Night Owl 6/Night Owl's Shareware - PDSI-006 - Night Owl Corp (1990).iso/001a/adanet6.zip/ADANET.NAR

Text File | 1991-09-14 | 17KB | 359 lines

                  Part I - Technical Proposal

A. Title Page

    1. Project or Program Title

     ADAnet - proposing a National Electronic Bulletin Board for
Disabled People.

    2. Name and Address of Submitting Organization

        Disability Law Foundation, Inc.
        Post Office Box 374
        Pinson, Alabama 35126

    3. Name, Title and Address - Project Director

        William Jackson Freeman, JD.
        Director of Administration
        1641 Third Place Northwest
        Birmingham, Alabama 35215
        Phone: [phone]


    4. Signature and Title of Authorized Official

        _____________________________________
        William J. Freeman, Director
B. Executive Summary

    This is a proposal to fund a centralized telecommunications
facility directed toward the needs of disabled people. This system
is presently in existance, and serves some 900 people, two-thirds
in the central Alabama area and the remainder from around the
nation, with many callers from continental Europe, the Caribbean
and South Africa. We currently provide an "echo" (an "echo" is a
network feed of information, which includes electronic mail and
file transfer) to affiliates in Albuquerque, New Mexico and
Baltimore, Maryland. With additional funding, we can provide
similar services to disability organizations across the country
through an 800 number and existing network facilities, effectively
linking the disability community together using existing technology
and equipment. Once the service is provided, we will also offer
training and assistance to the regional centers and other
disability organizations that want to more effectively use ADAnet.
In this environment, we can most effectively communicate
information about the Americans with Disabilities Act to all
disabled Americans, employers and disability organizations.
C. Proposal Abstract

    The goal of this proposal is to establish and maintain an
informational resource and communication vehicle for the disabled
community of the United States, to be known as ADAnet.  The goal
of ADAnet is to promote the exchange of information between the
various members of the disabled community, concerned branches of
the federal and state governments, and other relevant
organizations.

    ADAnet will allow members of the disabled community to share
coping strategies; success stories; current information regarding
adaptive technologies; information of applicable federal and state
legislation; location, areas of interest, and methods of contact
for other concerned organizations.

    ADAnet will generate certain by products, such as, a readily
accessable method of communication for widely dispersed agencies,
both federal, state, and private; more efficient utilization of
communication and other resources; and an increased sense of
well-being and enablement for the various individual members of the
disabled community as their horizon of contact with other people
is broadened.  ADAnet will be a method to reach out for help as
well as a method to reach out to help.  All will benefit by these
transactions.

    Additional funding will allow ADAnet to propogate information
relating to the Americans with Disabilities Act, provide adequate
training for disability centers to effectively and efficiently use
ADAnet, and will most effectively serve the needs of information
recipients by providing a method of structured communication on the
Americans with Disabilities Act.


D. Statement of Problem  (Objectives and Need for Assistance)

                Significance of problem or need

     Disabled people need information about new rights, adaptive
technology, accessibility and accommodation.  A computer network,
bringing together the nation's disabled,  to meet,  study,  and
solve their own problems in these areas is mandated under the
Americans with Disabilities Act. Employers may also benefit from
ADAnet, by having access to information about the Americans with
Disabilities Act, the nature of certain disabilities and
recommended accomodations, and at the same time have access to the
disabled community for their views and opinions on the most
effective methods of complying with the Americans with Disabilities
Act.

                        Descriptive Data

    ADAnet is a computer network, where information is shared
amongst all members of the network. Our plan for implementation
includes making ADAnet available nationally to all interested
persons. By planning to provide access to both individuals and
other organizations, ADAnet has produced a plan that will make
information about the Americans with Disabilities Act available to
a large target audience. With over 40 million telecommunication-
ready computers in the United States, a good part of which reside
in the American corporate structure, this service will be available
across a broad segment of our nation. Furthermore, since computer
prices have dropped drastically in the past decade, a facility can
become ADAnet-accessable for as little as $1000 (the cost of a new
computer, modem, monitor and printer; this cost would be much less,
as little as $75 ($75 is the cost of a computer modem), if the
facility or person already has a computer system). By using such
facilities in each of the proposed regional centers dealing with
the Americans with Disabilities Act, a great level of uniformity
and continuity of information may be assured, with minimal
duplication of efforts.

