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PRACTICAL FUNDING FOR ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY: GETTING THE DEVICE YOU REALLY NEED

Diane C. Smith, Staff Attorney
Michigan Protection and Advocacy Service
106 West Allegan, Suite 300
Lansing, MI 48933-1706
Voice/T.D.D./ Voice Mail (517)487-1755, Ext. 655
Fax (517)487-0827

Carolyn Fowler, Advocate
Michigan Protection and Advocacy Service
106 West Allegan, Suite 300
Lansing, MI 48933-1706
Voice/T.D.D./ Voice Mail (517)487-1755, Ext. 660
Fax (517)487-0827

Web Posted on: December 12, 1997


Two essential elements of a successful quest for assistive technology funding are knowledge of the available resources and self-advocacy skills. Neither element is more important than the other. No matter how much money is available to purchase the device you need, it is worthless if you cannot obtain it. There is funding available for almost everyone who has a real need for assistive technology if he or she knows where to look for it. In this paper, we will concentrate on a five step process to obtain funding for assistive technology. A list of potential funding sources will be provided at the training. The handout will also outline the various application requirements and processes for each funding source.

The most common sources for assistive technology funding are, 1. Medicaid, 2. school districts, 3. vocational rehabilitation programs, 4. Medicare, 5. Medicaid Waivers, or 6. SSI/SSD. These sources are all governmental and the method we will describe below is most appropriate when you are requesting funding from an agency legally bound to provide funding to people who meet certain eligibility requirements. This method may not be appropriate if you are approaching a private funding source which selects certain individuals for funding or loans based on its own internal selection criteria.

Funding roadblocks are common because the systems are difficult to negotiate. It is certainly not a reflection on the applicant if he or she has been unsuccessful in obtaining funding. The most common funding roadblocks that we have encountered are caused by,

  • 1. the applicant provided inadequate eligibility information in the application process;
  • 2. the applicant or agency personnel lack knowledge of the applicant's legal rights;
  • 3. the applicant or agency personnel lack knowledge about the eligibility requirements or the application process;
  • 4. the agency does not wish to release the funds and is purposely making it difficult for the applicant;
  • 5. applicants have inadequate legal protection;
  • 6. the appeal mechanism is faulty; or,
  • 7. any combination of the above.

There are five steps to effective self advocacy. However, before any of these steps will be successful, you must be willing to be a self advocate and make the changes in attitude that are sometimes necessary to achieve this status. Changing your attitude about asking for things and changing your relationship with agency personnel is very hard. It is especially difficult when you are asking that the agency spend a great deal of money or when you have been working with that agency for a long time and are very dependent on it. Parents who were comfortable (and successful) asking for speech therapy for their child may suddenly freeze up when they have to ask the school district for $7,000 for an augmentative communication device. They may have very reasonable fears of retribution and relationship breakdown with school staff and may feel guilty asking for so much for one child. Recognizing these fears as valid is a vital first step. However, it is essential to get past them in order to effectively advocate and the best way to do that is to become knowledgeable about your rights.

STEP ONE of the five steps to successful funding is PROBLEM DEFINITION. In most cases this step is fairly simple. You must determine the item or service to be funded and the potential funding source(s). If a funding request has already been rejected by a funding source, the problem is to determine how to appeal this decision and win.

Once the problem is defined, STEP TWO is INFORMATION GATHERING, where you gather the information necessary to solve the problem. This step can take time and be overwhelming. To prevent becoming overwhelmed, it may be helpful to break the problem down into categories and attack each category separately. Some categories to consider are,

  • 1. the names of the responsible agencies,
  • 2. a list of the client's rights and responsibilities, as well as eligibility criteria,
  • 3. the agency's internal and external appeal procedures and its chain of command,
  • 4. the laws and regulations that apply to that agency and,
  • 5. the client's individual case file if already a client of the agency.

All of the agency information should be available to the public upon written request, including the rights and responsibilities, eligibility criteria, chain of command, and appeal procedures. A client's personal file should be available upon his or her signed request. Disability rights organizations or other non-profit agencies may be able to assist in determining which agencies to target, and public libraries often have collections which contain federal and state laws and regulations. A disability rights organization may also assist in determining which laws or regulations apply.

