Remarks to the conference by Dinah F. B. Cohen

White House/VA Conference
Emerging Technologies in Support of the New Freedom Initiative:
Promoting Opportunities for People with Disabilities October 13-14, 2004

"Since its inception in 1990, the Computer/Electronic Accommodations Program has filled more than 40,000 requests for assistive technology." — Dinah Cohen

Dinah F. B. Cohen is the Director for the Department of Defense (DoD) Computer/Electronic Accommodations Program (CAP). CAP is the centrally funded program to provide assistive technology and accommodation services to employees with disabilities in DoD and throughout the Federal Government. Ms. Cohen received the "1995 Federal 100" Award, sponsored by Federal Computer Week, for her impact on the development, acquisition and management of information technology in the Federal government and the DoD Exceptional Civilian Service Award for her leadership and management of the CAP program. Prior to joining DoD, Ms. Cohen was the Disability and Federal Women's Program Manager at the Agency for International Development. Other Federal experience includes the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Naval Research Laboratory. She became a Certified Rehabilitation Counselor (CR.) in October 1980. She received a Master of Science degree in Counseling Psychology with a concentration in rehabilitation counseling from the State University of New York at Buffalo. She holds a BS in Social Science/Elementary Education from Russell Sage College in Troy, New York.

It´s a real pleasure to be here with all of you today and talking specifically on assistive technology and its impact on employment.

As I walked here this morning, I was listening to everyone talk to each other and greet each other. The first thing people usually say to each other is,"What do you do?"

Most of the time when we talk about what we do, we´re talking about our careers. How are you employed? What is your job? My field is the impact of assistive technology on employment.

Let me give you a quick background about the Department of Defense´s (DoD) Computer/Electronic Accommodations Program (CAP), of which I am the director. We were established in 1990 as a centrally funded program for the DoD to ensure that its employees have the assistive technology they need to do their jobs.

Based on the findings of a presidential task force, implemented in the National Defense Authorization Act of 2001, CAP became the government´s centrally funded program to provide assistive technology for federal employees.

We currently have all of DoD taken care of, and we have partnerships with 61 federal agencies. I´;m happy to say that some of our partners include the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), the Department of Commerce, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and the Executive Office of the President.

Within all of those agencies, if they have an employee with a disability, all they need to do is let me know. I buy and pay for the assistive technology, and then get it to the user.

We have a very simple mission. We provide the assistive technology and accommodations to ensure that people with disabilities have equal access to the information environment and to employment opportunities in DoD and throughout the federal government.

We want to level the playing field for people with disabilities. I don´t want to hear that we can&acutue;t hire people because of the cost of accommodation. The cost of accommodation really is relatively small, but is used often as an excuse not to bring people with disabilities into the workforce.

So, by getting rid of that excuse, getting to the point where managers don´t have to worry about the cost of accommodation, where to get the accommodation, or who provides it, we can really have an impact on the employment of people with disabilities.

Since our inception, we have filled more than 40,000 requests for accommodations. Further, being part of the centrally funded program, we have found other ways we can contribute to this discussion. We can see the trends and changes in assistive technology. First, we´ve noticed that prices have gone down. Second, the quality of assistive technology has gone up.

The challenges we have now relate to aging workforce. I don´t particularly care for the concept of the aging workforce since I just turned 50 years old. I like to think of myself as getting chronologically gifted.

Now, as we get "gifted"—right?—some of us won´t hear as well. Some of us won´t see as well. We´ll start to walk a little slower. We´ll have problems with our dexterity.

I am noticing that a lot of the accommodations we´re being asked for are not so much for employees´ primary disabilities but for their secondary disabilities.

People who came to us for assistance, who may have been blind or had low vision, are now developing dexterity disabilities. People who walked in the door who may have had a hearing loss now may also have a visual impairment.

Our challenge with assistive technology is to see how well these things are working together. If we say we´re providing technology for the blind, are we also providing the technology to help those who are losing their hearing? That´s where I see the changes when it comes to the population we have served and the population we´re going to serve.

Let´s talk about what we really are doing today. I like to think of how we can deal with employees throughout their work lives, from the time they walk in the door to the time they retire.

Many different initiatives are out there that I don´t think we´re taking advantage of. First, we have the President´s management agenda, which has required all federal agencies to have a plan, a human capital scorecard that talks about diversity, reducing the cost of workers´ compensation, disabilities, and accountability. We need to put a little more into that as far as what we want to see happen in the federal government with that human capital scorecard.

