>> Coming up on "Need to Know" technique knowledge can make
life easier for people with disabilities.-
We will look at technological advances and how they can help
and how widely available they are.-
We have the weekly edition of the Democrat and chronicle.-
Keep it here for "Need to Know."-
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[Captioning Made Possible by the U.S. Department of Education]-
(For "Need to Know")-
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>> Thanks for joining us.-
I'm Michael Caputo.-
"Need to Know" participates this week in a discussion about
people living with disability.-
The effort is called dialogue on disability.-
It is a week long initiative that seeks to give voice to the
perspectives of those with disability.-
We live in an age where technical advances feel like they are
cascading on us and it would seem that high tech devices have
never been poised to provide access to those with
disabilities.-
The question is are they available?-
First let's talk about how many people can benefit.-
According to the U.S. census bureau nearly one in five people
in the general population has a type of disability.-
That rate is lower in Monroe county and surrounding counties
except Orleans.-
On the national front, President Bush has vowed to tear down
what he calls the bureaucracies of dependence for people with
disabilities and he cites as one problem the high unemployment
rates for those with disabilities.-
In New York state 46% of the people with disability who are of
working age are not employed.-
Before the discussion turns to assistive technology who it will
help toes with disabilities get work, get educated and more
fully participate in life.-
Examples of assistive technology range from amply fade
telephone head sets to talking word processors.-
Jennifer Davis introduces to the world of assistive
technology.-
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>> Ready.-
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>> Please acknowledge.-
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>> For people with disability this can be the ride of their
lives.-
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>> That is the advantage of this unique system we just
received.-
It allows opportunity for many individuals who never would have
thought about driving.-
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>> Frank Cogliandro is a director at the Rochester
rehabilitation center.-
He is demonstrating one of the latest versions of a driving
system.-
This version is fully voice activated offering hands free and
foot free driving.-
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>> Primary control is the steering, gas and brake are all
connected to this one leave.-
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>> The lever can be overed to pond to the lightest touch and
positioned so a person with severe disability can use it.-
At a voice command programs, steering, gas and brake, respond.-
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>> Recognize.-
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>> There's also a built in safety control.-
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>> If I didn't speak to it again, it cancels your command.-
So you don't accidentally operate a function that you don't
want working.-
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>> You are only a half dozen systems you are seeing.-
It station up to 60 hours of training to use it.-
And whale the sophisticated system is hands free the cost is
far from free.-
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>> We are looking at a full voice activated system, and using
this system, the cost will range approximately $70,000.-
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>> While new technology like this is combithe news for people
with disability, it is the sticker shock that has disability
activists like Bruce Darling reacting.-
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>> It is expensive and you have to find someone else to pay for
it.-
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>> Darling says if funding sources are furnished it usually
means a long wait until the technology arrives.-
Joe Sanatacesaria knows about the wait.-
He waited more than two years to get this.-
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>> If I had to do something on my own, I can did it without
somebody else.-
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>> Joe says technology like this lift have helped him live his
life to the fullest, independently.-
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>> It also means that if I needed to get up and do something on
my own I can do it.-
I don't necessarily need someone.-
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>> Joe has advice for people with disabilities in need of
funding.-
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>> You might need to use a combination of more than one funding
source to get it because one by itself will probably not
approve.-
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>> The folks at the Mary Cariola agree.-
For more than 50 years they have worked with a mix of both
private and public funding.-
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>> We are very lucky and we have come a long way in what we can
provide.-
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>> Including some of the most advanced technology to help your
children do some of the simpest but most important things.-
This is how Zackry uses his box.-
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>> These are very sophisticated high tech communication systems
and for those of our students who are not verbal this is their
voice.-
For Zackry one of his activities is talk the dog or give it a
treat and this way he doesn't have to gesture or take someone's
hand.-
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>> The children press the touch screen and why the device looks
simple it can be programmed with advanced technology.-
This helps to justify the device's $5,000 to $6,000 price tag.-
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>> Sometimes we have to show they can use it.-
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>> And if the Mary Cariola center can't justify it for one,
then they share it for many.-
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>> We do have a large number of children with special needs,
which also makes it easier to get equipment because we use it
for a variety of children.-
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>> Others say the technology solution may be simp her than
that.-
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>> I have seen people who had duct tape and sticks created
