The Impact of Exemplary Technology-Support
Programs on Students With Disabilities
National Council on Disability August
1991
Description of the National Council on Disability
The National Council on Disability is an independent
federal agency composed of 15 members appointed by the President
of the United States and confirmed by the U.S. Senate. The National
Council initially was established in 1978 as an advisory board within
the Department of Education (Public Law 95-602). The Rehabilitation
Act Amendments of 1984 (Public Law 98-221) transformed the National
Council into an independent agency. The current statutory mandate
of the National Council assigns it the following duties:
Establishing general policies for reviewing the operation
of the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research
(NIDRR);
Providing advice to the Commissioner of the Rehabilitation Services
Administration (RSA) on policies and conduct;
Providing ongoing advice to the President, the Congress, the RSA
Commissioner, the Assistant Secretary of the Office of Special Education
and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS), and the Director of NIDRR on
programs authorized in the Rehabilitation Act;
Reviewing and evaluating on a continuous basis the effectiveness
of all policies, programs, and activities concerning individuals
with disabilities conducted or assisted by federal departments or
agencies, and all statutes pertaining to federal programs, and assessing
the extent to which they provide incentives to community-based services,
promote full integration, and contribute to the independence and
dignity of individuals with disabilities;
Making recommendations of ways to improve research, service, administration,
and the collection, dissemination, and implementation of research
findings affecting persons with disabilities;
Reviewing and approving standards for Independent Living programs;
Submitting an annual report with appropriate recommendations to
the Congress and the President regarding the status of research
affecting persons with disabilities and the activities of RSA and
NIDRR;
Reviewing and approving standards for Projects with Industry programs;
Providing to the Congress, on a continuous basis, advice, recommendations
and any additional information that the Council or the Congress
considers appropriate;
Establishing policies for the President's Committee on the Employment
of People with Disabilities; and
Issuing an annual report to the President and the Congress on the
progress that has been made in implementing the recommendations
contained in the National Council's January 30, 1986, report, Toward
Independence.
While many government agencies deal with issues and programs affecting
people with disabilities, the National Council is the only federal
agency charged with addressing, analyzing, and making recommendations
on issues of public policy that affect people with disabilities
regardless of age, disability type, perceived employment potential,
economic need, specific functional ability, status as a veteran,
or other individual circumstance. The National Council recognizes
its unique opportunity to facilitate independent living, community
integration, and employment opportunities for people with disabilities
by assuring an informed and coordinated approach to addressing the
concerns of persons with disabilities and eliminating barriers to
their active participation in community and family life.
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National Council on Disability
1331 F Street NW
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Washington, DC 20004-1107
(202) 272-2004 Voice
(202) 272-2074 TT
(202) 272-2022 Fax
The views contained in this report do not necessarily
represent those of the Administration as this document has not been
subjected to the A-19 Executive Branch review process.
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Message from the Chairperson
In the last 20 years significant progress has been
made to give people with disabilities access to higher education.
Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act calls for a body of educational
support services such as interpreters, readers and note takers.
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) opens increased employment
opportunities for those who graduate from institutions of higher
education.
The National Council on Disability (NCD) is encouraged
to support increased electronic access for people with disabilities
in postsecondary institutions. The technology revolution affects
all people--with or without disabilities. For those with disabilities,
the NCD is optimistic that access to technology will help develop
well-trained individuals who will make significant contributions
to society.
While this study dealt only with postsecondary education,
it is clear that access to technology at all levels of education
and employment is the greater goal and one we wholeheartedly support.
In a related study, the NCD is examining financing assistive technology
for people with disabilities. This report will shed light on the
question of access to technology and will recommend alternatives
for acquiring assistive technology devices and services.
The availability of assistive technology and technology-related
services can mean the difference between an isolated, dependent
life and an integrated, independent life. With the aid of technological
devices, people who do not have the physiological ability to speak
can speak through a computer. People who cannot hear can use the
telephone with a telephone device for the deaf. For some with disabilities,
the independence gained in acquiring the ability to speak or use
a telephone may be the key to exercising their rights under the
ADA.
Sandra Swift Parrino
National Council on Disability
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Preface
The formal title of this report is The Impact of Exemplary
Technology-Support Programs on Students With Disabilities. The working
title, Centers of Energy, grew out of a conversation with Dr. Trent
Batson, director of Gallaudet University's Electronic Networks for
Interaction (ENFI) Project. Explaining his work, Dr. Batson used
the wonderful term Centers of Energy to identify a common denominator
of the projects in this report.
The ENFI Project began as a technological, educational
support service for deaf students in English courses at Gallaudet.
It became a model for deaf students at the University of Minnesota
and, later, a model for non-traditional students (without disabilities)
with applications to older students and to those for whom English
is a second language. Ultimately it became a model for the entire
field of general education, in use today at more than 150 colleges,
universities and high schools in the United States and Canada.
ENFI is a Center of Energy in that this exemplary
project became a valuable, influential resource in its own institution
and to others. The ENFI Center of Energy, as well as others described
in this report, offered that energy to many constituencies: elementary
and secondary schools; colleges and universities; international,
national, state and local organizations and associations; the rehabilitation
community; parent groups; and others.
Even when an exemplary program was conceived as a
finite resource in a single institution to a limited number of people,
it soon reached out--often to its own surprise--to others. In so
doing, these Centers of Energy became vehicles for systems change,
touched thousands of lives, and have in turn created other Centers
of Energy.
I am grateful to Dr. Batson for identifying this phenomenon,
for describing it succinctly, and for supplying this report's working
title. I am also grateful to Dr. Danny Hilton-Chalfen of UCLA, chair
of the Equal Access to Software for Instruction (EASI) special interest
group of EDUCOM, a large annual conference on educational computing
in postsecondary institutions, for helping identify exemplary postsecondary
institutions that offer technological support services to students
with disabilities.
Harry Murphy
Consultant
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Contents
Acknowledgment
National Council on Disability Members and Staff
Introduction
Recommendations
Electronic Networks for Interaction
Gallaudet University
Computer Center for the Visually Impaired
Baruch College
Instructional Technology Division
University of Michigan
Disabled Student Services
University of Wyoming
Artificial Language Laboratory
Michigan State University
High-Tech Training Center
California Community Colleges
Assistive Technology Center
University of Minnesota
Disabled Computing Program
University of California/Los Angeles
Desktop Computing Services
University of Washington
The Office of Services for Students with Disabilities
University of Nebraska
Adaptive Computing Technology Center
University of Missouri
Training and Resource Center for the Blind
University of New Orleans
Vocational Rehabilitation Programs
El Centro College
Adaptive Technology Laboratory
Southern Connecticut State University
Center for the Vocationally Challenged
Grossmont Community College
The Technology Group
California State University, Northridge
Appendices
Sites and People Interviewed
National Council Member and Staff Biographies
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Acknowledgment
The National Council expresses its gratitude to Dr.
Harry J. Murphy, director, Office of Disabled Student Services,
California State University, Northridge (CSUN), for conducting this
study, The Impact of Exemplary Technology-Support Programs on Students
With Disabilities.
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National Council on Disability
Members
Sandra Swift Parrino, Chairperson, New York
Kent Waldrep, Jr., Vice Chairperson, Texas
Linda W. Allison, Texas
Larry Brown, Jr., Maryland
Mary Ann Mobley Collins, California
Anthony H. Flack, Connecticut
John A. Gannon, Ohio and Washington, D.C.
Margaret Chase Hager, Virginia
John Leopold, Maryland
Robert S. Muller, Michigan
George H. Oberle, PED, Oklahoma
Mary Matthews Raether, Virginia
Michael B. Unhjem, North Dakota
Helen Wilshire Walsh, Connecticut
Staff
Ethel D. Briggs, Executive Director
Harold W. Snider, Ph.D., Deputy Director
Mark S. Quigley, Public Affairs Specialist
Katherine Seelman, Ph.D., Research Specialist
Brenda Bratton, Executive Secretary
Stacey S. Brown, Staff Assistant
Lorraine Williams, Student Assistant
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Introduction
Wheelchairs help those unable to walk. Artificial
limbs help those who lack them. Hearing aids help those with impaired
hearing. Canes help people who are blind. Terms such as assistive
or adaptive devices describe a cluster of high and low technologies
that give people access to their environment. In recent years, these
technologies have become more sophisticated electronically and mechanically,
and more computer-based. In their Assistive Technology Sourcebook,
Enders and Hall (1990) define an assistive technology device as
any item, piece of equipment or product system, acquired commercially
off-the-shelf, modified or customized, that is used to increase,
maintain or improve functional capabilities of people with disabilities.
Such technologies range from velcro on clothing (to
help people with disabilities dress independently) and adaptations
to eating utensils, mouthpieces and headpointers; to electrical
stimulation of paralyzed muscles, robots that help those who have
limited control of their limbs, and navigational devices and talking
signs for the blind. Most technology for people with disabilities
in U.S. colleges and universities has a computer interface.
Computers that have been adapted for use by people
with disabilities have given them new education and employment opportunities
and allowed them to create work products that are the equal of those
created by people who have not experienced disabilities. Speech
output devices allow a blind person to access information that normally
appears visually on a computer screen. Other devices speak for those
who can't. Large-print technologies allow a person with low vision
to use a computer. Braille printers give quick and easy access to
text. Speech recognition devices allow someone who cannot physically
access a keyboard to talk to the computer. Simple, single-switch
devices allow a severely physically challenged person to access
a computer by moving a single muscle.
Colleges and universities have taken a leadership
role in providing such access devices to students with disabilities.
Most students use such devices to secure a liberal arts education
and a career in a profession not directly related to technology.
Some use access devices to master a technical skill such as computer
programming. Since the postsecondary community deals primarily with
adults whose studies lead to employment, this report focuses on
that area.
In the past five or six years, postsecondary institutions
have adopted many different technology programs for students with
disabilities. Some have initiated well-developed master plans throughout
an entire system, others have a computer or two in the corner of
an Office of Disabled Student Services. Many have no access resources
at all for students with disabilities.
Today, technology is a drumbeat at the heart of the
disability field. Off in the distance, a growing number of drums
are responding. It is difficult to attend a conference in the disability
field that does not deal with applications of technology to problems
faced by people with disabilities. Those who work with technology
want more and better technology. Those who don't have it now want
it soon. This is for good reason. One need only observe a situation
where, using assistive devices, severely physically challenged people
can operate computers when they could not do so 15 minutes earlier.
They can do word processing or develop spread sheets, they have
skills that will help in school, skills that will get them jobs.
They are in control.
For this report, interviews were conducted at 16 sites
across the country. The common denominator was technology services
to students with disabilities. Most programs are still gathering
momentum, but it seems safe to predict their cumulative impact a
few years from now will be many times what it is in this report.
Each program's history grows out of a unique set of conditions in
unique institutions. Yet, several common themes reoccur.
The leaders of these programs do not view students
with disabilities in a vacuum. They recognize that such students
interact dynamically with parents and rehabilitation and community
agencies. These leaders also focus on employment as a result of
the postsecondary experience and use technology accordingly. It
is not surprising that the program leaders in this report are leaders
in other areas as well. They are active in the Equal Access to Software
for Instruction special interest group of the EDUCOM annual conference,
Association on Handicapped Student Service Programs in Postsecondary
Education (AHSSPPE), RESNA and others. After years spent designing
creative, model programs and securing the resources to initiate
them, the vision of these leaders is still clear and in sharp focus,
validated by their contributions to their institutions and to the
field at large.
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Chapter 1
Recommendations
Several recommendations generated by this report involve
creating new programs in colleges and universities; others involve
a greater emphasis on technology in legislation.
Because postsecondary institutions are obliged to
provide all students with informational access:
RECOMMENDATION 1. All colleges and universities should
incorporate full technological access into programs for students
with disabilities as soon as possible. One approach should involve
general research on the impact of technology on the lives of people
with disabilities; another should involve developing a model of
technological services for minority populations of people with disabilities.
Because of the impact of exemplary postsecondary programs
on encouraging the use of technology among people with disabilities:
RECOMMENDATION 2. NIDRR should establish a series
of Rehabilitation Engineering Centers (RECs) specializing in issues
dealing with computers and higher education.
Because technology offers a way to deliver curricula
and standardized tests:
RECOMMENDATION 3. Colleges and universities should
take a leadership role in developing strategies for delivering testing
services to students with disabilities.
Because technology holds such promise for improving
the lives of people with disabilities:
RECOMMENDATION 4. The Rehabilitation Act of 1972 and
the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 should be amended to
include mandated technological services.
Because the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans
with Disabilities Act of 1990 hold such promise to deliver technological
services to people with disabilities:
RECOMMENDATION 5. Significant funding should be made
available in each program to encourage the creative development
and use of technology.
Because there are no clear-cut models for serving
minority students:
RECOMMENDATION 6. Colleges and universities serving
minority students should seek institutional and external funding
to develop ways to deliver technological support services and widely
disseminate these findings.
Because technology as an educational support service
is in its early stages, and because its effect on the educational
achievement and employability of people with disabilities is largely
anecdotal:
RECOMMENDATION 7. Longitudinal research be undertaken
to track technology as a major variable in educational achievement
and employability for those with disabilities.
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Chapter 2
Electronic Networks for Interaction
Gallaudet University, Washington, D.C.
English professor Dr. Trent Batson started the Electronics
Network for Interaction (ENFI) project in 1984 at Gallaudet University,
an institution committed to higher education for deaf and hearing-impaired
students. His alm was to help deaf students learn a language they
cannot hear, and express lt ln writing. IBM donated computers, a
local firm donated a local area network, and Batson's English students
participated ln the start-up. The network quickly generated interest
among other institutions serving students of all kinds. Today, ENFI
is in place ln 50 colleges and universities and 100 high schools
in the United States and Canada.
Many attempts have been made to use technology to
help those with hearing loss. The literature is full of approaches,
many pioneered by Gallaudet--hearing aids, audio loops, cochlear
implants, telecommunication devices for the deaf (TDDs), and linked
overhead projectors (to make language more visual) are a few examples.
By 1984, computer-related technology offered improved educational
and occupational opportunities for people with disabilities of all
kinds.
Batson, using computers to enhance language flow for
Gallaudet English students, established a project originally called
English Natural Form Instruction, which taught writing. He received
equipment from IBM and a commitment for space from Gallaudet. Realtime
Learning Systems in Washington, D.C., donated a local area network
(LAN) that gave students access to others on the network. The original
network consisted of students who communicated with each other,
and an instructor to offer technical assistance.
The deaf students, already familiar with TDDs, readily
took to ENFI. One immediate benefit was that it gave deaf students
the ability to engage in group discussions. Batson began teaching
ENFI's interactive strategies to other English instructors, who
often had to modify their own teaching strategies as a result. He
also published a newsletter to reach colleges and universities that
did not deal with disability, and talked about ENFI at a dozen universities
and at two or three conferences a month.
Ohlone College, a Gallaudet Regional Center in Fremont,
Calif., was the first to implement ENFI for its deaf and hearing-impaired
students. In 1987, Batson secured a three-year, $535,000 grant from
the Annenberg Foundation/Corp. for Public Broadcasting to implement
ENFI in a five-member consortium of colleges and universities, including
the University of Minnesota, Carnegie-Mellon University, the New
York Institute of Technology (NYIT) and Northern Virginia Community
College.