We talked a lot about the New Freedom Initiative this morning and how President Bush came out with the initiative early in his administration, in February 2001.

I´m pleased to say that he gave his New Freedom Initiative speech with CAP at the Pentagon on June 19, 2001. What an honor to host the President as he delivered his passionate speech about his initiatives for government employees with disabilities.

He talked passionately to people in the industry and asked that they make sure that when they design something they design it for the masses and include people with disabilities.

He talked passionately about Section 508 that was going to go in effect a few days later and said with our incredible electronic information environment, we should make sure everyone can tap into that information well and easily.

We have the Department of Labor and its Office of Disability Employment Policy that´s developing employment strategies, making sure that as we start to think about the next challenges—where we´re going to hire, where our employment opportunities are—that we include people with disabilities. Are we making sure those buildings are accessible? Are we making sure the information is accessible? Are we talking about opportunities that can really attract all Americans?

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is looking at how we´re doing when it comes to federal employment levels for people with disabilities. It´s a little sad to report that the numbers are going down.

Why is that? I have a feeling that maybe we´re no longer the employer of choice, maybe because we haven´t spread the word how important it is to bring that talented disabled person into our workforce.

We need to go back and say, "OK. What are we doing? Are we walking the walk and talking the talk? Are we not including people with disabilities in our own workforce? Let´s make sure that´s not happening."

We´re talking about hiring and recruitment, that entire life cycle. EEOC says you need to have a strong affirmative action program and make sure that it´s addressing all those issues.

The Workforce Recruitment Program, which brings college students with disabilities into the workforce, is a good example. This program has so much support. A letter went out from Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to all the federal agencies, which said, "Hey, folks. How are you doing when it comes to recruiting college students with disabilities, since we are the cosponsors of this program?"

Embarrassingly enough, very few agencies are really participating in this wonderful program, where we go and recruit college students from the best colleges and universities all over the country and determine they are ready to be employed. Why aren´t the agencies hiring them?

At DoD, we centrally fund that, so it´s not an issue for our DoD agencies to say, not only will they hire people with disabilities, they will make it a priority for their summer employment programs.

I´m a real advocate for this program. I´m one of the original recruiters. A couple of years ago, I had this wonderful summer student working for me. In fact, she worked for me the summer that President Bush came to the CAP office.

I gave her the assignment of getting the briefing ready for the President. Now, some people say, you don´t give that kind of assignment to a summer student. But I knew she could do it because she was working on her second master´s degree.

At the end of the summer we always have a little going-away party. I said to her, "I´m sure the highlight of your summer was meeting President Bush, because you got to shake his hand as he walked off the stage. You had your companion dog with you, and he even petted your dog."

And she turned to me and said, "Well, Dinah, it was a highlight, but the real highlight of my summer wasn´t meeting the President. It was meeting you." Now, that is what you call a smart summer student, that kind of talent.

We talk about retention and promotion. I´m not impressed with federal agencies that hire a lot of people with disabilities, but they stay the same grade for 10 or 15 years.

So, what are we doing to make sure our training centers are accessible? How are we providing the assistive technology so that when someone goes to a training center, he can be a true participant in training?

Telework: We already heard from Steve about how important telework is. After all, work is what you do, not where you do it. We need to make sure we have an environment that recognizes that telework is smart.

In the CAP office, we have already filled more than 200 requests in 2004 to accommodate employees who asked to work at home. We´re not talking studies. We´re not talking theories. We´re talking reality. We are providing federal employees a reasonable accommodation to work at home.

Developing the technology so they can do it is our challenge. We´re helping reduce workers´ compensation costs by making sure they have the technology to resume their jobs quickly.

We have more than 7,600 injured service members. They address assistive technology a little differently. Their mentality is that of warriors.

I met recently with one of our folks at Walter Reed who´s a double upper extremity amputee. As he was waiting to get fitted for his new prosthetics, his first question was, "Will they be strong enough so I can do my 50 pushups? Because I´m a Marine."

That´s the kind of assistive technology we are addressing. It´s not the typical soft stuff. We want to know what´s really needed. Talk to our service members. Talk about what it´s like to be warriors with disabilities because they still see themselves as warriors.

