AT Legal Timeline

1
AT Legal Timeline
1975
Present

• Dr. Phil Parette
• SED359

2
1973

• Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (PL 93-112)
• Section 503 (educational institutions)
• Section 504 (employers receiving federal funds
• LRE (secondary, work)
• Reasonable accommodations (secondary, work)
• Architectural barrier changes

3
1988

• Technology-Related Assistance for Individuals
  with Disabilities Act, PL 100-407 (Tech Act)
• AT devices and services defined
• Grants (funding) to states to develop
  comprehensive AT service delivery systems

4
AT Device

• Any item, piece of equipment or product system,
  whether acquired commercially off the shelf,
  modified or customized, that is used to increase,
  maintain or improve the functional capabilities
  of children with disabilities.

5

• AT is anything that can help a person with a
  disability to do things he or she could not do
  without the technology.

6
AT Service

• Any service that directly assists a child with a
  disability in the selection, acquisition, or use
  of an assistive technology device.

7
1990

• Americans with Disabilities Act, PL 101-336
• 504 (embraced all of 504 and extended
  protections to all entities)
• Prohibits discrimination
• Advocates equal access
• Promotes public accommodations and
  telecommunications

8
1990

• Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
  (IDEA), PL 102-119
• Extended AT device and service definitions to
  education as part of education, related services,
  or supplementary aids/services

9
1996

• Telecommunications Act of 1996, PL 104-104
• Telecommunications systems/devices must be
  accessible
• Mandates schools, libraries, hospitals and
  clinics to have access to advanced
  telecommunications services, and calls for them
  to be connected to the information superhighway
• Requires that V-Chip be installed in every new
  television set to give parents control of the
  television programming
• Pro-competitive, de-regulatory national policy
  framework to accelerate rapidly private sector
  deployment of advanced telecommunications and
  information technologies and services to all
  Americans.

10
1997

• IDEA reauthorized, PL 105-17
• Mandates that every IEP team must consider AT in
  IEP development
• First indication that AT services needed an
  evaluation step to consider AT

11
Evolution of Access
EHA, 1975 Access to Schools
IDEA, 1990 Access to Classrooms

• IDEA, 1997 Access to the General Education
  Curriculum
• Assistive Technology Needs

No Child Left Behind
12
Intent of IDEA 97

• Improved student performance
• Accountability
• Parental Participation
• High expectations for student achievement
• Linked to the general education curriculum and
  standards of learning (SOLs)
• all students must earn prescribed credits and
  pass a Standards of Learning (SOL) test for each
  course. This means the child who is now in 6th
  grade or younger will have to pass a test of high
  school level competencies in order to get a
  regular diploma.

13
IDEA 97 and AT
Increased Emphasis on AT

• The 1999 Amendment to IDEA mandates the IEP Team
  to consider the need for assistive technology
  during IEP process.

• AT decisions are the responsibility of the IEP
  Team.

14
1997

• Cedar Rapids Community School District v. Garret
  F
• Required district to provide Garret F. (a
  quadriplegic and ventilator dependent).with
  continuous nursing services while he is in
  school. The district court  granted summary
  judgment in favor of Garret finding that the
  necessary services were not within the "medical
  services" exclusion of the IDEA, and therefore,
  were "related services" which the school district
  must provide.

15
IDEA 2004

• Two of those authorized activities address
  assistive technology as follows  
• To improve the use of technology in the
  classroom by children with disabilities to
  enhance learning
• To support the use of technology, including
  technology with universal design principles and
  assistive technology devices, to maximize
  accessibility to the general education curriculum
  for children with disabilities.  

16
Access to Instructional Materials

• A National Instructional Materials Access Center
  will be established within American Printing
  House for the Blind.  
• will receive and maintain a repository/catalog of
  accessible, electronic textbooks in the National
  Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard
  (NIMAS)
• make such repository available to schools free of
  charge.  Insufficient funding to actually convert
  electronic files into alternative formats that
  seems to still be school responsibility.   
• Each SEA and Local educational agency (LEA) must
  adopt NIMAS after publication in the Federal
  Register and must assure that they will provide
  instructional materials to blind or other
  students with print disabilities in a timely
  manner.