ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY FOR PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES THURSDAY, MAY 19, 1988 U.S. SENATE, SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE HANDICAPPED, COMMITTEE ON LABOR AND HUMAN RESOURCES, Washington, DC. The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 9:39 a.m., in room SD-430 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building, Senator Tom Harkin (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. Present: Senators Harkin, Metzenbaum, Stafford, and Hatch. OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR HARKIN Senator HARKIN. Good morning, and welcome to the first of two days of hearings about the role that assistive technology devices and services can play in enhancing opportunities for people with disabilities. In a nutshell, assistive technology devices are devices used by people with disabilities to assist them in performing an activity that a non-disabled person can perform without the device. Examples of devices include a specially adapted lift that helps a farmer into his tractor, and a computer that augments a person's speech. Several witnesses will testify about the essential role that assistive technology plays in their lives. One is Denny Theesfield, a farmer from Armstrong, Iowa. Denny is a disabled veteran. When he returned to his family farm after losing the use of his legs in Vietnam, he faced the tragic prospect that his disability would prevent him from working on his family farm, a farm that had been in his family for over 70 years. But Denny, with the help of his family, designed and built a specially adapted lift that enabled Denny to mount and operate his tractor. Today Denny is carrying on the family tradition of earning a living by farming. The second witness is Teddy Pendergrass, the popular singer, songwriter, and record producer. Teddy was severely disabled six years ago this spring. Having lost most of the use of his hands, Teddy's prospects to continue to write and produce were grim. But with the help of his vocational rehabilitation counselor, Dennis Turner, Teddy learned how to make use of an assistive technology device that Denny designed. And now Teddy is back at work. (1) Denny and Teddy are but two of the thousands of examples of people who are employed today because of the availability of assistive technology. But employment is not the only major life activity where technology can make a difference. Assistive technology also can help individuals of all ages, and in all areas of life, including recreation, education, independent living, and other community activities. Unfortunately, the promise of assistive technology is not a reality for tens of thousands more disabled Americans whose potentials remain untapped, who remain in institutions or inappropriate placements, or who are unemployed or underemployed because of the lack of assistive technology devices and necessary support services. I believe that the time has come, and indeed is long overdue, for fulfilling the promise of assistive technology for enhancing the lives of people with disabilities. If we can develop systems for developing and making pacemakers widely available to persons in need, surely we can do the same with respect to assistive technology. It gives me great pleasure to introduce our lead-off witness, my good friend and colleague, an individual I came to the Senate with, Senator John Kerry from Massachusetts. Last summer Senator Kerry introduced the Technology To Educate Children With Handicaps Act. This bill focuses on improving educational opportunities for severely handicapped children through the use of assistive device resource centers. We both agree on the important role that assistive technology can play in the lives of people with disabilities, and we agree that the Federal Government has an important role to play in helping States to expand their capacity to deliver assistive technology. We will insert an opening statement by Senator Stafford into the record at this point. OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR ROBERT T. STAFFORD Senator STAFFORD. Mr. Chairman, I congratulate you on holding these important hearing relating to the provision of assistance technology services and devices for disabled individuals. Advances in technological devices over the past ten years have assisted many disabled children, youth and adults to achieve greater independence in all facets of their lives. A voice synthesizer that enables an individual with severe cerebral palsy to communicate, a computer operated by a slight turn of the head allows a quadriplegic to continue to be employed, or an audio device attached to a television describing the non-verbalized action (such as a car chase scene) to a blind individual are all examples of devices that have been designed or adapted for use by persons with disabilities. Unfortunately, the dissemination of available "new technologies" is not readily available to the disabled individual or their families and in many cases the cost is prohibitive. The research and development of new devices is an ongoing process which necessitates the availability of it to all individuals. These hearings will focus on the need for a coordinated federal effort to assist States in the provision of these services and I look forward to your recommendations. I also want to acknowledge the efforts by Senator Harkin and the organizations and individuals which will participate in these hearings and the demonstration. Senator HARKIN. I recognize my esteemed colleague from Utah, Senator Hatch. OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR HATCH Senator HATCH. I want to welcome you, Senator Kerry, to the committee, and I look forward to hearing your testimony and that of the other witnesses today. And we welcome you all to the committee. This is an important hearing. It is one in which I take a great interest. I cannot be here for the full time, but I certainly am interested, and will read the record, and look over what needs to be done in this area. I am also, Mr. Chairman, extremely pleased that one of the witnesses today is Dr. Marvin G. Fifield. He is currently the director of the Utah State University affiliated developmental center for handicapped persons. For the past 22 years, Dr. Fifield has worked as a professional providing services and developing programs for people with mental illness, mental retardation, and other handicapping conditions. In 1986 he served as a staff member on the Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources, and his expertise, and, of course, his advice, were very helpful to all of us here, since we were in the process of reauthorizing the Education of the Handicapped Act, the Rehabilitation Act, and the Developmental Disabilities Act as well. So these were all very important things, and Dr. Fifield played a major role in the reauthorization of those acts. He is also a professor in special education and psychology at the Utah State University, a member of the Utah State Developmental Disabilities Planning Council, and chairman of my own advisory council on issues concerning individuals with handicaps. So, Marv, it is great to see you here again