Introduction

Developing technology to support people with disabilities has rocketed to the top of the national agenda. In February 1994 the Technology-Related Assistance Act authorized $68 million to help people with disabilities use new technologies at home, at school, and at work. A few weeks after that, President Clinton signed the Goals 2000: Educate America Act, a comprehensive education bill that requires a thorough study of the effects of school reform on children with disabilities; in its potential impact, some have likened the statute to the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education. Only four years after its passage, meanwhile, the landmark ADA has begun to reshape employment, public accommodations, and, perhaps most important, public attitudes.

As fast as it is moving, however, policy cannot keep pace with technology. "There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in the home," said the President of Digital Equipment Corporation in 1977; 17 years later, 30 percent of American homes have computers. Consumer sales of educational software in the United States reached roughly $100 million in 1992; they are projected to reach $400 million by 1996.

The Annenberg Washington Program conference "Communications Technology for Everyone: Implications for the Classroom and Beyond" featured assessments ofpolicy and technology from leading experts. Never before had a group of such stature come together to discuss these issues. Speakers exchanged ideas on how technology can assist students with disabilities and how government, industry, and advocacy groups can get the technology to the people who need it.

For most participants, however, these discussions were overshadowed by the demonstrations. Seven people with disabilities showed how technology is enabling them to learn. A student with cerebral palsy can now make comprehensible oral presentations in class. A student with visual impairment can now hear his textbooks read electronically. Even more remarkably, a student who has had a brain-stem stroke can control a computer by blinking her eyes.

One of the students at the conference, a high school junior named Mason Barney, showed the audience how he uses computer graphics to tailor information to his learning style. A participant asked Mason how other students react to his presentations. He replied: "Most of them ask me, `How do you do that? Thursday after school I'm free. Can you show me?' They are really excited by it." In the years to come, we hope that thousands of students with disabilities will be in Mason's position, using technology both to learn and to teach.