Lex Frieden, Chairperson
August 2004

The Bulletin, which is free of charge, and at NCD's award-winning Web site (www.ncd.gov), brings you the latest issues and news affecting people with disabilities. To subscribe or unsubscribe to the NCD listserv, send a blank e-mail to add-bulletin@list.ncd.gov or remove-bulletin@list.ncd.gov. No need to write anything in the subject line or body. To change your current e-mail address, first unsubscribe in one e-mail and then subscribe in another. Please send your editorial comments to Bulletin editor Mark S. Quigley (mquigley@ncd.gov).

NCD Celebrating 20 Years as an Independent Federal Agency, 1984-2004

NCD to Release Reports on Consumer-Directed Health Care and Universal Design
On October 26 at 10:00 a.m., NCD will release a report entitled Consumer-Directed Health Care: How Well Does It Work? at a news conference and public dialogue at the National Press Club in Washington, DC.

NCD determined that it was necessary to assess the nature, scope, and quality of consumer-directed health care reform efforts, as federal and state policymakers assess the outcomes of these for the direction such outcomes imply for future federal health care reform efforts. The report evaluates the evidence base for the nation’s consumer-directed health care efforts.

Federal and state governments and advocates have worked together over the past 20 years to explore the use of consumer-directed home and community services and long-term personal assistance services. Recently, the Olmstead Supreme Court decision has provoked a wave of institution-to-community planning among states, which are responsible for ensuring that Medicaid recipients are provided (health) care in the most integrated setting appropriate.

The report offers a clear picture of the strengths and weaknesses of our Federal Government’s current research agenda related to consumer-directed health care for Americans with disabilities. It sheds light on the relationship between consumer-directed health care and practice. And it provides a basis for policymakers who use health research evidence to inform their policy decisions (e.g., about MiCASSA, Money Follows the Person, Olmstead, and Real Choice Systems Change Grants) in keeping with the intent of the New Freedom Initiative.

On October 28 at 10:00 a.m., NCD will release a report entitled Design for Inclusion: Creating a New Marketplace at a news conference at the National Press Club in Washington, DC.

The report seeks to educate designers and manufacturers about the way electronic and information technology (E&IT) intersects with the needs of individuals with disabilities, and how designing with access in mind can significantly increase the size of targeted markets for E&IT.

Universal design is a process to ensure that electronic and information technology is inclusive, accessible, and usable by everyone, including people with disabilities. Incorporating universal design processes when developing E&IT is one way to accommodate people with disabilities that also improves the usability of the products for the rest of the population. NCD’s research attempts to understand the market for universally designed mainstream consumer products and services, document successful universal design development processes, understand consumer needs, understand facilitators and barriers to universal design, and identify and address current issues in universal design.

This research appears at a time when understanding and incorporating universal design into the development process is most crucial. We are in the window of opportunity for implementing Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (as amended), which requires the Federal Government to purchase accessibly designed E&IT. If progress is not made quickly in improving the skills of government and industry employees on accessibility issues, the window could soon shut with little having been accomplished.

Both events are open to the public.

Cultural Diversity Advisory Committee Update
On September 24 at 4:00 p.m. E.D.T., NCD will conduct a teleconference meeting of its Cultural Diversity Advisory Committee (CDAC). CDAC provides advice and makes recommendations to NCD on issues affecting people with disabilities from culturally diverse backgrounds. For more information, contact NCD program analyst Gerrie Drake Hawkins, Ph.D., at 202-272-2004 or by e-mail at ghawkins@ncd.gov.

New members on CDAC include L. Elaine S. Mbionwu (Clinton, MD), Protection and Advocacy Systems, Cultural/Linguistic and Criminal Justice Services; Jerry E. Lang (Lower Muskogee Creek Tribe, Whigham, GA), National Cultural Diversity/Research Consultant and Advocacy; Wendy Alegra Jones (Silver Spring, MD), Georgetown University, Health Service Cultural/Linguistic Competence; and Michael Blatchford (Tuba City, AZ), Navajo Nation Assist to Independence, Independent Living Services, Outreach and Advocacy.

NCD Awards Contract
On August 10, NCD awarded a contract for $180,000 to Lockheed Martin Information Technology of Seabrook, Maryland, to evaluate the impact of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the effects of U.S. Supreme Court cases interpreting ADA. The contractor will gather input from ADA stakeholders about the impact of ADA, gather testimony and documentation regarding the impact of the Supreme Court’s decisions on people with disabilities, assemble all information gathered, organize all testimony and incidents reported into a consistent format within each of the issue areas, and summarize the findings. For more information, contact NCD attorney advisor Julie Carroll at 202-272-2004, 202-272-2074 TTY, or by e-mail at jcarroll@ncd.gov.

NCD Letters to Editors
On August 25, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) published a letter (http://www.ncd.gov/newsroom/inthenews/wsj_08-25-04.htm) from NCD member Anne M. Rader entitled “Helping the Disabled Learn to Help Themselves,” which was in response to an August 19 WSJ opinion piece by Al Hunt entitled “Halting Progress for the Disabled.”

On September 1, the Christian Science Monitor (CSM) published a letter (http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0901/p08s03-cole.html) from NCD senior research specialist Martin Gould, Ed.D., entitled “Schools eligible for more aid to disabled,” which was in response to a CSM article by Sara B. Miller entitled “Demand on special ed is growing: Schools grapple with degree to which they’re responsible for social, as well as academic, skills.”

Department of Education Announces National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard
On July 27, the Department of Education (ED) released a voluntary standard for the development of textbooks in electronic format, which will improve access to textbooks for students with blindness, low vision, and print disabilities.

When textbooks and classroom materials are produced using this voluntary standard, they will be in a standard electronic format that can be adapted to products ranging from braille editions of textbooks to on-screen displays of text and graphics. In past years, the lack of a standardized format meant that publishers had to produce materials in multiple formats, often causing delays that meant students with disabilities did not receive their textbooks in time for the beginning of the school year.

To address these challenges, ED’s Office of Special Education Programs provided funding to the National Center on Accessing the General Curriculum at the Center for Applied Special Technology, Inc., to convene an expert panel to establish a voluntary, standardized format for materials. The 40-member panel included educators, publishers, technology specialists, and advocacy groups.

You can read more about the new standard at ED’s Web site, http://www.ed.gov/news/pressreleases/2004/07/07272004.html.

On August 10, ED issued two grant opportunity notices, one of which is for a National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard ( NIMAS) Development Center to provide national leadership in furthering the development and maintenance of NIMAS. The second is for captioning and describing educational television programming for children.