Contact: Carmen Ramos Chandler,
carmen.chandler@csun.edu,
(818) 677-2130

Conference Explores How Technology Can Help
Break Through the Limitations of a Disability

The conference will run from March 20 through March 25 at the Hilton Los Angeles Airport and Los Angeles Airport Marriott hotels near the Los Angeles International Airport.

More than 4,000 people from around the world are expected to attend the conference, which explores the different ways that technology can help break through the limitations of a disability.

"The conference works because it is in some ways an 'organized mess'," said Harry Murphy, founder and director of CSUN's Center for Disabilities, which puts on the conference.

"By design, we try to bring as many different constituent groups together as possible," Murphy said. "We want people from a variety of backgrounds and experiences to sit down and talk -- from consumers, parents, teachers, government officials and vendors. They share common interests and who knows what can come out of these meetings."

For more information about the conference, please call Harry Murphy at (818) 677-2578 or email him at harry.murphy@csun.edu. Information is also available at the conference web site at http://www.csun.edu/cod/.

The conference will feature nearly 300 information sessions on such diverse topics as distance learning for students with disabilities, promoting literacy for individuals with severe to moderate disabilities and Internet job searching for people with disabilities.

Vendors representing more than 200 companies ‹ including Microsoft, IBM Special Needs Systems, Telex Communications Inc., Advanced Access Devices and Synergy ‹ also will have exhibits demonstrating cutting-edge technology they have developed to make life easier for the disabled. The exhibits will be spread over the two hotels.

Among the technology is a keyboard operated by eye movements, a robot that assists in the rehabilitation of the disabled and software that lets the blind and visually impaired master a variety of computer programs and explore the Internet.

Whittaker will be speaking at 7:30 a.m. on Wednesday, March 22, at the Hilton Los Angeles Airport Hotel.

Tom Whittaker became the first person with a disability to climb Mt. Everest on May 27, 1998. Accompanying him to the base camp at Everest was a group of persons with disabilities, part of the "All Abilities Trek."

Throughout his life, Whittaker has enjoyed his life to the fullest, participating in a number of outdoor activities. The son of a Welsh army officer, he worked his way to the United States by delivering a 65-foot yacht across the Atlantic. He dreamt of becoming a professional mountaineer.

On Thanksgiving Day, 1979, a drunk driver swerved into Whittaker's lane and hit the van he was driving head-on. It was five days before doctors were sure he would survive. The accident left him permanently disabled with multiple fractures in both his legs and severe injuries to his feet and knees. A kneecap was removed and his right foot was amputated.

In 1981, while working on a second master's degree at Idaho State University, Whittaker founded the Cooperative Wilderness Handicapped Outdoor Group. Funded by private and public donations, the group introduces the disabled to outdoor activities as a means of physical and emotional therapy and rehabilitation.