September 2012 Highlights
PROJECT WIDE NEWS
Announcement
ATIA
and RESNA Catalyst Partnership Renewed for 2013!
The RESNA Catalyst Project is pleased to announce the continuation
of its partnership with the Assistive Technology Industries Association (ATIA),
to offer live and archived webinars to all AT Act Entities. Additionally, individual states may purchase
a subscription for additional seats directly from ATIA. The RESNA Catalyst Project webinar seats will be
available October 1, 2012, and a code will be provided to access these training
opportunities. For more details about
this exciting partnership, please contact Joey Wallace at jwallace@resna.org.
New
AT for Employers Web Portal
www.atconnects.com/employers is the web address to the new AT for Employers Web
Portal. The Portal is designed
as a gateway for businesses and employers to increase
their understanding and use of AT in the workplace while accessing resources
such as AT Act Program services. Please
take a look at the Portal and share this site with others.
This AT for Employer Web Portal is a
work in progress, and the current version will evolve over time. As such, we want to hear from you! If you have comments and suggestions to
improve this Portal, please email them to Paul Galonsky at pgalonsky@resna.org, or call at
703-524-6686. Watch for a date in the
upcoming months for a Webinar tour of the Portal.
Call for AT & Employment Content for AT
Program News (ATPN)
ATPN
is brainstorming AT for Employment. Content for this edition may
include...
- emerging best
practices
- lessons learned
- success stories
- new resources
- AT tool kits
- ideas for
marketing/outreach to employers
- partnerships to know
about
- initiatives you'd
like to read more about
Please send ideas or
submissions to atprogramnews@gmail.com
by October
3rd, 2012.
RESNA Catalyst Project to Exhibit at United
States Business Leadership Network’s (USBLN) 15th Annual Conference
RESNA Catalyst
Project Director Joey Wallace will be networking and exhibiting information on
AT Act programs and AT for Employment at the next USBLN conference, October 1- 4,
in Orlando, FL. This Annual
Conference & Expo is the preeminent national event that taps into the vast
economic potential of the full inclusion of people with disabilities.
The RESNA Catalyst Project: Evaluation Report of
Year Two
This external evaluation report prepared by Deborah Levy of SuccessLinks,
LLC, summarizes data gathered from surveys and
interviews about the provision of the RESNA Catalyst Project’s technical
assistance for AT Act Grantees FY 2011 -2012.
You can read the report online in the Grantees Only section of the RESNA
Catalyst Project’s website at http://www.resnaprojects.org/grantees/index.html.
Upcoming Events
Save the Date! RESNA Catalyst
Project’s 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 will continue to
work 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. Mark your
calendars now!
Save the date! RESNA 2013 Annual Conference
Hyatt Regency Bellevue, Bellevue, WA -
June 19 - 24, 2013
Seattle's desirable Eastside is the setting for
RESNA 2013! One day of the conference
will overlap with ICORR 2013, the International Conference on Rehabilitation
Robotics, featuring the world's leading research labs and clinics in the
field.
Upcoming
Deadlines
-
December 3, 2012: Instructional course and workshop proposals
-
January 14, 2013: Scientific and Student Scientific Papers
-
April 26, 2012: Student Design Competition
Sign up to receive RESNA conference news via
e-mail at http://www.resna.org/conference/index.dot.
STATEWIDE AT PROGRAMS
Upcoming
Events
Three Part Webinar Series on Transition
Statewide AT programs must spend 5% of its state leadership funds on
transition activities. Transition activities
must relate to students with disabilities transitioning under IDEA and
activities related to individuals with disabilities maintaining or
transitioning to community.
This three part
webinar series will focus on Transition activities related to Youth Leadership,
Policy, and State Teams. Each one hour
Webinar will highlight activities from several statewide AT programs. All webinars are free, and will begin at
3:00p.m. Eastern Time.
Webinar
Two: Youth Leadership- October 17, 3:00-4:00p.m. Eastern Time
Presenters: Marylyn
Hammond (UT), Ann Shor (MA), and Kathleen Laurin (MT). Register at: https://www4.gotomeeting.com/register/846399975.
