Assistive Technology Industry Association Elects AT and IT Leaders From Diverse Market Segments to Its Board of Directors

The Assistive Technology Industry Association (ATIA) played host to a record setting number of attendees during its 9th annual conference held January 30 - February 2 in Orlando, Florida. During the conference, members of the association elected four new members and welcomed one returning member to the ATIA Board of Directors. The board is responsible for supporting ATIA in becoming a global leader known for raising awareness and providing education about assistive technology-related solutions to consumers, practioners, governments, private industry and educational institutions. Joining the ATIA board in 2008 is Jacquie Clark, Founder and President of News-2-You, a weekly online newspaper for beginning readers and individuals with special needs in the k-12 market. Jacquie worked as a speech pathologist for more than 20 years before launching News-2-You in 1997.

The ATIA board is excited to welcome Jason Curry, Co-Founder and CEO of sComm Inc., as the first board member to represent the deaf and hard of hearing community, an area of expansion and future support for ATIA. sComm was built around the development of the UbiDuo, a wireless device that allows the deaf and hard of hearing to communicate with anyone, anywhere.

ATIA is proud to announce the election of Hewlett-Packard's Michael Takemura to its board. Takemura is the director of HP's Accessibility Program Office, the company's worldwide accessibility initiative, which is making products, information and services easier to access and simpler to use for people with disabilities and age-related limitations.

The ATIA board also elected Paul Thompson, Sales Director for Dolphin Computer Access Inc., a global company dedicated to delivering software solutions for people with visual impairments. Paul brings a global presence to the board as he leads worldwide initiatives for Dolphin. Global expansion is a key growth area for the association and the entire industry.

The ATIA board also welcomed the return of Frances W. West by election. Frances is Director of Worldwide Accessibility for the IBM Human Ability and Accessibility Center, and will continue her efforts in connecting ATIA with research and technology groups, international accessibility initiatives as well as participating in strategic corporate accessibility events such as the ATIA Leadership Forum.

The newly elected board members join six other board members, making a well-balanced board across the diverse AT market segments including: Alternative Augmentative Communication (AAC), Blindness, Cognitive Disabilities, Learning Disabilities (LD), Low Vision (LV), and Physical Disabilities. For a full list of ATIA Board Members, go to: http://www.atia.org.

"I look forward to working with our new board and ATIA's membership to pursue our strategic goals of building global awareness for assistive technology, running a financially sound association and pursuing advocacy that improves the lives of people with disabilities through the successful efforts of our growing number of member companies and agencies," said President of the Board of Directors, Jim Halliday, President Emeritus of HumanWare.

"The outstanding growth of our annual conference has lead to continued increase in visibility for our members, and important knowledge-sharing opportunities for our many conference attendees," said David Dikter, Executive Director of ATIA. "Blending new board members with current board members allows for expanded geographical representation, as well as expansion into new markets segments, like the deaf and hard of hearing community -- a community we are proud to be to supporting. I am already looking forward to our conference in 2009."

For more information about becoming a member of Assistive Technology Industry Association, visit www.atia.org.

Click here for a complete recap of the ATIA 2008 Conference.