The Center on Technology and Disability (CTD) is funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP). The Center is designed to increase the capacity of families and providers to advocate for, acquire, and implement effective assistive and instructional technology (AT/IT) practices, devices, and services. Research-based technologies, used appropriately, have great potential to help infants, toddlers, children, and youth with disabilities participate fully in daily routines; have increased access to the general educational curriculum; improve their functional outcomes and educational results; and meet college- and career-ready standards.CTD serves diverse audiences, including families, teachers, administrators, researchers, service providers, personnel preparation programs, family information and training centers, community resource centers, product developers and vendors, and other relevant programs. We work collaboratively with organizations throughout the country in strengthening their ability to provide high quality, current, and useful resources on assistive and instructional technology tools and strategies.
CTD has established a robust online Open Institute, through which we provide information resources, personal and professional development (PPD) activities, and universal and targeted technical assistance. The Institute comprises a Library of multi-media, multi-lingual resources; a Café that offers both topical and audience-specific discussions; and a Learning Center that makes available leading experts in the field. The Learning Center provides structured learning modules, short-term and long-term PPD events, and technical assistance tools and strategies.
CTD is administered by FHI 360, American Institutes for Research (AIR), PACER Center, and Adirondack Accessibility. Additional partners include: Amdee, Evergreen Associates, Bridge Multimedia, and Dicapta. The project director is Jacqueline Hess and the OSEP Project Officers are Carmen Sanchez and Terry Jackson. Information about the members of CTD's Stakeholder Board and Institute Faculty can be found in other sections of "About Us".