2018 Programming and New Web Site

Our new web site is live and registration for our 2018 summer sessions is open!

Web Site

Summer 2018 registration

This summer's sessions include new drones, the Augmented Reality Sand Box and some activities for more advanced members. Come join us!

TATTS members spend a lot of time looking up into the sky

Summer 2018 Programming Is Underway

TATTS has begun developing programming for the 2018 summer season.  We're still a few weeks away from announcing the 'whats' and 'wheres', but rest assured, we are going to have sessions this summer.

A few themes that are framing our thinking for this year are:

• More time flying,
• Find ways to put experienced TATTS members in leadership positions,
• Bring new visualizations and techniques to perspective taking, and
• Keep having fun!

Stay tuned for more information.

Words matter - identity first language

There is much debate in the autism community about whether to use the term "a person with autism" or an "autistic person".  Over the years, TATTS has informally asked its members what they prefer and has found that they generally prefer "autistic person" as they feel it is simply part of them.  Based on that, we try to use identity first language even though it is not favored in most academic, medical research and therapy circles.

However, we understand that this issue can generate strong opinions and emotions with TATTS members, their families and all that work with and support our organization.  Please know that we're doing our best!

TATTS is a 501(c)(3)

We are excited to announce that we received approval from the US Government to be a 501(c)(3).  This designation expands our ability to fund-raise as all donations made to TATTS (for US citizens) can be written off on taxes.  Please consider donating!

TATTS has historically offered its programming free of charge to participants and hopes to continue to do the same.  Funds raised through our 2018 campaign will be used in 3 main areas; 1) hardware replacement, development of TATTS In-A-Box (TATTS IAB), and procurement of supplies for outings.  Each of those needs is described in a bit more detail below.

I. Replacement of critical hardware.

1. Laptop. We need a laptop to run the flight simulation software during our outings, collect manage and edit the footage collected by TATTS team members during our outings and to revise curriculum, communicate with members and update this blog.
2. Drones.  Our drones are worn out.  Most have been decommissioned and with the improvements in technology there are units out there that are easier to fly, have built in cameras and will better support our member's needs and the organization's mission. 
3. TV.  We need a large monitor/TV during our outings to host the flight simulation training station and to display footage captured that day.  We view footage together and pause it to pose questions such as "what do you think he is currently thinking as the drone looks down upon them?" 

II. Supplies to support outings.

1. T-shirts for participants
2. Snacks during outings

III. TATTS In-A-Box (TATTS IAB).  TATTS IAB is our solution to expand the TATTS program to other locations throughout the US and the world.  Over the years we've received numerous inquiries from people wanting to do something like this in their hometown. TATTS IAB will include instructions, tools, checklists, parent surveys, and the curriculum to allow others to implement TATTS.

We are currently implementing ways to support donations through this blog and our FaceBook page.  Should you want to donate in the interim, please consider writing a check to TATTS, Inc. 

Pro Bono Flight for Architectural Design

Over the 2017 Labor Day weekend TATTS performed a pro-bono flight and imagery collect for Arc Studio 3D in support of a conceptual redesign of a vacation home outside of Wisconsin Dells in south central Wisconsin.

The flight was completed with our last remaining Phantom 2 using a GoPro Hero 3 Silver edition with an after market 5.5mm lens that eliminates the significant "fish bowl" distortion common with GoPros.

Architects at Arc Studio 3D will take these images to inform and support their design.  We were glad to help out - and we got to swim afterward on a beautiful day!

Reach out to us should you have the need for an imagery collect.  The TATTS team will do what they can to help!

ICYMI: Some other fun footage

We have so much footage of TATTS team members practicing on the simulator, flying, and video editing its hard to post it all.  Here are a few video and stills from the archive.

TATTS Founder wins Jefferson Award for Volunteerism

TATTS is excited to announce that its founder - Paul Braun - has been awarded the Jefferson Award for volunteerism.  Congratulations to Paul and to all who have helped make TATTS possible!

"I'm honored to receive this award and to be recognized by the Jefferson Awards Foundation especially when there are so many people giving of their time and talents." said Braun. "The journey we have been on with TATTS has been filled with wonderful moments including the incredible generosity of our crowdsourced financial sponsors back in 2012, our awesome volunteers that make it all happen, and the diverse TATTS participants and their families that make it all worth while."

Jennifer Kliese and Amber Noggle from the south central Wisconsin ABC affiliate (WKOW) put a wonderful story together about the work that Paul and TATTS have been doing over the last 5 years.  Click the image below to see the story.

The Jefferson Awards for Public Service and the Jefferson Awards Foundation were founded in 1972 by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Senator Robert Taft Jr, and Sam Beard to establish a Nobel Prize for public and community service.  Recipients come from local nominations all over the country.  Wisconsin's monthly winners will all gather next spring where one nominee will be chosen to represent Wisconsin at the national awards banquet in June.  Paul will be among them.

TATTS gives its participants an opportunity to work with cool technology and do something truly unique.  This award offered one of it's participants - Mitchell Braun - an opportunity to get on TV.

