2005 NCTI Conference General Sessions Long Writeup

Technology, Disability, and Education Policy: U.S. Senate Perspectives

Explore funding, research, and practice implications of recent legislation such as IDEA 2004, No Child Left Behind, two percent waiver ruling, the Assistive Technology Act amendments, and the National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard (NIMAS). Join the National Center on Disability and Access to Education (NCDAE) and Access IT for this provocative panel.

Daniel Blair (Moderator), Senior Director for Public Policy, Council for Exceptional Children (CEC)

Chuck Hitchcock, Chief Officer of Policy and Technology, Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST)

Jessica Brodey, Attorney and public policy advocate, working on disability and technology, a member of the ATIA Policy Council

Jessica Brodey, attorney and public policy advocate, working on disability and technology, a member of the ATIA Policy Council

Issues for advocates include:

Accessible curriculum issues. How is technology being integrated into the classroom? How will NIMAS play out? In IDEA, what is happening with assessments, the research and development grants under Part D involving captioning, description, and alternate format? What is the right direction to take in higher education? The area has many unanswered questions over copyright issues, cognitive disabilities, market solutions, and multi-media (non-text materials).

AT awareness and training. So far, the news is good on appropriations supporting implementation of the Act. Meanwhile, the Rehab Act awaits reauthorization. An AT Act technical assistance grant has been awarded to RESNA, with ATIA a partner in that process. The department is also looking to improve recycling and reutilization of AT. Finally, Hurricane Katrina raised questions of how AT can and should be used in natural and man-made disasters.

Medicare and Medicaid. What will provide coverage for Assistive Technology: which costs and at what levels? How will AAC and accessories be covered? Will there be coverage for accessories not only when used with AAC? What about other AT devices?

She is looking for success stories to help clarify the key role of AT.

Accessible Communications. We need to watch the migration to Internet Telephony in telecommunications, as well as possible changes to Section 255. Other developments that need to be monitors are in digital television, video description (see H.R. 951, S. 9000, multi-media, Internet streaming, and text-based and image-based web services.

International Standards. The most important work here is in JTC1 Special Working Group on Accessibility, and INCITs.

Emergency Planning and Preparedness. Katrina has woken us up to the importance of this area, specifically in communications systems, information technologies, tools for personal awareness and preparedness for people with disabilities, medical needs, and school needs/IEPs.

Chuck Hitchcock, Chief Officer of Policy and Technology, Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST)
Collaboration is essential—CAST, for example, could never be effective without collaboration

In the system, pushing or pulling on one thing affects something else. The field needs to consider unintended consequences, and it can best do that by keeping in touch with others—tech developers, advocacy groups, educators. In addition, we should have a strategy for dealing with unintended consequences when they occur.

OSEP has funded two centers that help with some of these issues, one is technical assistance and the other helps with specifications.

[link here to his PPP screen #2, which is a flow chart for NIMAS]

Discussion

Daniel Blair: CEC didn’t take a position on the NIMAS standards. CEC identified many areas where technology can take a major role. What near term policy issues are coming down the pike?

Chuck Hitchcock: Actually CEC did take a position supporting the NIMAS standard. Implementation is important for the next couple of years.

Daniel Blair: You are right, I was thinking of something else.

Jessica Brodey: NIMAS and technical assistance for the implementation of NIMAS, especially educating vendors about what that means for formats.

The next step is how do we reach the rest of the students, what else has to be built into services for children with a range of disabilities?

There is great technology for those with special needs including learning disabled and gifted and talented. Teachers gain valuable flexibility through these tools. What we need is information, training, and awareness.

What will happens with the transition out, for post-k-12 young people?

Let’s examine market solutions—the Chafee Amendment has focused on providing materials for free. What if it were easier for those who can modify and add supports to build on stuff that’s already out there? Should we be favoring incremental change in product development rather than building new products from the ground up?

International issues include trade and issues around globalization: How do we get great stuff overseas? What do we do about different requirements and different standards?