STEP 3 is KEEPING AND ORGANIZING PERSONAL RECORDS. At the same time you are gathering information, you can also be organizing personal records. A useful approach is to pull together all of the notes and papers from the agency in question. Put all of the information about the assistive technology device or service you are currently requesting funding for in one folder. Get a notebook to store notes and keep it together with the records and newly gathered information. Write notes in a log as each conversation with agency personnel occurs, or as soon afterward as possible. Be sure to include the date, time, name, and title of every person with whom you have had a conversation about the case and put it in chronolocigal order in the notebook. Do not be embarrassed to ask the name of the person who is speaking to you. When the file is complete, make sure it is small enough that something can be found quickly if needed, because this may be necessary at a later meeting or hearing. Three ring binders with tabs are helpful if there is a lot of information.

Telephone conversations should not be discounted as less important than meetings or correspondence. Although they are much more difficult to prove later than written correspondence, a great deal of important advocacy is done over the telephone. A good way to solve this problem is to write a follow up letter to the person you spoke with after an important phone call. Relate in this letter your understanding of what was discussed, using details and being careful not to assume facts or what the other person was thinking. Include a line in the letter that asks the recipient to respond by a certain date (within 10 days)if the contents of the letter are not the same as his or her understanding of the conversation. If the person does not respond, he or she has implicitly agreed with your interpretation of the conversation.

Once armed with information, you are ready for STEP 4, ACTION PLANNING. Based on the agency's policies about application or appeal (whichever is applicable in your case), write out a step by step plan of attack and keep it with your files about this case. For example, a plan in a special education case might be to, 1. call the child's teacher and medical providers to discuss the need for an evaluation for assistive technology; 2. write the school principal and request an Individualized Educational Planning Committee meeting (I.E.P.C.); and 3. request an assistive technology evaluation at the I.E.P.C. meeting. Whatever your plan, it should include backups, such as what to do if the school district refuses to provide an evaluation. Be sure to include any relevant time deadlines within your plan. For instance, some agencies require that a hearing request occur within a certain time period.

It is very important when creating an action plan to be aware of your own personal limits. Frequently, certain matters are handled by professionals, such as assistive technology evaluations or court appearances and it is perfectly acceptable to use these professionals. Also, you may be aware that you will be unable to handle certain parts of the plan yourself. For instance, you may know that you will be too upset to discuss certain matters with certain agency personnel and would be more successful if you asked someone else to do this part of the plan for you. If either of these situations are true in your case, you should include searching for these professionals or support people as part of your action plan.

STEP 5 is to ACT ON YOUR PLAN. Once you are armed with the necessary information, it is much easier to assertively state your needs. Remember to avoid letting assertiveness become aggressiveness and to document every conversation in your log. When meeting with agency personnel, it is important not to get distracted by past issues with the agency and to keep an eye on the goal you seek. Use whatever past facts are truly important to the case at hand, but do not waste precious time and energy recounting agency personnel's past wrongs if they do not relate directly to this case. This is sometimes more difficult to avoid than it seems, but recounting unrelated past wrongs will not assist you in winning your case, regardless of how gratifying it may be. You may need to decide prior to a meeting or hearing whether it is more important to get funding for the device or service or to have an opportunity to have your say.

STEP 6, FOLLOW UP, is perhaps the most important step of all. Once you have an agreement by the agency that it will provide the needed funding, you must make certain that you have a way to prove that an agreement exists. Try to have a disinterested witness available that you can call upon if the agency does not follow through as planned. It is best if you have the agreement in writing on an agency form or letterhead, but sometimes this is not possible. If not possible, you can write a follow up letter. Make sure that you have a deadline by which you will receive the funding, the name of a person responsible for providing the funding, and a plan for how you will receive the funding in its actual form (ie: check, voucher, etc.). Then, hold the agency to the agreement. You will be in a weaker position if you later have to appeal the failure of the agreement if you have let the deadline slide by without following up, or without upholding your part of the agreement, regardless of how small that part is. Do not be afraid to call the responsible party once the deadline has passed. It is absolutely true that a person who makes his or her needs known to agency personnel is more likely to be successful, even if unpopular.

These five steps do not guarantee that you will get the funding you seek the first time you request it, but the better armed you are with records and information, the more prepared you will be for each stage of the advocacy process.

"Don't Get Mad, Get Powerful, A Manual for Building Advocacy Skills," (1986), Mary L. Hines, Michigan Protection and Advocacy Service, Inc., Lansing, MI.