This panel is entitled “New Freedom Initiative: Technology Meets Reality.” We have a very interesting group of people speaking to us today. Amazing technologies are available now, and our distinguished speakers can tell us about them.

We will also discuss making the clinical application of those technologies possible for people with disabilities. So, the process has to go from idea to prototype, to testing, then clinical testing, to developing evidence of benefit that justifies expenditures of resources, and, simultaneously, to find a commercial champion take it over.

On our panel today are:

• The Honorable Steven J. Tingus, who is the director of the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR) in the Department of Education.
• Eric Dishman, PhD, from Intel Proactive Health Research.
• Alfred E. Mann, founder of the Al Mann Foundation and the CEO of many important companies that make technologies that enhance the lives of many Americans and many veterans.
• Dinah Cohen, director of the Department of Defense Computer/Electronic Accommodations Program.

With that, I present you our first speaker, the Honorable Steven J. Tingus.