University Advancement

Public Relations and Strategic Communications

NEWS RELEASE

Global CSUN Conference Links Technology and Persons with Disabilities

(NORTHRIDGE, Calif., March 6, 2007) — Thousands of people will gather near Los Angeles International Airport later this month for Cal State Northridge’s International Conference on Technology and Persons with Disabilities. The annual conference is designed to give persons with disabilities the tools—technological and otherwise—to eliminate barriers to personal, academic and career success.

"This isn’t a conference about gadgets, though the latest in assistive technology will be on display," said Mary Ann Cummins-Prager, director of CSUN’s Center on Disabilities, which coordinates the event. "This is really a conference about networking and empowerment."

Conferees from around the world are expected at the March 19-24 conference near the Los Angeles International Airport. More than 4,800 people attended last year, as did more than 170 exhibitors displaying the latest in assistive technology.

For many people with disabilities and other advocates, the conference presents a rare opportunity to share vital information, said Cummins-Prager. It explores strategies for dealing effectively with school officials to get needed assistance, working with government bureaucrats and business owners, finding legal or other ways to rectify inequities and discovering how assistive technology can make people’s lives easier.

More than 300 workshops are scheduled on topics ranging from workplace and classroom concerns to increasing Internet access. A new track at this year’s conference will focus on aging.

"Baby boomers in particular may find it hard to acknowledge that as they get older, no matter how hard they try to ignore the fact, their bodies are not going to respond the way they want them to," said Cummins-Prager. "Many of them are going to have to deal with age-related disabilities."

The conference’s keynote speaker is attorney John Kemp, a nationally recognized advocate for the disabled with more than 30 years of experience in the disability movement. In 1995, Kemp co-founded the American Association of People with Disabilities. He serves on the Medicaid Commission and the State Department’s Advisory Committee on Persons with Disabilities, which guides the Secretary of State and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) administrator on U.S. foreign policy and assistance with respect to people with disabilities.

For conference registration and other information, visit the Center on Disabilities’ Web site at www.csun.edu/cod/conf/index.html, call (818) 677-2578 V/TTY or e-mail conference@csun.edu.