By Paul Rasinski

I was recently given the opportunity to speak before two congressional subcommittees in March and April that could have some bearing on the existence of MD TAP and the rest of the Tech Act Projects. The first address was to the House Subcommittee on 21st Century Competitiveness that has initiated hearings on the progress the Assistive Technology Act (ATA) projects have made and an indication of the needs that are still unmet.

Before this year and the recent activities of the House Subcommittee on 21st Century Competitiveness, a decade had passed since the House of Representatives held hearings on the ATA. A great deal of progress was made over that decade, both in terms of the accomplishments of the state grant programs and in the advances we have seen in technology. Remember that a decade ago, none of us were even using e-mail!

The second address was to a hearing of the House Appropriations subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human services and Education (the Appropriations Committee decides where the discretionary funds within the Presidents budget will be spent). Last year the ATA received an amendment written within a budget bill that struck its sunset clause and gave funding to the ATA to continue grants to all States including the original nine Tech Act grantees. Maryland was one of those nine states targeted for termination. The amendment saved the nine states of this important program to ensure that people with disabilities will have access to the assistive technology that they need for another year.

This year, we need help again, as without the attached amendment, 23 states will be eliminated from funding. Those states include: Arkansas, Alaska, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia and Wisconsin.

We requested that funding for Title I of the Assistive Technology Act be provided at the $34 million level. This would return us to the level of funding we received in the fiscal year (FY) 2000. In addition, we requested that Congress include an amendment that will ensure that no state be eliminated from the program.

As the information age moves us forward with technological innovations in our schools, homes and workplaces, and we connect to the " National Information Infrastructure," it is imperative that all citizens, including those who are elderly and those with disabilities, be included in every way.

The Federal government has an important continuing role to play in assuring that this happens.
The state grant programs supported by the Tech Act have created a much-needed infrastructure within the states to ensure access for people with disabilities. However, the lack of a permanent federal commitment to a state program undermines this crucial infrastructure that has leveraged so many additional funds and created so many effective programs. In Maryland, we share and combine our funds with other agencies and organizations to stretch their worth and impact. Without this commitment and the federal leadership, the gains that have been realized will disappear, as the states, especially in years like this one, are not in a position to take over the federal role.

President Bush's New Freedom Initiative is targeted toward people with disabilities and the inclusion of technology into their lives to enable them to pursue full and active careers with greater independence. The theme of the president's plan has been the long-term goal of many ATA projects that have coordinated initiatives such as these at the state level, ensuring that people with disabilities are aware of such initiatives and can benefit from them. Our goal will be to have the president include the ATA projects into the funding stream of his initiative. The 56 ATA projects are an existing infrastructure of consumer responsive projects that have tremendous capacity to ensure that assistive technology is in the hands of those who need it.

However, even after the tremendous efforts over the last 14 years - the awareness training, the information and referral services and the legislative and systemic change initiatives - there are considerable needs that have yet to be addressed. As technology continues to advance and develop at the explosive rate we have encountered in the last decade, we need to ensure that it does so in a way that is inclusive of people with disabilities and does not create new barriers to access. More people are becoming disabled daily and many, many more will realize disabilities as our population ages and as sports, recreation and lifestyles in general become faster and more physically demanding.

I asked the first committee- who will the parents of a child, who has lived injury free for twelve years and been a successful student, turn to if that child has an accident that results in head trauma and is suddenly performing at a first grade level and needs a wheelchair for mobility? Such parents, who we encounter in our project, have no idea at all of what assistive technology is or what it might do for their child.

Who will a senior citizen turn to when he or she can no longer climb the same set of stairs they negotiated for forty years, or is terrified by a potential fall in the bathtub?

Who will employers turn to for information about telecommuting when they read a resume of an individual on the Internet and realize they have found a genius who could solve all their software problems but the individual can not spend more than a few hours a day out of bed, due to a chronic disability?

The information specialists at Tech Act programs have taken years to become experts and virtual encyclopedias of information about assistive technology devices and services. Many spend hours each day searching for new information and building networks of resources to keep up with technological advances. They share this information regularly with parents, educators, employers, social workers and others who simply don't have the expertise or time to search for this information individually.

There is no other law, program, agency or organization that has a mandate or mission to serve the spectrum of consumers that the Tech Act programs serve - all ages and all disabilities. The Rehabilitation Act serves adults seeking employment; the IDEA serves children in special education, and the Americans with Disabilities Act sets standards for access. Many diseases and conditions have organizations that assist only those who have that particular condition. The Tech Act programs have initiated projects that provide the same level of assistance for infants with birth defects as they do for elderly individuals with disabilities.

In Maryland we have piggybacked services to provide a one-stop shop method to answer the needs of some of our consumers. Using discretionary funds we created a non-profit organization to begin a bulk-purchasing program that negotiates discount prices on AT devices and educational software. We combined the services with our TITLE III grant program to offer participants in the loan program the most buying power for their loan money. The loan program participants now come to our program and receive counsel on the best device for their needs, the best price for the device, and the best access to funds for its purchase.

The Maryland Technology Assistance Program and its sister Tech Act programs have been extremely innovative in answering the needs of individuals with disabilities. We coordinate with one another as well as with Federal, State, community and private agencies and organizations on projects of concern in education, work, home and play. We work closely with the Protection and Advocacy programs funded by Title I of the Tech Act to ensure that those who need individual advocacy and assistance are referred to those important programs.

In the year 2004, Congress schedules the Assistive Technology Act for a discussion for reauthorization. I, and my colleagues around the country, look to you for support to make the reauthorization occur. We hope that you will ensure continued support for the programs in the 50 states and 6 territories by contacting your representatives in Washington and asking their support for the amendment to the Assistive Technology Act as a part of the FY 2003 Labor/HHS/Education Appropriations bill again this year, as you did last year.
We believe that this federal leadership role will provide the infrastructure and the seed money that leverages a great range of programs and services that are critical to people with disabilities. For example, all of the ATA Title III alternative loan programs are administered by the Title I state programs. If there was no Title I program infrastructure, there would be no Title III loan programs. These programs, like the one in Maryland, provide guaranteed and low interest rate loans to individuals or their families trying to buy assistive technology.
The Assistive Technology Act of 1998 will be considered for reauthorization next year, but without an amendment to the ATA again in this legislative session, 23 of the projects will terminate.

Editor's Note
Paul Rasinski's full testimony can be found at http://edworkforce.house.gov/hearings/107th/21st/assistivetech32102/rasinski.htm

If you would like to show your support or voice your opinion concerning the prospective sunset of the Tech Act Projects, call or write your local Washington representatives.

To find and contact your local Maryland congressman, visit the website
http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/cgi-bin/buildpage.cgi?state=md

Or, for more links and information, visit the Maryland Electronic Capitol at
http://www.mec.state.md.us/