We need to talk about the new technology, that new environment. What is the office environment of the future? How are we going to remain the employers of choice?

We need to partner with the Department of Veteran Affairs´ Technology Transfer Program. I´m so glad I get the opportunity to work with Steve (Tingus, director of disability and rehabilitation research at the Department of Education), and with Ben Wu (Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Technology Policy and Administration), and with the VA and all the people who are talking about how we´re going to develop the next wave of technology.

After all, voice recognition was developed by the DoD. We developed it for our pilots. Now it´s one of the most commonly used technologies for people with severe dexterity disabilities.

Are we doing well with information sharing? Do we know the requirements of our power users? Are we aware of what´s really needed, and are we talking to each other?

When we look at the new office environment where assistive technology should be available for federal employees, are we developing an enterprise architecture that includes open architecture and the ability to use assistive technology?

I look at the Department of Navy. They have this new concept called seat management, where everyone can go and work anywhere. As long as they have their computer access card and swipe it in, their profile will go straight to that computer.

For people with disabilities, that can be extremely powerful and flexible. The challenge is, as we develop the seat management, do we remember to include the assistive technology that would be involved in a seat management plan?

My concern about the future office is security. Obviously, post-9/11, security is our number one issue. Do we use security as an impediment for assistive technology? We are all so secure and concerned that if we open portals to allow people with disabilities to have some new technology, are we creating a vulnerability?

As we talk about the new wave of assistive technology, let´s make sure that we´re addressing how it´s going to work in today´s secure environment.

Integration and interoperability: Do we provide technology for one population and forget that another population could benefit from it? We need to make sure that we cross those different issues, that we´re not pigeon-holed, not thinking of technology for just one population, not forgetting that another population may need to benefit from it.

One of the humorous ways we´ve seen technology transfer is when they started to use voice output for people who are blind and low vision. And they were thinking, "This is great because it reads what´s on the computer. You can hear what´s on the computer screen."

All of a sudden it got a little modified. It wasn´t a male voice. It became a woman´s voice. And it ended up in our navigation systems in the fancy cars to help all of you men who refuse to stop and get directions.

You see how technology can be used in many different places in many different ways. We need to think that if we develop something, how can we make sure it´s used by all sorts of different people in all sorts of environments?

Individual accommodations: We cannot lose sight of that. Survey your power users. So often we go back to the most unemployed folks because we have such a passion, and we should, to bring the people who are not working into the workforce.

If you need to know what is going to be required from your employees of the future, survey your power user. Survey the folks who are already part of the structure, part of the CAP family, and find out what they need to make sure that as they get more and more "chronologically gifted," they have the technology to continue to work because their employers have already invested so much in them. They are already part of the workforce.

We have a couple of valuable resources, and we brought some of our information with us. The first one I want to share with you is our CAP Technology Evaluation Center (CAPTEC).

I was honored that President Bush chose the CAP program to talk about and present his New Freedom Initiative. He came to our technology center and saw the technology for people who are blind and people with low vision, people who have dexterity disabilities and cognitive disabilities, and people with hearing disabilities.

He saw the technology and he knew that we were on the right track. I invite all of you to come visit our technology center. We have a wonderful website, and we have a CD-ROM that won multiple awards, not only because it´s accessible, which means it´s captioned, but it´s also audio-descriptive. For some of our folks who don´t like all of that extra stuff, just turn it off.

In conclusion, what do we have in front of us as our tremendous challenges? Making sure that assistive technology is readily available for our employees with disabilities. Making sure that we have the tools so we can do our jobs.

I may not need a lot of assistive technology because of my disabling condition, but it doesn´t mean I won´t need it in the future. This is the one and only population anyone can join at any time. Ask the late Christopher Reeve. Ask Superman.

I don´t need to preach to the choir. You already know. You need to sell it to the employers out there because it´s not about them. It´s about disabled Americans. If you want to have a real organization that has the power to lead, then you need to have the talent of each and every one of us no matter if and when we become disabled.

So, you know, I don't know if this has been talked at all about today. But this month is National Disability Employment Awareness Month. And the theme for this month is, "You're Hired: Success Knows No Limitations."

I'd like to change the title to, "You're Hired: The New Apprentice." I think it's because I have that kind of Donald Trump hair thing going here. But I like to think of us as being the new apprentice, people with disabilities. And I like to think of the people with disabilities being the new apprentice that you want to hire.

