Empowering Rural Students with Disabilities Through Assistive Technology
The Funding Process
Like providing shoes for a growing child, providing assistive technology devices for a student who is disabled is an ongoing process. As a student grows and develops, needs will change. And, just as it is important to involve a child in a decision about buying new shoes, students should be involved when making decisions about assistive devices. The assessment of the need for an assistive technology device is often complex and may require the assistance of external specialists-especially for small school districts that cannot employ specialized staff. Such assistance is available to districts through some mechanism in each of the five states in the region.
Finding Resources
A multistate study done by Vanderbilt University on the level of the use of assistive technology found that school personnel believe funding to be the major barrier to providing assistive technology. In these days of limited resources, this comes as no surprise. In contrast to the finding of this study, many assistive technology specialists feel that available funding for assistive technology is under-utilized.
Even though locating resources may be a complex process, school administrators and parents of students with disabilities should be aware that multiple sources of funding are available. Dan Scarborough, an assistive technology funding specialist who is associated with the Texas Assistive Technology Partnership (TATP) is completing a manual of funding resources for assistive technology (Funding Resources for Assistive Technology, 1995) which addresses no fewer than 34 possible funding sources for assistive technology.
Legally, the public-school system is ultimately responsible for seeing that students with disabilities have the services needed for an appropriate education. Many school leaders, therefore, infer that schools must pay for the services. In some cases, however, school district funds may not be the most appropriate resource to use. When a child in one small rural district eeded an augmentative communication device, the school purchased it at a cost of approximately $8,000. But according to an assistive technology funding specialist, this device probably could have been purchased through Medicaid. Furthermore, since the school purchased the device, the school owns it and may keep it when the student leaves school. When the student transitions to vocational training and employment, new arrangements for a device, probably through vocational rehabilitation services, will need to be made. If the device had been purchased through Medicaid, it would have belonged to the student and could have been taken with him.
The rapidly developing field of assistive technology creates a critical dilemma for policy makers at all levels since the overall needs of the school population are difficult to predict and the costs of individual devices can be high. Dedicated professionals and community members of one small rural community in the Southwest have addressed the issue of funding in an unusual way. In 1987, Bernadette DeRouen, the director of special education in New Iberia, Louisiana, realized the life-changing potential of augmentative communication devices for some of her students and yet knew that the costs were high. At first, she tried calling on service organizations to assist with the costs of devices for individual students. When she saw that this was impractical, she conceived the idea of starting a foundation. She invited representatives of various service organizations to a luncheon where she told them about the children's needs and had one of her students demonstrate an augmentative communication device. The people were impressed and donated to the foundation. A local attorney and a CPA have donated services, and a retired businessman became president. The foundation has thrived and has become a source of pride for the community.
The expense of keeping school personnel in small rural districts informed about developments in the field of assistive technology may prove prohibitive for rural school districts. The Albuquerque school district assistive technology program provides such a service to the smaller districts in New Mexico. Located centrally in the state, this program has been looked on by other districts as a significant resource for expertise. Last year, coordinator Brenda Heiman received a state grant to expand services outside of Albuquerque. With the additional funding, she has been able to provide training for small-district personnel in topics ranging from the legal aspects to the actual devices, including hands-on training. As part of the state project, she also developed a resource manual and procedural guide for administrators.