Cal State Northridge's 21st Annual International Technology and Persons with Disabilities Conference is scheduled to take place March 20-25 at the Los Angeles Airport Hilton and Marriott hotels. The conference, which draws thousands of people from around the world, showcases the latest technologies designed to eliminate barriers to personal, academic and career success for persons with disabilities. The conference is the largest of its kind--a record-breaking 4,500 people attended last year.

"Each year we hear that one of the most exciting things about the conference is the opportunity to meet with experts, practitioners and users and have informal conversations in which you can dialogue about finding solutions to vexing problems or just share information and insights," said Mary Ann Cummins-Prager, director of CSUN's Center on Disabilities, which coordinates the conference. "This year's conference promises to be just as exciting in that regard."

The conference addresses all aspects of technology and disabilities and features a faculty of internationally recognized speakers, more than 250 general session workshops and more than 170 exhibitors displaying the latest technology for persons with disabilities.

Scheduled as this year's keynote speaker is artist Lisa Fittipaldi, founder of The Mind's Eye Foundation, a nonprofit organization that helps blind, visually-impaired or hearing-impaired children with adaptive computer technology.

Workshop and general session topics run the gamut of disability and technology issues from workplace concerns and meeting a variety of needs in the classroom to living with technology and increasing access to the Internet and the World Wide Web.

New to this year's conference are sessions called "Chat Rooms," which will give attendees an opportunity to join with other participants and speakers to continue discussions started in workshops, gather resources, network on a topic or session of interest or just brainstorm about new avenues to explore in the world of assistive technology.