At the same time, still chairing Gallaudet's ENFI
project, he became a visiting professor at Carnegie-Mellon University
in Pittsburgh. There, Batson sought to move ENFI applications beyond
deaf education. Eventually, ENFI was seen as a help to non-traditional
students--commuters, those to whom English is a second language,
older returning students, and students with other disabilities.
Batson has compiled a body of literature documenting
ENFI-generated language gains. Under the Annenberg grant, the consortium
project validated ENFI as equal to other means of teaching writing
and found that ENFI students tended to write more conversationally.
At Minnesota, students in ENFI courses were more likely to complete
the course than those in non-ENFI courses. At NYIT, ENFI prompted
more professors to engage in research.
With each application, ENFI evolved. Each university
discovered new applications or applied different applications with
each population. Some schools used ENFI at multiple sites on campus
instead of in one room, as at Gallaudet. An upcoming conference,
Network-Supported Writing '92, will focus on those who use networks
to support writing. Today, Gallaudet offers three- to five-day training
classes for those who want to learn and implement ENFI.
ENFI is widely used in Gallaudet's Preparatory Program,
which helps build English skills then transitions students to the
freshman class level. About 1,200 Gallaudet students have used ENFI,
which is a good introduction to computers and a friendly vehicle
used for social and formal conversation.
ENFI has received the EDUCOM/NCRIPTAL Award for best
innovation, which carried a $5,000 cash prize. EDUCOM is the national
consortium of computing facilities in colleges and universities;
NCRIPTAL is the National Center for the Improvement of Postsecondary
Teaching and Learning at the University of Michigan.
Funding
IBM donated enough equipment for two laboratories,
RealTime Laboratories donated LAN software and modified it to meet
ENFI needs, and Gallaudet contributed space to initiate the ENFI
project.
Gallaudet's then-president Dr. Jerry Lee gave ENFI
three Presidential Awards for innovative projects that totaled $106,000
over three years, and granted funds for travel. Gallaudet committed
Batson's time, allocated space and supported him in securing the
Dana Foundation fellowship to spend a year at Carnegie-Mellon.
The $535,000 Annenberg grant has ended but another
smaller Annenberg grant is supporting research and a book on ENFI.
The Adapso Foundation provided four years of funding at $25,000
per year to support laboratory staff and software development (Mac/ENFI).
Gallaudet secured a Department of Education grant
for a researcher to explore the use of ENFI among children at Gallaudet's
demonstration site, the Kendall School. Ohlone College in California
received in-house institutional support through California Lottery
Funds, targeted for exemplary activities. Batson now is involved
in a new project with IBM, Project Common Ground, which will bring
in new labs and equipment.
Starting An Assistive Technology Program
Tips from Dr. Trent Batson
Two types of people are needed to back such a system.
One must be a theoretician who can integrate the system and the
institution's mission, and who is imaginative enough to implement
and modify the system. The other should be a technical person who
can support the LAN. Both are needed for success.
Students will love the system--it's the faculty that must be convinced.
Initiate a faculty training program or allow them to attend one
elsewhere. Stay in touch with others who use such systems to share
problems and successes.
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Chapter 3
Computer Center for the Visually Impaired
Baruch College, New York
The Computer Center for the Visually Impaired (CCVI)
was one of the earliest technology programs for people with disabilities.
It began ln 1977 as an educational support service to blind and
visually impaired students in the Education Computing Center at
Baruch College, part of the City University of New York system.
Program Director Dr. Karen Luxton was one of CCVI's first students.
The CCVI is an independent department that offers blind and low-vision
students a range of educational services, including training in
word processing, accounting and database management software. Each
semester, about 15 blind and visually impaired students, most of
them business majors, use the CCVI. The CCVI, a resource to blind
and visually impaired community members, also serves corporations,
other colleges and universities, and rehabilitation professionals.
Like most programs described in this report, CCVI
has no hard data on the academic or occupational success of those
who use the center, but there is compelling anecdotal data--the
young artist who lost her sight to diabetes, then became a computer
programmer; and the cinematographer who lost his sight, then used
assistive technology to enter an MBA program targeting film industry
finance.
The CCVI is an independent department, located in
the university's Education Computing Center, which works closely
with educators, counselors and the business community to demonstrate
how visually impaired people can use computer technology.
CCVI offers students and community members non-credit
short courses in WordPerfect, PC DOS, Lotus 1-2-3 and dBASE III
Plus. An evaluation and training program, Practical Evaluation of
Programmer Aptitude, is for those with no computer or technology
experience. The course is an introduction to adaptive computing,
the IBM microcomputer and word processing. Participants and referring
agencies receive progress reports and evaluations of participants'
computing aptitude.
Partnership ln Technology, a course funded by the
Department of Education Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation
Services (OSERS), gives counselors, teachers and business people
an overview of the role technology can play in the lives of visually
impaired people. Course participants can work in conditions of simulated
visual impairment in laboratory segments.
The center also performs consulting on the job or
at home for blind or visually impaired people, and offers PC training
and career counseling to people with disabilities. CCVI markets
services for blind and low-vision students through Baruch's Office
of Disabled Students. CCVI previews its services at an annual orientation
for new faculty, and CCVI activities are reported in the university's
student newspaper.
CCVI also has worked with Baruch faculty and staff,
as consultants to other City and State University of New York (CUNY
and SUNY) campuses, private universities such as Columbia and New
York University, state and Federal Departments of Rehabilitation,
Commissions for the Blind in New York and New Jersey, the Metropolitan
Transit Authority, the Lincoln Center, local banks, the Social Security
Administration, the IRS, IBM and others.
Inside the university, the library is writing grant
proposals to use assistive technology to make the card catalog fully
accessible to blind and low-vision users. For those outside the
university, CCVI brailles concert programs for Lincoln Center headliners,
as well as materials for the Social Security Administration, the
IRS and IBM. CCVI is a resource for brailled materials for Baruch
students, faculty and staff.
As part of the Tactual Graphics Project, with support
from the New York Science and Technology Foundation and the New
York Community Trust, CCVI produces raised-line graphics, drawings
and maps of the New York City subway system under contract with
the Metropolitan Transit Authority. Because users must be trained
to use the tactual materials, CCVI is planning training classes.
CCVI also is working on a grant from the Department
of Education to offer training for teachers, counselors, parents
and employers of Independent Living Centers, which serve people
with disabilities.
Funding
In March 1978, Baruch gave the fledgling CCVI one
full-time position, and the Education Computing Center director
donated a portion of his time. The university contributed space
and some equipment. To secure outside funding, the founding members
worked with the New York Commission for the Blind, local banks and
the Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA), now part of the
Department of Education.
Some grants to the Education Computing Center were
used to support the CCVI in its earliest days. The New York Commission
for the Blind paid $600 per-person tuition for 15 participants during
the second year of summer programming workshops. In later years,
the New Jersey Commission sent participants.
In 1980, CCVI secured a one-year RSA grant to train
rehabilitation counselors in technologies for blind and visually
impaired clients. Other, later RSA grants included a three-year
Employability Grant (16 weeks of training for blind and visually
impaired clients), fees for services from the state commissions,
and tuition from Manufacturers Hanover Trust Bank, Chemical Bank,
Chase Manhattan and the National Westminster Bank. Later OSERS funding
included a Career Path Information System grant, a joint venture
with the New York Times to make job information accessible to blind
and visually impaired job seekers.
Baruch has increased the CCVI budget for equipment
and increased staff positions to three. CCVI offers for-fee, non-credit
courses in data management and programming to a growing number of
off-campus clients.
Starting an Assistive Technology Program
Tips from Dr. Karen Luxton
Funding has been a problem from the beginning. We
deal with a low-incidence population that is expensive to serve
well. There is a need for small classes and individual instruction.
With permission from those involved, we tell compelling stories.
Even better, our graduates tell the story for us.
Space is a scarce commodity on most college and university campuses;
it represents a significant contribution and commitment on the part
of campus administration.
Know your environment, your allies, your resources. Tell them what
you intend to do in terms of extra effort and late hours writing
grants. Seek out friends at the executive level and market, market,
market. Be prepared to cover both bases in your lab: disability
and technical. Build in administration and fund-raising capability.
No one person can do all these things.
Use students as allies. Find out how to bring in student workers.
The Financial Aid Office often can help find students who qualify
under Work Study Programs and who cost the technology program very
little.
In the initial plans, consider where should such a lab be housed,
would students be best served in an Office of Disabled Student Services
or within an Educational or Academic Computing Lab, who will maintain
equipment, where will the lab get technical help?
When it is time to expand, do so in a certain direction, rather
than multiple directions. Avoid the temptation to meet all needs
you uncover.
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Chapter 4
Instructional Technology Division
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Ten years ago, Dr. James Knox became aware of the
problems of students with disabilities when students new to campus
asked what was available in the way of computing. Knox, in what
is now the university's Instructional Technology Division, managed
a consulting staff and questions came to him by default. He especially
perceived a need among a group of visually impaired students, and
thought the university should respond. A Low-Vision User Area was
set up for visually impaired students. Knox felt an organization
could be formed based on offering such support services to students
with disabilities. At Knox's suggestion, a persistent blind student
founded a group, with Knox as adviser. This became BFUG--the Barrier-Free
Computer Users Group.
BFUG immediately began raising consciousness on campus
about accessibility issues. Group members became campus advisers
on issues and recommended equipment purchases to the Instructional
Technology Division (ITD). BFUG is open to students, faculty and
staff, and community members. Membership cuts across all disabilities.
Meeting agendas cover topics such as hardware and software for users
with disabilities, developments in information technology, and general
information on computer use.
A graduate library science student with an interest
in library accessibility joined Knox at the early BFUG meetings.
A lab, jointly managed by the undergraduate library and ITD, was
established in the library for blind and low-vision students. The
lab is in a larger university-wide lab, staffed by computer-literate
students. Impaired-hearing users can request interpreters. BFUG,
now with 45 members, holds monthly meetings.
All University of Michigan students pay a $100 per-semester
computing fee, which gives them access to campus computer facilities,
consultation, electronic-mail and electronic conferences. BFUG members
use e-mail (from home or campus) to contact each other, ask and
answer questions, and access bulletin boards and BFUG meeting minutes.
Each Friday, BFUG members are encouraged to drop by ITD for informal
questions and answers, and consulting help is available.
The group often evaluates adaptive technology products.
Their recommendations help ITD purchase equipment and software.
BFUG offers help on a member-to-member basis: more experienced members
help less experienced, and they help Knox provide consulting services
within the group. Knox is available at monthly meetings, Friday
afternoon sessions, by appointment, and through e-mail conferences
and bulletin boards.
In 1989 the University of Michigan hosted EDUCOM,
a large, annual conference on educational computing in postsecondary
institutions. Knox chaired an EDUCOM Special Interest Group on disability--Equal
Access to Software for Instruction, or EASI. BFUG helped plan EASI
and other sessions. EDUCOM '89 increased the level of computing
consciousness of adaptive technology and general computing.
Several issues of the University Record, a weekly
publication for faculty and staff, have featured adaptive computing
and BFUG. Expressions, a community newsletter edited by a BFUG member,
gets the word out in the community about people with disabilities.
ITD newsletters and catalogs offer information about university
adaptive technology resources. Knox soon will teach a non-credit
course on adaptive computing.
Funding
The University of Michigan adaptive technology program
is funded entirely by the university. This grows out of a desire
to eliminate the need on campus for separate adaptive computing
sites. Knox seeks an environment where all campus computing sites
are physically and informationally accessible.
Starting An Assistive Technology Program
Tips from Dr. James Knox
BFUG is a good model for starting a new program. It
takes no money and it gets you into the business. It gives a guiding
hand in developing a program on technology, allows students to make
contributions, gains visibility for adaptive technology, and raises
consciousness and expectations. Let students drive the program,
evaluate technology and make purchase recommendations.
Invite new students with disabilities and their parents to meetings
of such groups. It encourages students and parents and is a good
introduction to the group.
Enlist support from high-level administrators. Grass-roots support
is easy, but it's hard to convince people to fund programs.
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Chapter 5
Disabled Student Services
University of Wyoming, Laramie
Ms. Chris Primus, director of Disabled Student Services
at the University of Wyoming, views accessibility to technology
in the context of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Under Section
504, a college or university must provide such basic services as
interpreters for deaf students, readers for blind students and test
accommodations. The university also is responsible for physical
access to all facilities. The introduction in recent years of computing
support for all students prompts a new look at accessibility. In
Laramie, the DSS program shows how a university program can offer
support to students in a rural state. As DSS director, Primus suggests
ways for the University of Wyoming to comply with Section 504, and
deals with physical and informational access.
The DSS program Primus joined seven years ago was
funded under a Department of Education TRIO grant, with university
funding provided by the state of Wyoming. Like most directors of
such programs, Primus saw a growing number of students with learning
disabilities. She knew about the University of Minnesota computer-based
program on Writing and Learning Disabilities and sought funding
for a similar program at Wyoming. At the same time, the university
was setting up campus microcomputer labs.
Combining the needs of students with disabilities
with the university's need to give all students access to computers,
Primus submitted a proposal to the Office of Special Education and
Rehabilitation Services (OSERS) for a demonstration program to develop
evaluation software that would identify appropriate software for
students with learning disabilities.
Primus received a three-year grant, Computer Assistance
Model for Learning Disabled (CAMLD), to implement a two-phased research-based
model of adaptive education for postsecondary education students
with learning disabilities, to be developed in cooperation with
the departments of English, psychology and educational foundation
and instructional technology; the university's Media Center; and
the Wyoming Division of Vocational Rehabilitation.
Phase One developed criteria to evaluate computer
software for user-friendly capabilities for college-level students
with learning disabilities. CAMLD evaluated software for word processing,
spell checking, spelling and keyboard skills, career exploration
and job-seeking skills by using the "user friendly characteristics
evaluation criteria" to determine the most effective software
for these students. Phase Two taught students with learning disabilities
about the microcomputers and software selected in Phase One.
Within DSS, students with disabilities took classroom
tests using computers. Tests were read to blind students, who typed
in answers for essay tests. Learning-disabled students used spell
checkers and the thesaurus. Data were collected and evaluated to
determine the microcomputer intervention's effectiveness. Comparing
English grades and semester and cumulative grade point averages
showed that using microcomputers for writing has a significant impact
on the academic performance of students with learning disabilities.
This look at grades compared learning-disabled computer
and non-computer users. Grades were higher over two semesters for
computer users in freshman English. There were fewer academic probations
and suspensions among learning-disabled computer over non-computer
users. Students reported feeling more articulate, less frustrated
with written work, more efficient. They represented themselves more
competently and finished assignments in less time.
Learning-disabled and blind and visually impaired
students seem to benefit most from computers. Students with learning
disabilities who are education majors, and blind and visually impaired
students who are social work majors seem especially proficient in
computer use.
Primus's three-year grant produced an instrument and
identified software that was purchased and made available to students.
Students with learning disabilities were given an overview and encouraged
to use computers. Results were disseminated on campus through talks
to faculty; to instructors and staff in the English Department,
freshman English and the Writing Center; and at Student Affairs
Awareness Week.
Articles in the campus newspaper discussed the program,
and an in-house fact sheet was distributed to freshman-level instructors.
The CAMLD effort raised university awareness about the need for
an evaluation team in the area of disability. CAMLD results were
widely disseminated through presentations at the California State
University (Northridge) conference, Technology and Persons with
Disabilities and other meetings. Almost 200 copies of the CAMLD
final report were sent to peers in the field.
Because the grant threw a spotlight on services for
students with learning disabilities, more such students enrolled
at the university and sought services.