Webinar
Three: AT Transition Policy- October 31st 3:00-4:00p.m. Eastern
Time
Presenters: Linda Jaco (OK) and Kathy Hayfield (VA). Register at: https://www4.gotomeeting.com/register/933915487.
Recent EventsArchived Webinar Series-
Part One on State Transition Teams- September 12, 2012
Presenters: Janice Carson (ID) and Susy Wood (IL)
View
archived webinar (video) Webinar
Transcript PowerPoint
Presentation or visit http://www.resnaprojects.org/statewide/webedarchive.html.
AT for Employment Work Group Call September 27, 2012
This Work Group call focused on reviewing the new AT for
Employer Web Portal. An archived
recording and notes of this call is available for your review at: http://www.resnaprojects.org/crossprograms/employment/workgroup.html.
PAAT PROGRAMS
Upcoming Events
Time
Running Out to Register! 16th Annual “Bridges to Better Advocacy”
Conference - October 23-25, 2012- Sign up by October 5, before registration
increases!
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. New Session Added to Two-Day Agenda: “Two AT-Related Medicare
Initiatives: The Power Mobility Prior
Authorization Demonstration Project and Proposed HR 4378” - presented by Donald
E. Clayback, Executive Director, National Coalition for Assistive and Rehab
Technology (NCART). Conference flyers/registration forms available on our
website: http://www.nls.org/conf2012/Bridges%20to%20Better%20Advocacy%20Flyer%202012.pdf
or by contacting Lynn Urquhart (lurquhart@nls.org)
or Jim Sheldon (jsheldon@nls.org)
When Booking Your Hotel Rooms (Room Block now extended through October 4th)
- You can follow the directions in our conference
flyer, following link above. However,
since we are so close to the expiration of our room block (and cannot guarantee
an extension), you are probably best off to contact Jesse Garcia directly at
the Hilton Garden Inn, at 800-684-7250 or 512-457-7961 (referencing “Bridges to
Better Advocacy: 2012 Conference” or “Group Code BBA”). And please contact Lynn Urquhart if you have
any problems.
To inquire about information for the Preconference and Conference,
including scholarships registration forms, contact Lynn Urquhart, lurquhart@nls.org. More information will soon appear on www.nls.org.
Announcements
“AT Advocate” to resume as Electronic-Only Newsletter
This newsletter has been published periodically
since 1996 with hard copies made available to P&A; programs and AT projects
among others. Our most recent issue was
published and distributed in late 2010/early 2011. A new version of “Medicaid, AT and the Courts” will be published
on our website during October. This and
future newsletters will be published in an electronic format only.
Late Breading News! A Big Victory in Texas--Federal court says Texas
Medicaid program cannot bar funding for standing wheelchairs.
On September 18th the Southern District
of Texas in Koenning v. Suehs,
6:11-CV-00006, held that the state’s Medicaid policy of categorically denying
coverage of mobile standers (included standing wheelchairs), without
consideration of medical necessity, violates the reasonable standards and
amount, duration, and scope provisions of the federal Medicaid Act and its
implementing regulations, and is preempted by the U.S. Constitution’s Supremacy
Clause.
Even Later Breaking News! Utah
Court Says Medicaid Cannot Bar Funding of Communication Devices to Adults
Conley v. Department
of Health, 2012 UT App 274 (Utah Ct. of App. Sept. 27, 2012)
was a challenge to an administrative hearing decision which affirmed the
Medicaid agency’s denial of a speech augmentative communication device (SACD)
for adult plaintiffs. The plaintiffs
claimed Utah policy violated the reasonable standards and comparability
provisions of the federal Medicaid Act.