today, and I know everybody on this committee remembers the great service that you gave, and I hope you know how proud I am of the job you are doing in Utah, and, of course, at the national level as well. Let me just say that this is, as I said earlier, an important hearing. We can learn an awful lot from the witnesses who will appear in this and subsequent hearings. And I want to compliment you, Mr. Chairman, and others on this committee, for the work that you are doing in this area. And, of course, I think this is an area where we can work in a very strong, bipartisan way to do what is right for all of these individuals, and everybody throughout our country, and bring an awareness to people of how important these issues really are. So I want to thank you for that, and thank you for allowing me to make this statement. [The prepared statement of Senator Hatch follows:] PREPARED STATEMENT OF SENATOR ORRIN G. HATCH I am pleased to be at this hearing today to examine the promise of assistive technology. In today's society, technology touches nearly every dimension of the life of a person with disabilities. Modern technology has sometimes caused impairments but it has also provided a mechanism for reducing or eliminating handicapping conditions. The effective use of technology offers a most promising avenue in overcoming many physical and mental handicaps. A survey conducted by the Department of Education reported that the United States Government spends about $66 million a year on technological research and development relating to disabilities. It also spends about $36 billion a year for income support for individuals with disabilities and appropriates over $2 billion on rehabilitation and education of the handicapped. In spite of such expenditures, it is still rather apparent that gaps in services remain and that needs are not being met. Several years ago, I recognized that there was a problem and asked the Office of Technology Assessment to conduct a study of "technology and handicapped people." The O.T.A. study concentrated on specific concerns facing persons with disabilities by examining the developments and the use of technology as a life-cycle process. The report pointed out that we are not adequately utilizing available technology nor sufficiently encouraging future research and development. In addition, it emphasized that an insufficient number of personnel are being trained. Over the next two days, we will again be examining the promise of technology and problems associated with its dissemination and training. Hearings such as this one provide an excellent forum to address the policy issues, to more clearly define solutions, and to provide imput at the national level. It is through the efforts of the dedicated experts here today and thousands of others throughout the Nation that we can improve the quality of life for our 36 million citizens with disabilities. Achieving this objective will not only benefit these individuals but will be of tremendous value to society in general. Senator HARKIN. Thank you very much, Senator Hatch. I also want to compliment you publicly for your deep concern in this area of the handicapped, and with helping people with disabilities to lead a more fulfilling life. Again, it is one area where, as you said, we can get good strong bipartisan support. Senator HATCH. Thank you very much. Senator HARKIN. Senator Kerry, it is a pleasure to have you with us today. I am honored that you are here. Your statement will be made a part of the record in its entirety; and please proceed as you desire. STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN KERRY, A U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF MASSACHUSETTS Senator KERRY. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I will submit my full testimony, and I will just try to summarize here if I can, because there are a group of very important witnesses, some of who are far more expert than I with respect to this matter. Mr. Chairman, I would first of all like to thank you, number one, for holding this hearing; and, number two, for your commitment to develop an approach for all citizens with disabilities in terms of assistive devices. The fact that this hearing is taking place, and the scope of this hearing, will lend a great deal to the effort to awaken people to the progress that we can make, and to the immediate opportunities that are there if we will only move to make them available to people. I want to thank you for your commitment and dedication to doing that. I would also like to thank Senator Stafford, who is not here at the moment-but when I served on this committee I learned of his long dedication to these issues, literally decades of service. And my own understanding of Public Law 94-142 was greatly enhanced by my work with him. I miss being on this committee in terms of the ability it gave me to directly affect some of those issues. Mr. Chairman, I would like to just tell you briefly about the stories of two individuals, and then say why I think this assistive device resource center bill for The Education of Children with Handicaps-TECH Act, as it is called-is important, in fact, vital. Rick Hoyt is, in his early twenties. He has a severe case of cerebral palsy. Many people in the country have come to know Rick Hoyt because he and his father participate in marathons around the country. Almost every year they are in the Boston marathon, and have been in a number of others too. Rick rides in a lightweight, high-technology wheelchair, which his father pushes the 26 miles and some yards distance. Rick cannot speak, cannot communicate, cannot control his body movements, but Rick is participating. Last year I had the opportunity to join Rick in Boston where we were able to introduce a new means for Rick to be able to communicate. He has a computer scanner board that sits on his specially constructed wheelchair. And the scanner board scans through predetermined computer messages. And as he watches the light scan across this board, Rick has the ability to move his head and touch an electrode that is attached to the chair. With his forehead he stops the light at the appropriate message which he can read, and has total cognitive ability to understand. At the moment that it stops, the computer then takes his message through a voice synthesizer, and Rick talks to you. I cannot tell you the emotion that filled the room when Rick said: "Good morning, Senator Kerry, I want to welcome you here, and I am glad to have a chance to tell you about how I feel." When he said his name, an extraordinary smile, showing a sense of being alive crossed his face and his whole being. He was communicating, he was able to participate. And we really shared, I think, a very special kind of moment, which gave me a greater understanding of the meaning of many moments that he misses, or has missed. In addition it showed me that so many other children could participate in events but miss them because nobody has taken the time to make available this kind of necessary assistive device. Rick is currently, as a consequence of this device, attending Boston University, where he is busy getting a rehabilitative degree. He serves as an example to many, many others. |