As the grant phased out, Primus approached the university
for financial support for basic services to these and other disabled
students, and pursued funding to supplement basic services and provide
leadership in the use of technology. She applied to the Montgomery
Home for the Blind Trust Fund for funds to improve basic services
for blind students and to help the university give such students
access to its computer labs.
Primus gives talks on adaptive technology to computer
instructors, who visit the office, sometimes with their classes,
to see the assistive technology first-hand. She cooperates with
the university's Department of Special Education, which also received
a Montgomery Trust grant to orient pre-service and in-service teachers
to equipment available to school-age children with visual impairments.
Funding
With the Montgomery Trust grant, an interagency agreement
was developed with DSS, the Department of Vocational Rehabilitation
and State Services for the Visually Impaired to better coordinate
services. Primus is seeking more physical space at the university
so the Blind/VI Project can serve more students and people with
disabilities in the community. By charging community members a fee
for services, the program could support more staff devoted to training
for employment skills.
Primus uses Section 504 to motivate the university
to provide basic services. When she first came to the university,
her program was funded under a Department of Education grant. Institutional
support was minimal. In securing grants, she continues to educate
the university about its legal responsibility to initiate, supplement
and enrich services to students with disabilities.
Today, the grant has expired and the program for learning-disabled
students is almost completely institutionalized. The state legislature
increased the university budget to meet basic service needs for
the learning-disabled population. For anything extra, Primus still
looks for grants.
Starting an Assistive Technology Program
Tips from Chris Primus
New programs should first develop a baseline of what
needs to be done: Who are the students? What are their disabilities?
Why do they need to be served? How can they be accommodated with
general and technological services?
Educate the college or university every step of the way. Grants
enrich a program; they do not relieve the institution of the responsibility
to provide services, including technology as a way to carry out
504 regulations.
Work closely with the administration. Know which committees to approach
to meet your needs.
Start slow and be realistic in what you ask for.
Use a high degree of personal contact with students, and a high
degree of input from students about their basic service needs and
their suggestions for equipment purchases.
The Department of Vocational Rehabilitation (DVR) can be a helpful
ally in counseling students and influencing the university, providing
a backdrop for the university to take on financial responsibility,
including the responsibility to provide space for the program.
Educate university officials about basic services, university responsibilities,
how the DVR can provide early funding with the understanding the
funding will phase out and the university will pick it up. Keep
the focus on the university's ultimate responsibility to provide
services.
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Chapter 6
Artificial Language Laboratory
Michigan State University, East Lansing
Dr. John Eulenberg directs the Artificial Language
(AL) Laboratory, a teaching and research facility in the Department
of Audiology and Speech Sciences, College of Communication Arts
and Sciences at Michigan State University (MSU). The Lab's mission
is to pursue research and development ln using voice synthesis,
voice recognition and computer-based technologies to detect body
movements, access to computers and other language or communication-related
purposes. Much research and technology applications for people with
disabilities is tailored to individual needs. Early technology applications
developed in the AL Laboratory preceded many commercially available
products. Today, applications include recommendations for using
off-the-shelf technologies, adapting existing technologies, and
creating new equipment and applications.
The AL Laboratory specializes in computer applications
to help those with communication handicaps--MSU students and others
who are blind or have limited physical access to communication tools
(those with cerebral palsy, stroke or traumatic brain injury).
Clients who undergo evaluation and technology development
typically have been seen elsewhere and referred to the AL Lab because
off-the-shelf technologies do not meet their needs. Often, the evaluation
team (occupational therapist, speech and language pathologist) accompanies
the client to meet with the Lab's evaluation team.
The AL Lab markets its services in several ways, including
in university publications for new students, programs and services.
Articles about the Lab have appeared in campus and local newspapers.
For several years, MSU football and basketball games featured the
Lab during half-time promotional spots.
The Lab has been the subject of several television
shows, including Finding a Voice, a NOVA documentary, and A Gift
for Sevina, a documentary that featured a nine-year-old girl "speaking"
her first words on an augmentive communication device. This show
won a Michigan Emmy Award.
MSU is a teaching institution, and graduate students
may carry out course and licensing requirements by working on university
evaluation teams, including time spent with clients in the AL Lab.
As a result, clients with disabilities are served, and graduate
students learn strategies they will use in their careers.
Many graduates see technology's potential for the
first time when working with the Lab. At the very least, they become
more sensitive to the ways people with disabilities function and
compete. MSU graduates, some with only a fleeting knowledge of the
program, make referrals to the Lab. Some who have worked in the
Lab and earned degrees at MSU include the head of research for Prentke
Romich Co., one of the largest manufacturers of augmentive communication
devices. Several former graduate students now head technology programs
in Michigan school districts.
The Lab enjoys a high profile, in part because of
a journal published there, Communication Outlook, which keeps the
Lab in touch with major companies in the field that develop products
and new applications. Eulenberg teaches in five university departments--linguistics,
audiology and speech science, computer science, African languages
and telecommunications. He is often called as an expert witness
on litigation matters dealing with assistive technology. He has
influenced state law; the legislature now makes $500,000 in matching
funds available for assistive technology.
The AL Lab contracts with school districts to evaluate
students with disabilities for assistive devices. Lab staff have
trained teachers and developed curricula; and conducted in-service
workshops, held conferences and developed new devices for students
with disabilities. Today, former staff members and graduate students
work in school district programs. Eulenberg and Lab staff have held
large grants to work with residential and mainstreamed students
with disabilities.
Because of early successes with augmentive communication,
Eulenberg approached the Civil Service Commission in Washington,
D.C., and secured a grant to introduce the first talking terminal
systems and computer networks for blind employees. The project,
implemented with blind IRS employees, was a Joint venture of MSU
and Arkansas Enterprises for the Blind.
Eulenberg's Lab is a pioneer in developing speech
products with a strong multilingual flavor. Over the years, speech
systems have been developed or are being developed for American
English, black English dialects, Chinese, Hebrew, Arabic and languages
of India and Africa.
Funding
The university provides space for the Lab as well
as Eulenberg's salary for teaching duties and responsibilities as
AL Lab director. Grants, contracts and fees for service provide
for the Lab's essential support. Eulenberg began work in assistive
technology for people with disabilities by piggybacking applications
for them onto other grants designed to implement technology among
MSU students in general.
These included grants from the National Science Foundation
and the Ford Foundation. Another early grant to MSU from the National
Institute on Handicapped Research (now NIDRR) dealt with supporting
communication aids for the speech impaired in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Canada and Sweden. Eulenberg was the university
delegate responsible for implementing voice technologies at these
sites.
The AL Lab had grants to implement technology in several
school districts, including Wayne County Intermediate School District,
which includes Detroit and 26 other communities, and Northville,
where there is a large institutional population of people with cerebral
palsy and mental retardation.
A group of American Jews in Pittsburgh sponsored a
project to develop a Hebrew speech synthesizer for a young man with
cerebral palsy who was about to make his Bar Mitzvah. The project's
objectives were to help the young man read prayers and write Hebrew
on a portable computer. This led to the Hebrew Voice Project, a
larger Hebrew-language project developed by Eulenberg and a team
of Israeli speech scientists.
Starting an Assistive Technology Program
Tips from Dr. John Eulenberg
Newcomers should attend conferences in the field and
meet other people in the world of delivering assistive devices.
Learn who the players are to become one. Stage conferences and seminars,
speak at them, publish in the field.
Build teams. There is usually not an absence of talent on a college
or university campus; each institution has certain strengths. Look
to linguists, computer scientists and departments of mechanical
and electrical engineering for help.
The university's major commitment is space. lt is the director's
obligation to identify and bring in other resources.
A new unit requires administrative support. Identify someone high
up in the university structure who can make things happen. These
administrative supporters must see your work as part of the university's
ultimate mission.
Look for small grants with the university to get started. Most offer
some kind of seed money to get started and gain leverage needed
to secure larger grants, usually from the federal government.
Build a group that will meet regularly to keep abreast of opportunities
within and outside the university.
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Chapter 7
High-Tech Training Center
California Community Colleges, Cupertino
The High-Tech Training Center program was designed
from the beginning ultimately to reach all 107 campuses (50,000
students with disabilities) in California's community college system.
A modest High-Tech Center was established ln 1984 by Carl Brown
at Monterey Peninsula Community College to serve six to eight students.
In 1991, High-Tech Centers on 51 community college campuses offered
technological support services to more than 12,000 students. On
any given day throughout the state, 5,000 to 6,000 students use
High-Tech facilities. High-Tech Centers are expected to be on all
107 campuses within five years. Other Centers have been established
on California State University campuses, on University of California
campuses, in Regional Occupational Centers and in K-12 schools.
Today, the program is a $1.4 million effort with permanent funding
from the state legislature through the California Community Colleges
Chancellor's Office. A request is pending for another $1.4 million.
Carl Brown is a former Buddhist monk, a crisis intervention
counselor and author of practical computer books. Though he has
a disability and uses a wheelchair, his work in the disability field
began in 1984 when he was invited to work with computers and students
with disabilities at Monterey Peninsula Community College (MPCC).
The MPCC Center began with Brown as a half-time faculty
member and $25,000 in equipment. This High-Tech Center immediately
cross-pollinated other campus units such as the Learning Resource
Center and the English Department.
The Center was seen as a training resource for students,
who were encouraged to use their assistive technology aids to mainstream
to regular campus computer resources. Electronic tools assumed to
be learning aids for students with disabilities--spelling and grammar
checkers, dictionaries, organizational software and thesauruses--turned
out to be excellent learning aids for students without disabilities.
Criteria developed early in the Center's formation
determined that assistive technology should be based on software
rather than hardware; should work transparently with such standard
computer applications as Lotus, WordPerfect, dBase and SPSS; and
should consist of tools that work in regular campus settings. They
had to be easy to use and cost no more than $500.
The numbers of students using the MPCC Center grew,
as did interest in the field. An increasing number of visitors came
to see the program, which influenced the formation of a similar
Centers. To disseminate information about the High-Tech Center model
and systematically respond to inquiries, Brown secured a two-year,
$160,000 grant from the Department of Education's Fund for the Improvement
of Postsecondary Education, which paid to develop a practical two-volume
book designed to advance the model. About 30,000 copies of Computer
Access and Higher Education for Persons with Disabilities have been
distributed.
Soon, the Chancellor's Office of the California Community
Colleges asked Brown to set up a central High-Tech resource in Sacramento
for the entire community college system, and individual High-Tech
Centers on individual campuses. And the California State Department
of Rehabilitation, which wanted the program in Sacramento to support
its clients, provided a 2.5-year, $3.5 million (matching) Establishment
Grant to stimulate development of the Centers at community colleges
throughout the state.
Individual colleges responded to a request for proposal,
and successful bidders were awarded staff positions and a predetermined
package of hardware and software. The package, to help students
with disabilities of all kinds, emphasized tools for students with
learning disabilities and acquired brain injuries.
Eventually, the program moved to its current base
at DeAnza Community College in Cupertino, the heart of Silicon Valley
and home to Apple Computer. A 3,000-square-foot building houses
a High-Tech Training Center, a Career Development Education Center
and an on-site High-Tech Center for DeAnza students. Faculty are
required to hold at least a master's degree in special education
or related field, but no computer experience is necessary.
The Center offers 35 training courses throughout the
year, and new courses are added to respond to new technologies.
The Center trains its own and community college faculty. An 800
line answers questions from the field from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Today,
15 other states use the High-Tech Centers model. Colorado followed
the Establishment Grant mechanism in developing its Centers.
The Centers are set up to serve the entire community;
outreach is an established part of its mission. One community college
has a mobile van to serve a rural community. Another, in a mountain
community, works closely with high school students.
A Study of the Characteristics of Students with Disabilities
in the California Community Colleges High-Tech Centers for the Disabled
(Chancellor's Office, California Community Colleges, August 1989)
offers a wealth of data on such variables as disability by ethnicity.
Funding
Brown began at MPCC as a half-time faculty member.
With the move to Sacramento, the Department of Rehabilitation awarded
a $3.5 million, 2.5-year Establishment Grant. The Chancellor's Office
provided three permanent positions, space and equipment worth up
to $50,000. Funding to the colleges paid for staffing and equipment.
The understanding was that when the Establishment Grants expired,
the colleges would institutionalize the positions.
Now based at DeAnza Community College, the High-Tech
Training Center has a funding base of $580,000, legislatively authorized
as a line item in the Governor's budget.
Also in the Governor's budget is $800,000 in permanent
funding for the High-Tech Center sites across the state. Brown is
working on a request for another $1.4 million to finish placing
High-Tech Centers in each state community college.
Starting an Assistive Technology Program
Tips from Carl Brown
We have been successful because we consider the computer
an appliance, like a toaster. You don't have to know how a toaster
works to make good toast.
Use as little technology as possible so the faculty and students
don't become overwhelmed. Start small. lt's better to have a couple
of computers in a computer lab and some software that is being used
than a fancy lab that is not being used. Start with the minimum
amount needed to make a student functional, then let student feedback
determine where to go next.
Faculty training is an essential component of success. Those from
non-technical backgrounds make the best trainers because they can
communicate with students who have non-technical backgrounds.
Things work best when the colleges provide faculty from the beginning
under institutional funding, and requested equipment under a grant.
Any college wanting to get started must have a deep commitment to
training.
High-Tech Centers should be a resource to the entire community.
Colleges should work with corporations and community agencies that
serve people with disabilities.
Help dissolve artificial distinctions between technology for people
with disabilities and useful technology. Spelling and grammar checkers
help everybody. They are not unique to people with disabilities.
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Chapter 8
Assistive Technology Center
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis
The University of Minnesota Assistive Technology Center
(ATC) began as a centralized model under the Office for Students
with Disabilities (OSD) but became a distributed model under the
Microcomputer and Workstation Networks Center, which offers campus-wide
computer support to all students. ATC is coordinated by Curt Griesel,
a former UM computer science student. Another project on campus
that deals with deaf and learning-disabled students is directed
by Dr. Terrence Collins, professor and head of the Arts, Communications
and Philosophy Division of UM's General College. Technological services
for students with disabilities began in the early 1980s. The OSD
centralized services and equipment but, realizing the need for technical
support, they donated the equipment to the Microcomputer and Workstation
Networks Center (Microcomputer Center), which agreed to distribute
the equipment according to need, maintain the equipment and support
students through technical consultation and training. This organizational
change was realized in 1987, when UM was preparing to build a new
Computer Research Center. To ensure the new Center could serve students
with disabilities, informational access was added to the list of
general accessibility concerns. About the same time, some adaptive
devices were purchased with funds from an IBM grant, and a curriculum
ln the use of adaptive technology was proposed.
Curt Griesel was a UM senior in computer science,
with an interest in adaptive technology, when this change occurred.
He set up the equipment under the IBM grant. Upon graduation, he
applied for a grant under Minnesota's STAR Program (funded by NIDRR
under the Technology-Related Assistance Act), seeking a UM staff
position.
STAR didn't fund the position, but in 1990 Griesel
joined the Microcomputer Center team anyway after the UM vice president
approved a new Coordinator position for the Assistive Technology
Laboratory (ATL). With original equipment from OSD and the IBM grant
as a base, the Adaptive Technology Center is 100 percent university-funded.
Institutional support includes space, one staff position and equipment,
and adaptive devices and software as a part of the Microcomputer
Center equipment and supply budget.
