Assistive Technology Center puts MSU in rehabilitation forefront

Speaking at Friday's groundbreaking ceremony, Carney said the center "will lead to a more competitive and higher quality of life for people with a wide range of disabilities. Assistive technology is on the cutting-edge of the established field of rehabilitation.

"With assistive technology, we can discover the potential that lies deep within people with severe disabilities," Carney said.

The Comprehensive Assistive Technology Center, to be constructed as an addition to the Longest Student Health Center, will be the only one of its kind on a college campus. The $3 million facility, funded jointly by MDRS and the university, is to be complete in about a year.

"It's all designed to be of service to the people of the state and help make their lives better," said President Donald Zacharias.

The center will provide services to persons with disabilities ranging from vision and hearing impairments to cerebral palsy and mental retardation. The research component of the center's mission, which will rely heavily on university faculty with interests in the area, will be essential to helping keep pace in the rapidly changing field, Carney said.

Center director Harry "Bud" Rizer, on the job since last month, said that while assistive technology is not a new concept, recent rapid advances in technology have changed rehabilitation and expanded its possibilities.

Persons with total quadriplegia are now competitively employed, he said. Disabled persons have access, via computers and related technology, to life-broadening information that was not available to them before. And people who are "locked into their own bodies" have found the means to communicate through assistive technology developments.