Paul and Mitchell being interviewed by TV anchor Amber Noggle

Mitchell demonstrating his flying skills

WKOW's Jennifer Kliese in the Middleton Good Neighbor Festival parade

Back in the fall of 2014 Jennifer Kliese interviewed TATTS and put together a short story about us.  Thanks WKOW for helping spread the word about our organization!

Mario Drops In

An oldie but a goodie...  Paratrooper Mario caught a ride on one drone with a garbage bag parachute.  The kids were enamored waiting for him to be released and guessing where he'd land.

Movie Making - A Key Employment Skill

Making movies from all of our footage is a key component to TATTS.  We  work hard and enjoy gathering footage but it's also fun to review and compile it to personalized videos.  

Members love to see themselves and their teammates out flying as well as enjoying the views from the drone.  This is also a key way in which TATTS members get to develop employment skills.  Video editing is a highly marketable skill these days.

Finished videos are on our YouTube channel here.

Contemplating the best shot 

Getting moving making advice from a volunteer - or maybe giving it

Watching each other's videos - parents, siblings and service animals too.

TATTS Submits Entry to Governor's 2017 Business Plan Contest

A quick post to let all of our supporters know that we submitted an entry to the Wisconsin Governor's Business Plan Contest.  The mission of the contest is:

"to encourage entrepreneurs in the startup state of tech-based businesses in Wisconsin.  The context links up-and-coming entrepreneurs with a statewide network of community resources, expert advice, high-quality education, management talent and possible sources of capital."  

Phase 1 submittals are very limited in scope and word count.  We are sharing our submittal below in the spirit of openness and to solicit feedback from our supports. Wish us luck!

 

Product/Service Description

Drones provide stunning imagery & video. TATTS, Inc offers drone services with a unique twist; employing young adults on the autism spectrum. Unemployment among this group is estimated to be >70% . TATTS employs them to fly drones as a service & process the results into quality video & 3D data products. TATTS began in 2012 as a volunteer organization funded through crowdsourcing and has served nearly 50 young adults. TATTS has proven that those on the spectrum can maintain & pilot drones as well as process the data into quality end products.

Customer Definition

TATTS will initially focus on the business-to-consumer (B2C) market in southern Wisconsin with a particular emphasis on personal services (weddings and parties).  Secondary customers would be in the agriculture, construction, and insurance markets.  Drone enthusiasts have purchased consumer-grade drones only to realize that flying is difficult and requires safety procedures.  In addition, the data is large and difficult to manipulate.  With formal documented procedures and quality tools, TATTS resolves these issues.

Market Description, Size and Sales Strategy

The FAA released commercial use drone regulations in 2015 and they have been a catalyst to the market. Industry advocate AUVSI estimates the economic impact of the market to be $13B in the United States between 2015-2017 and an additional $82B through 2025. TATTS will sell direct to consumers via the web and wedding conferences and through a partner channel including DJs, public relations firms, social service agencies, engineering firms and insurance agents. Sales will emphasize our unique story, team skills, and product quality. 

Competition

Several commercial drone operators exist in Wisconsin but they tend to be highly specialized.  National providers exist as well but our core market focus typically can’t bear the cost to fly crews and equipment in.  Drone enthusiasts are also competitors but the market is already turning as they realize the full lifecycle is not easy. 

See our blog (here) for more information on TATTS, Inc.

Outdoor Flying Sessions

The 2016 TATTS outdoor flying season is in the books. TATTS team members took to the airfield and practiced their flying skills with the organization's DJI Phantom and GoPro camera. 

The initial outdoor flying venue was a private residence outside of New Glarus, WI.  We implemented our own version of Pokemon Aerial as we hunted for Pokemon hiding in the long grass and trees. 

 

The final outdoor flying day was held at Heartland Farm Sanctuary, just west of Madison. The Heartland Farm Sanctuary is about “People helping animals. Animals helping people.” Their mission is “to provide care for farm animals in need, nurture people through the human-animal bond, and foster respect and kindness toward animals and each other.”  The TATTS team got a tour of the Heartland Farm facilities where they met some interesting barn yard critters and learned a lot about what goes into caring for an eclectic group of animals.  We even got some good footage of the farm that we will provide to Heartland.

 

 

Unfortunately, we were thrown a curve ball via mother nature when torrential rains it. That couldn’t shake the group’s spirit though, as they were able to make the best of the situation on the final flying day of the 2016 TATTS season. 

 

The team has transitioned into film production mode. Go to our YouTube Channel here to see last year’s videos.

First Outing of 2016 a Big Success!

2016 t-shirts are ready!

The first outing is this Saturday and the t-shirts are in.

The TATTS volunteer team is ready to get started as well.  We will be getting to know each other, "earning our wings" at the flight simulator, learning about what is inside of commercial drones, and flying our smaller drones in a gymnasium. 

2016 Registration Open

Registration for the 2016 flying season is now open.  Thanks to the Autism Society of South Central Wisconsin for their support again this year!  Space is limited so don't delay!

Registration can be found HERE.

TATTS media coverage by AirVuz

Thanks for the great interview piece AirVuz! We appreciate your interest in telling the story of these great kids.  We had to laugh at a few of the pics you've used from our blog and YouTube channel as some of the kids look so young.  We've been doing this a while!

