Senator HARKIN. Thank you very much for your testimony, and for being here.

Next is Mary Pat Radabaugh, who is founder and Manager of the IBM National Support Center for Persons with Disabilities.

We are pleased to have you here, welcome, and please proceed. Ms. RADABAUGH. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you for the opportunity to share our perspective with you on technology for persons with disabilities.

For most of us, technology makes things easier. For people with disabilities, technology can make things possible. Our center was formed in 1985 to be IBM's focal point for information on how our technology can help. It was formed as a social responsibility program.

We believe there are four key areas requiring attention, both in the public and private sector. What I would like to do is share with you our experience in those four areas and where we see recommendations to help. The areas are: awareness, affordability, training and jobs.

I believe one of the best-kept secrets today is the capability of technology and what it can do to help people who need help. Raising the level of awareness was the first key mission we launched when we established our center in 1985.

In 1987 alone, we logged over 19,000 inquiries through the mail and through our toll-free 800 number. They confirmed the enormous pent-up demand for information that we saw from the beginning when we established the center. In the last 12 months, we have exhibited at over 60 shows, symposiums and conferences. We do customer executive briefings for educators, social service agencies, Government leaders, and our customers, several times a week, typically.

We advertise, on a national level, with national television spots, what the technology can do and what services we provide, including where people can get information from us. But probably the most significant proactive program we have launched, about a year ago, is our Executive Awareness Program.

Basically, it is a 90-minute briefing that we travel around the country and take to communities, targeted at educators, rehab professionals, individuals, leaders in the public sector, our customers and the press, to spread the word about what technology can do and where to get the information. Again, they have confirmed the pent-up demand for the information. Typically, we do four to five sessions a day for about a week in each city.

What we believe is that people don't know that there is information there, and they don't know where to start to get it. What we recommend is that there be a broader based public information program, including public service broadcasts, advertising what is possible and where to go for help. Another key is the establishment of resource or demo centers where people can see, feel, and work with the technology, easily accessible on a local basis.

After you raise the level of awareness, the next problem becomes affordability. Other people have testified to this. I would like to share with you our program we announced in late 1987, the IBM Offering for Persons with Disabilities. It's now available in 10 locations across the country and, basically, it provides a way for people

with disabilities to purchase computers more easily; basically at our deepest discount of approximately 40 to 50 percent.

But it is more than a discount program; it's a partnership with social service agencies, the first of which is National Easter Seals, where they provide comprehensive one-on-one assistance to the individuals, from assessment all the way through installation, including in the person's home, if that is where they need it. But for people on fixed disability incomes, those discount programs are not enough. More is needed.

We have several suggestions we would like to share with you regarding affordability. You asked earlier about Medicaid, and we had several people talk about Medicaid and insurance. We believe also that the provisions should be expanded to include the technology as "medical necessities" or "prosthetic devices." Equipment financing or low-cost loans could help. Tax credits for the purchasers of the technology could help.

Also, the assistive device business itself is a cottage industry, primarily. We believe the Government could encourage new business to enter the field, or existing companies to develop more technology and innovative ways of using the technology and thereby provide better availability and more competitively priced products.

Once you do the awareness and affordability, training becomes the next key. Through joint funding from IBM in a GSA joint project with industries project, IBM has helped establish over 36 training centers across the country for disabled people to learn how to become programmers. Their common goal is to train the disabled people and also place the graduates in competitive jobs.

We also have added data entry, word processing, computer assisted design and customer service training to that programmer training in many of the centers. So far, we have placed over 2,000 graduates just in the programming positions alone, and the 1987 graduates started at an average salary of $20,000 per year. But not enough vocational training is in place in this country today, based on the tremendous size of the unemployed disabled adult men and

women.

We have some possible solutions. The technology or demo resource centers we recommended earlier could also include training like the training we talked about in these particular centers across the country, with the minimum goal of one per state, whether you combine them with the demo centers or provide separate training facilities themselves. Also, certification requirements for educators and rehab professionals should include a knowledge of assistive technology. "Teach the teachers" is the way I like to put it.

One key goal, obviously, is jobs. At IBM we focus on people's ability-not their disability-and IBM managers are required to design jobs focusing on people's abilities and minimizing the restrictions a disability may pose. Last year we put in place a training program, company-wide, for all managers, called "Enabling the Disabled" that focused on sensitivity issues and how to manage, hire, recruit, and promote disabled employees. The ultimate objective of all assistive technology is improve the quality of living for all persons with disabilities.

We have several thoughts on improving employment opportunities. We talked earlier about the Architectural Barrier Tax Provi

sion provided for people with disabilities. Basically, we believe that ought to be expanded to include computer technology or assistive devices.

Second, incentives and/or recognition for replicable management training programs would lead to more jobs. That information, those successful programs could then be disseminated, for example, to small businesses to improve, again, the hiring, training and employability.

I believe it's a test of our society, a test of our civilization in how well we use technology to enrich everyone's lives. We can help people if we believe in the dignity and importance of life, and of the need to find ways to enhance the quality of life for all of our

citizens.

Mr. Chairman, computer technology does not change the disability, but it can change the environment. It can minimize, and often eliminate, the handicap of the environment.

Thank you very much.

[The prepared statement of Ms. Radabaugh with an attachment follows:]

STATEMENT

BY

MS. MARY PAT RADABAUGH, MANAGER

IBM NATIONAL SUPPORT CENTER FOR PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES

BEFORE THE

SENATE SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE HANDICAPPED

MAY 20, 1988

MR. CHAIRMAN, MEMBERS OF THE COMMITTEE:

ON BEHALF OF THE IBM NATIONAL SUPPORT CENTER FOR PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES, WE WANT TO THANK YOU FOR THE OPPORTUNITY TO SHARE OUR PERSPECTIVE ON TECHNOLOGY FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES.

OVER THE YEARS, IBM HAS BEEN DEVELOPING AND PROMOTING THE USE OF NEWER AND BETTER TECHNOLOGY. THE CRITICAL CHALLENGE HAS BEEN TO FIND WAYS TO APPLY THAT TECHNOLOGY DIRECTLY TO ENRICH THANKS MAINLY TO THE POWER AND

PEOPLE'S LIVES.

TODAY,

AFFORDABILITY OF COMPUTERS, WE ARE ABLE TO HARNESS TECHNOLOGY TO MAKE A REAL DIFFERENCE IN THE LIVES OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES.

LINKING COMPUTERS TO A WIDE VARIETY OF DEVICES AND EQUIPMENT HAS NOW OPENED DOORS PREVIOUSLY THOUGHT TO BE CLOSED. THOSE WHO CANNOT SPEAK CAN NOW COMMUNICATE WITH VOICE SYNTHESIZERS. THOSE WHO CANNOT HEAR NOW "CONVERSE" OVER PHONE LINES. THOSE WHO CANNOT SEE CAN NOW "READ BY LISTENING" TO A COMPUTER. THOSE WHO CANNOT MOVE CAN NOW COMMUNICATE WITH A TWITCH OF A MUSCLE OR THE BLINK OF AN EYELID. AND THOSE WHO HAVE DIFFICULTY LEARNING CAN NOW BECOME MORE PRODUCTIVE CITIZENS THROUGH THE ALMOST LIMITLESS CAPABILITY OF COMPUTER-DRIVEN LEARNING.

IN 1985 THE IBM NATIONAL SUPPORT CENTER FOR PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES WAS ESTABLISHED AS A CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY PROGRAM TO BE THE COMPANY'S FOCAL POINT FOR INFORMATION ON HOW OUR