And I want you to think of us as being new hires that are really going to contribute because you know one thing we bring to the boardroom that no one else does as well as we do is that we're problem-solvers. We have to be.

We don't have potentially the ability to maybe do those fast, last-minute changes. So we're always thinking, plan A, plan B, plan C. So we are problem-solvers, and we've always been problem-solvers.

So as you start to think of that new apprentice, maybe some of us will be a little bit younger. Maybe some of us will be a little older. Maybe we're coming out of college. Maybe we're your coworkers that look a little different now because we've become disabled because of that accident, that illness, that diagnosis.

Maybe that new apprentice is that wounded service member, that soldier, that sailor, that airman, that marine. And when you see one of them and you have the assistive technology, then you can yell out loud and strong, "You're hired." Thank you very much.

DR. AISEN: Thank you, Dinah. We have time for a few questions. And I ask that you address the panel. Yes?

A PARTICIPANT: A question for Dinah. Do you ever see the CAP program evolving into physical accommodation for the workforce as opposed to information/electronic accommodation?

MS. COHEN: I see CAP always being a source of information and a resource for helping managers recognize what is needed. But it´s very hard to go to a Secretary of Defense and say, "Sir, can you centrally fund the building structure requirements that have been in place and in law for over 40 years that people have ignored?"

We need to always make sure that as we build things, we´re building them for people of all generations with all physical abilities and disabilities. But I don´t see us going to the physical requirements of building structure, since that has been well established in laws for over 40 years and is a design concept that practically every single state has a design requirement for state codes and everything else.

But I can easily see us providing a lot of information and valuable input on some of the design dos and don´ts that can really benefit federal employees, or any employees. Because I think the CAP model can be used in both the private sector and public sector.

MR. BRIGGS WYATT: Ms. Cohen, I was interested to hear that the number of people with disabilities is going down in the DoD workforce. And what DoD has not done well is hiring disabled veterans.

And I´m curious, both in your shop as well as DoD, why? What is the use of the 30 percent hire, 30 percent or more servicemen and your disabled veterans? You´re going to be hired immediately. You don´t have to go through any rigamarole, for one.

Two, DoD is doing a terrible job of buying from service disabled veteran business owners. And I´m curious as to whether CAP is doing something to set leadership by example in the rest of DoD, and if not, why not? And if you need help, of course, we can provide it. My name is Briggs Wyatt, Vietnam veteran.

MS. COHEN: Okay. First and foremost, I think you´re absolutely right. I don´t think of—first of all, the numbers are not going down in DoD. They´re going down throughout the federal government. DoD is still on the increase compared to other federal agencies.

So, we´re still the leaders when it comes to the employment of people with disabilities over other federal agencies. EEOC came out with a report, as a whole, that the number of people with disabilities is going down in the federal sector. But DoD has been actually increasing and holding itself in many of the areas.

What we´ve lost are the people with disabilities in the lower pay positions, in cafeteria work, mail rooms, which we have outsourced. As we look at the numbers, we´re always looking at whether we´re losing people in management positions, and I´m happy to say we´re not, at least not in DoD. But we´re losing people in the unskilled professions because they have all been outsourced.

When it comes to your disabled veteran question, I totally agree with you. I think DoD and the federal government—I don´t think it´s a DoD problem. I think it´s worse in other federal agencies than DoD, that we don´t use Schedule A to bring people with disabilities in noncompetitively, and we don´t use the disabled veteran authority very well.

I think because we have such a growing number of returning wounded service members, there´s a reenergized feeling and expectations and energy put into all types of hiring authorities, especially disabled veterans hiring authorities, because I think we all realize that this is a time to really make sure that we make every opportunity we can for both the disabled veterans from past wars and those from current conflicts and operations. They should be considered first and foremost, as a thank you for what they have done for our protection.

I think you´re going to see changes in that. I think people have totally forgotten about that. And I think the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and the EEOC have kind of let it drop, they haven´t pushed affirmative action programs, they haven´t pushed reporting, they haven´t pushed accountability. And it´s only right now that those things are being pushed so we can now see where we have fallen short in all of those hiring initiatives.

So, I agree with you, but I do think it´s going to change because we now must go back every year and report to EEOC and to OPM what we are doing, and we haven´t been doing that for years. People got lazy.