The UM main campus in Minneapolis has 43,000 students,
about 1,600 with disabilities. Twenty-five computer labs are scattered
across campus. They tend to have Macintosh and IBM capability, with
some Sun, Apollo and NeXT workstations. A pool of adaptive equipment
and Griesel's services are available to university students, faculty
and staff with disabilities.
Some equipment is left permanently in heavy-traffic
areas such as the university's three major libraries. Students may
have devices installed as needed in other university public labs
and in labs associated with academic departments such as physics
or accounting. Griesel has access to a range of technical knowledge
through others in the Microcomputer Center.
The OSD is a primary referral source. OSD counselors,
supported by printed material, encourage students to use the Assistive
Technology Laboratory (ATL). Griesel relies on OSD for recommendations
on academic issues such as testing. Brochures are available on campus,
and Griesel meets regularly with a campus organization for students
with disabilities. The Microcomputer Center refers inquiries about
adaptive technology to Griesel's office. Other referrals come from
the Department of Communicative Disorders Speech Clinic.
The distributed model has been operational for 12
months. Demand for assistance and general computer use have increased,
along with the use of adaptive technology for writing projects such
as term papers. Consumer feedback is positive. Hard data on student
progress is unavailable, but anecdotal evidence shows that working
with adaptive technology to use or improve writing skills is one
of the greatest benefits of such services.
The ATL serves as an information gathering and dispersal
point. Griesel fields frequent phone and personal inquiries about
equipment, and meets with counselors from State Services for the
Blind, which supports blind and visually impaired students at the
university with its own technology center. Griesel works with counselors
to prescribe and recommend technology. He also works with the Division
of Rehabilitation Services, which has a mandate from the state to
offer clients technological support.
Another campus project that deals with deaf and learning-disabled
students is directed by Dr. Terrence Collins, a professor and head
of the Arts, Communications and Philosophy Division of UM's General
College. As an English instructor for undergraduates, Collins pursued
the problem of failure among students with learning disabilities.
In 1985, he obtained a three-year grant for a Learning-Disabled
Writers Project from the Department of Education Office of Special
Education and Rehabilitation Services (OSERS). At the same time,
UM was opening its Computer Research Center and Collins joined OSD
director Sue Krueger to provide access consultation on adjusting
workstation height for wheelchair-users.
Between 1985 and 1988, Collins published 30 papers,
distributed information to 720 people, and consulted with colleges
and universities that had set up similar programs for students with
learning disabilities. Because learning-disabled (LD) students benefitted
from Collins' writing project, such students were allowed to register
early for computer-based writing classes so they could have first-day
access to this resource.
Research conducted during the grant period showed
that LD students completed writing courses and achieved at the same
rate (grade point average) as non-LD students. Collins also helped
set up a project using a local area network (LAN) to teach conversational
English to deaf university students.
Funding
The ATL is funded entirely by the university. It began
with a donation of equipment from the OSD and a grant from IBM,
but the university's major resources are directed at students with
disabilities.
Collins' project, which started with a $260,000 Department
of Education OSERS grant, ended in 1988. Today, three classrooms
that were equipped under an Annenberg Foundation/Corporation for
Public Broadcasting LAN grant are available to students with learning
disabilities and to deaf students. One faculty member performs research
in this area, and the curriculum is still used.
Starting an Assistive Technology Program
Tips from Carl Griesel and Dr. Terrence Collins
Work with someone high up in the administration, and
show the university how much money such a program can save.
Become part of the computing center team as soon as possible. Advance
the point of view that your program is part of the university's
mission, not a special interest.
New programs should make use of existing programs and avoid duplicating
efforts.
Invite the computing staff to sit in on program meetings.
The quality of staff is vital. The person who coordinates access
services should be a technical person who can tie in to other resources
on campus, such as the Office for Students with Disabilities.
Jump in. Someone has to believe this effort is important.
Novices should learn how to use a CD Rom search protocol. Learn
what others have done and build on it. Build proposals and work
plans on what others have already reported. Tie your work plan to
the campus mission. Use graduate students to help carry out your
work.
Make a good-faith effort to use whatever equipment is available.
Only ask for what you don't have.
Don't go it alone if you can set up a consortium of interests. Students,
alumni and computer resource people all can help. Enlist the help
of the math and English departments, the library and others.
Tie technology to what the students need to do. Build structures
to deal with student needs in a way that's valuable to the institution.
Meet needs that are visible to the administration.
Working in isolation can be lonely and frustrating. Attend conferences
where people share information. Plug into national information databases
such as SpecialNet and bulletin board services. Start early convincing
people that your work is of national importance. Ask for money in
your grants to go to national conferences.
Don't buy equipment that will soon be outdated. Consult widely.
Try to anticipate two years in advance.
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Chapter 9
Disabled Computing Program
University of California, Los Angeles
The UCLA Disabled Computing Program (DCP) is part
of the university's Office of Academic Computing. Dr. Danny Hilton-Chalfen
first got involved in 1984 when he was working for Social Science
Computing as a graduate student, setting up campus microcomputer
labs. When the issue of on-campus access for people with disabilities
was raised, Hilton-Chalfen was asked to analyze the situation. His
recommendations led to the establishment of a Disability and Computing
Demonstration Lab as part of the Microcomputer Information Center.
Today, Hilton-Chalfen renders technical assistance in the Lab and
across campus for users with disabilities. As coordinator, he considers
himself a campus advocate of people with disabilities and for technology
access issues. He chairs EDUCOM's EASI (Equal Access for Software
Instruction), a special interest group that deals with disability
issues.
The DCP seeks to create and maintain an accessible
campus computing environment, and provide computing tools needed
to help those with disabilities be independent and successful in
their course work, research and employment.
The DCP established a demonstration Lab in the Office
of Academic Computing, with prototype workstations for demonstrations
and public access. This is one of three demonstration Labs. Another
deals with Apple and IBM advanced workstations, the third is a Network
Demonstration Lab.
DCP cooperates with other university disability interests,
including the Section 504 Office, the Office for Students with Disabilities
(OSD), the Chancellor's Advisory Committee on the Disabled, the
university's Personnel Office and the (student) Union for Students
with Disabilities.
In the School of Law, Humanities Computing, the Office
of Academic Computing and the Microcomputer Support Office, 504
walkthroughs of microcomputer labs and classrooms identified access
concerns and contributed to long-range planning. Jointly, DCP and
the 504 Office published an access guide that has been requested
by organizations nationwide. DCP helps direct incoming students
to OSD, recommends computer access strategies, and provides extensive
support in brailling class notes for visually impaired students.
DCP also provides custom support for foreign language brailling,
and brailles OSD publications.
DCP markets its services through campus presentations,
articles in the Dally Bruin student newspaper, and newsletters and
bulletins of the Office of Academic Computing, including UCLA Microcomputing
and Perspectives. Technology services are marketed through OSD publications,
and OSD distributes DCP publications. Note takers and students with
disabilities can check out laptop computers from DCP. Hilton-Chalfen
makes presentations to the OSD staff.
The computing support coordinators of various campus
labs meet regularly to discuss common issues, and Hilton-Chalfen
uses this forum to educate them on accessibility issues and specific
technologies. He is also committed to introducing technologies within
the new Disability and Technology Demonstration Lab.
These include using the Macintosh portable computer
for evaluating software for students with learning disabilities,
Toshiba laptops for note taking, the Kurzweil Personal Reader, DragonDictate
voice recognition, the AST 386 computer for running DragonDictate,
TSI's "Navigator" (a tactile-braille computer screen display)
NEC Multisynch VGA display for people with low vision, and a variety
of new software including PRD+ abbreviation expansion, GrandView
outline program, Duxbury English and Nemeth braille translation,
and Flipper voice synthesizer site license.
UCLA is part of a network of higher education campuses
in southern California, including Santa Monica Community College,
California State University, Northridge, and the University of California,
Irvine. Hilton-Chalfen consults with campuses in and out of the
area on implementing adaptive technology accessibility.
He also chairs the EASI project, a unit of EDUCOM,
the national professional association for computing in higher education.
EASI's mission is to provide information and guidance about adaptive
technology issues in higher education to other campuses, promote
exemplary programs and help fledgling programs.
Funding
DCP began in 1984 when Hilton-Chalfen, a graduate
student, gave 10 hours of his time in Social Sciences Computing
to adaptive computing issues. Some peripherals were purchased and
two workstations were designated as access stations.
In 1986, the University of California Chancellor's
Office approved a one-year pilot project on accessibility, took
Hilton-Chalfen's time up to 20 hours per week and awarded $20,000
for equipment. At year end Hilton-Chalfen proposed making the program
a permanent entity.
The Chancellor appointed a Task Force with members
from Social Sciences, Academic Computing and OSD to define the program
and determine where to house the program.
Today, DCP is in the third year of a four-year plan
that took Hilton-Chalfen's Coordinator position to full time, added
a full-time technical assistant, gave DCP an equipment budget ($25,000
for each of the first three years, $30,000 in the fourth year),
set up the Demonstration Lab, provided space and supplies, and gave
the unit the support of the campus at large.
Starting an Assistive Technology Program
Tips from Dr. Danny Hilton-Chalfen
A novice to such a program should examine resources
on campus that pertain to disability: committees, departments and
people involved in access issues.
Identify the basic organizational structure of campus computing
and encourage the players to get together. The players should develop
adaptive technology support and bring it to the attention of the
highest possible level of administration.
Encourage establishing a Task Force to address accessibility and
develop an action plan. The group will need supporting documentation
of activities on other campuses and legislation that influences
such a program.
Find an environment that will help the technology program flourish
and involve that department's management in your work.
As soon as possible, request staffing for a person whose sole responsibility
is support of this program. This should probably be a technical
person if the program is housed in Academic Computing. Beware of
having a person with split responsibilities in other areas of computing
or within the Office of Students with Disabilities.
Build relationships within the university. Go campus-wide from the
beginning. Become part of the larger computing picture.
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Chapter 10
Desktop Computing Services
University of Washington, Seattle
Sheryl Burgstahler is manager of Desktop Computing
Services (DCS) in the University of Washington Academic Computing
facility. Responsibilities include running student computer labs,
coordinating a consulting group, conducting computer fairs, working
with user groups and negotiating campus software licenses. Within
this framework, she sought to incorporate access services for students
with disabilities. When the program began eight years ago, Burgstahler
delivered technical services to students with disabilities. Today,
one of eight consultants under her administration deals with computing
access for students with disabilities. Burgstahler feels access
is best carried out in cooperation with the campus Disabled Student
Services Office (DSSO). With that director, Burgstahler and her
consultant identify and resolve access issues. Burgstahler also
has budget control over various campus computing labs, permitting
her to buy and place adaptive equipment in appropriate settings.
Most adaptive equipment is centralized in the Student Union HUB
Micro Lab, which houses 48 computer stations. The HUB is a physically
accessible, central location, with technical assistance (student
help) available during Lab hours. The DCS access-issues consultant,
supported half-time by a student, is called in as needed.
At some campus locations there are showrooms to demonstrate
computing equipment, at others there are computer labs. Other departments
may purchase and place adaptive equipment in their own labs instead
of in the HUB. When two blind students enrolled in the Law School,
for example, Burgstahler, DSSO, representatives from State Services
for the Blind and the Law School met to consider accessibility to
on-line legal information services. A system was configured, the
Law School purchased equipment, and students accessed information
from host computers in the Law School.
A group of students with disabilities formed a user
group, Computer Curb Cuts, which anyone from on- or off-campus can
attend. Burgstahler meets with the group six times a year. About
200 people in the Seattle area receive meeting announcements, and
recent meetings have featured vendors such as Dragon and Kurzweil.
Working with the DSSO director, Burgstahler obtained
a grant from Seattle's Library for the Blind for greater accessibility
on campus. A blind student can identify printed information of interest
to visually impaired students, and that material will be brailled
and put in a large-print format. Such information comes from such
areas as food services, library information services, computer labs
and admissions. Another joint DCS-DSSO project addresses training
a trainer--a blind student--who will give computing support to other
blind students on campus under tutelage from DCS consultants.
The DCS access-issues consultant deals mainly one-on-one
with students who have disabilities. It is not unusual for the consultant
and a blind student to sit side-by-side to evaluate the effects
of new software on the accuracy of braille output. Most questions
from other departments about computer access come to Burgstahler.
Computer-access services are marketed through joint
efforts of the Academic Computing Center and DSSO. There are mailboxes
for students in the DSSO office, and an active e-mail network on
campus with individual electronic mailboxes and bulletin boards.
Notices about services and special meetings are distributed electronically
and in hard copy. Large-print and brailled notices go into boxes
of blind and visually impaired students. Other marketing efforts
include articles in staff newsletters, the student newspaper and
internal computing newsletters about services.
The Academic Computing Office conducts an annual Computer
Fair. Statements about general physical accessibility go into literature
promoting the event. Promotional brochures are available in braille
and large print. At least one conference session deals with accessibility
for people with disabilities.
Burgstahler's office is a community resource. Individual
therapists and representatives from community colleges, hospitals
and the State Department of Rehabilitation visit the campus for
equipment demonstrations or to seek client evaluation referrals.
She also works with the university library on improved access. With
library information now available via networks, Burgstahler wants
to see easy access from the host computers within the library and
from networked computers elsewhere on campus.
Funding
Except for a modest grant from the Library for the
Blind, DCS is 100 percent university-funded. The university's commitment
includes equipment and software, space, staffing and supplies. As
the person with budget control, Burgstahler can add to the inventory
of adaptive equipment and special software as needed. When upgrading
a campus computer lab, for example, she can add adaptive equipment.
One problem is in anticipating what equipment students will need
in the future.
Starting an Assistive Technology Program
Tips from Sheryl Burgstahler
An ideal task force to help develop an assistive computing
program would consist of directors of the Disabled Student Services
Office and Academic Computing, key representatives from a student
organization representing people with disabilities, and representatives
from the library, affirmative action and admissions.
Develop a strong working relationship between the Disabled Student
Services Office and Academic Computing so the person from Academic
Computing can financially support technology services and make changes
as needed.
Identify needs, chip away at the problem, and ask what the program
can reasonably do to make a difference for students with disabilities.
Important information can inexpensively be brailled or put into
large print, and sometimes at no cost by off-campus, private or
government agencies serving the blind. A user group on access issues
also costs nothing. More interest than expertise is needed to get
started. Group members learn quickly from each other.
If the program has no equipment in the beginning, contact vendors
and ask them to come in and demonstrate equipment for the group.
The biggest problem is managing equipment--keeping it up and running
and ready to be demonstrated.
Network with peers in other colleges and universities to avoid isolation.
Contact groups such as EASI and AHSSPPE to stay on top of issues
in the field.
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Chapter 11
The Office of Services for Students with Disabilities
University of Nebraska, Lincoln
After seeing a demonstration of technology for students
with disabilities at a 1985 meeting conducted by Budd and Dolores
Hagen, organizers of the Closing the Gap technology conference,
Christy Horn wrote a three-year grant proposal to the Department
of Education Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services
(OSERS) for computers and staffing. At the University of Nebraska,
students with disabilities felt their lives were being controlled
by others, and to some extent that was true. Technology was an independence
issue. The OSERS grant provided technological support services to
students, primarily those with physical disabilities. On this project's
Advisory Board was the state director of Vocational Rehabilitation
(VR) Services. Working with the university, VR provided funding
to many students for personal computers and assistive devices. Tracking
computer time and comparing this with grade point averages, Horn
showed that students' grade point averages jumped from 1.99 to 2.92
in two years. The 2.92 GPA put students with disabilities right
where other students were, and they reported greater feelings of
independence.
