by Danny Hilton-Chalfen, Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles
(Reprinted with permission from the EDUCOM Review,
Vol. 27, No. 1, January/February, 1992)
Tight campus budgets can make the prospect of securing funding for adaptive computing equipment for people with disabilities seem remote. But taking a campus-wide perspective and a creative approach to financing equipment purchases may bring some surprising results.
First, it is important to realize that most adaptations to standard computer systems for people with disabilities are quite inexpensive, generally under a hundred dollars. This includes, for example, a free "sticky key" program enabling someone with a physical disability to type two-key commands with one finger or a head or mouth stick, or a $25 power strip positioned at the front of a table enabling a person in a wheelchair to turn on difficult to reach computer components.
But what about more specialized products -- the $350 voice synthesizer screen reading program for students who are blind, or the $3,000 Braille printer to enable them to have Braille printouts of reading lists and term papers? Here, a college or university can seek ways of leveraging limited resources. Take an overview of the campus to determine which departments, schools or programs might have some stake in meeting the need. For example, at the University of California, Riverside, a joint effort in co-funding between the Disabled Student Services office, the Academic Computing Services, and the College of Humanities and Social Sciences resulted in the purchase of a Braille printer, housed in a public access computing lab accessible to students with disabilities.
Campus libraries across the country have often played a key role as one of the partners in such cooperative efforts. Libraries are home to important on-line data bases that can readily be accessed by those with disabilities using adaptive equipment. The campus library is a logical constituency to join up with computing services, disabled student services, and academic units, to jointly purchase equipment.
Co-funding is one example of stretching limited equipment budgets within any one unit by pooling the resources of many. This strategy has the added benefits of raising the level of awareness of computer access needs beyond one support unit. It can broaden the responsibility for and commitment to providing support to computer users with disabilities across campus.
A campus-wide adaptive computing support unit with an equipment fund can serve as an important catalyst for campus equipment purchases. The unit's equipment funds can not only be used for purchases for a central consulting and access site for people with disabilities, but also to help other campus units begin to provide their own computer access and support. Providing matching funds for equipment can jump-start local computing centers with limited computing budgets into the world of accessible computing, and provide timely access for students who can't wait until the next fiscal year for instructional computing access for a required course sequence. Similarly, when the central support unit upgrades equipment, it can be given to a local computing center as seed equipment to help them begin their own adaptive computing support. Upgrade equipment can also be sold at a large discount to the local centers through campus recharge.
Making the most of existing equipment is as important as acquiring new equipment. An equipment loaner pool can provide a way of quickly moving equipment resources to where they are needed most. At the University of California, Los Angeles, the Disabilities and Computing Program maintains a loaner pool of lap top computers and adaptive peripherals. Lap tops, some with special equipment such as voice synthesizers, are loaned out to students and to student note- takers for alternative test-taking and in-class note-taking, both in coordination with the Office for Students with Disabilities. These and other systems are loaned to students and employees to evaluate in their own work environment prior to purchasing their own systems. Equipment is also loaned to local computing centers to meet short term needs, such as access to course-related computing. When the center no longer needs the equipment, it reverts back to the loaner pool for other users.
A loaner pool makes a little go a long way. The possibilities for an inter-campus loaner pool on a state level appear very promising and have largely been unexplored.
At this point, many of you may be wondering how a campus comes by a central adaptive computing support unit with an equipment fund! Ideally, this support group would be established by the institution as a permanent campus program with dedicated program staff. While it is a challenging prospect, this is the direction that many campuses across the country are heading in now. It has proven to be the most effective means of providing continuity of expertise and support. Campuses that have begun this process recognize that without this commitment, much of the wonderful new technology we have obtained to provide disability access will simply collect dust.