incredible accommodations and you can set up your own industry
and live the American dream.-
You don't have to have a $40,000 piece of equipment
necessarily.-
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>> If you want to keep going, you will find what you need.-
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>> We are joined in the studio by three people with unique
perspectives on this.-
Chris Hildrebrant the director of advocacy for the center for
disability rights.-
Brian Klafehn vice president of operations for C.P. Rochester
and Larry Medwetsky vice president of audiology and research
for Rochester hearing and speech center.-
Let's start with the devices themselves, assistive technology.-
It is not one size fits all.-
I imagine age, size, a lot of factors come into play that make
the things very much a part of who the people are the talk
about that.-
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>> Assistive technology we are talking about dealing directly
with people's bodies so it will be very individual because
people are different sizes.-
And even if it is not on a body is it is to accommodate a body
so people have different abilities.-
Particularly from my experience I'm using my old wheelchair
because the new one is an inch too narrow and too wide and it
really doesn't feel right and it is big deal.-
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>> How do -- who do you go to?-
You could go to somebody who is selling the product, but will
you get your needs met?-
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>> That's a great question.-
You can come to C.P. Rochester for one alternative.-
We don't sell any products.-
We don't provide necessarily equipment although we have an
adaptive workshop that will do personalized modification.-
But we have an assistive technology program connected with one
of our clinics where we do these kinds of assessments for
people.-
We will take a piece of technology if it has been identified as
being something that an individual could benefit from, and
individualize it.-
We may individualize it by altering it, changing it, adding
things to it customizing it, putting different grips on it, -
>> For family members and people who are disabled themselves,
what do they need two ask themselves when they are looking at
an assistive technology thing?-
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>> That depends on the particular disability.-
I'm going to focus on people who have hearing loss.-
In our case, the primary assistive technology available to
individuals is hearing aids.-
But there are other types of technology available.-
Some of them you can purchase in a retail outlet.-
But the people who sell them are not trained in this nor do
they try to match the product with the individual's
difficulties or their needs.-
In our agency, we encourage people to come because number one
we have people who understand the impact of hearing losses in
people's lives.-
Second, some of our people are trained to be aware of various
products that are available, to learn to ask specific questions
that an individual who may come to us, because it is not only
hearing loss, we "Need to Know" their life style, needs,
desires.-
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>> Why do you have to know that?-
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>> Because otherwise we can end up either providing products
that will not meet their needs so it is a useless thing for the
person and they can spend a lot of money and won't benefit.-
Second, we are looking for the most cost effective solution
that meets an individual's needs.-
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>> Larry makes an exceptional point.-
Often when people hear the words assistive technology they
immediately go to complicated electronic, computer driven
devices when in fact assistive and adaptive technology can be
something very simple.-
It can be a different handle on something, or some minor
adjustment in size and location.-
For one kind of thing that is it.-
But technology is really a tool and it is a tool that we all
use every day to interact with our environment.-
People with disabilities need more customized tools.-
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>> I wanted to ask about -- I know that recently in the news
there was talk about Medicaid or Medicare being billed by folks
who were trying to sell power wheelchairs.-
How do you protect yourself from that kind of thing?-
How do you protect yourself?-
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>> It goes back -- -
>> This is very technical.-
Some of this very advanced.-
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>> As a person with a disability, you "Need to Know" what you
want to accomplish.-
What is it supposed to do and does it to that.-
If you don't need a scooter, don't get one.-
That is where we have heard stories about organizations that
are selling scooters and power chairs on television to people
that don't need them.-
People who need a walker or a cane.-
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>> But they are pressure sales.-
They are told you have to have it, really pressurized sales.-
I'm sure that is a warning sign, watch out for that.-
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>> Definitely.-
If you go to a place that's going to work with you, they will
ask a lot of questions.-
Our main goal is to try to help each individual achieve
independence and if an individual needs assistive technology
that is our goal.-
So if it is not the sale, we are here to provide information
and empowerment to the individual to make the right decision
for themselves.-
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>> I was going to say absolutely.-
And one of the guidelines I think I would use and I would
assume you guys would agree, is know what you want, like Chris
said, that is absolutely critical.-
But the simplest solution is often the best.-
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>> Let me get to the aspect of funding.-
I want to run this by.-
President Bush started and created the new freedom initiative
around vowed to make sure that accessibility was available to
those with disability.-
But the 2004 budget cut completely the funding to assistive
technology, a program in place a number of years and I think it
funds the New York state program.-
So it is a mixed message.-
What is the state of funding, federal, public funding, for this
kind of technology?-
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>> Complicated.-
Difficult to access.-
And definitely some empty promises.-
That what is out this typically are very difficult systems to
negotiate through.-