In 1985, the University of Nebraska served about 25
students with disabilities through its Office of Affirmative Action.
Today, the Office of Services to Students with Disabilities (OSSD)
serves 500 students. Computer services contributed to this growth,
as did several other factors, including an article in Time magazine.
An April 3, 1989, cover story on student athletes
highlighted a University of Nebraska basketball player, Carl Hayes,
who had trouble reading. Hayes, referred to OSSD, was diagnosed
as having a learning disability. The article described educational
support services he received as a legally handicapped person, including
tape-recorded texts, and reading and note taking services.
Afterward, flooded with students, OSSD began getting
Athletic Department referrals of students with diagnosed or undiagnosed
learning disabilities. The office also got calls from other states
about its support of athletes. It developed intake instruments on
technological assessments and the kinds of accommodations students
would need.
Dr. David Beukelman, a professor of Special Education
and Communication Disorders, joined Horn's advisory board. So did
the heads of other organizations such as Nebraska's State Services
for the Visually Impaired. The university and VR spent $1 million
to make campus residence halls more accessible. A local hospital
provides attendant care. Lincoln has a city transportation system
for people with disabilities. Beukelman oversees technology assessments.
VR assesses most learning disabilities.
Horn secured more funds--an 18-month, $132,000 Research
and Development grant from the Department of Education's Technology
and Media Division. InfoNet networked an IBM system with CD-Rom
drivers that was field-tested at the university and with high school
and elementary students with disabilities. Voice output allowed
people with print disabilities to access information without having
to do heavy reading. When the grants ended, the university's chancellor
approved formation of the OSSD and Horn, who had been the technology
trainer, was appointed coordinator.
The OSSD has the most sophisticated computer lab on
campus. The Computer Resource Center donated two Macintosh computers,
and the OSSD has some access technology in the residence halls.
Many students have their own access devices.
New students are connected with VR right away so they
can get their own equipment. VR works more directly with students
with physical disabilities. OSSD refers blind and visually impaired
students to State Services for the Visually Impaired, where they
typically receive training and equipment loans. When a new student
contacts OSSD, Horn handles straightforward recommendations for
technology. She uses Buekelman (an augmentive communication expert),
VR, or local hospitals for specialized assessment. VR often purchases
equipment for individual clients within two weeks after recommendations
are made.
Nebraska is a rural state, so the university serves
many rural students with and without disabilities. OSSD also has
a special program to serve minority students who are university
athletes. These are primarily students with learning disabilities
that went undiagnosed until they got to the university. VR helps
market university services to students with disabilities using brochures
that have information about OSSD.
Horn is active in the field through several professional
associations. She chairs the Technical Advisory Group for Nebraska's
Technology-Related Assistance Act, funded by NIDRR. In AHSSPPE she
chairs the Computer Special Interest Group. Horn arranged a hands-on
technology demonstration at the 1991 AHSSPPE conference in Minneapolis.
She has attended the CSUN conference, presented a half-day workshop
on Computer Access at the October 1991 Closing the Gap conference,
and is active in the EDUCOM EASI Special Interest Group on Disability.
Funding
Two federal grants initiated the university's technology
services and were the chief motivation for forming OSSD. When the
grants ended, the university picked up Horn's salary as coordinator
and paid for some student assistants, $35,000 for interpreters and
other service providers, and some equipment.
The university Foundation has awarded small grants
for equipment. Graduate assistants come from educational psychology,
speech pathology and special education. Space is an important factor.
OSSD is located in a prime, centrally located spot near the bookstore,
the University Student Union and the residence halls.
Starting an Assistive Technology Program
Tips from Christy Horn
One of the biggest mistakes is to get $100,000 worth
of computer equipment and no staff. A good staff consists of someone
full time in charge of the computer lab, and someone who is good
at training students on the equipment. Graduate students are a good
resource.
Get students up on computers as soon as possible to take tests.
Keep labor-intensive activities down. Tell students very early that
they are going to have to take tests on computers.
Follow the new technologies. Voice input is an exciting new technology.
Do your homework--don't spend money on something you haven't seen.
Get to conferences and haunt the exhibit halls. Take a piece of
software with you. Make them demonstrate that new technologies work
with your equipment.
Connect into campus and community resources. VR is a critical community
contact. On campus, use computer science people. Seniors often have
to do projects, computer science majors can help write manuals for
software or set up batch files, others can do research on new equipment,
special education majors can do volunteer work, and all students
can work as tutors.
If you get started on federal money, don't wait for funding to end
to connect into the university system, and connect early while the
student population is low. If you don't have outside funding, go
to the University Foundation for equipment to get started. It's
not so hard to get money for equipment. It's tougher to get money
for staffing support and training.
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Chapter 12
Adaptive Computing Technology Center
University of Missouri, Columbia
Columbia, Missouri, is home to the world-famous Rusk
Rehabilitation Center, which deals with spinal cord injuries. Because
it has a relatively high number of wheelchair-users, Columbia has
been a leader ln physical access. It was one of the first cities
to cut curbs. Federal grants predating Section 504 of the 1973 Rehabilitation
Act provided for physical renovations on campus. In 1985, year-end
funds in the university Equal Opportunity Office were designated
for physical access projects. Because this $10,000 wasn't enough
to fund a significant physical renovation project, the Computing
Center was asked if it could use the money to give students with
disabilities access to computers. A committee formed to consider
campus-wide computer access for students with disabilities, leading
to the immediate purchase of a few adaptive devices and salary for
a half-time graduate assistant. A white paper detailed how the university
could make computer access part of its mission. From then on, the
university has taken a leadership role in providing computer access
to students with disabilities.
As microcomputer labs were established at the University
of Missouri's Columbia campus in the early 1980s, students with
disabilities and others began raising access issues. Not much was
done until 1985, when the university's Equal Opportunity Office
encouraged Campus Computing to consider electronic access as a way
to spend year-end money designated for physical access.
A group was formed that consisted of representatives
from the university Access Office, the Rehabilitation Counseling
Program, the Rusk Center and a medical pediatrics faculty member.
They recommended that a Total Talk PC be purchased and a half-time
graduate assistant assigned to help students with disabilities.
William Mitchell, director of advanced projects for
the Computing Center, said the group continued to work on a model
of access. The Computing Center supported a half-time person, then
increased to full-time. The Adaptive Computing Technology (ACT)
Center now has two full-time people and graduate assistant support.
Early in its history, to attract vendors and university
support, ACT made presentations at national conferences. When EDUCOM
formed its Special Interest Group on Disability and sought a campus
to act as its first home base, the Center volunteered to coordinate
activities. ACT continued coalition-building efforts, bringing together
university administrators, Rusk Center and University of Missouri
Medical Center teaching faculty, Vocational Rehabilitation, State
Services for the Blind, major manufacturers such as IBM and Apple
and a host of smaller vendors.
The Computing Center increased ACT staffing and space
and allocated up to $40,000 a year for equipment. IBM and Apple
donated equipment, and other vendors donated or loaned equipment.
Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) and Services for the Blind supported
purchases of equipment for their clients.
ACT works cooperatively with VR and Services for the
Blind by performing student technology assessments, followed by
written recommendations for the purchase of equipment. The average
system costs about $5,000; some have cost $10,000. VR funds an estimated
$40,000 in equipment per year, and has for three years. At VR's
request, ACT evaluates clients who are not university students on
a fee-for-service basis.
ACT Center services are marketed in several ways.
An all-university publication, A Student Guide to Computing, goes
to all freshmen. ACT services are emphasized in this guide. The
Access Office tells all students with disabilities about ACT, and
Campus Computing distributes information. The ACT Center publishes
a newsletter. ACT's testing and training room is in the Arts and
Sciences Lab, the hub of computing, open 24 hours a day, in a central
campus location. The ACT Center routinely consults with state colleges,
which send representatives to examine the ACT program.
The Center receives inquiries from within and outside
the state. ACT Center staff cooperated with IBM to write the WordPerfect
profile for IBM's ScreenReader. This has now become an IBM standard
and is distributed along with the ScreenReader.
The Access Office recently sponsored a program on
the Impact of the Americans with Disabilities Act and ACT contributed
a segment on adaptive equipment. Center staff demonstrate adaptive
technology at state conferences, including two sponsored recently
by VR. ACT also has placed equipment at the Rusk Rehabilitation
Center, which offers training and technical support.
Funding
The university Computing Center completely funds ACT.
All students pay a $2-per-credit fee to partially support campus
computing efforts, generating $1.2 million per year. This supports
ACT staff and provides up to $30,000 per year for devices for students
with disabilities. The fund also provides a half-time graduate assistant
and other student help.
ACT formed a critical alliance with VR and Services
for the Blind to provide equipment for individual students. The
university has no grants, but is in the process of applying for
grants to provide services to a broader clientele outside the university.
The ACT Center's work with VR clients who are not university students
is in its early stages. The Center performs assessments and makes
recommendations to VR at a $45-per-hour fee for service.
Starting an Assistive Technology Program
Tips from William Mitchell
It is important for an Adaptive Computing Model to
have goals--direction. priorities, philosophy.
A university that is already in the computer support business, with
labs on campus, has a leg up. Secure access to the machines to give
priority to students with disabilities. Usually such labs are already
staffed, often with graduate students. Find a graduate student who
is computer literate and interested in access for students with
disabilities, and try to get him/her assigned to supporting the
hardware.
Talk to other players on campus. Build a coalition of supporters
from the Access Office, the Learning Center, faculty or staff with
disabilities themselves.
To get started, use existing equipment and people. A lot can be
done that costs very little. Use a trackball instead of a mouse
or special software that allows single-finger input. Do inexpensive
things first; find students with disabilities who need support and
start serving them.
Program developers should talk to vendors. All universities work
with vendors, many of whom will provide adaptive equipment on loan.
Access is legislatively mandated, but don't push that too hard.
Be positive. Have references handy to show you are meeting a legal
mandate.
Steer the program where you can have maximum impact. If you have
more blind than learning-disabled students, go in that direction.
Form links with the campus Access Office, which can schedule tests
and help support test proctoring of students with disabilities through
the use of computers; the campus Learning Center, which can provide
tutoring; and the library.
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Chapter 13
Training and Resource Center for the Blind
University of New Orleans, Louisiana
Oliver St. Pe, with a background in political science
and public administration, joined the University of New Orleans
(UNO) in 1984. He was to conduct programs in continuing professional
education for public administrators under UNO's Public Service Training
Program, an outreach program for enhancing quality of life throughout
Louisiana. Blind himself, St. Pe used a computer in his work and
personal life. In 1985, his department approved $5,000 in computer
support for St. Pe. Seeing how it helped him, he proposed an adaptive
computing program to the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals
(DHH) to train blind employees. DHH gave St. Pe a memorandum of
understanding and UNO supported a $15,000 loan, which was paid back
over three semesters from tuition fees. Nearly 1,900 DHH employees
have been trained under a $500,000 contract between DHH and TRCB--the
Training and Resource Center for the Blind (and Other Handicapped).
Blind and visually impaired matriculated UNO students enrolled in
the second series of courses. TRCB now serves students, teachers
and rehabilitation counselors, and blind and visually impaired community
members throughout Louisiana.
Based on his own experience as a blind person profiting
from technology, St. Pe developed a program to serve Louisiana state
employees with contracts from the Departments of Vocational Rehabilitation,
Transportation and Development, and Health and Hospitals, as well
as UNO students with disabilities. He established the TRCB as an
advisory, information/technical, evaluation and training center
to make knowledge and information accessible through the use of
technology to those with impaired vision and other disabilities.
A program development and planning team was formed.
Eight of 10 members were visually impaired. St. Pe and his group
finally arrived at a curriculum of 150 contact hours that covered
screen access, DOS, word processing and exposure to Lotus 1-2-3.
The initial course was offered to blind and visually
impaired students who were sponsored by Vocational Rehabilitation
(VR), the Veterans Administration (VA) and the Greater New Orleans
Council for the Blind. The only criteria were a high school diploma
and minimal typing skills. UNO students were added with the second
course offering and, later, service was extended to blind and visually
impaired community members. The Center now offers courses in data
management and medical transcription, word processing, DOS, Lotus
1-2-3 and other programs.
TRCB predated and influenced the formation and development
of the university's Office of Handicapped Student Services (OHSS).
TRCB helps students take tests, offering equipment and consultation
in conjunction with the Learning Lab and OHSS. TRCB does materials
production (large print, braille) and test duplicating for students
and professors and is a resource as well to off-campus, non-traditional
students taking no-credit courses.
TRCB works closely with OHSS, which identifies students
and encourages them to take advantage of the Center's technology
services. TRCB has brochures and flyers, and participates in most
state conferences and conventions. The Center conducts tours for
high school teachers, who let their students know what to expect
when they come to UNO. TRCB also works with the VA and other federal
agencies.
TRCB has encouraged the university to make its campus
physically accessible and learning accessible to all students. In
1989, TRCB gave $10,000 in rehabilitation funds to improve accessibility
in campus buildings by installing automatic doors, building ramps
and improving accessibility to bathrooms and drinking fountains.
The university offers a course to all students, Computer Science
1000, Introduction to Computer Literacy. St. Pe teaches a section
of this course in adaptive microcomputing for students with disabilities.
In addition to teaching continuing education courses,
TRCB serves as a resource to Louisiana's VR by teaching, evaluating
clients, maintaining a demonstration lab, performing research on
blindness and other disabilities, and helping with case management
files.
All policy manuals are now electronically accessible;
a blind or visually impaired rehabilitation counselor can access
this information through large print, braille or speech synthesis.
All counselors with disabilities in Louisiana have adapted computers
on their desks. TRCB developed a software system that helps Rehabilitation
Services maintain the state-mandated Louisiana Blind Registry, a
list of state residents who are legally blind.
Under another contract, TRCB assessed the size of
the state's deaf-blind population. A resulting report included demographic,
education and training information on this population. A nine-month
grant allowed TRCB to provide creative and practical technological
and other strategies as a supplement to classroom instruction for
20 visually impaired young people, aged 14-22.
The Center serves as consultant to the Harris-Lanier
computer manufacturing company, installing medical transcription
systems designed to accommodate those who are blind. Staff members
have helped install systems in Louisiana, Maryland, South Carolina
and Oklahoma. The Center has completed modifications and supplemental
training for Chevron, the VA, the U.S. Navy, the New Orleans City
Attorney's Office, Watters Petroleum and others.
Funding
TRCB began with a university loan for $15,000. Six
months later the Center received a $200,000 equipment grant from
the Department of Rehabilitation.
Today, the program's $250,000 annual budget includes
training counselors, carrying out research, developing access standards,
holding workshops on blindness, and offering information on the
Americans with Disabilities Act.
The Center also manages training for the state's Randolph
Sheppard Program. Under a VR contract TRCB trains staff and vendors.
Marketing plans and strategies are developed. The Center has plans
for a $3 million rehabilitation center to house its programs.
The Department of Vocational Rehabilitation has spent
$250,000 for engineering and architectural studies. A bill authorizing
$2.5 million to complete the facility is pending in the legislature,
and a 30,000-square-foot building (attached to a residential facility)
is planned for 1994. The institutional commitment includes space,
and the university will fund new operations. St. Pe's salary and
that of 17 staff members is generated by program income.