Medicare and Medicaid are relevant in terms of what funding supports product purchase.

Universal design does not mean the end of AT—ATIA would like to see the “plug and play” world—it should all be hookable. Universal design should create the hooks and the bridges.

CH: We also need to work closely with Texas, California, and Kentucky to ensure that there is a good fit with the standards being developed at the state level.

DB: What are the best advocacy tools for the Hill and the White House?

JB: Demonstrate products—staffers and elected officials can’t imagine what you mean. Bring people in with specific products.

It also illuminates to tell stories, good stories and bad stories, especially when those stories come from the state of the elected official. Videos help, too, showing the person being assisted and achieving.

CH: Habitat built a house on the Mall—we should do that in the halls of Congress. While he can’t lobby, he can educate, he can be brought in to a briefing or be on a list to inform members of Congress.

JB: Often there’s legislation—and they write and send accurate language to the staffer to fix an inaccuracy and save the staffers the trouble of becoming expert in a technical area—and that language can end up in the legislation. Write it the way you want it, and get it to them.

DB: Offer yourself as an expert resource. CEC draws on their members as well as on their staff. The Hill or White House won’t have the experts on everything. Know who your Member of Congress is and who the key players are. CEC has a legislative action center with boilerplate letters—but you have to personalize them. Find out when the Recess is and invite people to meetings you have at that time so they can see what impact their policies have on the work you do. CEC puts out an outlook on what they recommend. They need success stories on special education and Gifted and Talented success, including photos of people using the technology.

JB: Build a relationship with the individual staffer—especially Chiefs of Staff.

DB: Find out on the website what committee your elected official is on. Also check who is on the relevant committee or committees.

Comment from the floor: Participant e-mailed the government about the Career Voyages website and how bad it was in the place on the site where they asked readers to “Tell Us What You Think.” To her amazement, they responded promptly and with genuine interest.

DB: It is hard to find voting records on the elected officials’ websites; instead, you need to find individual pieces of legislation and then see how your members voted.

Many members of Congress have teachers in the family, people with disabilities in the family, try to develop a personal relationship and you’ll find where they are coming from on certain issues.

Question from Tracy Gray: What do you think will be the impact of the recent Supreme Court decision?

JB: In many places, there will be very little impact, because in many courts the petitioner already has to bear the burden of proof. The question is how it will play out in the different districts.

DB: He recommends that families try to resolve differences before you go to due process. IDEA offered lots of options for how to mediate.

Question from the floor: Has NIMAS made it easier to push through supports for other children?

CH: There are civil rights issues here as well. There is flexibility so far under the Chafee Amendment. All of this makes possible a movement towards a market model—in 5 – 7 years you’ll be able to order from the district. Publishers will have to compete on quality and features.

JB: NIMAS is setting up a market solution which helps schools get the materials they need for their students.

Question from the floor: With the de-emphasis of technology at federal and state level, what is it going to take for us to get AT and instructional technology as an accepted part of teaching?

JB: IDEA has good references, pushing the awareness at the state level so that the states ask for this stuff. If we want to have teachers trained and using technology, that priority needs to go into training and certification. What certifications are we endorsing and promoting?

CH: When we can demonstrate that AT influences outcomes and raises scores, that will make a big difference.

Question from the floor: How do we include AT in the training for every special education teacher? Is there a way for every special ed teacher—or, for that matter, every general ed teacher—to get to a level where they can assess AT needs—and know when they need to refer the problem to an AT specialist?

JB: We need to influence the Higher Education Act where it talks about teacher training for special education and general education teachers. Innovative thinkers need to help to create pilots to run and get data on how they can improve AT throughout the classroom.

Response from the floor: That’s all voluntary now. If we ask for too much, the administrators will shut it down altogether. This needs to be mandatory not voluntary.

JB: A lot of important things start as voluntary. At least it gives us data we can use to recommend and advocate from.