Assistive technology comes into focus: with the push from federal legislation, colleges and universities enhance learning for the disabled - Special report: assistive technology

Black Issues in Higher Education, July 18, 2002 by Ronald Roach

Annually, some 4,000 people attend the "Technology and Persons With Disabilities" conference sponsored by CSUN.

"Because of Section 508, people are looking at accommodations more than ever," Behnke says.

A number of universities have distinguished themselves in research related to technology for the disabled. The University of Pittsburgh, which has close ties to the wheelchair industry, is one such school.

Other schools, like CSUN and George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., have made strides with research centers that develop educational programs and services for the disabled and the people who work with the disabled.

George Mason's Helen A. Kellar Institute for Human disAbilities is one such specialized research center that develops products, services and programs for the disabled. The institute, which started out as the Center for Human Disabilities in 1988, works with 37 Virginia counties and other Virginia colleges and universities. With the institute hosting many of the school's disability services, George Mason has been recognized as a model school on accessibility issues.

Dr. Michael M. Behrmann, director of the institute, says university and colleges straggle with getting their existing disability services staff acquainted with assistive technology, as well as finding new employees who have that experience. George Mason works closely with other Virginia colleges to train staff and provide expertise on disability issues.

"These schools need more people trained in assistive technology," Behrmann says.

ADVOCACY COUNTS

In addition to developing training initiatives for disability service professionals, the assistive technology specialists typically have to play the role of advocate, or activist, at their university and in their college and university systems.

"There is awareness at the grassroots level," CSUN's Roll says, noting that specialists like herself have to spend considerable time educating senior administrators on disability issues, such as assistive technology.

At CSUN, Roll is in an unique position as a faculty member in the occupational therapy department because she heads a center that uses students to develop accessibility solutions for disabled students.

One particularly demanding situation in recent years arose when a blind student majoring in equine science had to complete a horse-riding course that required her to ride a horse through an obstacle course.

When it came time for the student to navigate her horse through the course that included jumps, students in Roll's center designed a system that alerted the blind rider with auditory cues as she approached various obstacles.

Roll reports that being in an academic department poses a challenge for their profile as a campus resource. The center conducts training workshops, solves access problems, and promotes awareness of access requirements. "The downside of being in an academic department is that we get lost and people don't know we exist," she says.

To that end, her department works closely with the campus computing services department at CSU. "I get good support from central computing," she says.