May 2012 Highlights
PROJECT WIDE NEWS
Announcements
Save
the Date - Employment Summit and Two Project Directors Meetings -
Bethesda, Maryland May 6-9, 2013
Three
meetings are planned for the spring of 2013 for AT Act Entities. The
Catalyst Project will host an Employment
Summit May 8-9, 2013 for
all AT Act Entities at the Bethesda, Maryland Hyatt Regency. Two
Project Director Meetings will be conducted in conjunction with the
Summit. ATAP and the Catalyst Project will co-host a Statewide
AT Program Directors May 6-7, 2013.
In addition, there will be a Financial
Loan Best Practices Institute May 7, 2013 for
AFP/Telework/Title 1 loan program staff. The RESNA Catalyst Project
has been working with an Employment Summit Planning Committee, the
Catalyst Steering Committee Subgroup for Statewide AT Programs and
the Subgroup for AFP/Telework Programs to plan the three meetings. So
mark your calendars now and stay tuned for details.
If
you have ideas for any of these meetings, please contact Nancy
Meidenbauer at nmeidenbauer@resna.org.
ATIA
Archive Webinar Seats Still Available
There
are still plenty of seats available for ATIA archived webinars.
The Catalyst Project purchased a combination of live and archived
seats of ATIA’s public for-fee online education programs so
that AT Act Entity program staff and regional partners could attend
the webinars free. There are very few live sears available.
However, we still have plenty of seats available for Archived ATIA
webinars. Anyone wishing to attend one of the ATIA webinars
free needs to have a special code. The code and more details on
the free program are available in the grantees only section of the
Catalyst website at
http://www.atia.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=3931
Contact Nancy
Meidenbauer if you have any questions at nmeidenbauer@resna.org.
Upcoming
Event
WebEd
Webinar 2012: GMU02: Conducting Distance Demonstrations - Thursday
June 7, 2012, 1:00-2:30p.m. Eastern
This
session will provide an overview of conducting AT demonstrations and
assessments remotely using distance education technology. Presenters
will provide an overview of synchronous technology tools (such as
Skype) as well as discuss the benefits and challenges of conducting
remote demonstrations based on their experiences in the field.
Participants will have an opportunity to ask questions and share
their experiences. The presenters will be Peggy Shireley, AT
Coordinator with the North Dakota Statewide AT Program (IPAT) and
Marci Kinas Jerome, Assistant Professor in Special Education and
Assistive Technology at George Mason University. To register and to
receive more information, go to
http://www.resnaprojects.org/statewide/webed.html.
Archive
information on past WebEd Webinars is available at
http://www.resnaprojects.org/statewide/webedarchive.html.
Recent
Event
AT
for Employment Work Group Call – May 24, 2012
The
Work Group talked about the construction of the Employer Web Portal,
and discussed statewide AT Act programs contracting with their state
Vocational Rehabilitation agency. MP3 and call notes from this call
will soon be available in the Employment Hub at
http://www.resnaprojects.org/crossprograms/employment/index.html.
If you have resources that you wish to share for the Employer Portal
or for the Employment Hub as a whole, contact Paul Galonsky at
pgalonsky@resna.org.
STATEWIDE
AT PROGRAMS
Announcements
New
Members Join RESNA Catalyst Project Steering Committee –
Statewide Subgroup
Two
new members have been added to the RESNA Catalyst Project Steering
Committee. Welcome to Amber Fulcher, Project Director of the
Vermont AT Program and Anne Blackfield, Executive Director of the
Maryland TAP Program.
Upcoming
Events
Statewide
AT Program New Directors Call-Thursday, June 14, 3:00 p.m. Eastern
The
New Directors call takes place every other month. This upcoming call
will allow new directors to discuss issues they are currently facing.
To join the call, dial 800-351-6810, and use pass code: 46172076 #.
Sign up for Purchasing Work Group
If
you have not submitted your registration information to Jason Luciano
to participate in the on-line Device Purchasing Work Group, please do
so now. Contact Jason at jluciano@resna.org.
This website should be live in June and an announcement will be sent
out when it is operating.
PAAT
PROGRAMS
Announcement
Teleconference
Training: “Overcoming Medicaid’s Most Common Reasons for
Saying No to Durable Medical Equipment Requests: Turning a No Into a
Yes” June 28th,
2:00 to 3:45p.m. Eastern
Diana
Straube and Jim Sheldon of the National AT Advocacy Project will be
presenting. This session has been approved for 1.5 hours of
continuing legal education (CLE) credits through the State of
Louisiana (check your state rules for reciprocity). NOTE: $35
registration fee per phone line (covers two CLE certificates; $10 per
CLE after that). Registration for this teleconference training will
be posted on the National AT list serv, or you can obtain
registration through Lynn Urquhart (lurqhart@nls.org).
Save
the date (July 26th)
for the final
session in this series titled “Practical Ethics: When Can You
Withdraw from Hearing or Court Case? When Can You Settle for Less
Than Prayer for Relief?”
