There are multiple policy issues of major concern to the Alliance for Technology Access and the communities it serves. Legislative mandates and regulatory decisions play an enormous role in the lives of people with disabilities. Among the key policy concerns of the ATA and its technology centers are the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Rehabilitation Act, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), and the Telecommunications Act of 1996, all of which address the importance of access to technology by people with disabilities. At every turn in the policy-making process, equity for people with disabilities has to be safeguarded and protected because it can be so easily and carelessly lost. In many cases, like the implementation of section 255 of the Telecommunications Act, the issues are very complex and achieving the goal of accessible products and services for all people with disabilities is complicated and arduous -- but absolutely critical. What's at stake for people with disabilities is nothing short of participation in life - education, employment, communication, recreation and independence.

Computer technology and distance learning are used extensively in Montana public schools, and high tech assistive technology is commonly accepted as an option for students with the most severe disabilities. However, most rural schools do not view students with milder disabilities as appropriate candidates for assistive technology. The unwritten policy is that students with mild disabilities need to learn in the conventional ways because "they won't always have a computer with them."

The focus of this project will be to influence local policymakers and educators in the public schools to consider a policy change from denial of technology to encouragement of computer use to circumvent aspects of learning disabilities that cannot be remediated easily. The goal for the students is to prepare them to be more efficient learners whose output more closely matches their intellectual capabilities. The project will try to influence local decision-makers so that use of assistive technology for learning disabled students becomes culturally assimilated as something that is necessary and appropriate.

The Carolina Computer Access Center (CCAC) is addressing a growing need for the development of policies and procedures to bring the classroom setting to home-based students with disabilities in the least restrictive manner -- using videoconferencing technologies. These current technologies have the potential to facilitate and enhance the inclusion of students with severe disabilities in their assigned school-based general education classrooms and provide a workable model for school policymakers in rural areas to replicate.

The project focuses on the need to develop low-cost Internet access for people who live in rural areas, are isolated, and live on fixed incomes. In many areas of East Tennessee, calls outside the county in which people live are long-distance, and many areas also lack local Internet access numbers. This project focuses on the policies, procedures, and laws that govern the pricing of Internet services.

There are good resources and policies in place in Kentucky, but people do not always know about them. Kentucky school policy states all children must have equal access to technology, the statewide network and other information needed to meet their schools' instructional goals. There is a trust fund (the Kentucky Education Technology System) that can be spent for assistive equipment but it is little used.

Project staff in Murray will train administrators, library media specialists and teachers in six school districts about accommodations which would make computers accessible to students with disabilities and how to access the educational trust funds. Accessible computer workstations will give students with disabilities access to electronic media and the statewide technology network. WKATC staff will provide training and information about low- to high-tech adaptations which will allow individuals with disabilities to use computers in the library and classroom. A Computer Access Kit which outlines resources (equipment and funding) to make computers accessible will be a product of the project, along with a blueprint for consumers and their families to change how policies can get put into practice to increase funding and access to assistive technology in rural areas.