The Center has no federal grants, although St. Pe
would like to secure federal grants for long-term research and development
on topics such as the correlation between assessment information
and the effectiveness of a student upon completion of training.
TRBC staff have worked with different departments
on campus to secure grants for special equipment for students with
disabilities. Equipment purchased for the Computer Research Center,
the library, and the Media and Learning Centers include closed-circuit
television systems, desk-top microcomputers with voice synthesizers
and large print software, a camera projection system for large print
images, a reading machine and a braille printer.
Starting an Assistive Technology Program
Tips from William Mitchell
Take help where you find it. Build coalitions but
don't form committees. Instead, share your experiences with others.
Seek out those who share your interests in the English and math
departments, the library, the bookstore, and Special Education,
where people with disabilities seek help.
Join associations like EASI or AHSSPPE. Go to conferences, find
out what the rest of the world is doing. Ask questions: How did
you finance your work? What did your administration think about
it? What is your relationship with Vocational Rehabilitation? As
you get up on the learning curve, pray for inspiration and figure
it out yourself.
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Chapter 14
Vocational Rehabilitation Programs
El Centro College, Dallas
El Centro College is a comprehensive community college,
an urban institution whose mission is to serve the widest possible
array of students. Serving students with disabilities always has
been part of that mission. Since 1976, El Centro has offered, in
conjunction with the Texas Rehabilitation Commission (TRC), a Career
Training Program funded by TRC. The program offers basic math and
developmental reading skills. Another program, Computer Programmer
Training (CPT) for the Physically Challenged, began in 1985 to prepare
students with disabilities to perform management information services
work in major Dallas/Fort Worth corporations. In 1987, an Office
Systems Training (OST) Program for the Disabled was developed as
a middle ground to meet the needs of students in between the Career
Training Program and CPT. The Career Training Program now serves
as a feeder program for OST. El Centro president Dr. Wright Lassiter,
Jr., sees the OST program as a natural part of a comprehensive program
for people with disabilities. Technological resources also are offered
El Centro students with disabilities who are not enrolled in the
Career Training Program, the CPT or the OST. Under Special Services
Office (SSO) Director Jim Handy, assistive devices for students
with disabilities have been placed in El Centro's Computer Lab.
El Centro's Career Training Program is one of the
largest Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) community college programs
in the southwest. IBM and El Centro's Business Advisory Committee
(BAC) played a large role in starting the Computer Programmer Training
Program for the Physically Challenged. The BAC, composed of representatives
from the Dallas/Fort Worth business community, ensures instruction
is current, monitors teaching quality, and helps evaluate the program.
They have become advocates for the program.
CPT began with the vision of Hal Heitz of IBM, who
took a six-month sabbatical to plan the program. He also sought
support from other companies that could donate state-of-the-art
equipment and hire graduates when they completed training. Heitz
involved the Dallas Mayor's Committee on Employment of People with
Disabilities and built an initial Computer Training Program BAC
of 50 members.
Students who enter Computer Programmer Training must
be physically challenged, must have a high school diploma, above-average
intelligence, and a 12th grade reading level and must pass a Computer
Battery Test with a minimum score at the 50th percentile. Over the
first five years, 20 students entered the program. The number recently
dropped to between 12 and 15 eligible students. But rather than
loosen admission criteria, El Centro stepped up its marketing program.
VR Program Director Gloria Rosenberg says CPT has relied on rehabilitation
counselors for referral so far, but is making contact with insurance
companies, hospitals and back pain clinics to reach a group of people
who do not usually seek vocational rehabilitation.
In Computer Programmer Training's second year, the
staff began to discover many motivated students with disabilities
who did not meet program criteria, and the Office Systems Training
program was conceived. The TRC provided $98,000 in support, and
a second BAC was formed.
El Centro considers job placement its greatest indicator
of success. Most Computer Programmer graduates, 89 in all, are placed
in BAC companies. The CPT placed 100 percent of graduates for the
first four years, then 12 of 15, then 10 of 12. An eight-month training
program is followed by a two-month internship, usually in a BAC
company. OST has a 76 percent placement record.
The CPT curriculum, more stringent than one offered
through regular El Centro courses, is handled as non-credit courses
under the college's Continuing Education Program. A BAC Curriculum
Committee helps the program keep up with this rapidly changing field.
Finding qualified instructors and maintaining them is the program's
key to success. CPT graduates are finding jobs in the community
at salaries between $21,000 and $30,000, with an average of $26,000.
CPT staff meets with supervisors before a new employee is placed.
They discuss what to expect and how to accommodate the employee.
CPT students are largely male, white and middle-aged.
In six years, eight women, two blacks, one Hispanic and one Asian
student have completed the program. In early classes there were
more people with congenital disabilities. This has shifted to those
who have more recently experienced a disability. The OST program
more accurately reflects El Centro's ethnic makeup. OST is 50-50
male-female and 50 percent minority. The average starting pay for
an OST graduate is $14,000 to $18,000 per year.
Students with disabilities take other courses at El
Centro, and the SSO provides interpreters, readers, tutors and note
takers. All students, including those with disabilities, use equipment
in the college Computer Lab, which offers devices such as large
print, braille printers and speech synthesizers.
Funding
The college supports the VR programs with space and
by covering administrative overhead. The facility is located in
generous, attractive space in El Centro's downtown Dallas facility,
formerly a department store.
Initial 1985 funding of $72,000 for the CPT came from
the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA), a combination of city and
county funds. TRC added $50,000. JTPA also supported the OST Program.
TRC and the Texas Commission for the Blind have supported El Centro
programs.
Before 1985, the rehabilitation organizations supported
the Career Training Program and the OST program, and supported the
purchase of personal computers and adaptive devices for students
enrolled in the CPT program.
Starting an Assistive Technology Program
Tips from Dr. Wright Lassiter, Jr., and Gloria Rosenberg
Have one Business Advisory Committee instead of two,
with a strong Public Relations Subcommittee.
It is critical to keep all partners and partnerships up to date.
They can include the college administration, program staff and all
other supporting organizations. The chain of communication has to
keep flowing.
There was initial concern about the tough eligibility criteria for
the Computer Programmer Training Program, but it has proved itself
and is now a showcase program. The students view it as a tough program,
like boot camp. But the Business Advisory Committee sees the students
as well qualified, more qualified, often, than graduates of other
area programs.
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Chapter 15
Adaptive Technology Laboratory
Southern Connecticut State University
By spring of 1988, many professors at Southern Connecticut
State University (SCSU) required students to use computers for writing,
accounting, information management, research and statistics, simulations,
computer programming and computer-aided design. While computer laboratories
were available at several points on campus, students with learning,
visual and physical disabilities had no access to the hardware or
software. A cross department committee was formed to address these
needs and propose solutions through an Adaptive Technology Laboratory
(ATL). The ATL was conceived as a unit that would insure equal access
to computers for SCSU students and staff, support university teacher
education departments, and become a community resource to serve
non-university teachers, professionals and people with disabilities.
ATL administrators visited California's High-Tech Training Center
for two days of intensive training, and Center Director Carl Brown
visited SCSU to help the fledgling Lab. A major contribution of
the ATL is its Start-Up Kit, a compilation of intake, evaluation
and service forms; a list of resources; self-directed training modules
for adaptive devices; word processing curricula; and a student survey
(feedback) form. A disk is included that has information about starting
a lab in a postsecondary institution.
Motivated by Sections 504 and 508 of the Rehabilitation
Act, and in response to requests for assistance from several blind
students, a cross-departmental committee of university faculty,
staff and administrators concluded that access was a university
responsibility. An Adaptive Technology Laboratory (ATL) was formed
and a grant was prepared that ultimately brought $25,000 worth of
equipment to the ATL, which is based in the library.
The Lab, in operation for 2.5 years, is a centralized
operation whose influence spreads across campus in several ways.
Students with learning disabilities have learned that the university's
Macintosh Lab has five trackballs, making the Mac Lab computers
accessible.
The ATL has helped other campus computer labs make
physical accommodations for wheelchair users. The ATL helped the
Institute for Classroom Computing write a proposal to IBM that secured
adaptive equipment for use there. Students can borrow software to
take to other labs, and laptop computers are available on loan.
Under a small grant from the Office of the Vice President
of Academic Affairs, Lab staff conducted training workshops for
SCSU faculty. One Art Department faculty member held a class competition
to design an ATL logo. A Communications class fulfilled a class
requirement by producing a videotape on the ATL.
A new 1991 course addresses Adaptive Technology and
Augmentive Communication. In the Special Education courses, students
are offered the option of carrying out a class assignment in the
ATL. One option calls for students to do a case study on a particular
student with a disability and recommend appropriate adaptive devices.
Computer Science seniors and graduate students in Social Work do
internships in the ATL.
Students with disabilities who use the ATL may take
a formal word processing course over five to 10 weeks. Students
may seek individual solutions to problems and use the Lab as a resource
to support their course work. About 40 students with disabilities
per semester use the Lab.
The university offers a non-credit course in remedial
English for those who have insufficient background for the required
Freshman Composition course. One section is for students with learning
disabilities, and the ATL will support that class with a Writing
Lab. The state Bureau of Rehabilitation has purchased computer systems
for about 25 students with disabilities. The Board of Education
and Services for the Blind may buy computer systems for blind or
visually impaired students as they seek employment.
The Lab markets its services through the Disabled
Student Services (DSS) office and through a newsletter, Writing
Without Worry, that encourages students to learn word processing
skills. The ATL also publishes a brochure that describes its services
and lists a schedule of classes. The Lab has been the subject of
articles in the New York Times and the Hartford Courant, and it
recently won national recognition from the American Association
of State Colleges and Universities.
The ATL is a community resource. The Bureau of Rehabilitation
Services and the Board of Education and Services for the Blind refer
clients for evaluation and training under a small contract. The
ATL holds a monthly open house for community members, and holds
training sessions for rehabilitation counselors and community members.
Parents and teachers from local high schools visit the Lab.
During registration, it is recommended that students
with learning disabilities take a word processing course in the
ATL. These are offered on a non-credit basis and can be tailored
to individual needs. In preparation for a presentation on Establishing
an Adaptive Technology Lab in a Postsecondary Institution at a 1991
conference on technology and people with disabilities, Barbara Heinich,
Amy Rubin, Jan Hecht and DeWitt Luze began compiling forms they
felt would be helpful to new programs.
Assembling the materials, they realized the information's
value. The presentation evolved into a Start-up Kit--a compilation
of forms, a list of resources, self-directed teaching modules for
six adaptive devices, word processing curricula, a student feedback
form and a disk with more information. The Lab sells the kit for
$149 as an information packet and a way to raise funds for the program.
As the kit is updated, buyers receive new information. After purchase,
the ATL offers telephone support, even visits in some cases to help
people in the start-up phase. ATL staff have spoken in five states.
Funding
The ATL is staffed by a half-time professor of Special
Education and two half-time professionals. They receive some student
assistant help. A consultant, paid with state funds, was available
five to 10 hours a week. He worked with difficult students and trained
ATL staff members.
Today, the ATL pays for his services with other funds.
The initial equipment grant from state funds in 1988 was $17,000.
This was supplemented by a $25,000 equipment grant from the Academic
Computing Department.
Another revenue source is from their work (at $45
per hour) with the Bureau of Rehabilitation Services for clients
who are not SCSU students. The Start-up Kit generates funds, and
there are donations from service clubs such as Lions and Rotary.
Starting an Assistive Technology Program
Tips from Amy Rubin
Go for a broad-based committee. Get people in a lot
of different areas involved. Don't tuck your Lab where others can't
be exposed to it.
The Start-up Kit is a conscious effort to share information with
new programs to help them get started. It is a valuable resource.
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Chapter 16
Center for the Vocationally Challenged
Grossmont Community College, El Cajon
Scott Barr, director of the Center for the Vocationally
Challenged (CVC), has raised $4.4 million for this program since
1986. CVC offers Computer Programmer Training, PC Specialist Training
and Local Area Network (LAN) Specialist Training for the Physically
Challenged. Sparked by a meeting at the 1986 conference, Technology
and Persons With Disabilities, and an initial course in Computer
Programmer Training for orthopedically challenged individuals, CVC
has broadened its course offerings, added an Adaptive Technology
Lab for all students with disabilities and expanded its audience
to include people who are blind and visually impaired, deaf and
hearing impaired, learning disabled, orthopedically disabled, spinal
cord injured, and recovering drug and alcohol abusers. New programs--PC
Specialist and Local Area Network (LAN) Support Specialist--have
helped increase the number of participants.
In 1986, a computer science instructor from Grossmont
Community College attended the Technology and Persons with Disabilities
conference, participating in a session conducted by an IBM representative
from Maryland who discussed IBM-sponsored computer programmer courses
for physically challenged people. Later, she attended an Association
of Rehabilitation Programs in Data Processing meeting in Florida
to learn more.
She and Scott Barr, then on staff at a nearby college,
co-wrote a proposal that followed the IBM model. This was funded
by the Chancellor's Office of the California Community Colleges
for a year at $315,000, and Barr was hired to direct the program.
Barr and a newly established Business Advisory Committee
looked at the needs of San Diego businesses and designed a computer
programmer training program to meet local needs. Students who participate
in the computer programmer training program must have an IQ of 110
or above, financial means to support themselves while in training
for almost a year, and academic skills and physical stamina to maintain
24 units (versus 12 for the average Grossmont student).
Realizing these criteria excluded many with disabilities,
Barr and his staff designed other programs to broaden the group's
range of employment possibilities. The PC Specialist Program was
initiated to teach people a spectrum of off-the-shelf business software
applications. Within this program were subcourses in office procedures
and speed typing.
Placement rates are high. All 16 students in the first
computer programmer class were placed. The overall placement rate
is 87 percent. Graduating classes in the PC Specialist Program have
comparable placement rates and their salaries nearly equal those
of the computer programmers. By adding courses, the program moved
from serving 22 trainees per year to 130.
A new program, Local Area Network (LAN) Support Specialist,
was added in January 1992 to teach participants to install, support
and configure LANs.
Dozens of colleges have installed training programs
based on the CVC model for people with disabilities and for others.
IBM, which initially supported only computer programmer
training programs with grants of equipment, now supports PC Specialist
training programs. Because of the increasing numbers of participating
Grossmont students, the local Department of Rehabilitation (DR)
added two full-time counselors.
The number of students with disabilities--some enrolled
in CVC, some enrolled in other college courses--has grown considerably.
The Chair of Grossmont's Computer Science Department sits on the
BAC curriculum committee and uses CVC's BAC as an Advisory Board
to the Department of Computer Science.
Barr formed a new campus group, the Committee for
the Disabled, to share information and coordinate resources. Membership
has grown from eight to 21 members, and the group meets regularly
to consider a range of academic and support services to students
with disabilities.
CVC was nominated as one of nine exemplary programs
for special populations by the Chancellor's Office of the California
Community Colleges. Barr uses that position to advocate the development
of similar programs, including such courses as microcomputer repair
and computer-aided design training. He also leads a new state group,
Innovators in Rehabilitation.
A key part of CVC is that, from the beginning, students
rub shoulders with employers. The BAC meets with them regularly
and they serve as interns in many companies. During training, students
dress as data processing professionals and are called trainees,
not students. If ill, students are expected to call in by 8 a.m.
If they expect to be late, they call and let someone know. They
work in teams as they will on the job, and their skills are evaluated
every two months.
The San Diego Community College District sent representatives
to Grossmont to consider replicating the CVC programs. Other visitors
have included representatives from Hawaii and England.
