Contact: Maridith Geuder
An agency in Leflore County providing work for people with developmental disabilities soon will be the site of tests to discover how technology may improve the employability of its clients.
The Life Help Industries Work Activity Center in Greenwood will be host to a pilot project administered by Mississippi State University's T.K. Martin Center for Technology and Disability. With assistance from the state Department of Mental Health, MSU researchers will develop ways to provide job accommodations for persons with mental impairments.
The Mississippi Developmental Council is funding the project.
"The goal of the state's mental health agency is to move folks from sheltered workshops into the next level of employment," said Martin Center director Harry F. (Bud) Rizer. "The goal of the Martin Center will be to help improve the clients' abilities to move into and function in a more structured and competitive environment."
Established in 1996 with primary funding from the state Department of Rehabilitation Services, the T.K. Martin Center serves clients throughout Mississippi with physical or cognitive impairments. "We are accommodation specialists," Rizer said.
The center is named for the late MSU vice president generally credited with leading the effort to greatly expand handicapped accessibility on the Starkville campus.
Using existing and new technologies, the Martin Center works to match its clients with home and job accommodations. These include adaptive computer access programs, seating and mobility equipment, and vans and other vehicles tailored to a client's needs.
The Greenwood work activity center is one of several such operations in the state. In the upcoming study, researchers will focus on five-person groups over a three-year period. Rizer said they plan to analyze work tasks and environments to discover ways that the tasks can be customized to meet specific physical and cognitive characteristics.
To illustrate his point, Rizer used the example of a measuring scale.
"While a scale measures weight, it doesn't tell in a particular work task when a required weight has been reached," he explained. "However, a system that provides an alarm to signal when the desired weight is reached would remove a barrier to someone with a cognitive disability who otherwise cannot judge information provided by the scale."
The research team will analyze a variety of tasks performed at the center, including sorting, assembly and packaging of products ranging from screws to fishing lures.
"Different people do different parts of a task, so our goal will be to replace with automation those parts of the task requiring cognition," he said. The accommodations then can be replicated for other clients, he added.
"Through this research, we want to find ways for people to do higher-functioning cognitive tasks that help them expand their employment opportunities," Rizer said.