[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 51 (Friday, April 19, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3741-S3742]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  AN ANNIVERSARY STATEMENT--THE TECHNOLOGY REVOLUTION FOR PEOPLE WITH 
                              DISABILITIES

  Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, Sunday, April 14, was a special anniversary 
for me. It was on that date during World War II I was wounded and 
joined the ranks of America's disability community.
  We are a large, diverse community, from all walks of life, of every 
race and creed, and with the same hopes and dreams as other Americans.
  Since joining the Senate, it has been my custom to remember this 
anniversary each year by speaking about an issue important to Americans 
with disabilities.
  So today I will discuss a revolution in technology for the disabled--
a quiet but extraordinary revolution that is bringing us closer to our 
national goals of independence and full participation.


                   New Technologies for the Disabled

  Mr. President, today's technologies for the disabled are yesterday's 
science fiction pipedreams.
  For my friend Kyle Hulet in Hutchinson, KS, technology provides a new 
world of independence. Kyle has only limited use of his hands, and has 
had to depend on others for the simplest things--even turning the 
lights on in his room.
  But with a new environmental control unit strapped to his wheelchair, 
which operates much like a TV remote control, Kyle can run 16 
appliances, including lights, TV, and stereo.
  Jenni Koebel of Topeka, who cannot speak and has limited use of her 
hands, taps out words on the keyboard of a communication device--that 
then speaks with a voice synthesizer. Sure, the voice is a little 
mechanical, but Jenni's intelligence and charm shine through.
  When Jenni visited me sometime back, she was a high school student. 
Today, she is enrolled in my alma mater, Washburn University. 
Technology has helped make this possible.
  Even the venerable wheelchair has gone high technology. For too long 
wheelchair users have been described as ``wheelchair bound'' or 
``confined to a wheelchair.'' This stereotype unfortunately contained 
some truth--wheelchairs were heavy and awkward.
  That is, until innovators like Marilyn Hamilton came along. Marilyn, 
who became a wheelchair user following a hang-gliding accident in 1978, 
asked why chairs couldn't be light, compact, fast--and good looking.
  And when no one could give her a good answer, she went out and built 
a chair that was all these things. And then helped set up a company, 
Quickie Designs, to build those chairs for others.
  And for the amputee, artificial legs made of new plastics can now 
mimic the spring and bounce of the natural footstep.
  Perhaps the toughest test for these artificial limbs is sports. And 
the toughest sports events for disabled athletes can be found at the 
Paralympic games.
  For example, in 1992, Tony Volpentest of Edmonds, WA, ran the 100-
meter dash in 11.63 seconds, just 1.83 seconds off Carl Lewis' Olympic 
record. Tony was born without hands or feet, and uses two high 
technology artificial legs.
  The 1996 Paralympics will be held later this year in Atlanta, 
following the Olympics. Over 120 countries will be represented--and 
with talent like Tony's, we are talking real competition among world 
class athletes.
  In the future, we can expect even more astounding devices--such as 
systems that will allow blind people to freely navigate city streets 
using signals beamed from global positioning satellites overhead. And 
sophisticated voice recognition systems that will automatically closed 
caption videophones of the future.
  The bottom line here is simple. For people with every kind of 
disability--whether sensory, cognitive, motor, or communication--
technology can provide tools to speak, hear, see, learn, write, be 
mobile, work, and play--in short, to live as fully and independently as 
possible. Technology increasingly allows people with disabilities to 
make the same choices about their lives--good and bad--that other 
Americans often take for granted.


                      The Information Superhighway

  Mr. President, one can hardly open a newspaper or turn on the TV 
these days without hearing about the Internet--the worldwide hookup of 
thousands of computers. For the price of a local phone call, an 
individual can retrieve information from almost anywhere on the planet.
  But for Holly Haines, the Internet is about a job. Holly lives in 
rural Pennsylvania. The nearest traffic light is 8 miles away--a lot 
like western Kansas where I grew up. Because of muscular dystrophy, 
Holly rarely leaves home.

  Several years ago Holly called my office, asking for some help in 
getting access to the Internet through a local university. She had a 
job offer at a national database company, but to call the company's 
computer directly every day would have meant huge, unaffordable long-
distance phone bills.
  Well, Holly got on the Internet and went to work. And about a year 
ago the Microsoft Network called to offer her a job as supervisor of 
Chat World.
  Every day hundreds of network subscribers talk on-line in the virtual 
town square of Chat World. Life in the virtual world can get pretty 
wild, and Holly is Chat World's mayor and Miss Manners rolled into one. 
She oversees a staff of 75 people.
  By the way, Microsoft never had a clue that Holly was disabled when 
they hired her. And here's the important lesson. For Holly, and for 
millions of Americans with disabilities, the Internet is both a great 
equalizer and a great opportunity.

[[Page S3742]]

                  Fulfilling the Promise of Technology

  Mr. President, the news is not all good. Thousands of Americans with 
disabilities cannot afford these technologies, some of which cost 
thousands of dollars. In my home State of Kansas, the legislature has 
recognized this problem and recently authorized an annual appropriation 
of $100,000 to help pay for technology.
  And in the Balanced Budget Act, I sponsored a provision with Senator 
Conrad to allow Medicare beneficiaries to use their own funds to pay 
for more sophisticated technologies, by supplementing Medicare's 
payment for a standard item.
  But we need to do much, much more.
  The second big issue is that we must be careful that new 
technologies--whether personal computers, the Internet, or whatever--
are designed to be accessible to the disabled from the start. We have 
learned the hard way how expensive it can be to retrofit buildings and 
streets. We do not need to learn that lesson twice.
  In this regard, the new Telecommunications Act has several provisions 
designed to encourage companies that manufacture telecommunications 
equipment or provide services to make their products accessible to the 
disabled. Another provision in the act also provides for more closed 
captioning of TV and video programs.
  Mr. President, in closing, I would like to say a few words about the 
Americans With Disabilities Act. ADA was passed 6 years ago. Some 
people claim that I have backed off my support for ADA. That is simply 
not true. But I believe, and have always believed, that ADA can work, 
must work, for everyone--people with disabilities, Government, and 
business. I am trying hard to see that happens.
  The poet Archibald MacLeish once wrote, ``America was always 
promises.'' The technology revolution, together with important laws 
like ADA, are helping people with disabilities realize America's 
promises.

                          ____________________