Funding
The Computer Programmer Training Program began with
a one-year, $315,000 grant from the Chancellor's Office of the California
Community Colleges. CVC's contribution back to the District is the
generation of average daily attendance (ADA).
The District receives state reimbursement for students
served. As CVC attracted more students, the state increased ADA
payments to the District. CVC now produces $350,000 per year in
ADA funds for the District and is nearly self-supporting.
In the second year, the California Department of Rehabilitation
became a permanent partner with a grant of $115,897. Its 1991-92
contribution is $333,000. As programs and services grew to include
vocational evaluation and guidance and job placement for non-students,
these became fee-for-service programs with funding coming from such
sources as individuals and private insurance companies.
CVC also receives support from IBM; the San Diego
Community Foundation; Greater Avenues for Independence, Department
of Social Services; and others.
Starting an Assistive Technology Program
Tips from Scott Barr
The first step is to determine need. Start with anecdotal
data, talk to students. What do they need? You can do formal research
later. The key is to conduct business the way successful businesses
conduct business. A part of that is, never lower your standards.
The problem is not raising money to initiate the program; that's
easier than you think. The real problem is securing funding year
after year to sustain the program.
New program managers should understand differences in philosophy
between the education and business systems. Business Advisory Committee
(BAC) members are enthusiastic about training computer programmers,
but the secretarial training program also will result in jobs for
many people with disabilities.
Keep the BAC active and working. CVC conducts an annual self-evaluation,
then the BAC does a separate evaluation and compares it to the staff-generated
one. The BAC is structured by this document each year--each BAC
committee sets its own goals, objectives and time lines.
Barr advocates a talent-search-approach to selecting candidates
for training rather than a screening-out process. Programs should
accept responsibility for bringing prospective candidates up to
program standards rather than dilute program criteria.
Identify local needs and design programs to meet these needs.
Use a single BAC for all programs.
Design the program from entrance to exit--so students will be employed.
Everyone in the CVC accepts responsibility for helping the students
find jobs.
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Chapter 17
The Technology Group
California State University, Northridge (CSUN)
In October 1985, CSUN's Office of Disabled Student
Services conducted an on-campus conference, Technology and Persons
with Disabilities. Expecting 200 local participants, CSUN opened
its doors to more than 600, some from foreign countries. This conference
grew into a larger meeting that draws 2,000 people to Los Angeles
each March. It involves more than 220 speakers and 100 exhibitors.
It is the model for similar conferences in Australia, New Zealand
and Europe. In partnership with Pacific Telesis Foundation, CSUN
offers conference scholarships (registration fee waivers) to parents
and people with disabilities. The Foundation has granted $90,000
over four years, and CSUN has added $140,000. About 600 scholarships
have been offered to date. CSUN then secured grants to develop a
Computer Access Lab for students; a multistate training project
for rehabilitation counselors, rehabilitation facility personnel
and employers; and an engineering project, the Universal Access
System. Other grants were secured to develop SoundProof, a screen-reading
program for people with learning disabilities, a project to evaluate
technologies for people with learning disabilities and a conference
on Virtual Reality and Persons with Disabilities.
Dr. Harry Murphy is director of CSUN's Office of Disabled
Student Services (ODSS). For the last 20 years he has written and
administered dozens of grants totaling tens of millions of dollars.
He conducted many seminars and workshops over 15 years before establishing
CSUN's Technology and Persons with Disabilities conference.
From 1972 to 1979, Murphy was assistant director of
CSUN's National Center on Deafness. Between 1979 and 1983, as a
consultant to the national training firm, the Grantsmanship Center
of Los Angeles, he trained 2,000 people in 39 states in 100 week-long
workshops on grant writing and grants administration.
Murphy returned to CSUN in 1983 to head ODSS, which
is charged with carrying out mandated educational support services--including
note taking, tutoring and reading--for 800 students with disabilities.
Another CSUN campus office, the National Center on Deafness, provides
interpreting and other services for another 220 deaf students.
These services are mandated under Section 504 of the
Rehabilitation Act and by directives of the Chancellor's Office
of the California State University (CSU) system, a network of 20
campuses offering bachelor's and master's degrees.
About 365,000 students are enrolled on 20 CSU campuses;
8,000 have disabilities. CSUN, a campus of 30,000 in Los Angeles's
northern suburbs, serves 1,000 of the 8,000 students with disabilities.
CSUN has had an impact on adaptive technology because of the grants
it has secured to conduct innovative technology projects, and because
of its Technology and Persons with Disabilities conference.
CSUN's major contribution in 1985 was to create a
forum for sharing information about adaptive technology. The Technology
and Persons with Disabilities conference is primarily supported
through exhibit and registration fees. The Pacific Telesis Foundation
awarded $90,000 in grants over four years for conference scholarships
for parents and people with disabilities.
The conference has more than matched that amount,
waiving another $140,000 in registration fees to award scholarships
to more than 600 persons. At the end of each conference, a Proceedings
is published and distributed. Authors retain a copyright to their
work and can publish their papers elsewhere. Professional groups
of all kinds are urged to use the conference as a place to hold
their own meetings. The conference provides a room at no charge
for such national, regional or local groups.
Those who associated CSUN with technology as a result
of the conference assumed CSUN was also a leader in the use of assistive
devices for students with disabilities. This motivated the ODSS
leadership to seek external funding for a Computer Access Lab (CAL),
where students with disabilities could experiment with assistive
devices and equipment, receive training, and gain access to equipment
that would help them with their university studies and prepare them
for employment.
At that time, the ODSS was supported by state funds
and charged under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973
with providing mandated educational support services. ODSS saw technology
and computer access as 504 issues and an effective means of carrying
out the university's responsibility to this population.
It was clear from the start that CSUN could be a powerful
advocate for technology use by combining the visibility and credibility
of its conference with high visibility and credibility of a Computer
Access Lab and other programs.
The conference has a growing international influence.
ln 1991, representatives from 19 countries attended. Murphy has
consulted in Australia, New Zealand and Europe, where similar conferences
are now modeled after the CSUN meeting. He serves each year on the
Program Committee of the European Conference on Computers and the
Handicapped (Vienna, Austria) and has twice keynoted the National
Conference of New Zealand on Technology and Disability.
In 1991 he keynoted the statewide conference of Tasmania,
Australia, and the national conference on blindness in Prague. CSUN
also recently joined the University of Karlsruhe in Germany to help
the Technical Institute of Prague under a grant to Eastern European
universities by the European Economic Community. The Technical Institute
will establish technological support services to blind students
and sponsor the first national conference of Czechoslovakia on Technology
and Blindness.
Funding
In 1987, CSUN received an equipment grant from Apple
Computer to initiate its Computer Access Lab (CAL). Soon after,
the California Department of Rehabilitation awarded the Lab a two-year
grant for equipment and staffing. Over the next three years, CAL
received equipment grants from Apple, IBM, Hewlett-Packard and other
manufacturers and distributors, eventually making it a $300,000
investment.
In 1988, CSUN received a three-year grant from the
Department of Education Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA)
to conduct training in technology among rehabilitation counselors,
rehabilitation facility personnel and employers in California, Arizona,
Nevada, Hawaii, Guam, Saipan and American Samoa.
The same year, CSUN received a three-year grant from
the Department of Education Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary
Education (FIPSE) for the Universal Access System, an engineering
project to make all computers accessible to people with disabilities.
This takes place through a two-way, infrared link. This project
won a national award from the American Association of State Colleges
and Universities.
Also in 1988, CSUN secured $33,000 in contracts from
NASA for conferences designed to increase the number of qualified
employees with disabilities in the areas of computer science, engineering
and business. Representatives from California community colleges
and universities joined Department of Rehabilitation personnel and
Affirmative Action recruiters from NASA in two conferences in Los
Angeles.
In 1989, CSUN was awarded another Establishment Grant
from the California State Department of Rehabilitation for $11,000,
to develop and evaluate a speech synthesis device, SoundProof, a
creation of Dr. Marshall Raskind and Neil Scott that is now manufactured
by PulseData of Christ Church, New Zealand, and distributed by HumanWare
of Sacramento, California.
In late 1989, the ODSS adopted the name The Technology
Group to describe a critical mass of technology programs and personnel.
This group includes technological support services to students with
disabilities through the Computer Access Lab, the annual conference,
the RSA Training Project and the FIPSE-sponsored project.
A second FIPSE grant, $220,000 over three years, was
awarded in August 1991 for Learning Disabilities and Technology,
a best-use study of three devices of benefit to this population:
Optical Character Recognition (OCR), voice recognition and speech
synthesis, including CSUN's product, SoundProof.
A third FIPSE grant, awarded in summer 1991, for $5,000
under the Lecture Programs Division, was for a conference-within-a-conference
on Virtual Reality and Persons with Disabilities at CSUN's Seventh
Annual International Conference in Los Angeles in March 1992. In
September 1991, ODSS received a second three-year, $250,000 RSA
grant to conduct regional seminars in Experimental and Innovative
Training in Learning Disabilities, which included a simulation experience
developed by CSUN's Learning Disabilities team.
Between 1985 and 1991, ODSS secured $2 million in
grants. The number of students with disabilities increased from
435 to 800. A Learning Disability Program was added and the number
of these students increased from 55 to 285. Recognizing this growth,
the university moved ODSS once, then again to a 7,000-square-foot
facility to house the support-service operation and the Computer
Access Lab.
Starting an Assistive Technology Program
Tips from Dr. Harry Murphy
Consider the distributed-access model under Academic
Computing as a first choice. Put equipment in as many locations
as possible, open as many hours as possible.
Try to get institutional support from the beginning. Computer access
is recognized as a university responsibility; argue 504 and ADA
issues.
Getting the right staff is critical. Have an engineer on staff along
with service providers to get a good balance. Accept responsibility
from the beginning to develop and advance new technologies and to
provide services with present technologies.
Create forums that bring people together. Every program can create
meetings of 10, 20 or 100 people. Use technology as a way to share
information.
Visit as many existing programs as possible, but keep in mind that
every program is different, serving different populations in different
environments. What will work in one place won't work in another.
Be deeply rooted in local needs.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
APPENDICES
A. Sites and People Interviewed
Electronic Networks for Interaction, Gallaudet University,
Washington, D.C. Dr. Trent Batson, Director
The Computer Center for the Visually Impaired, Baruch College, N.Y.
Dr. Karen Luxton, Director
Instructional Technology Division, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Dr. James Knox, Director
Disabled Student Services, University of Wyoming, Laramie. Chris
Primus, Director
Artificial Language Laboratory, Michigan State University, East
Lansing. Dr. John Eulenberg, Director
High-Tech Training Center, California Community Colleges, Cupertino,
Calif. Carl Brown, Director
Assistive Technology Center, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.
Curt Griesel, Coordinator
Disabled Computing Program, University of California, Los Angeles.
Dr. Danny Hilton-Chalfen, Director
Desktop Computing Services, University of Washington, Seattle. Sheryl
Burgstahler, Manager
Services for Students with Disabilities, University of Nebraska,
Lincoln. Christy Horn, Director
Adaptive Computing Technology Center, University of Missouri, Columbia.
William Mitchell, Director, Advanced Projects, and Susan Phillips,
Program Development Specialist
Training and Resource Center for the Blind, University of New Orleans,
La. Oliver St. Pe, Director, Public Service Training
Vocational Rehabilitation Programs, El Centro College, Dallas, Texas.
Gloria Rosenberg, Director
Adaptive Technology Laboratory, Southern Connecticut State University.
Amy Rubin, Director
Center for the Vocationally Challenged, Grossmont Community College,
El Cajon, Calif. Scott Barr, Director
The Technology Group, California State University, Northridge. Dr.
Harry Murphy, Director
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
B. National Council Member and Staff Biographies
National Council Members
Sandra Swift Parrino
As National Council chairperson, Sandra Swift Parrino
played an active role on key issues affecting the lives of people
with disabilities. Nominated by President Reagan in 1982, appointed
chair by the President in 1983 and reappointed by President Bush,
Parrino has supported the rights of people with disabilities before
Congress, in the media, and before groups nationwide. Under her
leadership, the National Council is a driving force with respect
to creating public policies that affect the nation's people with
disabilities.
During Parrino's tenure as chair, the National Council
has worked toward creating and enacting legislation for people with
disabilities; participated with President Bush in signing the Americans
with Disabilities Act; issued a policy statement, National Policy
for Persons with Disabilities; convened hearings nationwide to solicit
comments and recommendations from people with disabilities about
discrimination; issued a major report, Toward Independence, which
outlined key components of a comprehensive civil rights law protecting
people with disabilities; initiated the first national survey of
attitudes and experiences of Americans with disabilities in conjunction
with Louis Harris and Associates, Inc.; issued On the Threshold
of Independence, a report outlining specifics of the Americans With
Disabilities Act; and conducted the first national conference on
preventing primary and secondary disabilities.
Before becoming National Council chair, Parrino founded
and directed the Office for the Disabled, Towns of Ossining and
Briarcliff Manor, N.Y., where she created a regional program for
public and private organizations that focused on facilities and
programs for people with disabilities. She has more than 25 years'
experience on boards, councils, commissions, committees and task
forces at the federal, regional, state and local levels, and as
an expert witness, community leader, organizer and lobbyist.
Parrino has represented the U.S. government on disability
issues in many countries. She was invited by the Department of State
to represent the United States in the Meeting of Experts on Alternative
Ways to Mark the End of the United Nations Decade of Disabled Persons.
She was an American representative to the U.N. and UNICEF (the U.N.
International Children's Emergency Fund) for the International Year
of Disabled Persons. In 1991, Parrino was invited by the Department
of State to be a delegate at the Third Committee on Social Development
of the United Nations. In 1991, Parrino was invited by the People's
Republic of China to review their efforts to help people with disabilities.
At the request of the government of Czechoslovakia, she and the
National Council were invited to conduct the Eastern European Conference
on Disabilities for participants from Czechoslovakia, Poland and
Hungary.
Parrino graduated from Briarcliff College with a B.A.
in history, and completed courses at Bennett College, GuildHall
School of Drama in London, and the Yale School of Languages. She
is married and has three children, two with disabilities. She was
born in New Haven, Conn., and lives in Briarcliff Manor, N.Y.
Kent Waldrep Jr.
Kent Waldrep has been involved with disability issues
on a local, state and national level since suffering a spinal cord
injury in 1974 while playing football for Texas Christian University.
Since 1981, Waldrep has served on the National Council by presidential
appointment. He is National Council vice chair and chairman of the
Research and Prevention Committee. He has been instrumental in formulating
the National Council initiative on preventing primary and secondary
disabilities.
Waldrep, one of 15 original ADA drafters, gave the
legislation its name. He has lectured nationwide on subjects ranging
from national disability policy to medical research targeted at
curing paralysis. He founded the American Paralysis Association
and the Kent Waldrep National Paralysis Foundation. He has appeared
on Good Morning America, the Today Show, the NBC Nightly News and
CNN, and been featured in People and Look magazines, USA Today and
others.
He was selected by the U.S. Jaycees as one of 1985's
10 Outstanding Young Men in America, and received a special award
from the Texas Sports Hall of Fame and a Sports/Fitness Award from
the President's Council on Physical Fitness. Kent Waldrep Days are
celebrated in four Texas cities and Birmingham, Ala. He serves on
many boards, including the Texas Rehabilitation Commission. He is
past chairman of the Texas Governor's Committee for Disabled Persons
and now chairs the Dallas Rehabilitation Institute. He also is chairman
of Turbo-Resins Inc., a family-owned and -operated aviation-repair
business. He lives in Plano, Texas, with his wife Lynn and two sons,
Trey and Charles Cavenaugh.
