The Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation Paralysis Resource Center (PRC) announces that it has awarded a total of $371,307 in High Impact Innovative Assistive Technology Grants (HIIAT) to programs focusing on providing access to assistive equipment and technology.

Funding for these grants was made possible through the PRC’s cooperative agreement with the Administration for Community Living (ACL), according to a media release from the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation.

The five recipients of grants in this cycle are:

  • Assistive Technology Resource Centers of Hawaii, Honolulu ($75,000), to expand its assistive technology demonstration and lending library to remote locations to bring the demonstration program and provide assistive technology-related services to families of individuals living with paralysis in more remote locations on Oahu and to the outer islands and other islands in the Pacific, including American Samoa and Micronesia.
  • Crossroad Rehabilitation Center, Indianapolis ($74,881), to help to support the Assistive Technology Mobile Unit (ATMU), a specially outfitted Fort Transit Van equipped to provide free device demonstrations to individuals referred through Rehabilitation Hospital of Indiana.
  • Florida Alliance for Assistive Services and Technology Inc, Tallahassee, Fla ($75,000), to offer a series of outdoor activity events focusing on exercise and outdoor recreation for individuals living with spinal cord injury in the rural areas of Florida, in partnership with the Florida Disabled Outdoor Association (FDOA).
  • North Carolina Assistive Technology Program, Raleigh, NC ($71,618), to purchase portable ramps and place them in each of the nine NCATP centers or partner agencies, ensuring that individuals with newly-acquired mobility impairments, and individuals with established mobility impairments who have been displaced from their homes due to adverse weather or emergency events, have safe access to their homes or the facility where they are sheltering.
  • South Carolina Assistive Technology Program, University of South Carolina School of Medicine ($74,808), to support Eye Gaze Communications Solutions, a project that will improve access to eye gaze devices focused on improving communication for underserved, low-income South Carolinians living with paralysis caused by spinal cord injury, stroke, traumatic brain injury, ALS, and cerebral palsy.

“In our third year of awarding these grants, it is exciting to see the new and innovative projects proposed to improve quality of life for underserved and rural populations that are living with paralysis,” says Maggie Goldberg, vice president of policy and programs, Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation, in the release.

“The improved access to assistive technology results in a significant impact for individuals living with paralysis and their families, and towards our goals of increasing inclusion and independence.”

Donna Valente, director of Quality of Life Grants, adds that, “Assistive technology has tremendous potential to dramatically affect the lives of individuals living with paralysis and their families. I am gratified to witness the grantees put their plans into action.”

[Source(s); Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation, PR Newswire]