Main Page > Welcome Page > Ms. Cohen´s Address

	Dinah F. B. Cohen is the Director for the Department of Defense (DoD) Computer/Electronic Accommodations Program (CAP). CAP is the centrally funded program to provide assistive technology and accommodation services to employees with disabilities in DoD and throughout the Federal Government. Ms. Cohen received the "1995 Federal 100" Award, sponsored by Federal Computer Week, for her impact on the development, acquisition and management of information technology in the Federal government and the DoD Exceptional Civilian Service Award for her leadership and management of the CAP program. Prior to joining DoD, Ms. Cohen was the Disability and Federal Women's Program Manager at the Agency for International Development. Other Federal experience includes the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Naval Research Laboratory. She became a Certified Rehabilitation Counselor (CR.) in October 1980. She received a Master of Science degree in Counseling Psychology with a concentration in rehabilitation counseling from the State University of New York at Buffalo. She holds a BS in Social Science/Elementary Education from Russell Sage College in Troy, New York.
It´s a real pleasure to be here with all of you today and talking specifically on assistive technology and its impact on employment. As I walked here this morning, I was listening to everyone talk to each other and greet each other. The first thing people usually say to each other is,"What do you do?" Most of the time when we talk about what we do, we´re talking about our careers. How are you employed? What is your job? My field is the impact of assistive technology on employment. Let me give you a quick background about the Department of Defense´s (DoD) Computer/Electronic Accommodations Program (CAP), of which I am the director. We were established in 1990 as a centrally funded program for the DoD to ensure that its employees have the assistive technology they need to do their jobs.

Based on the findings of a presidential task force, implemented in the National Defense Authorization Act of 2001, CAP became the government´s centrally funded program to provide assistive technology for federal employees. We currently have all of DoD taken care of, and we have partnerships with 61 federal agencies. I´;m happy to say that some of our partners include the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), the Department of Commerce, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and the Executive Office of the President.

Within all of those agencies, if they have an employee with a disability, all they need to do is let me know. I buy and pay for the assistive technology, and then get it to the user. We have a very simple mission. We provide the assistive technology and accommodations to ensure that people with disabilities have equal access to the information environment and to employment opportunities in DoD and throughout the federal government.

We want to level the playing field for people with disabilities. I don´t want to hear that we can&acutue;t hire people because of the cost of accommodation. The cost of accommodation really is relatively small, but is used often as an excuse not to bring people with disabilities into the workforce. So, by getting rid of that excuse, getting to the point where managers don´t have to worry about the cost of accommodation, where to get the accommodation, or who provides it, we can really have an impact on the employment of people with disabilities. Since our inception, we have filled more than 40,000 requests for accommodations. Further, being part of the centrally funded program, we have found other ways we can contribute to this discussion. We can see the trends and changes in assistive technology. First, we´ve noticed that prices have gone down. Second, the quality of assistive technology has gone up.

The challenges we have now relate to aging workforce. I don´t particularly care for the concept of the aging workforce since I just turned 50 years old. I like to think of myself as getting chronologically gifted. Now, as we get "gifted"—right?—some of us won´t hear as well. Some of us won´t see as well. We´ll start to walk a little slower. We´ll have problems with our dexterity. I am noticing that a lot of the accommodations we´re being asked for are not so much for employees´ primary disabilities but for their secondary disabilities. People who came to us for assistance, who may have been blind or had low vision, are now developing dexterity disabilities. People who walked in the door who may have had a hearing loss now may also have a visual impairment. Our challenge with assistive technology is to see how well these things are working together. If we say we´re providing technology for the blind, are we also providing the technology to help those who are losing their hearing? That´s where I see the changes when it comes to the population we have served and the population we´re going to serve. Let´s talk about what we really are doing today. I like to think of how we can deal with employees throughout their work lives, from the time they walk in the door to the time they retire. Many different initiatives are out there that I don´t think we´re taking advantage of. First, we have the President´s management agenda, which has required all federal agencies to have a plan, a human capital scorecard that talks about diversity, reducing the cost of workers´ compensation, disabilities, and accountability. We need to put a little more into that as far as what we want to see happen in the federal government with that human capital scorecard.

