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Welcome to the Department of Defense
Computer/Electronic Accommodations Program webinar
entitled Real Solutions for Real Needs.
This webinar is about the
Computer/Electronic Accommodations Program,
better known as CAP.
CAP provides reasonable accommodations to
federal employees and wounded Service
members quickly and easily, increasing
employment and retention of employees
with disabilities.
CAP was established in 1990 as a centrally
funded reasonable accommodations program
for employees with disabilities in the
Department of Defense.
Following the National Defense
Authorization Act of 2000, Congress
granted CAP the authority to provide
assistive technology, devices and support
services, free of charge to federal
employees that have a partnership
agreement with CAP.
Currently, CAP has partnership agreements
with 68 federal agencies within the
Executive branch.
In October of 2006, Congress passed
legislation providing the authority for
members of the Armed Forces who are
provided assistive technology by CAP to
retain that technology upon separation
from active duty service.
Today, CAP has partnerships with 53
military treatment facilities around the world.
Our mission at CAP is to ensure that
people with disabilities and wounded
Service members have equal access to the
information environment, and
opportunities in the Department of
Defense and throughout the federal government.
By fulfilling this mission, CAP is
helping make the federal government the
model employer for people with disabilities.
Who are CAP customers?
CAP provides assistive technology and
support services to individuals with
disabilities and wounded Service members.
These include individuals that are blind,
have vision impairments, deaf, hearing
impaired, or with a dexterity,
communication, cognitive, or learning disability.
CAP increases access to information and
works to remove barriers to employment
opportunities by eliminating the costs of
the assistive technology and
accommodation solutions.
So beyond federal employees with
disabilities, CAP also works closely with
federal hiring managers.
In this regard, with federal hiring
managers, supervisors and the IT
professionals that support us all, CAP
engages these communities who are all
involved in the recruitment, placement,
promotion, and retention of people with
disabilities or wounded Service members.
Now, many federal employees also develop
disabling conditions later in life.
Perhaps as part of the aging process.
Others may be involved in an accident, or
receive a medical diagnosis, such as
cancer, that will impact their ability to work.
CAP works to accommodate these employees
who may not be as familiar with assistive
technology, and we help them find
potential technology that is available to
them that would help them in the return
to work process.
Speaking of return to work, CAP also
works with federal employees who are
returning from a workers' compensation injury.
CAP encourages workers' compensation
claimants who are injured on the job to
consider utilization of assistive
technology in return to work.
Many of those employees may first return
to work via Telework.
CAP also helps accommodate teleworkers
with disabilities, whether they are a
workers' compensation claimant or an
individual who uses Telework as a form of
reasonable accommodation.
And lastly, as I mentioned earlier, CAP
supports returning wounded Service
members by providing them assistive
technology during recovery and rehabilitation
while they remain on active duty status.
CAP Services: First and foremost, CAP
provides assistive technology and
training. We want to make sure that we're
providing assistive technology
accommodations to ensure that people with
disabilities and wounded Service members
have equal access in the workplace.
If employees or Service members are not
familiar with assistive technology
that is available, we'll provide them a
needs assessment.
Specifically, CAP uses a three step
approach to a needs assessment process.
We look at the job, the individual, and
the solutions.
This three step process has served
thousands of individuals across the
government in finding assistive
technology that helps them stay on the
job, and stay productive as part of
today's federal work force.
CAP also provides training on disability management,
and on creating an accessible environment.
And finally, CAP supports the compliance
with federal regulations for agencies,
specifically supporting the various
sections of the Rehabilitation Act of
1973, as amended.
Now, let's look at assistive technology.
CAP has broken down assistive technology
into several categories.
I'm going to go through each one.
First, for individuals with dexterity
disabilities, CAP provides such
accommodations as alternative keyboards,
alternative input devices and voice
recognition software.
Next, for individuals with vision
impairments, CAP provides screen readers,
Braille terminals, magnification software
and closed circuit televisions, or CCTVs.
If individuals have lost some vision,
magnification software, or CCTVs, help
magnify the electronic and printed
materials, while screen readers provide
speech output for an individual who has
no vision, or Braille terminal provides
refreshable Braille for an individual who is
blind and knows Braille.
Next, for individuals with hearing loss,
assistive technology includes assistive
listening devices, TTYs, video phones,
and captioning services.
Next, for individuals with cognitive
disabilities, including traumatic brain
injuries, CAP provides cueing and memory
aids, literacy software, screen
readers, and assistive listening devices.
These tools have been helpful in
accommodating wounded Service members as
they have come back from theater.
Finally, CAP looks at embedded technology.
At times, there are devices that are
embedded in mainstream technology that
suit the individual's needs.
Such items as magnifiers, text to speech
narrators, and onscreen keyboards are
available at no cost and are already on a
individual's work station.
