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By Laura Hall, MATP Staffer Transitioning from school to life is an exciting time for any student.  Yet, accessing assistive technology once out of school can be a much different process.  In K-12, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) requires that assistive technology be considered for all students during the IEP process.  If AT is…

Modern browsers are gigantic affairs, designed to manage the remarkable variety of content available online, but also designed to do many more things, using a wide diversity of add-ons, scripting systems, plugins, revenue enhancement tools, and so on, ad infinitum. Now that wide bandwidth is more the rule than the exception, this makes some sense.…

After the sudden death of her husband on New Year’s Eve, a friend was really in a daze. She has a lifelong hearing loss and now has arthritis that can flare up in times of stress. She also had a stroke a few years ago and has fallen at home before. Her family and friends…

By Aimee Sterk, LMSW, MATP Staff I’m just about to hit 32 weeks pregnant. With my age (42), and gestational diabetes making for a big baby to carry around, I’m starting to get very tired very fast. I’m also much more awkward and find myself having to grab things to catch my balance. Luckily, I…

by Laura Hall, MATP Staff Well, the weather outside is frightful today, with the Lansing area expecting up to 10″ of snow.  For users of assistive technology, winter weather is certainly not always delightful.  During these months we are often more reliant on our AT, which makes it even more important that they are well…

Until recently, the general approach to paid leave as an accommodation was to allow or require it unless it reached the ADA threshold of an “undue burden”. For example, Federal ADA guidance suggests the following two-factor approach to this threshold: “Undue burden means significant difficulty or expense. In determining whether an action would result in…

By Aimee Sterk, LMSW, MATP Team This week has been a really weird conglomeration of anniversaries and news that are all muddling together in my head. Eleven years ago this week, I went on my first date with my husband. Two years ago this week, we put a deposit down for IVF that led to…

By Lucia Rios, Guest Blogger One of the most important pieces of assistive technology in my life is the manual wheelchair. It’s the accessory I never leave home without. Wheels enable my independence. Wheeling gives me confidence. Not only has my wheelchair been customized to fit me, but each ding, scratch and tear tells a…

By Aimee Sterk, LMSW, MATP Staff My friend contacted me last week asking about the process for working with a nursing home to get his father, a resident in the home, a new wheelchair. It seems the nursing home suggested a very specialized wheelchair to meet his father’s needs, but when the home was told…

By Guest Blogger Kellie Blackwell, Disability Network Capital Area   The Pen Friend is a device that I have demonstrated to many individuals over the last few years. It is a great tool for labeling many things. I wanted to take a moment to share some of my tips for maximizing its use. I would…