DATI Will Be Here for You

Beth Mineo, DATI Director

As detailed in previous issues of The AT Messenger, the DATI has sustained significant cuts in federal funding over the past three years. We have sought your input (see survey results), and we encouraged you to contact Delaware's Congressional delegation with your concerns about the services that would be lost if DATI were to cease operation. Many individuals worked very hard to seek alternate sources of funding so that the project would not be so dependent on Assistive Technology Act funding.

I am delighted to be the bearer of very good news. The DATI has secured sufficient funding to continue full operation-and even expand some of its services-for at least the next three years. This comes as a result of several new grant awards. The largest of these is a three-year, $1.2 million award to the Delaware Division of Developmental Disabilities Services, on behalf of the entire Department of Health and Social Services, that enables many state agencies to work collaboratively with the DATI in strengthening the AT support infrastructure statewide. You can read more about this new project. We also have a new five-year grant to increase awareness and skills relative to accessible information and electronic technology in educational settings.

We are grateful to those of you who took the time to respond to the survey in the Spring 2001 issue of this newsletter. We are also very grateful to those of you who let our Senators and Congressman know how DATI has helped you over the years. While the future of the Assistive Technology Act is still uncertain, Congress has agreed to hold hearings this spring to determine how DATI and its counterparts might operate in the evolving national and state policy landscape that includes the President's New Freedom Initiative, the Olmstead decision (supports for community living), final Section 508 guidelines (accessibility of electronic and information technology), and the Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act.