CAP will assist an individual in
discovering what assistive technology
they can get through CAP, and what might
also be available to them as embedded technology.
Turning to the next slide, the CAP
Accommodations Profile by Disability, this
provides a pie chart that highlights the
over 130,000 accommodations CAP has
provided since its inception in 1990.
The first year of activity, FY90, CAP
provided 1,372 accommodations.
As the chart shows, there's dramatic
increase in the annual activity and the
types of accommodations provided.
In FY01, there is a gradual increase in
overall accommodations related to the
expansion of CAP services to non-DoD
agencies. In that year, CAP provided
over 4,400 accommodations.
And yet again in Fiscal Year '07, there's
an increase to 8,775 accommodations as
CAP began a serious expansion of services in
support of our wounded Service members.
In Fiscal Year '11, CAP provided over 12,600
accommodations, the most ever accommodations
in a single year, and in this year, Fiscal Year '14,
CAP has provided over 2,300 accommodations to date.
This activity shows you that CAP has the
experience of providing over 130,000
accommodations for people with
disabilities, including workers'
compensation claimants and wounded
Service members around the world.
One of the best ways to learn about
assistive technology is to visit a
technology evaluation center.
CAP has CAPTEC, the CAP Technology
Evaluation Center, located in the Pentagon.
CAPTEC is a facility dedicated to the
demonstration of a variety of assistive
technology solutions.
This enables individuals and supervisors
to visit, to see demonstrations, to
receive needs assessments, to help in the
selection process of appropriate computer
and electronic accommodations.
At CAPTEC, staff is available to work
with you to select the most appropriate
assistive technology.
CAPTEC also hosts tours to increase
awareness of assistive technology solutions.
Individuals can visit in person, or can visit
through video teleconference for a
virtual tour.
Located in the Pentagon, CAPTEC may be
reached reached by calling 703-693-5160
or through TTY at 703-693-6189.
You may also email CAPTEC at cap.captec@mail.mil.
CAPTEC operates Monday through Thursday,
8:00 A.M. to 4:00 P.M., and on
Fridays, via appointment.
CAP also has several employment and
accessible initiatives, one of which we'd
like to highlight today. The CAP Public
Access and Communication initiative, or
PAC, provides assistive technology to
increase access to federal programs and
services for members of the general
public with disabilities.
Specifically, we'd like to highlight
three location or service centers that CAP
can assist with.
Assistive technology at these locations
impacts access for citizens with
disabilities, or other recipients of
federal services.
Customers service centers such as
passport offices, parks or forest
stations, and other services accessed by
civilians for government service, are
available for PAC accommodations.
Furthermore, federal technology centers
that integrate assistive technology for
demonstration, needs assessments or
testing purposes, are eligible.
And finally, federal employment and
training centers, these locations help
ensure access throughout the recruitment
and employment experience.
So if employees or applicants with
disabilities are seeking federal
employment, they have equal access to
the programs and program information.
More information about the CAP PAC
initiative is available on the website,
which we will explore shortly.
Next, CAP offers on demand online
training sessions.
This very popular series has a variety of
online trainings that are accessed by
nearly one thousand individuals each month.
The online sessions last approximately
four minutes, and cover a variety of topics.
We have specific reasonable accommodation
sessions for people with hearing
disabilities, people with cognitive
disabilities, and people with dexterity disabilities.
Furthermore, we have two general sessions
providing reasonable accommodation
solutions and increasing federal
employment of people with disabilities.
We recommend you visit the CAP.mil website
and access the online trainings.
Several agencies, as our partners, have
required these as training for their
employees to increase awareness of
assistive technology for employees, and
of the CAP partnership.
As I mentioned, the CAP website,
www.CAP.mil, is our central location for
news, information, resources, and all of
CAP's online business processes.
You can visits the CAP website to do just
about everything that I've mentioned in
this webinar. You can discover CAP's scope and
agency eligibility under the CAP customer
section. You can browse assistive technology
under the accommodations solutions page.
You can learn more about our employment
and accessibility initiatives, such as
PAC, or workers' compensation, or
Telework, under our programs page.
You can access program materials, or
assistive technology videos, watch
customer testimonials, and access our
popular training videos through our
training and outreach section, and
importantly, you can choose to stay connected
with CAP via our e-mail list, or liking our Facebook
page or following CAP on Twitter.
At our website, you can visit our Stay
Connected page and choose the method
that you like to receive CAP information
and news, and to stay updated on our
services and related resources.
This ends today's webinar.
Thank you for viewing the CAP webinar, for
Real Solutions for Real Needs.
For any questions about CAP's webinar
series, please contact CAP at
703-614-8416 or e-mail us at CAP@mail.mil.
Thank you, and have a good day.