2000 Conference Proceedings
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ASSISTIVE WORK TECHNOLOGY – "THE WAY GEORGIA DOES
IT"
Jack Gilson
Assistive Work Technology Supervisor
Georgia Division of Rehabilitation Services
3420 Norman Berry Dr., Suite 424
Hapeville, GA 30354-1314
404-669-3904
Beginning in 1995, the Georgia Division of Rehabilitation
Services embarked on a major reorganization effort, designed to
place greater emphasis on actual job development and job
placement for persons with disabilities.
While traditional positions such as the rehabilitation counselor
(the case manager) were retained in the organization, other new
job classifications were created. An account representative
position was designed to work directly with businesses and
industry to open new vocational opportunities for persons with
disabilities. A work preparation technician became the DRS person
responsible for helping the client with job readiness and initial
on-the-job assistance.
A new and integral component of the re-designed rehabilitation
services in Georgia was a statewide assistive work technology
(AWT) unit. The Division readily accepted the proposition that
assistive technology could and would play a significant role in
the successful placement of some of its clients into employment.
In situations where the employer would not be able or willing to
purchase technology needed to overcome a barrier on the job site,
and where the client was deemed economically eligible, the
Division would use case service monies to acquire the needed
technology.
It became the responsibility of the AWT team to receive
referrals from the case-managing counselor, to evaluate the
abilities and needs of the client, and, where necessary, to
conduct a job-site survey. Once this was accomplished, the AWT
unit would make appropriate recommendations for equipment,
software, special modifications, and training. The set-up and
initial orientation to special equipment – but not
comprehensive training – would also be the responsibility
of the AWT team. (Actual training would be out-sourced to private
rehabilitation facilities or training consultants.)
Beginning in mid 1998, active recruitment began for the four new
positions in the AWT program. Statewide, the following positions
were allocated: 5 rehabilitation engineers, 5 occupational
therapists, 13 rehabilitation technologists, and 5 rehabilitation
technicians. The state was divided into 12 geographic regions
grouped together into 4 tri-regions. The tri-regional concept was
designed to enable the sharing between regions of engineers,
OT’s and technicians. Each region has one rehabilitation
technologist (The region containing metro Atlanta gets two.), who
has a strong background in computer hardware and software,
adaptive systems, and client assessment. This team member acts as
the "gate-keeper" of referrals, and helps determine the best
person on the team to take the lead in any particular case. The
engineer is used primarily for special design or modification
situations; the technician assists in equipment set-up and
occasional special fabrication. The OT deals with cases involving
traditional OT type activities – splinting, positioning,
seating assessments, transfers, etc. The key to the roles of
these four new positions is the team approach. Home and vehicle
modifications and special workstations often involve two, three,
or all four of the AWT team members.
This AWT team approach is best explained by discussing several
actual cases from the past year. With the focus being on the
ultimate DRS goal – a successful employment outcome –
the AWT teams in Georgia are beginning to show the positive
benefit of the ca
Case No. 1
Latrina’s disability is her size. She is a 19-year-old who
is 2’10" tall. As a little person, she has dealt with
physical barriers all her life. Upon graduation from high school,
she enrolled in a local beauty college to learn to become a nail
technician. To be able to reach the 30" tall worktable, Latrina
would need special seating. An initial trip to an office supply
store revealed that an "off-the-shelf" adjustable secretarial
chair would not suffice. While she could adjust the chair height
lever, her body weight of just 35 pounds was insufficient to
lower the chair, and her short legs did not permit her to "push
off" to raise the chair. In addition, the chair seat was too
deep, causing her legs to extend straight out when she rested
against the back of the chair. Latricia’s next stop was a
seating clinic where an OT interviewed and measured her. A
special Florida company was located that manufactured chairs
especially for little people. Upon delivery, a minor adjustment
to the footrest made this $700 chair the perfect "fit" for
Latricia. A subsequent visit to her school site revealed that the
chair met her needs successfully. A second modification was
needed for her access to the pedicure station. In this instance,
it was the shortness of her arms that precluded her from using
the standard equipment. The rehabilitation technician suggested a
$35 auto mechanic’s stool as an inexpensive modification.
This was successful. Finally, when the client complained that her
shortened walker was digging into the floor, the OT offered forth
the "tennis ball solution." Two tennis balls, sliced open and
placed over the front legs of the walker, provided the necessary
amount of friction to insure smooth traveling. To date, Latricia
has completed her formal training, and is awaiting testing for
her state license.
Case No. 2
Tina Allgood was traveling back from a beach vacation on I-85
when she swerved to avoid some road debris. Her vehicle went out
of control and overturned. Despite wearing her seat belt, Tina
fractured her neck and became a C5-6 quadriplegic. Upon release
two months later from the Shepherd Spinal Center, Tina returned
to her home-based embroidery business. Her desire was to continue
to operate her business. The fifteen "industrial strength"
embroidery machines are controlled by a personal computer. While
Tina would now have to rely on her part-time employees to
physically place shirts and caps under the machines, she hoped to
be able to continue operating the PC to create the embroidery
designs and power the machines.
Her injury greatly reduced her keyboarding skills, so Tina was
evaluated on using a Kensington track ball and Dragon Dictate
system. These modifications were appropriate, but the AWT team
discovered a problem with Tina’s use of the speech
recognition software. The system would work well during periods
of constant noise, but not with the noisy machines continually
turning on and off. Various sound enclosures were tried, but none
worked well enough to permit use of the Dragon software.
Finally, the team decided the only option was to add an
extension onto the wing of the house used for the business so
that an enclosed office could be created. This home modification
would also provide a secondary benefit of giving Tina more space
in which to navigate her powered wheelchair.
The home modification has been completed, and Tina’s
business is back to pre-injury production levels.
Case No. 3
The Carey Limousine Service in Atlanta needed another
reservations operator. Eden, a totally blind woman in her
20’s, applied for the position and was hired. The DRS
account representative working with this employer requested an
assistive work technology assessment to determine the appropriate
way to give the new employee access to the PC-based reservations
system. An older DOS-based program was being used, so the rehab.
engineer recommended the JAWS for DOS screenreading software with
a DECtalk Express voice synthesizer.
With 15-20 different screens containing pertinent limo
reservation information, Eden needed a number of shortcuts on the
keyboard and screen to be able to effectively do the job. After
several days of keyboard macro and screen frame design, and
instruction, the frustration level of Eden was mounting. It
appeared to be far too much information to process via speech
output. Eden possessed an excellent braille-reading skill, so the
rehab. engineer, in consultation with other team members,
authorized the purchase of a PowerBraille 40 paperless braille
display. Since both employer and employee were anxious to have a
successful resolution to the problem, the AWT team authorized the
overnight shipment of the braille display unit. Within four days,
Eden was comfortably navigating around the screen, reading
reservation information in computer-grade braille off of her
40-cell display.
The Georgia AWT unit is approaching the point of being fully
staffed, and hopes to soon be fully equipped with an array of
assessment tools and technical evaluation hardware and software
packages. The concept of accurately and successfully applying
assistive technology to persons with disabilities is one which
the Division of Rehabilitation Services fully believes will aid
in putting Georgians with disabilities to work.
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