Global interest in AT is growing. Cathy Bodine, executive director of Colorado's Assistive Technology Partners (which implements the Colorado Assistive Technology Act Program) has seen this first-hand. With her colleague Dr. Randi Hagerman of the MIND Institute at UC Davis, Bodine has traveled to Dubai, Barcelona, Istanbul, Rome, Taiwan, and Guadalajara to educate professionals, families, and whole communities on high and low tech assistive technologies. Her international consulting work spans more than two decades and during this time she reports attitudes have been changing.
AT Program News spoke with Bodine about her international work last month. Bodine wears many hats. In addition to directing Assistive Technology Partners, she is an associate professor at the University of Colorado's Dept. of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, and is principal investigator for the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center for Advancing of Cognitive Technologies (RERC-ACT). In 2010 she traveled to Guadalajara to provide a keynote address to the 1st International Conference on Autism and Fragile X Syndrome, drawing on her expertise in cognitive AT.
ATPN: How did your international work develop?
CB: Dr. Hagerman, at the UC Davis MIND Institute, used to be here at the University of Colorado. We've been working together for many years, and when she has an international trip--doing physician training and diagnostic work--she always makes sure I'm included so we can look at the habilitation needs of the population and talk about assistive technology.
You mentioned that there's a lot more interest in AT in general...
Yes, increasingly AT is being recognized world wide as a necessary component of services for people with disabilities. And in developing countries, in particular, they are desperate for help. In Mexico we went up into the mountains outside of Guadalajara to a village without electricity or indoor plumbing where they have a high incidence of disability. They were really in need of low tech solutions, as well as just an understanding of the disabilities themselves.
Do you always go to remote/under served areas?
There's always two components to these trips. One is to do a conference for baseline education with as many people as possible, and then the second thing is to help set up clinics. In Guadalajara I did a lecture to 1000 people, "Assistive Technology, Autism, and Fragile X Syndrome: Advances in the Field." The audience was half medical personnel and half families. Then we went to the one and only rehab clinic that exists for kids and adults with disabilities in Guadalajara, and we talked with them about developing an AT program for children. We also visited the one and only special education program for students with disabilities, and we traveled to the village.
So depending on the country, and their infrastructure--in many cases they are just getting started with serving children and adults with disabilities--they may be desperate for information and for knowledge. And a lot of what I do is talk about how to develop programs. Because I have a very strong bias that you can try to help people all you want, but if you don't have an infrastructure in place it's just not going to happen. It won't survive.
And you're seeing demand growing...
It really is. Over the years that I've been doing this, there's a growing world wide awareness that disability cannot be ignored and that it's in a country's best interest to serve the needs of the families and individuals with disabilities. It's a growing social awareness and conscience. And I think that as countries develop they recognize that these are very disenfranchised people and that they deserve to be served.
What do you attribute that to? Is the UN Convention [on the Rights to People with Disabilities] playing a role? Or is it all just coming about at the same time...?
I think it's coming about at the same time. People come from so many different walks of life. What I have seen over and over again--the way this actually happens--is that a family with a little bit of money and a child, typically, will get it started in their country.
So it's pretty much the same way all over the world!
It is! And they want their child to get the best, and so they'll go to whatever lengths they have to go to.
Was there a first family in Guadalajara that you were connected up with?
Yes, and they have absolutely been amazing. They have since come to our clinic in Denver with their child and have sent two other families to get wheelchair seating and other technologies set up. And they're continuing to grow the services for kids with disabilities in their communities. Indeed, in each of the countries, what's wonderful is we typically really get to know a particular family. And that is pretty cool.
Thanks for sharing your experiences with ATPN Cathy!
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