We talked a lot about the New Freedom Initiative this morning and how President Bush came out with the initiative early in his administration, in February 2001. I´m pleased to say that he gave his New Freedom Initiative speech with CAP at the Pentagon on June 19, 2001. What an honor to host the President as he delivered his passionate speech about his initiatives for government employees with disabilities. He talked passionately to people in the industry and asked that they make sure that when they design something they design it for the masses and include people with disabilities. He talked passionately about Section 508 that was going to go in effect a few days later and said with our incredible electronic information environment, we should make sure everyone can tap into that information well and easily. We have the Department of Labor and its Office of Disability Employment Policy that´s developing employment strategies, making sure that as we start to think about the next challenges—where we´re going to hire, where our employment opportunities are—that we include people with disabilities. Are we making sure those buildings are accessible? Are we making sure the information is accessible? Are we talking about opportunities that can really attract all Americans? The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is looking at how we´re doing when it comes to federal employment levels for people with disabilities. It´s a little sad to report that the numbers are going down. Why is that? I have a feeling that maybe we´re no longer the employer of choice, maybe because we haven´t spread the word how important it is to bring that talented disabled person into our workforce. We need to go back and say, "OK. What are we doing? Are we walking the walk and talking the talk? Are we not including people with disabilities in our own workforce? Let´s make sure that´s not happening." We´re talking about hiring and recruitment, that entire life cycle. EEOC says you need to have a strong affirmative action program and make sure that it´s addressing all those issues. The Workforce Recruitment Program, which brings college students with disabilities into the workforce, is a good example. This program has so much support. A letter went out from Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to all the federal agencies, which said, "Hey, folks. How are you doing when it comes to recruiting college students with disabilities, since we are the cosponsors of this program?"
Embarrassingly enough, very few agencies are really participating in this wonderful program, where we go and recruit college students from the best colleges and universities all over the country and determine they are ready to be employed. Why aren´t the agencies hiring them? At DoD, we centrally fund that, so it´s not an issue for our DoD agencies to say, not only will they hire people with disabilities, they will make it a priority for their summer employment programs. I´m a real advocate for this program. I´m one of the original recruiters. A couple of years ago, I had this wonderful summer student working for me. In fact, she worked for me the summer that President Bush came to the CAP office. I gave her the assignment of getting the briefing ready for the President. Now, some people say, you don´t give that kind of assignment to a summer student. But I knew she could do it because she was working on her second master´s degree. At the end of the summer we always have a little going-away party. I said to her, "I´m sure the highlight of your summer was meeting President Bush, because you got to shake his hand as he walked off the stage. You had your companion dog with you, and he even petted your dog." And she turned to me and said, "Well, Dinah, it was a highlight, but the real highlight of my summer wasn´t meeting the President. It was meeting you." Now, that is what you call a smart summer student, that kind of talent. We talk about retention and promotion. I´m not impressed with federal agencies that hire a lot of people with disabilities, but they stay the same grade for 10 or 15 years. So, what are we doing to make sure our training centers are accessible? How are we providing the assistive technology so that when someone goes to a training center, he can be a true participant in training? Telework: We already heard from Steve about how important telework is. After all, work is what you do, not where you do it. We need to make sure we have an environment that recognizes that telework is smart. In the CAP office, we have already filled more than 200 requests in 2004 to accommodate employees who asked to work at home. We´re not talking studies. We´re not talking theories. We´re talking reality. We are providing federal employees a reasonable accommodation to work at home. Developing the technology so they can do it is our challenge. We´re helping reduce workers´ compensation costs by making sure they have the technology to resume their jobs quickly. We have more than 7,600 injured service members. They address assistive technology a little differently. Their mentality is that of warriors. I met recently with one of our folks at Walter Reed who´s a double upper extremity amputee. As he was waiting to get fitted for his new prosthetics, his first question was, "Will they be strong enough so I can do my 50 pushups? Because I´m a Marine." That´s the kind of assistive technology we are addressing. It´s not the typical soft stuff. We want to know what´s really needed. Talk to our service members. Talk about what it´s like to be warriors with disabilities because they still see themselves as warriors. We need to talk about the new technology, that new environment. What is the office environment of the future? How are we going to remain the employers of choice? We need to partner with the Department of Veteran Affairs´ Technology Transfer Program. I´m so glad I get the opportunity to work with Steve (Tingus, director of disability and rehabilitation research at the Department of Education), and with Ben Wu (Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Technology Policy and Administration), and with the VA and all the people who are talking about how we´re going to develop the next wave of technology. After all, voice recognition was developed by the DoD. We developed it for our pilots. Now it´s one of the most commonly used technologies for people with severe dexterity disabilities. Are we doing well with information sharing? Do we know the requirements of our power users? Are we aware of what´s really needed, and are we talking to each other? When we look at the new office environment where assistive technology should be available for federal employees, are we developing an enterprise architecture that includes open architecture and the ability to use assistive technology? I look at the Department of Navy. They have this new concept called seat management, where everyone can go and work anywhere. As long as they have their computer access card and swipe it in, their profile will go straight to that computer. For people with disabilities, that can be extremely powerful and flexible. The challenge is, as we develop the seat management, do we remember to include the assistive technology that would be involved in a seat management plan? My concern about the future office is security. Obviously, post-9/11, security is our number one issue. Do we use security as an impediment for assistive technology? We are all so secure and concerned that if we open portals to allow people with disabilities to have some new technology, are we creating a vulnerability? As we talk about the new wave of assistive technology, let´s make sure that we´re addressing how it´s going to work in today´s secure environment. Integration and interoperability: Do we provide technology for one population and forget that another population could benefit from it? We need to make sure that we cross those different issues, that we´re not pigeon-holed, not thinking of technology for just one population, not forgetting that another population may need to benefit from it. One of the humorous ways we´ve seen technology transfer is when they started to use voice output for people who are blind and low vision. And they were thinking, "This is great because it reads what´s on the computer. You can hear what´s on the computer screen." All of a sudden it got a little modified. It wasn´t a male voice. It became a woman´s voice. And it ended up in our navigation systems in the fancy cars to help all of you men who refuse to stop and get directions. You see how technology can be used in many different places in many different ways. We need to think that if we develop something, how can we make sure it´s used by all sorts of different people in all sorts of environments? Individual accommodations: We cannot lose sight of that. Survey your power users. So often we go back to the most unemployed folks because we have such a passion, and we should, to bring the people who are not working into the workforce. If you need to know what is going to be required from your employees of the future, survey your power user. Survey the folks who are already part of the structure, part of the CAP family, and find out what they need to make sure that as they get more and more "chronologically gifted," they have the technology to continue to work because their employers have already invested so much in them. They are already part of the workforce. We have a couple of valuable resources, and we brought some of our information with us. The first one I want to share with you is our CAP Technology Evaluation Center (CAPTEC). I was honored that President Bush chose the CAP program to talk about and present his New Freedom Initiative. He came to our technology center and saw the technology for people who are blind and people with low vision, people who have dexterity disabilities and cognitive disabilities, and people with hearing disabilities.

He saw the technology and he knew that we were on the right track. I invite all of you to come visit our technology center. We have a wonderful website, and we have a CD-ROM that won multiple awards, not only because it´s accessible, which means it´s captioned, but it´s also audio-descriptive. For some of our folks who don´t like all of that extra stuff, just turn it off. In conclusion, what do we have in front of us as our tremendous challenges? Making sure that assistive technology is readily available for our employees with disabilities. Making sure that we have the tools so we can do our jobs. I may not need a lot of assistive technology because of my disabling condition, but it doesn´t mean I won´t need it in the future. This is the one and only population anyone can join at any time. Ask the late Christopher Reeve. Ask Superman. I don´t need to preach to the choir. You already know. You need to sell it to the employers out there because it´s not about them. It´s about disabled Americans. If you want to have a real organization that has the power to lead, then you need to have the talent of each and every one of us no matter if and when we become disabled.

So, you know, I don't know if this has been talked at all about today. But this month is National Disability Employment Awareness Month. And the theme for this month is, "You're Hired: Success Knows No Limitations." I'd like to change the title to, "You're Hired: The New Apprentice." I think it's because I have that kind of Donald Trump hair thing going here. But I like to think of us as being the new apprentice, people with disabilities. And I like to think of the people with disabilities being the new apprentice that you want to hire. And I want you to think of us as being new hires that are really going to contribute because you know one thing we bring to the boardroom that no one else does as well as we do is that we're problem-solvers. We have to be. We don't have potentially the ability to maybe do those fast, last-minute changes. So we're always thinking, plan A, plan B, plan C. So we are problem-solvers, and we've always been problem-solvers. So as you start to think of that new apprentice, maybe some of us will be a little bit younger. Maybe some of us will be a little older. Maybe we're coming out of college. Maybe we're your coworkers that look a little different now because we've become disabled because of that accident, that illness, that diagnosis. Maybe that new apprentice is that wounded service member, that soldier, that sailor, that airman, that marine. And when you see one of them and you have the assistive technology, then you can yell out loud and strong, "You're hired." Thank you very much.

