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

"The New Freedom Initiative is the matrix for tearing down the stubborn residual barriers hindering 54 million Americans from realizing the fullest extent of their potential." — Anthony J. Principi

Secretary Mineta, Dr. Marburger, Undersecretary Bond, Dr. Beato, Dr. Justesen, Dr. Brailer, Dr. Aisen, ladies and gentlemen, thank you so very, very much for being part of this important conference. On behalf of President Bush and the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, welcome to the White House/VA Conference on Emerging Assistive Technologies.

We begin our deliberations heartened by the remarkable legacy of one of America’s most well-known disabled citizens, actor Christopher Reeve, who sadly passed away last weekend. His greatest role, of course, was as champion for those living with spinal cord injuries.

His unrelenting advocacy for, and trust in, the promise of research captured as no one else the attention of the American public, the Congress, and the research and medical communities alike.

Chris Reeve was a source of hope to patients and an inspiration to doctors and scientists. He holds a special place in the heart of the VA. The electrodes implanted in Chris’s diaphragm, allowing him to breathe without a respirator, were developed by researchers in our Cleveland Medical Center. Some of these researchers will be speaking to you later on today.

A combat-decorated Vietnam veteran, Secretary Principi served as Deputy Secretary of Veterans’ Affairs and Acting Secretary of Veterans’ Affairs under the first President Bush. He subsequently served as counsel to the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Republican chief counsel, and staff director of the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs. Mr. Principi is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, first saw active duty aboard the destroyer USS Joseph P. Kennedy, and later commanded a river patrol unit in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta.

Chris’s association with VA’s spinal cord injury centers of excellence prompted him to go on record saying, “The whole VA system today is a model for what research can and must be. When I look down the list of accomplishments of various centers and how proactive it is, I just rejoice.”

I am so pleased to see in the audience today Trisha Brooks and representatives from the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation, Lee Page and Tom Stripling of the Paralyzed Veterans of America, Mary Ann King from VA’s spinal cord injury strategic healthcare group, and Dr. Vivian Beta and members of the United Spinal Association. My good friend, the late Jim Peters, was its founder and executive director.

Jim Peters and Chris Reeve worked together to create and successfully lobby for New York State’s spinal cord injury research fund. We all mourn their loss and we draw inspiration from their enduring example.

It’s been said that self-reliance is the only road to true freedom, and being one’s own person is the ultimate reward. Those words go to the heart of our mandate on behalf of the President’s New Freedom Initiative.

We are here today to lay the groundwork for self-reliance and the freedom it will bring to millions of Americans now disenfranchised from freedom of access to technologies, transportation, educational opportunities, home ownership, and employment opportunities.

We are here to improve the lives of Americans with disabilities by helping them in their quest to function fully and freely within their communities. This administration is making good on the promise that this nation will not underestimate or marginalize the abilities of any of its citizens, not in the realms of public service, business, industry, or housing, and not in restaurants, museums, malls, or athletic stadiums.

Our work on the President’s behalf will give new meaning to America’s unyielding commitment to equal rights and equal opportunity for all. I take very seriously the wide-ranging implications of the President’s initiative, because my department has a unique relationship with and obligation to Americans whose disabilities arose during their military service on behalf of this nation.

The global offensive on terrorism demands sacrifices from our newest generation of servicemen and women. Many return home with wounds and injuries that will change their lives forever.

My department provides them with cutting-edge healthcare from the research lab to patient bedsides, delivering the newest breakthroughs in medical science. These same profound advances in research and technology are the driving force behind the New Freedom Initiative.

The VA’s full-service research system of clinical care, health services, and rehabilitation research comes together to improve care not only to the veterans community but for the entire American community. The diseases, injuries, and conditions the VA treats are not unique to America’s veterans. Many are equal opportunity diseases, injuries, and conditions that also affect Americans at large.

I can tell you that theVA will continue to bring to bear the full force of our resources to better the lives of all Americans. Ours is a system that encourages patients to achieve maximum self-reliance and maximum independence, and to enjoy the freedom they hold.

The VA’s orthotics and prosthetic labs provide mobility and access to those who could not otherwise walk. Our advances in scanners and readers for the blind help those who cannot see to know the written word and to use the pencil of the 21st Century, the computer.

My department’s Veterans Health Administration is home to the world’s most advanced and comprehensive medical records system. Here, technology allows clinicians to rapidly and accurately retrieve the information necessary to provide excellent care, and allows time for them to talk with their patients instead of tracking down laboratory or x-ray results.

Our state-of-the-art medical records system forms the basis for a data set that we continually analyze, allowing us to identify the path to the best care.

Technology can be assistive, as in the case of the scanning readers for the blind. It can also be transforming. Cochlear implants, for example, enable the deaf to hear. Today, you will hear from VA researchers who are creating retinal implants to enable the blind to see. And VA researchers are working on new solutions for limb loss by developing new technologies. You will also hear about many other examples of our groundbreaking advances during the day.

For technology to succeed, it must be invented through dedicated research focused on the most relevant issues. It must also go beyond the engineer’s drawing board to be tested again and again, and ultimately disseminated throughout the commercial sector.

We are here today to affirm our faith, and the faith of millions of disabled Americans, in the untapped potential of technology. But we also understand the complexities of the process that transforms important, seminal ideas into safe, effective, tangible, and available devices throughout the country.

This conference brings together a diverse community with a unifying mission: to make this process less complex and much more responsive. Representatives from industry, academia, consumers, advocates, and the President’s administration are committed to making life better for Americans with disabilities.

This is a working conference. I expect you will learn from one another and develop the basis for long-term collaborations to make sure certain technologies are available to those who need them.

We must foster creativity in the bioengineering community. To do that, people with disabilities need to be heard so that engineers can work in relevant areas. We must promote communication between the inventors and the commercial sector. And we must ensure industry has the incentives to manufacture important technology.

The New Freedom Initiative is the matrix for tearing down the stubborn residual barriers hindering 54 million Americans from realizing the fullest extent of their potential.

If we are to be true to our mission of service and to the promise of the President’s investment, injury or impairment will not be equated with dependency. Instead, our citizens will be given the means to realize the force of their human will and the power of their questing minds to overcome the arbitrary barriers of injury or disease and to seize the opportunities and freedoms that are the legacy of all Americans. I look forward to working with each of you as we push back the limitations of physical and mental disabilities.