Project APT is jointly sponsored by the Division of Student Affairs, Career Services, the Office for Campus Access, the Department of Rehabilitation, and the Rehabilitation Research and Training Center at the University of Arkansas. The purpose of Project APT is to involve students with disabilities in a developmental sequence of services designed to improve their capabilities to successfully transfer technology from academic to employment settings.

Students must achieve multiple goals in the process of accommodations planning training. They must learn how to identify technology that reduces the impact of disability-related limitations on work performance, how to request accommodations in an asssertive manner in classroom and work settings, how to refine their understanding of the technology they need by experimentation in the workplace, and how to prepare a technology transfer and placement plan.

Each of these objectives is addressed in the continuum of accommodations planning training services provided by Project APT. To meet the objectives of Project APT, staff will conduct an intensive technology transfer survey with 30 past University of Arkansas graduates with disabilities.

Based on findings from the survey, staff will design strategies to achieve the primary service objectives of the grant for 120 currently enrolled students with disabilities.

Project APT activities include developing modules for a technology awareness class; demonstrating a self-advocacy strategy for meeting one's own accommodation needs; involving students and local employers in a work experience/mentoring program that enables both to learn about the practical aspects of selecting and using technology in the workplace; conducting technology transfer team seminars in which students with disabilities who are employment-ready receive assistance with technology transfer and placement planning from employers, rehabilitation professionals, and technology specialists; and offering individualized placement, technology transfer, and job accommodation analysis services on an as-needed basis for students and employers.

Although designed to offer students a sequential accommodations planning training program, Project APT will serve all interested students with disabilities at whatever point on the continuum they have needs. For example, during the first and second years of the project, upper division students will move directly into the work experrience and mentoring interventions and the technology transfer team seminars. Lower division students with disabilities will receive initial services such as the technology awareness class and self-advocacy training and have the opportunity to progress through the entire process of accommodations planning.

As a result of participation in grant activities, students will a.) gain knowledge of different types of technology, b.) understand how to request that technology in an appropriate manner, c.) obtain direct work experience with different types of technology, d.) know how to explain how the technology increases their productivity, and e.) know how to monitor the satisfactoriness of technological solutions in the work setting.