The Company and the Technology

AbleNet is a company to watch given a unique business model that seeks to incorporate content and curriculum; software; assistive technology (communication devices, switches, messaging aides, and more); and professional training into a single seamless solution for schools. Moreover, it is blazing trails with very successful penetration into global markets that comprise 25% of its sales in a steep growth curve. AbleNet’s products are aimed primarily at students with severe/ profound to moderate disabilities, but the company also accounts for broad applicability to various populations.

Cheryl Volkman is now CEO Emeritus after 22 years as CEO and Co-Founder of AbleNet. She continues to provide leadership in the AT industry, serving on the Assistive Technology Industry Association board, in mentoring roles with other businesspeople, and is leading an external research effort at AbleNet.

Cheryl passionately outlines a new corporate concept that naturalistically embeds technology into directed teaching content permitting teachers to develop skill in the implementation of technology concomitantly as they engage in every-day planning and teaching—not as a separate activity. Recommendations and technological embedding at all levels of sophistication are built-in, making professional development part of the technology package. The program is called the AbleNet Student Achievement Program (ASAP). She indicates that some of the largest school districts in the country are using the curriculum and assistive technology. When they purchase the ASAP, instead of just curriculum or assistive technology separately, they get an integrated and supported relationship with AbleNet.

Schools appreciate the ASAP concept because they are purchasing a long term solution that includes curriculum, assistive technology, professional development and financing support. Securing this relationship means that the teachers get what they need from day one to help support their efforts in gaining student achievement. The professional development includes electronic media, learning communities, data management training, web based support, video support and program satisfaction data that goes to administrators so that they know how the ASAP is working in their schools. This comprehensive approach allows us, over time, to continually improve the fidelity of implementation of the programs and the assistive technology to achieve results.

Education and Technology—Together

A substantial basis for AbleNet’s success involves the AbleNet staff capacity to think and act both as savvy business people and as educators. Cheryl’s speech is peppered with terms like ‘leveraging’ and ‘cost analysis,’ yet in speaking about kids and the genesis of Star Reporter, a blend of AT and curriculum that builds literacy and communication through the natural desire of kids to pretend they are reporters, she talks like a teacher setting up an IEP:

We always have the classroom in mind. We’re always looking for the holes—in other words, what are our students not doing that other kids are doing and how can we help them fill those gaps?

This change-agent role involves patience and guidance in helping teachers understand how technology unleashes latent talent:

Determining User Needs

At AbleNet, the visualization process that gave rise to initial products has been expanded as a major input for development:

The company is using electronic survey tools to gather substantial information, and feels their focus on administrator positions is valid given the core issues that they have discovered through consistent market research methods. She explains,

Cheryl also stresses that market data that is broad and sound is essential for AT companies. An early study AbleNet developed indicated that 85% of teachers with special education students with more severe needs also had students with moderate needs in their classroom.

Emphasizing the importance of matching the conceptual image of the product with the activities and vocabulary of the real consumer, she continues,

AbleNet partnered with NCTI to analyze the market research data gathered with administrators. The result is knowledge to share with the entire AT and consumer field – in joint presentations such as webinars and embodied in the Consumer Guide (PDF), which accompanies the TechMatrix.

Regulatory Environment

Cheryl embraces regulation, emphasizing that, “‘No Child Left Behind’ has been a really positive engine for us.” For AbleNet, proving efficacy has been a company credo from the beginning, and she feels regulation has only recently caught up with them in this regard, offering new levels of opportunity:

Globalization in AT

Supported heavily by foreign vendors, whom AbleNet views as true partners, the company scans intensively for changes in the global regulatory environment and implements changes before new regulations go into effect, leading to smooth commerce. The ability to take orders on the web has also contributed to ease in marketing, and she applauds the European Union for setting the stage for change. She credits the E.U. for a large reduction in protectionism in the form of exclusivity agreements demanded by vendors and for essential consistency across markets:

There are differences that must be accounted for in international business, however:

Cheryl indicates that developing content for overseas markets is profoundly difficult due to language and lack of standardization in curriculum, and explains AT is treated much more like durable medical equipment. One potential advantage of this view is that vendors tend to look very flexibly at applications for consumers from birth to senior life, broadening sales opportunities. She credits hiring a Director of International Business as a move by the company that has contributed substantively to the explosive growth in international sales and for ensuring that distant vendors feel connected and supported. There have even been opportunities for emerging technology discoveries that have been licensed by AbleNet, offering a competitive advantage.

On Collaboration

Cheryl expresses that collaboration is inseparable from every step of development and marketing, believing that working with students and watching what they do is the foundational collaboration. Given this, she laments that there are some barriers involved with working directly with schools as a fundamental partnership for research, discovery of needs, and outcomes assessment. She cautions generally against insularity:

She applies that warning especially to companies thinking about global business, indicating there is an inherent risk of losing that sense of core competency in the process of expansion. She feels that protectionism is generally declining, and adds,

In decades of work in the AT industry, Cheryl has learned it is essential to understand the motivations of partners and not to assume that they are all the same. Continuing with partnerships with universities, she shares that some of her learning:

She indicates that successful collaborations become known and generate still more opportunities for partnership. She cautions, though, that an immediate assessment of direction and fit is essential:

I think another thing in creating a successful collaboration is that you do your homework. You need to make sure it will be a good business decision from the outset, or you will end up scrapping the project down the line. If it goes relatively smoothly, you continually get green lights in the process—then you know you’ve got a good partner at the right time. If you start to get red lights and it’s really hard, then often the “hard” continues. You should then let it go before you both work too much on it. It is important not to lose potentially good partners.

Her long-term experience suggests further shifts in the AT industry in regard to collaboration, as she explains:

A Successful Partnership

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One of AbleNet’s recent coups is a partnership with Weekly Reader, a respected publisher of subscription-based educational content. Through the partnership, content is made available directly to the special education classroom through AbleNet’s technologies, successfully leveraging the competencies of both companies. As Cheryl explains:

Word Web Exercise from the Weekly Reader (PDF)

Striking a positive note in regard to both the potential for fearless collaboration and evolution in student capability, AbleNet concluded, “Weekly Reader is a great example of a large, hundred year-old company in the consumer market.”

Cheryl continues the story: