Kirk Behnke is the Coordinator of Training Grants and Contracts for the Center on Disabilities at California State University, Northridge (CSUN). One of the largest training programs at CSUN is the Assistive Technology Application Certificate Program (ATACP) which has been in existence since 1997. Currently, this program has over 1,200 graduates who possess a certificate in assistive technology (AT). Mr. Behnke designs, delivers, and coordinates this training program all over the United States and internationally.

I interviewed Kirk in September, 2001, about his experiences with this AT program and his comments and recommendations for those interested in pursuing such a certificate.

Could you begin by explaining the difference between a certificate in AT and certification in AT? How long does a program usually take?

This is a certificate, not a certification. I'm very careful with that wording for two reasons.

1. There is no certification in the area of assistive technology; in other words, you don't need a license to practice AT.
2. Because our program is a basic 100 hours of AT instruction, this does not make a person a specialist in the area of AT, especially when AT is such a diverse field.

Our certificate program has been designed with the College of Extended Learning at CSUN; therefore, we can offer 10 continuing education units (CEU)s, but we cannot offer university credit, due to our non-affiliation with an academic department. (This can be a good and a bad thing).

I also want to stress the three components of our ATACP: (a) 52 hours of on-line curriculum (to be completed before the live training), (b) 40 hours of live, interactive training, and (c) an 8-hour project. We stress the applications of AT as opposed to the AT itself, and we look at features of AT devices rather than specific device training (which is already available). We like to give a scaffold or skeleton of AT where the participant can gain resources and information even AFTER the training and make it useful for his or her own situation.

What type of prerequisites are typical for a certificate program in AT? Describe the profile or characteristics of a person who would make a good candidate for an AT certificate.

The only prerequisites that we ask for is some type of knowledge or exposure to disability, whether personal or professional, and a good understanding of at least one field of AT. Our best participants are ones who know a great deal about one area of AT and they come to the training to fill in the gaps of their knowledge in other areas of AT. For example, a speech-language pathologist may know quite a bit about augmentative and alternative communication devices, but know nothing about good seating/positioning or even good strategies to apply to those with learning or cognitive disabilities. We also ask that the registrant go through our application process where we conduct individual enrollment confirmation calls to each applicant to make sure he or she understands what our program is about. At that time, we also explain the expectations we have of our participants, and we ask each person to describe his or her expectations as a participant. This supports our belief of providing a good match of a participant to our program.

Once someone has a certificate in AT, what are some of the settings where he/she might work?

We have graduates working in many environments, such as school districts, rehabilitation facilities, non-profit agencies, private businesses, private consulting firms, and insurance and government agencies (ranging from the IRS to the National Security Administration). All participants from these settings are responsible for providing some type of assistive technology service to the people they serve; therefore, they come to AT training to gain insight, learn best practices, and to achieve a greater understanding of more than just the technical side of assistive technology. We stress in our on-line, as well as live training components, the importance of working together as a collaborative team, funding, leadership, and all aspects of technology, often using case studies as examples.

Give us a brief outline of a typical day for someone at a university setting who works on AT issues with students with disabilities.

At a university setting, there can be many different tasks that a person could be responsible for during the day. This can range from: (a) working with a student who has a disability try to find a good tool or technology to help him/her with a specific task needed to complete for a class, (b) giving an off-the-cuff training to computer lab assistants on the importance of providing various disability access methods to individual students on a regular basis, and (c) providing documentation to vocational rehabilitation personnel on various technical accommodations that could possibly be used as tools for a student with a disability while on campus.

Do you have a recommendation of where our readers could go to get more information on AT programs? Organizations?

To find out more on different types of AT programs, you can contact your state "Technology-related Assistance for Individuals with Disabilities" agency. A listing of those agencies can be found at http://www.resna.org/taproject/at/statecontacts.html
The one for California is California Assistive Technology System (CATS), 1-800-390-2699 Voice, or 1-800-900-0706 TDD. http://www.atnet.org

What do you think is in store for the future of the AT field?

I have two thoughts on the future of AT. One is its tremendous growth in various and diverse environments. We have seen this with assistive listening devices at theatres for both persons with hearing impairments and those who need audio description. At the same time, with the development of universal design, the term AT may be going into extinction; for example, the same technology of assistive listening devices being used for translation services. We see the future of AT being integrated within society as a whole, hopefully providing accommodations for all, not just for a select few or for those whom we know how to accommodate (e.g., curb cuts, sign language interpreting, and the use of color coding). Assistive technology will be around for many years to come, however, we need to promote the universal design features to our engineers and designers so that when a new piece of technology comes to market, it will be accessible for all and no accommodations will be needed.

How can our readers contact you for further information or to follow up on some of initial conversation listed above?

Please email me at kirk.behnke@csun.edu. You can also call (818)677-2578 v/tdd/msg or visit our website at: http://www.csun.edu/codtraining