                       Literature Review

        Department of Interior Project

        Richard Clark, of Gateway Park in New York, has
successfully used microcomputers to network Department of Interior
employees using a system much like ADAnet. The use of computers in
this application was limited, and no substantial effort was made
to instruct users of the network in its operation and use. Mr.
Clark is planning to continue his efforts along these lines in the
future.

        Berkeley Telecommunications Network

        On a very limited scale, the Community Memory Project,
Inc., in Berkely developed a network which they have made publicly
accessible by placing terminals in various public places, such as
laundramats and other public facilities. Their approach features
a local area network style architecture promulgated over leased
telephone lines.

    ADAnet goes a couple steps further in making our service
available nationwide, by combining currently available phone
services and computer network services to cover the United States.

                     Alternative Approaches

    A print-media publication has no connectivity.  By this, we
mean that the recipient of printed material cannot generally get
further information not addressed in the printed publication. This
limitation is not applicable to ADAnet, as it functions in real
time, and offers extended ability to respond to a users questions.
In this capacity, ADAnet can provide instant feedback to the
disabled and non-disabled users of ADAnet.

    Duplication of effort is a problem that ADAnet also addresses.
It notifies the disability community of Southern California about
the activities of the disability community in New York, and also
includes rural areas of the country where such information might
not be available.

    Finally, minimal new skills are needed to interface with
ADAnet. The system will be designed with ease of use as a
fundamental priority.

E. Work Plan
                           Objectives

     To use existing technology and equipment to empower the
disabled through information exchange.  To facilitate communication
between various other groups and organizations who may also be
involved in the realm of providing information services to the
disabled.  To bring together these organizations in order to limit
duplication of effort and more efficiently manage existing
resources.  To effectuate the educational provisions of the
Americans with Disabilities Act.

               Work Methods, Tasks and Activities

     Organizational and systemic approach to technology management
will be required. Provision of technological information services
requires equipment and equipment maintenance, adequate training and
training facilities, and personnel to manage the implementation of
this plan.


                   Outcomes and Deliverables

     We can link the regional centers proposed under the ADA into
this network, connecting them with other disability organizations
as well as federal resources providing  services for the disabled.
                     Plan of Implementation

    Disabled people currently lack the power to assist each other
in establishing and maintaining independence in their daily lives.
Offering a communications network to the disabled, along with all
the ancillary programs (i.e. training, development, publicity) to
make such a network useful, will allow the disabled to network with
each other. Through such an innovative approach, a system can be
established that will no longer patronize the disabled, but offer
them a place in the broader community.

    Once realized, this communications system can provide services
to many disabled and non-disabled people. One very good way to find
out what the needs of the disabled community are is to ask them.
It is in this simple step that the disabled are most often
excluded. Our proposal shows a way that the disabled community can
be unified, and at the same time the needs of the individual can
be communicated most effectively. As the separate members of the
disabled community are brought together a broad-based support group
is formed.  Individuals can learn self reliance and self confidence
by sharing their separate experiences.  As each individual members
shares in the experiences of the whole, the members of the disabled
community will learn new strategies for coping and overcoming their
disabilities.  From the sharing of coping strategies among the
users of ADAnet, new and more effective coping strategies will be
formulated, enabling each individual to become more enabled, more
self-reliant.  When individuals are brought together in a sense of
community, whether a geographical community or an community of
electronically transmitted information, individuals are
strengthened, enabled.  As individuals learn to cooperate within
the community of their peers, they learn to cooperate and interact
within the larger community of their nation.

    Several projects will cluster and break away from the simple
concept I am proposing. Among these other projects, easier access
for the non-disabled to the disabled, advocacy and representation
within the disability community, the formation of an institute or
"brain trust" that can work toward developing answers to meet
disability concerns, and coordination of existing resources and
facilities to serve the needs of the disabled more efficiently. We
anticipate that new resources, such as alternate dispute resolution
councils, will be created from within the disabled community as the
members of the disabled community are brought together, as the
abilities of the disabled are made more widely known to each other
and to themselves.

