National Assistive Technology Act Data System

Statewide AT Program (Information to be listed in national State AT Program Directory)

Lead Agency

Implementing Entity

Program Director and Other Contacts

Person Responsible for completing this form if other than Program Director

Certifying Representative

2. Income of Applicants to Whom Loans Were Made

3. Loan Type

4. Interest Rates

5. Types and Dollar Amounts of AT Financed

6. Defaults

Activity 1

2. Geographic Distribution, Number of Individuals Who Acquired AT Devices and Services and Number for whom Performance Measure Data are Collected

3. Types and Dollar Amounts of AT Funded

G. Notes:

If a number is reported in D you must provide a description of the reason the individuals are excluded from the performance

G. Notes:

I. Notes:

Our typical device loan is six weeks.

G. Notes:

The number of participants with disabilities being higher than the number of demos can be explained by the high number of older couples we work with. We have a number of referring agencies, especially those with dementia clients, who come to us (also why we selected this anecdote) seeking assistive devices. Many of the caregivers need assistance as well. They just don't realize it until they get here. We probably under-report demonstrations and could count what we do with the caregivers separately.

C. Description of Educational/Training Activities

Describe innovative one high-impact assistance educational/training activity conducted during the reporting period:

Provided training on hearing assistive technology and funding for parents and caregivers of deaf and hard of hearing students in the North Dakota K-12 system. The training took place at the North Dakota School for the Deaf Parent Engagement Day. Collaboration with School for the Deaf has been ongoing, but we haven't joined this specific day for many years.

Briefly describe one educational/training activity related to transition conducted during the reporting period:

Assistive technology training at the North Dakota Department of Public Instruction Transition Community of Practice meeting. This was specifically impactful because it coincided with the launch of our first contract with ND DPI and led to one of our team members becoming a permanent member of the Transition COP.

Briefly describe one educational/training activity related to Information and Communication Technology accessibility:

Individual training with an individual with the ND Secretary of State's office. We are collaborating with her to launch a series of trainings in 2026 to state communication and IT staff. She has continued to pursue her training and will actually co-present early on, then will act as a resource within state government.

E. Notes:

This is a data collection issue we'll fix. We have been misidentifying how we collect data about our training activities. Some of them have been listed as public awareness activities, but most commonly, we just haven't recorded something as training after device acquisition if it is with an individua or family. Also, one upcoming activity being developed is an accessibility training with state government employees, targeting marketing teams first, then expanding. We've partnered with someone who works with the Secretary of State's office and our first training is in January, 2026.

B. Description of Technical Assistance

Describe Innovative one high-impact assistance activity that is not related to transition:

Working with a middle school student who is visually impaired. Assisted with finding assistive technology solutions an accessible education materials at a rural school. The students has seen remarkable gains and the school has reached out for us to assist with others in the district as well.

Breifly describe one technical assistance activity related to transition conducted during the reporting period:

We're working with Bismarck State College, the polytechnical college in the state to help people with disabilities find meaningful employment, specifically within the manufacturing industry which faces a worker shortage in the state. Within the project, they are building immersive virtual reality rooms to help with career exploration. But they had not considered accessibility of the rooms (or with other training opportunities either). So we've been instrumental in helping them navigate the complexities there.

C. Notes:

Public Awareness Narratives

Describe in detail at least one and no more than two innovative or high-impact public awareness activities conducted during this reporting period. Highlight the content/focus of the awareness information shared, the mechanism used to disseminate or communicate the awareness information, the numbers and/or types of individuals reached, and positive outcomes resulting from the activity. If quantative numbers are available regarding the reach of the activity, please provide those: however, quantative data is not required.

1. We held three Open Houses, including one on AT Awareness Day that included multiple partners from across the state. In all, five different organizations held events in six locations. Attendance varied from about a dozen to nearly 50 at the ND Assistive Demonstration Centers in Fargo and Bismarck. The organizations joining us include School for the Blind, Anne Carlsen Center (children), Protection and Advocacy Project, and Able Inc. (facility). We were very pleased with the number of area professionals who showed up with questions. The other two open houses were held in each of our Demonstration Centers, and they focused on specific AT devices - home monitoring and devices to assist with low vision/blindness. Attendance was smaller, with about 10 attending each, but we're going to keep these going and have plans to make it a quarterly event.

2. We upped our newsletter game. It goes out at least once a month and features an AT Device, info about our services, and even some bits of fun that continue to get positive feedback from readers. We reach more than 1200 people each month with an open rate that averages about 35%. Often, the AT Device we feature is one we have available in our Device Reuse program. We've been able to increase interest in the program because of it (and actually, combined with the open houses).

Notes:

Overview of Coordination/Collaboration Activities

B. State Improvements

1. In one or two sentences, describe the outcome. Be as specific as possible about exactly what changed during this reporting period as a result of the AT program's initiative.

We're serving more younger people because of our newer collaborative projects. We've hired a speech language pathologist as a result and we've shifted two internal roles to focus on these two projects specifically.

2. In one or two sentences, describe the written policies, practices, and procedures that have been developed and implemented as a result of the AT program's initiative. Include information about how to obtain the full documents, such as a Web site address or e-mail address of a contact person, but do not include the full documents here. (If there are no written polices, practices and procedures, explain why.)

Two projects. Written policies with DPI are available and can be found with Lacey Long, ljlong@nd.gov. She also has the performance data. Policies and progress for the XR for VR project can be found at https://bismarckstate.edu/academics/xrforvr/.

3. What was the primary area of impact for this state improvement outcome?

Education