County Board of DD AT Survey - DD Council Grant

The AT & AEM Center will be conducting a survey of the County Boards of Developmental Disabilities to determine current AT practices and supports provided by the County Boards. This information will be used to help determine promising practices and barriers that impact the provision of AT services. This project has been funded by the Ohio Developmental Disabilities Council.

Project Goals:

  1. Build the awareness, knowledge and engagement of county boards of developmental disabilities for participation in a survey on AT supports and services.
  2. Conduct a survey of the 88 county boards of developmental disabilities focused on their current systems and supports for AT service delivery.
  3. Analyze the survey data from the 88 county boards of developmental disabilities and identify at least two boards that provide effective AT service delivery models and two boards that have not yet developed or are at an emerging developmental phase for AT service delivery.
  4. Develop a final report of all project findings including recommendations for improving local availability and use of AT.

Project Outcomes

The OCALI’s AT&AEM Center conducted a study of the 88 Ohio County Boards of Developmental Disabilities (CBDD) in order to gauge the system’s capacity for providing assistive technology (AT) services and supports. This mixed method study consisted of two parts, 1) a survey of the 88 CBDD’s current AT service delivery practices, and 2) interviews with five select CBDDs for the purpose of differentiating AT barriers and supports for high self-rated and low self-rated CBDDs. This data was gathered to ultimately make recommendations to inform current practices and potential policy changes that might improve the AT service delivery of CBDDs. This study demonstrated a clear need to develop and/or expand the AT capacity at many of the CBDDs particularly in the area of adult services. The full report of the study findings can be found here.

Project funding partner
Ohio Developmental Disabilities Council