    Both the Department of Interior and the President's Committee
on Employment of People with Disabilities have successfully used
computers and telecommunications to share information with the
general public. Richard Clark of Gateway Park in Brooklyn has used
a telecommunications network to share information between the
Department of Interior and its employees.  More recently the
President's Committee, through the Job Accommodation Network, has
successfully used the computer equipment and telecommunications
equipment of the West Virginia Center for Training and Research to
broadcast the news of the American's with Disabilities Act.  Even
George Bush has said"Computers are neat!"  (What was that story a
few months ago about the President learning to use his PC?)

    The statistics are grim.  Ten percent of all Americans are
disabled. Of these, most are either unemployed or underemployed.
[A system that has relied on paternalism has "protected" the
disabled to the extent that most are "protected" from everyday
life. Far from being an indictment of the system, we make note of
these paternalistic approaches in order to be wary of them in our
approach to delivering a useful and welcomed service to the
disabled.]  The disabled cannot be taught to cope with everyday
life by being protected from everyday life.  ADAnet can offer many
disabled people a method to network with others, disabled and non-
disabled people alike. By using a computer to conduct
communications, the disabled are no longer protected or different,
shielded from contact with the community at large, with the nation
they inhabit.  They can participate across a very broad range of
societal activities. Through the process of learning how to
interface with the network we have built, they will become
empowered with the knowledge of how to interface with other
networks and other people.  ADAnet will open the avenues of
possibility for the disabled, from the possibilities of
communications to the possibilities of employment, to the
possibilities and rewards that come with being vital participating
members, contributing members of their community and nation.

                 Organization and Management

    Management and organizational relationships are detailed in the
accompanying position chart.  Ultimately, however, the level of
activity and staffing required is dependent on the magnitude of
problems and need encountered.  At this stage, it is too early to
accurately determine what this will be. However, the suggested
approach provides a framework which is flexible and responsive to
changes in priorities and requirements of the recommended program.
This proposal represents a starting point for an innovative "best
effort" approach to resolving hard core issues of the need for wide
spread information dissemination and the concatenation of available
informational resources into a readily accessible, low cost
delivery system. The program and implementation plan is based on
a realistic assessment of current needs (educational) and political
expectations with regard to the Americans with Disabilities Act.
It is designed to strengthen and be supportive of the resources
currently in place (the local educational delivery process) and not
supplant or replace it.

F. Applicant and Contributor Qualifications and Capability
Organizational Performance Competence, Experience and resources.

    In order to participate within the ADAnet framework, a person
must have access to a computer equipped with a modem (at least 1200
bps speed), and appropriate communications software. A typical
configuration would be an IBM PC or compatible computer, with a
300 bps modem and Telix(tm), Bitcom or Procomm(tm) communications
software. ProComm 2.4.2 and Telix are shareware products available
without initial cost. The person then uses the computer to call the
ADAnet system, and may use any available node to connect to ADAnet.
Provision of an 800 number for access to ADAnet minimizes costs of
participation in the network.

    Interested disability organizations and data service providers
may access ADAnet in the same manner, however they will have the
option to capture and download all available new messages and files
for the benefit of their members or users of their data service,
as well as upload new messages they may have for distribution
across the network. Users of their data service may read and
respond directly to information shared via ADAnet, and their
responses will be added to the messages available for distribution
on the network. ADAnet serves an "echo" function in this regard,
making the combined efforts of many disability organizations
available to all.


Individual or Staff Qualifications, Experience and Competence

    Individuals wishing to access ADAnet may do so with minimal
training. A printed instruction booklet will be made available that
will explain the procedure for connecting to ADAnet, and the method
for sending and receiving echo-mail. Telephone support will also
be made available to individuals accessing ADAnet.

    Interested disability organizations or data service providers
must have these same skills, and must also establish an account
with ADAnet, so that electronic mail may be echoed to their data
service efficiently.


G. Evaluation and Measurement Plan

    Evaluation and measurement will be based on utilization of
system resources as a percentage of availability, along with number
of participating regional and local hubs, and the
amount of traffic moving over the ADAnet structure. Utilities
presently exist to measure this traffic, and generate reports for
accounting purposes.

               Part II - Cost and Pricing Data

A. Summary budget form

B. Detailed cost breakdowns and justifications

                     Part III - Appendix

A. Certifications and Representations

                      Part IV - Appendix

A. Job Descriptions for Disability Law Foundation

B. Resumes of Key Personnel