DR. AISEN: Thank you, Dinah. We have time for a few questions. And I ask that you address the panel. Yes? A PARTICIPANT: A question for Dinah. Do you ever see the CAP program evolving into physical accommodation for the workforce as opposed to information/electronic accommodation? MS. COHEN: I see CAP always being a source of information and a resource for helping managers recognize what is needed. But it´s very hard to go to a Secretary of Defense and say, "Sir, can you centrally fund the building structure requirements that have been in place and in law for over 40 years that people have ignored?" We need to always make sure that as we build things, we´re building them for people of all generations with all physical abilities and disabilities. But I don´t see us going to the physical requirements of building structure, since that has been well established in laws for over 40 years and is a design concept that practically every single state has a design requirement for state codes and everything else. But I can easily see us providing a lot of information and valuable input on some of the design dos and don´ts that can really benefit federal employees, or any employees. Because I think the CAP model can be used in both the private sector and public sector. MR. BRIGGS WYATT: Ms. Cohen, I was interested to hear that the number of people with disabilities is going down in the DoD workforce. And what DoD has not done well is hiring disabled veterans. And I´m curious, both in your shop as well as DoD, why? What is the use of the 30 percent hire, 30 percent or more servicemen and your disabled veterans? You´re going to be hired immediately. You don´t have to go through any rigamarole, for one. Two, DoD is doing a terrible job of buying from service disabled veteran business owners. And I´m curious as to whether CAP is doing something to set leadership by example in the rest of DoD, and if not, why not? And if you need help, of course, we can provide it. My name is Briggs Wyatt, Vietnam veteran. MS. COHEN: Okay. First and foremost, I think you´re absolutely right. I don´t think of—first of all, the numbers are not going down in DoD. They´re going down throughout the federal government. DoD is still on the increase compared to other federal agencies. So, we´re still the leaders when it comes to the employment of people with disabilities over other federal agencies. EEOC came out with a report, as a whole, that the number of people with disabilities is going down in the federal sector. But DoD has been actually increasing and holding itself in many of the areas. What we´ve lost are the people with disabilities in the lower pay positions, in cafeteria work, mail rooms, which we have outsourced. As we look at the numbers, we´re always looking at whether we´re losing people in management positions, and I´m happy to say we´re not, at least not in DoD. But we´re losing people in the unskilled professions because they have all been outsourced. When it comes to your disabled veteran question, I totally agree with you. I think DoD and the federal government—I don´t think it´s a DoD problem. I think it´s worse in other federal agencies than DoD, that we don´t use Schedule A to bring people with disabilities in noncompetitively, and we don´t use the disabled veteran authority very well. I think because we have such a growing number of returning wounded service members, there´s a reenergized feeling and expectations and energy put into all types of hiring authorities, especially disabled veterans hiring authorities, because I think we all realize that this is a time to really make sure that we make every opportunity we can for both the disabled veterans from past wars and those from current conflicts and operations. They should be considered first and foremost, as a thank you for what they have done for our protection. I think you´re going to see changes in that. I think people have totally forgotten about that. And I think the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and the EEOC have kind of let it drop, they haven´t pushed affirmative action programs, they haven´t pushed reporting, they haven´t pushed accountability. And it´s only right now that those things are being pushed so we can now see where we have fallen short in all of those hiring initiatives. So, I agree with you, but I do think it´s going to change because we now must go back every year and report to EEOC and to OPM what we are doing, and we haven´t been doing that for years. People got lazy.

White House/VA Conference Emerging Technologies in Support of the New Freedom Initiative: Promoting Opportunities for People with Disabilities October 13-14, 2004

"Since its inception in 1990, the Computer/Electronic Accommodations Program has filled more than 40,000 requests for assistive technology." — Dinah Cohen

White House/VA Conference
Emerging Technologies in Support of the New Freedom Initiative:
Promoting Opportunities for People with Disabilities October 13-14, 2004