu%2F&data=02%7C01%7Cneal.sorensen%40mnsu.edu%7Cedd77896f34e4033e2fa08d695e51586%7C5011c7c60ab446ab9ef4fae74a921a7f%7C0%7C1%7C636861208475055546&sdata=gsY1RlpRzEcSXHq4NF5Q93Q1%2B89iesI83qM5CoFKRos%3D&reserved=0>
________________________________




--
Scott Marshall
Associate Director
University of Minnesota Disability Resource Center

o. 612.626.4954
m. 612.245.7632
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