When we talked about jobs earlier, the Medicaid buy-in is
supposed to help people get back to work but nobody knows how
to apply.-
You don't even know to apply.-
So sometimes when there's funding it difficult to get to and
there are times when there is no funding.-
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>> Is Medicaid buy-in new?-
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>> Yes.-
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>> You say that is hard to access?-
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>> Particularly in Monroe county it is.-
The buy-in started in July of this year, supposed to enable
people with disability to get back to work and maintain their
health coverage that a lot of people when we talked about 46%
unemployment it is because people were afraid of their
healthcare, if you give up coverage for pharmaceuticals or
wheelchairs or personal care, going and getting a job won't
help you if you can't get out of bed.-
So it has been in Monroe county, pretty poor implementation.-
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>> What's behind that?-
And what's -- you say it complicated is the word I have been
hearing.-
Why is it complicated?-
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>> I think that one of the reasons is that there's never been a
comprehensive approach to dealing with funding technology and
support to people with disability.-
There are a lot of piecemeal preaches.-
I think Chris and Larry talked about it.-
There are many potential funding sources, state education
department, Medicaid, I mean you name it.-
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>> That's one of the problems is you have fragmentation in
terms of delivery of serviceses.-
What can make it less complicated is for individuals, if they
go to agencies that can work with them and we can sort out for
them.-
But for an individual many agencies are not well known to the
public.-
So, it is one of the things is the P.R. on the programs are not
out there.-
So, it leaves an individual to say what can I do, where do I
go?-
So you need professionals to access the services.-
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>> I would like to bring up another point.-
It is sort of how technology changes a culture.-
I will give you an signal ji of Latinos come to this country
and they are told to learn English in order to succeed.-
That is also saying you need to learn English to adapt.-
When you inject a new technology into a culture, people with
disability, I'm thinking of the cochlear implant, for example.-
That changes the very nature of who these people are, doesn't
it?-
And it is almost saying come to us.-
Isn't that difficult?-
Doesn't that make a difficulty for a new technology?-
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>> The cochlear implant is controversial in one way and it is a
unique situation in that you have technology for individuals
that had an impact on a whole community which was the deaf
community.-
Many of them felt that the I will plant in terms of discussions
neglected to present a different side where individuals who
were deaf felt that we have a viable community, we sign, and
yet the implant is a, is to cure individuals.-
So you have this technology that resulted in trying to help
individual but yet we had a community involved.-
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>> How do you balance the fact that technology can help with
curing the individual?-
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>> I think one slogan I have heard is just because you can
doesn't mean you should.-
Another technology that scares me is some of the prenatal
screening of babies and selective abortion, and we are at a
point as a society we can choose genocide on people.-
There are advocates for that.-
There a professor at Princeton, pretty esteemed college who
advocates that.-
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>> I would love for you to talk about that as well.-
Certainly it is, it does help people.-
But when does it cross that line?-
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>> Well, I think you just heard two great examples.-
One of the things you need to keep in mind, anybody needs to
keep in mind, is that technology or any kind of support is not
-- the purpose of them is not to fix something.-
It is to provide a tool, again, like I mentioned before.-
One of the assumptions for years in the disability field is
that people were broken and we have to fix them.-
That is not right.-
People are people.-
We all have abilities and our own disabilities, and we all need
different kinds of tools.-
So if you get away from that notion that you have to fix
something, you are on more solid ground.-
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>> We were talking before about getting out the word about
organizations that can help you.-
What about just simply getting out the word that the money is
there, that you can get this -- that even the technology is
there?-
Is that happening?-
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>> I was going to say the money is not always there.-
But what's important is to determine if there are resources
there and, if not, then what can we do to make the best
solutions.-
You were talking earlier, people having trouble on the
telephone.-
You can get telephones that amplify voices that are like $75.-
You have cost effective solutions and you can see me better to
connect a TV to a headset.-
One thing for people with hearing impairment is 1993 when they
included the chip for close captioning in TV's.-
Now that chip only costs $5 to install.-
So, there are ways to do really cost effective solutions when
the resources are not necessarily there.-
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>> Is society giving up enough of its resources to help?-
Sometimes like on a civil rights issue.-
Is it doing enough -
>> Sometimes I think it is not a question of enough but the
right areas, how we use the funding.-
That sometimes we are fixing the wrong problem.-
The one I always throw out is the stair climbing wheelchair
that costs $40,000 or $50,000.-
Why should I get this when we can put in a $500 ramp?-
The use of fund being is a lot of times the choice.-
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>> I agree with that, absolutely.-
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>> I also think that, again, it is really a matter of focus.-
It is really a matter of what is the appropriate technology.-
And finding the appropriate fix.-
Whatever the person has, finding the appropriate solution.-
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>> I have run out of time.-
I appreciate you being here.-
