Southern hospitality is much more than a myth!  I have just returned
home from spending 2 busy days in Alabam with that stat'es AHEAD's fall
conference.  I was really treated as a guest of honor, met at the
airport and the conference was at Auburn University an hour away.
Happily, the weather was warm like the people.  (coming from Rochester,
NY, I am nervously awaiting our first snow flakes.)

It seems to me that Alabama's AHEAD, if not actually ahead of the pack,
is clearly on top of adaptive technology as we near the end of the 20th
century.  The conference had a focus on adaptive computer technology.
There were several vendors displaying the latest software and hardware.
One meeting included demonstrations of the latest in screen readers and
magnifiers.  Perhaps the highlight was a demo by a charming and
efficient blind student showing how she uses JAWS for Windows for her
work and for web browsing.  There was also a good presentation on the
current state of civil rights laws and information technology for users
with disabilities.

I was privileged to demonstrate some universal web design and to give
the keynote at the end of the conference.  I'd like to share 2 points
that I made:

1 DSS staff need to develop close cooperative relations with the library
and computer center to provide the basis for a seamless delivery system.
All the players on campus need to take some ownership for delivering
good accessible information technology to students with disabilities.

2 If DSS staff become really knowledgeable on adaptive computing and
access to information technology, everyone else on campus will be only
too happy to dump the total responsibility for meeting student needs
into your lap and shrug off any responsibilities for themselves.  Resist
this vehemently.  Insist on making this a campus-wide inter-departmental
responsibility.

Norman Coombs, Ph.D.
Chair of EASI: Equal Access to Software and Information.