This Internet Guide came about to fill a personal need. Since the mid-sixties, Wally and Elaine Hackett have spent a great deal of time tracking down information about disabilities. They had a daughter who was born with a disABILITY. Their basic needs were always the same as everybody else's needs - shelter, food, transportation, education, recreation, employment, medical services, and support. The differences were in the way the needs were addressed. Nothing ever seemed to be simple and direct. There was always a hurdle to jump over, some higher than others. It was next to impossible to find disABILITY-related information in one central area.
When personal computers came into being in the early eighties, the Hacketts dreamed of having a central databank of information that would contain disABILITY-related information addressing the basic needs of parents of children with disABILITIES and adults with disABILITIES.
YES, children with disABILITIES grow up to be adults with disABILITIES.
And, in their dream, were kids with disABILITIES learning, in school, how to access and effectively use a computer. These same kids were in constant contact with a computer if it served as an "electronic prosthetic". Some of these children would be developing computer skills that would prepare them for the workplace after graduating from high school, trade school or college. And some of these children would keep this central databank running smoothly. Adults with disABILITIES would design and develop the central databank and start turning the dream into reality.
It's taken a number of years for that initial thought of a databank of information to become close to reality. But, it can really happen now - a "virtual" databank of information exists on the Internet. A tremendous amount of computing power is available to anybody that has access to it.
This internet guide is a guide to this databank that the Hacketts dreamed about. But, no one person is able to compile this guide alone.
The guide is dynamic. The Internet is dynamic. The guide will have many contributors. The staff will telecommute, working from their home-based offices. The makeup of our staff will be quite diverse. and eventually will telecommute from all over the world.
The Internet is wild and wooly, loaded with so much information, but not one table of contents, index or atlas. How do you know where to go?
This Internet Guide has a focus. The focus is to address the basic needs of persons with disABILITIES, their parents and relatives, care givers, and other support personnel. The content is global, but the quest is to be "local," fulfilling basic needs of users. The locale of the Guide is Greater Cincinnati, with plans to venture into other "locales" with the help of you, the traveler and adventurer. [BACK to front page]