Program gives technology access to disabled GIs

  • Published
  • By Rudi Williams
  • American Forces Press Service
HONOLULU (AFPN) --  A Defense Department program helps wounded servicemembers and other people with disabilities have equal access to the information environment and opportunities throughout the federal government, a senior DOD official said May 8. 

Dinah F.B. Cohen, director of the Computer and Electronic Accommodation Program, known as CAP, said the program is centrally funded and pays for assistive technology for disabled employees. Established in 1990, CAP has been expanded to serve the entire federal government's accommodation program. Sixty-four other federal agencies have adopted CAP.

"If you have colleagues, friends or people with disabilities in other federal agencies, chances are they're getting their accommodations from CAP," Ms. Cohen said.

Cohen said the war-wounded patients at military medical centers can benefit from assistive technology.

"CAP says when you're an able-bodied Marine, the last thing you probably know about is assistive technology -- why would you?" Cohen said. "So we said, 'Let's take this expertise to the hospitals and let them know there's technology that will allow them to continue to work.'

"I met (a servicemember) who lost both of his hands and his sight from the explosion of an improvised explosive device and almost lost his arms," she said. "He was on television holding his twins who were born while he was deployed and he will never see. He was introduced to a lot of technology through occupational therapy, including the technology for people who are blind. He's now thinking about being a lawyer."

Whether he reaches that specific goal doesn't matter, she said.

"I don't care if he becomes a lawyer; I just care that he has a vision for the future," Ms. Cohen said. "That's what we need to be focused on -- that vision for the future for our employees with disabilities and our wounded servicemembers."

Ms. Cohen said CAP is going to the hospitals showing wounded servicemembers assistive technology, telling them about new opportunities for employment and introducing them to new ways to new careers.

She encouraged the audience to visit the CAP Web site at www.tricare.osd.mil/cap/ for information about the Workforce Recruitment Program, a CAP spotlight.

In fiscal 2005, CAP filled more than 3,000 requests for accommodations within the DOD family and more than 2,000 in other federal agencies, Ms. Cohen said.

She said that CAP provides assistive technology to any employee who needs it.

"If you have an employee with a disability who needs assistive technology, I've got it," Cohen noted. "I've paid for it. I give it to the user. It's just that simple. It's not reimbursable. It's not out of your pocket. It's out of mine."

At the Pentagon CAP center, Ms. Cohen said, visitors can look at the equipment that allows a person with no hands to talk to the computer or a person with no vision to listen to a computer, and other technology for disabled people.

"We also do installation and training," she said. "It's not enough to just buy stuff and leave it on their desk. We've got to make sure it's installed and people know how to use it. We want to make sure they're using it and using it well."

CAP ensures that everything possible is done to support recruitment, placement, retention and promotion of people with disabilities, Ms. Cohen said.

David S.C. Chu, under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness, picks up the salaries for more than 200 summer students with disabilities every year, she said. The college students work in a wide range of occupations -- everything from computer sciences and engineering to administration.

"More than 30 percent of the students involved in the Workforce Recruitment Program are minorities," Ms. Cohen said. "It's a great way to deal with disability and diversity. I make sure that my (program) students represent the American population."

CAP also helps agencies with workers' compensation processes, telework solutions and equal employment opportunity complaints. Ms. Cohen said people injured on the job make up a "population that takes a lot of money for them to sit home and watch television."

"I think there's better ways of doing things," she said. "We need to shift gears and think of people who are out on workers' compensation as people with disabilities. We accommodate people with disabilities. So let's start accommodating people who got injured," she said. "Let's see if we can bring them back to work."