WASHINGTON, DC, February 15, 2002 ¾ The Mitsubishi Electric America Foundation today announced $276,000 in national "Starfish" grants to 11 projects serving young people with disabilities across the United States. An additional $200,000 will be given in matching grants and matching gifts to organizations selected by Mitsubishi Electric & Electronics USA employees in the communities where they live and work.
The Mitsubishi Electric America Foundation is dedicated to helping young people with disabilities, through technology, to maximize their potential and fully participate in society.
In carrying out this mission, the Foundation provides three types of grants: Starfish Grants for programs of national scope and impact, or for model projects that can be replicated at multiple sites; matching grants that supplement cash, products and employee volunteer time donated Mitsubishi Electric & Electronics USA employees in their communities; and matching gifts (called Starfish Matches) that match individual employee donations to charitable organizations.
The new grants include the Universal Learning Center, which provides digital curriculum materials to teachers and parents of children with disabilities, and a Congressional internship program for college students with disabilities.
A number of the grants continue support for ongoing projects focused on the application of emerging technologies to the needs of young people with disabilities. One grant will support the third year of a project at Gallaudet University that is piloting the extensive use of visual technologies in teaching deaf students. Another provides a second year of funding for the Pitt Crew Robot Project conducted by the Tech-Link Program in Pittsburgh, which helps high school students with disabilities to develop high-level design and engineering skills. And, reflecting the commitment of the Mitsubishi Electric America Foundation and Mitsubishi Electric to expand access to the wired world, a Starfish Grant will support Accessibility Internet Rallies in partnership with the Austin-based Knowbility organization. [A summary of the 11 grants follows.]
"People with disabilities face a double ‘digital divide’ in that they need technology that is not only accessible but usable," says Rayna Aylward, executive director of the Mitsubishi Electric America Foundation. "It is our goal to help young people with disabilities learn about and be able to use all appropriate technologies, so that they don’t get left behind on the wrong side of that divide."
The Mitsubishi Electric America Foundation, based in the Washington, DC area, was established in February 1991 by Mitsubishi Electric Corporation of Japan and the Mitsubishi Electric U.S. companies, which produce, sell and distribute a wide range of consumer, industrial, commercial and professional electronics products. With a current endowment of $20 million, the Foundation has contributed nearly $5 million to organizations assisting young Americans with disabilities to lead fuller and more productive lives.
For more information, please visit the Mitsubishi Electric America Foundation website
at www.meaf.org.
American Association of People with Disabilities (one-year grant) $40,000
The grant will enable Washington, DC-based AAPD to initiate a Congressional internship program, focusing on technology policy, for college students with disabilities.
American Foundation for the Blind (second year of two-year grant) $25,000
With sites in New York City, Chicago, Atlanta, and San Francisco, this project places blind or visually impaired high school students as interns in AFB's Product Evaluation Laboratory.
Center for Applied Special Technology (one-year grant) $20,000
This grant helps support CAST, based outside of Boston, MA, in piloting the Universal Learning Center, which provides digital curriculum materials to teachers and parents of students with disabilities.
Digital Clubhouse Network (one-year grant) $15,000
Grant funds will assist DCN in organizational capacity-building as it consolidates its programs in New York and California that train students with disabilities in multimedia skills and video production.
Gallaudet University (third year of three-year grant) $20,000
The TecEds (Technology in Education Can Empower Deaf Students) is a national program, based in Washington DC, to train K-12 teachers of deaf and hard-of-hearing student in the classroom use of visual technologies.
Girl Scouts of the Nation’s Capital (third year of three-year grant) $21,250
Starfish Troops -- which was piloted in Washington, D.C. and is expanding to Rhode Island and Michigan -- offers girls in hospitals, rehabilitation centers and long-term care facilities the chance to participate in Scouting , with an emphasis on earning badges in math, technology and science.
Hearing Impaired Press (second year of two-year grant) $40,000
HiP Chat Pals, an Internet "chat" program for deaf and hard-of-hearing children designed to improve reading and writing skills that was launched in California, is being expanded to reach students nationwide.
Knowbility (second year of two-year grant) $25,000
Grant funds assist Austin-based Knowbility in expanding nation-wide participation in the Accessibility Internet Rallies(AIR), a project bringing together information technology (IT) trainers, web designers and young people with disabilities to develop accessible websites for nonprofits.
Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic (second year of two-year grant) $25,000
This grant supports Digital Talking Books, a multiyear project to research, design, test and distribute audio books in digital CD-ROM format. RFB&D, headquartered in Princeton, NJ, is piloting this project in five cities nationwide.
TECH-LINK (third year of three-year grant) $25,000
This grant supports the Robot Academy, a model program initiated in Pittsburgh, that trains teams of students with and without disabilities to design and build robots, and in the process, to develop high-level technology skills.
University of Southern Maine (second year of two-year grant) $20,000
Grant funds enable Biotechnology Works, a program that supports students with disabilities in the study of immunology and genetics, to provide year-round ongoing electronic mentoring and networking, offer an online virtual resource center, and host student participant reunions.
For More Information:
Ms. Rayna Aylward
Mitsubishi Electric America Foundation
Phone: 703.276.8240
Email: rayna.aylward@meus.mea.com