Linda Wickett Allison
Linda Allison of Dallas, Texas, is a long-time advocate
of people with disabilities. She is a board member of the National
Paralysis Foundation and a trustee for the International Spinal
Research Trust. Allison, who grew up in Fort Worth, has three children.
Her daughter Marcy was paralyzed from the waist down in a 1979 automobile
accident. Marcy graduated from the University of Texas School of
Law in 1986, and practices law in Austin. Allison's late husband,
James N. Allison Jr., owned the Midland Reporter Telegram and other
newspapers in Texas and Colorado, and was former deputy chair of
the Republican National Committee.
Larry Brown Jr.
Since 1981, Larry Brown of Potomac, Md., has been
the Xerox business and community relations manager for the Mid-Atlantic
Region, Coastal Operations, Custom Systems Division. In 1991 he
became Government and Community Relations Manager with Integrated
Systems Operations.
Brown was a running back for the Washington Redskins
for eight years. During that time he received many awards, including
Most Valuable Player in the National Football League for 1972, and
was recently inducted into the Washington D.C. Touchdown Hall of
Fame.
After retiring from football in 1977, he worked at
E.F. Hutton as a personal financial management adviser. He has been
special assistant to the director, Office of Minority Business Enterprise,
Department of Commerce. He is involved with youth, people with disabilities
and senior citizens. Brown has spoken at schools, colleges and universities
on topics such as motivation, discipline and camaraderie. He works
with many organizations, including the Friends of the National Institute
on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, the Deafness Research
Foundation and the Vincent Lombardi Foundation.
Mary Ann Mobley Collins
A former Miss America who lives in Beverly Hills,
Calif., Mary Ann Collins has a career in film, television and on
Broadway. She has co-hosted the National March of Dimes Telethons
with husband, Emmy-award winning actor Gary Collins, and serves
as National Chair of the Mother's March Against Birth Defects. She
is a member of SHARE, a Los Angeles-based women's organization that
has raised more than $6 million for the Exceptional Children's Foundation
for the Mentally Retarded. She serves on the National Board of the
Crohns and Colitis Foundation.
Collins helped raise funds for the Willwood Foundation
in her native Mississippi, which provides homes for young adults
with mental and physical learning disabilities. She has received
many awards and honors, including the 1990 International Humanitarian
Award from the Institute for Human Understanding, Woman of Distinction
1990 from the National Foundation for Ileitis and Colitis, and the
HELP Humanitarian Award of 1985 from HELP for Handicapped Children.
She has filmed documentaries in Cambodia, Ethiopia, Mozambique,
Somalia, Kenya, Sudan and Bolivia on the plight of starving children
and people with disabilities.
Anthony H. Flack
Anthony Flack of Norwalk, Conn., is president of Anthony
H. Flack & Associates. He has been a member of the board of
Families and Children's Aid of Greater Norwalk, and has worked with
the Child Guidance Center of Greater Bridgeport, the Youth Shelter
in Greenwich, Hall Neighborhood House in Bridgeport, and the Urban
League of Greater Bridgeport. Flack is a member of the Allocations
and Admissions Committee, United Way of Norwalk, and received the
Bell Award for outstanding service in the field of mental health
at the Bridgeport Chapter, Connecticut Association of Mental Health.
John A. Gannon
John Gannon of Cleveland, Ohio, and Washington, D.C.,
founded John A. Gannon and Associates. His firm has offices in Columbus
and Cleveland, Ohio, and Denver, Colo., and Washington, D.C. A fire
fighter for more than 30 years, Gannon was an active leader of the
International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) Local 93. Starting
as a member of the local IAFF committee, he eventually became president,
a position he held for 10 years before being elected to national
office.
In September 1988, Gannon was elected IAFF President
Emeritus. He had served as president of the 170,000-member organization
since 1980. Under his leadership, the IAFF expanded its role in
occupational safety and health.
Concerned about hazards of his profession, he guided
and directed a series of programs to promote greater safety and
health protection. One program sponsored research on safer garments
and equipment for fire fighters. Gannon also fostered development
of the IAFF Burn Foundation, which raises funds for research on
the care of burn victims. In 1985, the Metropolitan General Hospital
in Gannon's hometown, Cleveland, dedicated a John Gannon Burn and
Trauma Center in recognition of his support for the hospital.
Gannon was elected vice president of the AFL-CIO,
with which the IAFF is affiliated. Within the AFL-CIO he is vice
president of the Public Employee Department. On the Executive Council,
he is a member of several committees. He serves on the board of
the National Joint Council of Fire Service Organizations, and in
1982 served as its chairman. He is a member of the board of the
Muscular Dystrophy Association. Gannon attended Miami University
in Ohio and Glasgow University in Scotland, and studied at Baldwin-Wallace
College and Cleveland State University.
Margaret Chase Hager
Margaret Hager's husband contracted poliomyelitis
from the oral Sabin polio vaccine in August 1973. Helping him with
rehabilitation, she became interested and involved in the disability
field. Since 1985, Hager has been a member of the Mayor's Commission
for the Disabled, which she chairs, in Richmond, Va. She is a member
of the Executive Committee of Richmond's Office of Human Services
Advocacy. She has served as the city's Festival Coordinator and
Consultant for ABLEFEST, a disability-awareness festival showcasing
abilities in sports, recreation, cultural arts and entertainment.
Hager holds executive positions in local and national
organizations that promote better quality of life for people with
disabilities: Very Special Arts, Virginia (an affiliate of Very
Special Arts of the Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C.); and the Employment
Committee of the Commonwealth of Virginia, Board of the Rights of
the Disabled. She is a member of the Executive Committee of the
Japan-Virginia Society and the Virginia Committee of the Jefferson
Poplar Forest Foundation. She received a B.A. from Wheaton College
in 1963. Her avocation is accessible residential design for people
with disabilities. Her article on this subject was published in
the September 1987 issue of Builder Architect magazine. She is a
consultant and speaker on architectural accessibility and disability
awareness.
John Leopold
John Leopold of Pasadena, Md., has 18 years experience
in elected state office. He was elected to the Hawaii State House
of Representatives in 1968 and re-elected in 1972. In 1974, Leopold
was elected to the Hawaii State Senate. In 1982, he became the first
Republican in Maryland history elected from District 31 in Anne
Arundel County to the Maryland House of Delegates, where he served
until 1991.
An advocate of people with disabilities, Leopold is
a member of the Learning Disabilities Association of Anne Arundel
County, the Anne Arundel County Committee on Employment of People
with Disabilities, and the University of Maryland Hospital Infant
Study Center Planning Advisory Board. He has served in other appointed
and elected positions, including the Hawaii State Board of Education
in 1968, the National Advisory Council for the Education of Disadvantaged
Children in 1977, and the Maryland State Accountability Task Force
for Public Education in 1974.
Leopold has written and produced cable television
commercials in Maryland, written a weekly interview column for a
local publication, and hosted and produced a weekly radio public
affairs program. He graduated from Hamilton College in Clinton,
N.Y., with a B.A. in English.
Robert S. Muller
Robert Muller of Grandville, Mich., began his career
with Steelcase Inc. in 1966 and is now an administrator. He is an
adjunct associate professor in the Department of Psychology at Aquinas
College and in the Department of Education at Calvin College in
Grand Rapids. He serves on the board of trustees for Hope Network
and Foundation in Grand Rapids, which serves 1,700 adults with disabilities.
In April 1981, he received an honorary degree in educational psychology
from the Free University in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Muller holds a B.S. in business administration from
Aquinas College and in 1978 was voted Outstanding Alumnus of the
Year. He has lectured at colleges and universities nationally and
internationally. He is a board member for several national, state
and local organizations.
In May 1987, Muller and his wife hosted a first-time
event at the White House with the Vice President. The Celebration
of Disabled Americans at Work was co-sponsored by several major
corporations. He now serves as president of the National Roundtable
on Corporate Development for Americans with Disabilities. In 1985,
Muller received the Liberty Bell Award from the Grand Rapids Bar
Association. In 1988, he was national co-chair of the Disabled Americans
for President Bush Campaign.
George H. Oberle, PED
George Oberle of Stillwater, Okla., has more than
35 years' experience in the field of health, physical education
and recreation. He began his career as a high school teacher and
coach, and has been a professor and director of the School of Health,
Physical Education and Leisure at Oklahoma State University since
1974. Oberle is a consultant to many organizations in the area of
administration and adaptive physical education. In 1988, he worked
with the Kennedy Foundation to organize and direct a new program
of unified sports for the Special Olympics.
Oberle chaired the College and University Administrator's
Council (1980-82); he was president of the Association for Research,
Administration, Professional Councils and Societies (1984-87); and
served as a board member of the American Association of Health,
Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (1985-89). Awards include
the 1985 Centennial Award from the American Association of Health,
Physical Education, Recreation and Dance; and Meritorious Service
Awards from Indiana and Oklahoma.
He was selected for Men of Achievement in 1975 and
recognized in Who's Who of the Southwest in 1977. Oberle received
his doctorate from Indiana University in administration and adapted
physical education, and has written many books and articles. He
lectures extensively about wellness promotion, adapted physical
activity, sports and recreation for people with disabilities.
Mary Matthews Raether
Mary Raether of McLean, Va., is associated with St.
John's Child Development Center, a non-profit organization providing
instruction, employment training and independent and group home
living skills for people with severe mental disabilities, especially
those with autism. Raether has been an officer and trustee of St.
John's since 1985, and has chaired the public relations committee
and participated on the executive, nominating, investment and development
committees.
Raether has been active in civic, educational and
religious organizations in the Washington metropolitan area. While
community vice president of the Junior League of Washington, she
developed emergency grant procedures and fund-raising information
services for small and emerging non-profit organizations. Raether
has 10 years experience as legislative assistant to Reps. George
Bush and Barber Conable. She specialized in tax, social security,
medicare/medicaid and trade issues. She considers her efforts in
clarifying the tax status of lobbying by non-profit organizations
an outstanding career accomplishment. She received a B.A. from the
University of Texas at Austin in 1962. She is married and has two
children.
Michael B. Unhjem
Michael Unhjem of Fargo, N.D., is president of Blue
Cross/Blue Shield of North Dakota. The youngest member in state
history elected to the North Dakota House of Representatives, Unhjem
is a member of the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform
State Laws. In 1988, he served as president of the National Mental
Health Association.
He has been involved in local and national organizations,
including the Advisory Mental Health Council of the U.S. Department
of Health and Human Services; the Governor's Commission on Mental
Health Services; the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia
and Depression; and the National Mental Health Leadership Forum.
Awards include the 1989 Special Presidential Commendation from the
American Psychiatric Association, the 1988 Distinguished Leadership
Award from the North Dakota Psychological Association, and the National
Excellence in Leadership Award from North Dakota.
He was recognized by Who's Who in American Politics
and Who's Who in North Dakota. Unhjem graduated magna cum laude
with a B.A. in history and political science from Jamestown College
in North Dakota in 1975. In 1978, he earned a J.D. with distinction
from the University of North Dakota School of Law in Grand Forks.
He is married and has two children.
Helen Wilshire Walsh
Helen Walsh of Greenwich, Conn., is a board member
of the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, the largest U.S. rehabilitation
center. She has been involved in disability advocacy for many years
and has been associated with the Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine
at the New York Medical Center, where she served as associate trustee.
She has served as vice president, president and chairman of the
board of Rehabilitation International USA.
Walsh has been a member of the President's Committee
on the Employment of People with Disabilities, and was appointed
by the President to serve as a member of the National Advisory Council
of Vocational Rehabilitation. In 1976, Walsh received the Henry
J. Kessler Award for outstanding service in the rehabilitation field.
She has received the Rehabilitation International Award for Women
and the Anwar Sadat Award for outstanding work in the field of rehabilitation.
National Council Staff
Ethel D. Briggs
Ethel Briggs is executive director of the National
Council on Disability. In seven years at the National Council, Briggs
served as the acting executive director, deputy executive director,
and director of Adult Services. Briggs is former chief of the Office
of Staff Development and Training for the Washington, D.C., Rehabilitation
Services Administration. Prior experience includes employment as
a rehabilitation counselor supervisor, vocational rehabilitation
counselor and part-time college instructor at George Washington
University. Briggs, a long-time advocate of people with disabilities,
graduated from North Carolina Central University and holds a master's
degree in counseling from the University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill. She was recognized by Dollar & Sense Magazine as one of
the Top 100 African American Business and Professional Women of
1989. Briggs also was recognized in Outstanding Women in America
in 1976 and by Who's Who in American Colleges and Universities in
1971.
Dr. Harold W. Snider
Harold Snider, selected as deputy executive director
in June 1990, was previously the first director of outreach for
people with disabilities at the Republican National Committee. He
served as executive director of the American Impact Foundation,
and was president of Access for the Handicapped Inc. Snider holds
a B.S. in international studies from Georgetown University, a master's
degree in history from the University of London, and a doctorate
in history from Oxford University in England. He is the author of
two books on disability, The United States Welcomes Handicapped
Visitors, and Museums and Handicapped Students: Guidelines for Education.
Mark S. Quigley
Mark Quigley joined the staff as a public affairs
specialist in May 1990. He previously served as a consultant to
the U.S. National Commission on Drug-free Schools. He is a former
program coordinator at the U.S. Interagency Council on the Homeless,
and former director of communications at the White House Conference
on Small Business. Quigley graduated magna cum laude in 1979 from
Northern Virginia Community College in Annandale, Va., with an A.A.
in general studies. He received a B.A. in government and politics
in 1983, and an MPA in public administration in 1990 from George
Mason University in Fairfax, Va.
Katherine Seelman, Ph.D.
Katherine Seelman joined the National Council staff
in 1989 as a research specialist. She is former director of Public
Education, Research and Technological Services at the Massachusetts
Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. She was a research
scholar at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., and a consultant
to the American Association of Retired Persons.
Seelman received a doctorate in public policy and
a master's degree in political science from New York University,
and a B.A. in political science from Hunter College in New York.
She is the author of many published articles, including "Communication
Accessibility: A Technology Agenda for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing
People," International Journal of Technology and Aging; "Communication
Accessibility for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing People; An Expanded Concept
of Access," Journal of Disability Policy Studies; and "A
Comparison of Federal Laws Toward Disabled and Racial Ethnic Groups
in the USA," Disability, Handicap and Society.
Brenda Bratton
Brenda Bratton, executive secretary for the National
Council, was formerly employed as a secretary at the National Transportation
Safety Board. Bratton graduated from Farmville Central High School
and the Washington School for Secretaries.
Stacey S. Brown
Stacey Brown is staff assistant to the Chairperson
and has been employed by the National Council since 1986. Prior
experience includes employment as a receptionist and clerk with
the Board for International Broadcasting, and with the Compliance
and Enforcement Unit of the Architectural and Transportation Barriers
Compliance Board, where he was a student assistant. Brown is a graduate
of Howard University in Washington, D.C., where he earned a B.A.
in political science in 1987.
Lorraine Williams
Lorraine Williams, a National Council student assistant,
was previously employed as a clerk typist with the District of Columbia
Public Schools. She attends the University of the District of Columbia,
where she is a third-year student majoring in computer information
systems science.
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