Upcoming
Event
Registration
Now Open! 16th
Annual
“Bridges to Better Advocacy” Conference – October
23-25, 2012
The
Annual “Bridges to Better Advocacy” Conference will once
again be held at the Hilton Garden Inn in Austin, TX. This year’s
conference will include a one day preconference focusing on Medicaid
and Complex Mobility Equipment,
and two-day conference with workshop topics including “The
Journey of Shelby Nurse: Getting the Right AT During the Transition
Years and Meeting the Challenge of Funding It,” “Structured
Negotiations: An Alternative to Litigation to Achieve Systemic
Changes Related to AT,” and “Medicaid and Private
Insurance: Keeping Up with and Meeting the Challenges.
Conference
flyers/registration forms are available through Lynn Urquhart,
lurquhart@nls.org,
and will soon appear on www.nls.org.
Sign up by July 13th
for Super Early
Bird rates!
Did
You Know? Series
22
postings are now available at
http://www.nls.org/did%20you%20know.htm.
Coming
soon: Coming soon: National AT Advocacy Project’s Resources Can
Support Your AT Advocacy.
ALTERNATIVE
FINANCING AND TELEWORK LOAN PROGRAMS
Announcement
Welcome
to New Directors
Three new loan
Program Directors have recently been named. Tiffany Hewett is the new
person heading the South Carolina AT and Telework Loan Programs. Her
contact information is thewett@alliedinc.net;
phone number is (803) 896-6112. Larry Maestes is the new Telework
Loan Program Director for New Mexico. He can be reached at
maestaslarrylar@comcast.net.
Finally, Melanie Quinton is heading up Florida’s AFP and
Telework Programs. Her email is mquinton@2faast.org;
phone number is (850) 487-3278 x107. Welcome to all three. We look
forward to working with you!
Recent
Events
Teleconference
Series – Application Red Flags: Low Credit scores and how to
address them in an application – May 9th
2012
Milissa
Gofourth from Oklahoma and Cheryl Fatnassi from Vermont discussed how
their programs address the red flag issue of low credit scores, and
other credit report problems. The call was recorded and can be found
on the RESNA Catalyst website at
http://www.resnaprojects.org/afp/teleconf/index.html.
Teleconference
Series – Asset Development: Financial Literacy Curricula your
Loan Program – May 30th
2012
Basil
Kesslar and Lorna Moore from Kansas, and Ferol Smith from
Massachusetts presented this second call in the Asset Development
teleconference series, focusing on how each program incorporates
financial literacy curricula into their respective programs. The call
was recorded and will soon be archived on the RESNA Catalyst at
http://www.resnaprojects.org/afp/teleconf/index.html.
Upcoming
Events
Telework
Program New Directors Series
The
RESNA Catalyst Project will again sponsor a Loan Program New
Directors series, focusing on Telework Loan Programs. New Directors
will be invited to attend. If you are not a new director, but would
like to participate anyway, please contact Jason at
jluciano@resna.org
for more
information.
Data
Collection Work Group
The Data Collection for AFP Work Group will have another meeting in June
(to be determined). Please contact Jason at jluciano@resna.org
if you want to
participate in this group. The Work Group is looking at how to best
gather data that tells the story of all of the work the programs.
OTHER
RESOURCES
RESNA
2012 Conference in Baltimore - June 28 - July 3, 2012
Join
us in Baltimore, Maryland for RESNA's annual conference. Sessions
include presentations by several AT Act Programs. To see the
preliminary program, go to
http://web.resna.org/conference/2012-conference-documents/RESNAprelimprogram.PDF.
Federal
Communications Commission (FCC) Hosts Accessibility Clearing
House
This
FCC website is designed to help people with disabilities keep up with
the communications revolution. There are good resources for
mobile apps, service providers, hardware, software, fact sheets,
directories of organizations, and resources. The Statewide AT
Programs are all listed in the "Programs and Initiatives"
section. To learn more, visit
http://apps.fcc.gov/accessibilityclearinghouse/index.html.
Labor
Department Announces Disability Employment App Challenge - Deadline
August 23, 2012
The
U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Disability Employment Policy
(ODEP) has launched its first disability-related application
challenge. The goal of the "app challenge" is to create
innovative tools to improve job opportunities for people with
disabilities. ODEP is looking for apps that help employers find job
seekers with disabilities provide skill-building and job training
tools, increase transportation options and improve the accessibility
of communication technology. Awards with cash prizes totaling $10,000
will be given to the top three submissions. Register for the contest
by creating an account.
Submission deadline is August
23, 2012. Visit Disability.gov for
job search and career planning tools, as well as information about
recruiting and hiring people with disabilities.
New
AT Radio & Podcasts in Indiana
INDATA
has launched an internet radio station. AssistiveTechnologyRadio.com
broadcasts
24/7 and includes a wide variety of AT programs. Programs
include INDATA’s two podcasts as well as various AT training
sessions. To view and listen to the growing list of episodes, visit:
http://www.eastersealstech.com/content.aspx?pId=492.
INDATA
will include audio content from other AT projects. To submit radio
content or to learn more about INDATA's AT radio and podcasts contact
Wade Wingler at wwingler@eastersealscrossroads.org.