TATTS via AirVuz 

If anyone is interested in helping support us either via volunteering or financially, please reach out to us at takingautismtothesky @ gmail dot com.

TATTS Interviewed by AirVuz

Several weeks ago TATTS was contacted by AirVuz regarding their interest in doing a story on TATTS.  As an organization that declares themselves the “The YouTube of drone footage” they were excited about what TATTS is doing and they wanted to help us spread the word.  

AirVuz is headquartered in the Twin Cities of Minnesota and the founder of TATTS - Paul Braun - happened to be the Twin Cities last week so the group got together for a quick interview.  Watch for their news piece coming soon!

2016 Session Planning is Underway

TATTS is excited to announce that we will be offering new programming for the 2016 flying season!

Discussing a map made after reviewing aerial imagery

We are still working out the details including dates/times, programming and funding.  We will most likely be meeting in the core summer months once school is out. Space will be limited so please keep an eye on this page and register.  Spread the word too!

Watching a live video feed from the drone

Some Information for Parents/Guardians:

• Target ages for TATTS participants is 7-15 but if other kids/young adults are interested, we'll do our best to accommodate
• Meeting locations vary depending on the activity planned for that session but are generally within a 20 minute drive of Madison, WI
• Parents/guardians are required to stay during the events

We welcome volunteers:

• We can use all sorts of help - both in the planning and organizing of events and making them happen in the field
• You don't need expertise with autism.  We do an 'autism 101' event prior to the summer sessions to ensure all volunteers have the basics down 
• If you're interested in volunteering, please send an email to takingautismtothesky@gmail.com.

2015 Recap

Check out our video recap of the 2015 season.  Thanks to our supporters, volunteers, parents and participants.  We had a ton of fun!

 

Special thanks to the Autism Society of South Central Wisconsin for their partnership and financial support in helping us expand our 2015 programming! 

In 2015 we were excited to offer a morning and an afternoon session so that we could support more kids  Some of the afternoon session participants had participated in previous year's programming so we did our best to provide intermediate skill development opportunities to them to allow them to keep advancing their skills. Sessions were held on:

• Saturday, June 20th
• Saturday, June 27th
• Saturday, July 11th
• Saturday, July 18th
• We held several weeknight sessions as well for field trips and get togethers

How do we teach social skills?

Parents of children on the autism spectrum as well as educators and specialists involved with autism know that one of the most sought after therapy goals is social skills.  Autism is many things to many people but at its core, it is a communication and social disorder.  It impacts a person's awareness of social nuance as well as their ability to interact in socially acceptable and common ways.  Social skills curriculum have proliferated in recent years yet we are often looking for innovative ways to teach social skills.  One of the key tenants of TATTS is to use drone technology to convey those skills to our members.  It works.  Here's a few examples:

TEAMWORK: We emphasize teamwork in all that we do.  Visual queues reinforce supporting each other and team members fly in pairs (operator and visual observer).  One popular approach is to have the TATTS ground crew perform tasks that the drone operator is then in charge of capturing via video.  The operator uses the base station to see what they're capturing.  For example, the TATTS ground crew used their bodies to form the initials of the operator while volunteers hid them under umbrellas.  The "reveal" was often a delight for the drone operator!  Note: turn down your sound as all you'll hear are the props from the drone...

 

ENGAGEMENT: We use drone technology to engage team members.  Hands on helps many learn.  The technology is very enticing for these tech-savvy kids.   

Team Flying: Operator + Navigator

Maintenance Skills: Batteries, Props, & Visual Inspection

FORESHADOWING & REVIEW: We demonstrate what will happen in the field with the entire group, then we do it, then we circle back and review it again at the end.

TATTS Team Members See Themselves on TV Through the Drone

Practicing Using Goggles to See Through the Drone

VISUAL ORGANIZERS: Research has consistently shown that visual organizers help those on the spectrum understand and process sequences of events and manage time.  We use a variety of visual organizers to convey goals, our roles in the process and promoting positive social interaction.

Visual for Positive Things to Say to our Teammates

REINFORCEMENTS: We use numerous reinforcements to make our point, to keep the team members engaged and to simulate what it really means to be a pilot.  After all, pilots keep a log book to track all of their flights, weather conditions, etc.  Why shouldn't we?

Getting a Mechanics Sticker for Working on the Drone

Drone Operator in Training

PERSPECTIVE TAKING: We give them the opportunity to literally see the world from a different person's perspective.  When asked if the view in the goggles would change if they move their head, many of those involved would say yes. When in reality, it does not.  The view only changes if the drone changes.  We need to put our mind into the drone.

VIDEO MODELING: We take video modeling to a different height - literally.  Video modeling is often used to help illustrate a social skill in very concrete terms (e.g., greeting each other, standing in line, taking turns, etc.).  Research has shown that the videos don't have to be of themselves nor even of someone of the same race or gender in order to be effective.  Those with autism are often visual learners making video modeling very powerful.  We use the video we collect from the drone as a tool to watch the world below us, to evaluate what we see and to ask questions like "What is that person thinking?" or "What are they saying to each other?"

Thought Bubble Over Video