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Your feedback is important to us here.-
E. pail us at NEEDTOKNOW@WXXI.org or phone us at our response
line at 258-0250.-

>> With us is Ben Rand, business reporter for the Democrat and
chronicle.-
Ben, thanks for being here.-
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>> You are welcome.-
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>> You cover Eastman Kodak for the paper.-
During the course of your reporting over the last few weeks
what have you learned about the interest that the billionaire
Karl Icahn has with Kodak?-
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>> Well, the $64,000 question is what does he want.-
And I'm pretty sure there's only one person who can answer that
and he's not talking.-
Historically he keeps his motives to himself until he is ready
to "Strike."-
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>> Is he there for the shareholders?-
Is he there for just to make his own, you know, -- what has
been his mode of operation in the past?-
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>> Clearly he is after a profit.-
But what is interesting about it is what underlies his profit
motive is the notion that companies should respond to large
shareholders, or even smaller shareholders.-
So there's a bit of democratization behind what he does.-
And there are times where, yes, he cashes out, but so do other
shareholders.-
So it is hard to make a clear judgment.-
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>> You wouldn't call him an advocate for shareholder.-
Is that too strong?-
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>> You could call him an advocate for shareholder having a
voice in the running of a company.-
He believes that management are employees, not shareholders.-
So the owners should determine the direction.-
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>> So that's not the best news, I would guess, for people
working at Kodak.-
Or is that too strong?-
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>> Maybe a little too strong.-
It is not unprecedented that he would have a passive
investment, though it is not likely.-
But what he wants to see played out, whether it is possible is
still in the balance.-
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>> Talk about Kodak's reaction to his presence and how that
compares to other companies in the past that he has involved
himself with.-
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>> They are being very proactive, before for him and others
that expressed concern.-
So it is a right move in that sense.-
But there's a mixed record.-
Some have been proactive and he still got his way.-
Others were more resistant.-
There have been a few that have outlasted him and call his
bluff, take him to the end and then he walks away with money
but not necessarily the changes he saw.-
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>> Has there ever been company that was outright hostile to
him?-
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>> Yes.-
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>> Throwing down the gauntlet.-
Because it sounds like here they have brought him in.-
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>> Sure.-
Texaco was a historic battle where they battled back and forth
in letters to shareholders in the newspaper, and that got
terribly nasty.-
And a couple of smaller ones.-
Not as well known.-
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>> It will take a while to see where all of this plays out and
what his influence will be?-
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>> That's right.-
If he moves, he will move on his own timetable.-
But once he does move, it will move relatively quickly.-
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>> I have to ask this.-
We had a very interesting story out of Kodak on jobs.-
It was sort of the flip side of what we have been hearing.-
Talk about that.-
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>> It is in their health I will imaging unit and they are
trying to get into more of the information technology said and
they have consolidated headquarters here up to 150 jobs, many
of which will likely be folks that relocated from other areas.-
But there could be some that would have to be filled locally.-
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>> Yesterday you were at a symposium, the western New York
investors conference in Buffalo.-
Rochester and Buffalo companies over 20, I think, maybe two
dozen companies were there.-
They were there to convince investors what?-
The way it sounded to me was that don't be so bearish on us.-
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>> To tell their story.-
It is, you know, in a typical world the companies have to visit
investors on a one-to-one basis are the inversors come to the
company.-
Now they are both in the same room together.-
So investors can hear from a group of companies that it wants
and the companies can talk to a group of investors and the idea
is to convince people, to raise their reputation that this
isn't sort after back water corporate town.-
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>> This is the first time they have had this.-
Am I right?-
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>> Yes.-
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>> Constellation, Kodak, Monro Muffler.-
How did they do?-
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>> Fairly well.-
One company that got a lot of attention is ultralight batteries
which has won a couple of huge contracts and their stock price
is up.-
I'm told the room was packed and the conversation were big
afterwards.-
Monro Muffler had a crowd with lots of questions about their
strategies and they are partnering with B.J. east wholesale
club.-
And key Dakota took the opportunity to rea firm its strategy
and its direction.-
So, all in all it seemed to an successful event.-
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>> What will the Democrat and chronicle be featuring this week
and working on?-
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>> We continue to work on sort of the Kodak story and we are
looking at it from the whole point of view from the community,
the impacts of the changes there.-
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>> Thanks for being with us.-
Here is one more reminder to write us by email at
NEEDTOKNOW@WXXI.org or phone us any time at our response line
of 258-0250.-
Next week with the U.S. moving closer to a new free trade
agreement we will rebroadcast a program on how that affects
us.-
In two weeks we return with new program looking at the state.-
Democratic party in Monroe county.-
See you then.-