The new Comprehensive Assistive Technology Center being built at Mississippi State will make Mississippi a leader in the field that uses technology to help people overcome physical and mental disabilities, according to Dr. Nell Carney, executive director of the Mississippi Department of Rehabilitation Services.
Assistive technology is on the cutting-edge of the established field of rehabilitation.
The Comprehensive Assistive Technology Center, to be constructed as an addition to the Longest Student Health Center, will be the only one of its kind on a college campus. The center will provide services to persons with disabilities ranging from vision and hearing impairments to cerebral palsy and mental retardation. The research component of the center's mission, which will rely heavily on university faculty with interests in the area, will be essential to helping keep pace in the rapidly changing field, Carney said. Persons with total quadriplegia are now competitively employed, he said. Disabled persons have access, via computers and related technology, to life-broadening information that was not available to them before.