The agency claimed the SACDs were included in speech language therapy
services, available only to pregnant individuals and those under the age of 21
through EPSDT. The agency insisted it
did not matter if the devices also fit the definitions of durable medical
equipment (DME), prosthetics, and speech pathology services, because it had
discretion to determine which category would include SACDs. The Utah Appeals Court held that the agency
abused its discretion in determining that SACDs were not a covered service for
adults. “Simply put, it is unreasonable
for the State to opt into the categories in which SACDs could be categorized
for all categorically and medically needy individuals but then to limit
coverage of certain services within those categories by the age of the
recipient.” Noting that Utah’s Medicaid
Provider Manual specifically defined communication devices as “prosthetics,”
the court held that “SACDs cannot reasonably be prosthetics and communication
equipment for those individuals under age twenty-one and pregnant women, but
only be speech pathology services for non-pregnant individuals age twenty-one
and older.
Anyone wishing to
obtain copies of the decisions can contact Diana Straube (dstraube@nls.org).
ALTERNATIVE FINANCING AND TELEWORK
LOAN PROGRAMS
Upcoming Events
Data Collection Work Group
The Data
Collection for AFP Work Group continues to meet to plan the best manner to
collect the information that tells the loan program stories. This group would like to hear from you! Please contact Jason at jluciano@resna.org if you want to
participate in this group.
Teleconference Series - New Directors of Telework
Loan Programs - October 9th 2012 1:00p.m. Eastern Time
The next installment of the Telework New Directors conference call series will
be Tuesday, October 9th at 1:00pm.
This call will be an “open forum” and a chance for all participants to
engage in peer-to-peer assistance. If
you would like to participate, please contact Jason Luciano at jluciano@resna.org.
Recent Events
Second Teleconference on AFP Grant Competition Information Call - August 28th
Brian Bard and Rob Groenendaal of RSA speak in a second conference call about
the AFP Grant competition for 2012. They discuss grant application requirements
and answer questions from participants.
This call was recorded and is on the RESNA Catalyst Website at http://www.resnaprojects.org/news/index.html.
Teleconference Series - New Directors of Telework
Loan Programs - September 11th
To follow up on the New Directors of Financial Loan Programs series the RESNA
Catalyst Project hosted last year, this series focuses on some of the unique
needs of the Telework Loan Programs.
This call focused on a discussion of the findings of the Telework Top
Performers Group in 2011 (document located at http://www.resnaprojects.org/documents/AFPprintDocInfo.php?ID=501). If you would like to participate, please
contact Jason Luciano at jluciano@resna.org.
OTHER RESOURCES
National Disability
Employment Awareness Month 2012
Held each October, National Disability
Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM) is a national campaign that raises awareness
about disability employment issues and celebrates the many and varied
contributions of America's workers with disabilities. This year's theme is
"A Strong Workforce is an Inclusive Workforce: What Can YOU Do?" Download a toolkit at: http://www.dol.gov/odep/topics/ndeam/.
Source: ODEP
ODEP Funded Webinars in Celebration of National
Disability Employment Awareness Month
The
Employer Assistance and Resource Network (EARN) is hosting four free weekly
webinars in celebration of National Disability Employment Awareness Month
(NDEAM). The brief webinars take place every Thursday in October from
2:00 - 2:30 pm EST. Register now at http://www.askearn.org/webinar_registration_2012_October.cfm for any or all of the following sessions:
October
4: Beyond Yellow Ribbons: Creating Disability Inclusive Workplaces
for Recently Returned Veterans with Disabilities
October
11: Research and Practice for Promoting Disability Disclosure
October
18: Increased Options, Stronger Support: How States Can Assist
Businesses in Employing People with Disabilities
October 25: The
Workforce Recruitment Program: Tapping the Talent of Students and Graduates
with Disabilities
Department of Defense's Computer/Electronic Accommodations Program (CAP)
Releases New Mobile App
http://cap.mil/PublicationsForms/downloads/mobileapp.aspx
CAP has released a free app for
Apple Devices, now available in the iTunes App Store. The new app lets
users browse the latest news and tips on assistive technology, scan
CAP's calendar of events and stay connected to the disability community.
An Android version is coming soon. CAP works to make the Federal
Government a model employer of people with disabilities by providing job
accommodations and equal access to electronic and information technology.
Source: Disability.gov
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.