William A. Peterson,
MS
Born: June 29, 1953 - San Diego,
CA
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Entry into the AT field:
1982
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How I got into the
field
I suffered a spinal cord injury
and while spending almost four months in an acute rehab facility it became
painfully obvious to me that they needed someone with technical expertise to
work alongside the clinicians to solve individual technology needs. Before my
injury, I worked twelve years in the construction field. Knowing I would not be
able to go back to doing the same type of work, I focused my efforts on school
and designing technologies that could be used around the home. I received a BS
and MS in Biomedical Engineering from Arizona State University and then moved
east to Washington, DC where I went to work for the National Rehabilitation
Hospital as a rehabilitation engineer.
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Important event(s) that influenced
my early decision to get into the assistive technology field
As stated above, it was my experiences in acute
rehab that drove me to this profession. I was exposed to a very diverse group
of people from different walks of life, with different functional abilities,
and different yet similar dreams. There were high quads, paras, people with
traumatic brain injuries, and stroke survivors. There were three young men (1
quad and 2 paras) who were straight off different Indian reservations (Apache
and Navaho) and having to contend with cultural bias along with their
disability. And there was this thirteen year old boy, Greg, who unfortunately
took his mothers car for a spin, crashed the car, and ended up a high para. I
watched all of us struggle as we tried to bring some sort of normalcy to our
lives while at the same time trying to make sense of it all. Technology played
an important part in all of our lives during those early days in rehab but at
the same time it became terribly obvious that there was a tremendous need for
new lines of assistive and rehabilitative technologies.
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Why I chose the AT
field
I wanted to make a difference
in the lives of the people I met in rehab, both clinicians and patients, as
well as my own.
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My inspiration and
mentor
I gained most of my
inspiration from the people I rehabbed with and clinicians who worked so hard
to ensure that each and every one of us regained as much functional capability
as possible and thus helping to improve the quality of our lives.
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Why the field is important to me
and the central focus of my work
This
is answered above.
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My memorable successes and
greatest contributions to the field
My greatest contributions to the field of
rehabilitation engineering came from my position at the National Institute on
Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR) where I managed the agency's
Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center (RERC) program. During that time,
the RERC program was recognized by President Bush in his New Freedom Initiative
as a "program worthy of expanding". Subsequently the program grew from 15 RERCs
to 22 and the program budget increased from $11 million to $20 million per
year. I was successful at introducing new RERC topics including
Telerehabilitation, Accessible Medical Instrumentation, Accessible Public
Transportation, Cognitive Technologies, Recreational Technologies for People
with Disabilities, Wheelchair Transportation Safety, Spinal Cord Injury, and
Mobile Wireless Technologies. I was also instrumental in the creation of RERC
Row at RESNA to showcase the RERC program's research and development activities
and to provide a window into tomorrow's technology. The RERC Row has been
extremely successful and is always one of the most visited areas at RESNA's
annual conference.
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Significant changes and advances
in the field since I first entered it
When I first came into this field there were far
fewer commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) products available to clinicians so it
was up to rehab engineers and other rehab professionals to design, tweak,
modify, or custom build assistive technology products that would meet the needs
of their clients. Today, there are a wealth of products to choose from reducing
dramatically the need for customized products. However, matching the right
technology with the user is still paramount and may require adjustments or
minor modifications to ensure that the product fully meets the needs of the
user.
One of the single greatest advancements
in the world of assistive technology is the computer chip and it has truly
revolutionized the AT industry. Word prediction, voice recognition, speech
synthesizers, augmentative communication devices, optical character
recognition, environmental control systems, and cognitive prosthetics are but a
smattering of how computer chips have revolutionized our field.
One major change I have witnessed that
affects everyone in this field is the reduction or even lack of third-party
reimbursement for services - especially rehabilitation engineering
services.
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On the future of rehabilitation
engineering and assistive technology
I
believe there will always be a need for rehabilitation engineers even though it
remains a challenge to get their services paid for. Same is true for assistive
technologies. Baby-boomers are moving into the twilight of their careers and
some are already settling into retirement. With such a large bolus of people
moving into retirement, the need to keep these people functionally independent
and capable of living on their own is paramount. Rehabilitation engineers can
and will play an important role in this process for years to come.
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On the future of RESNA
As professional organizations go, RESNA is fairly
small which makes it difficult to weather bad times. However, RESNA has done
just that and I believe its future is bright. I believe that RESNA sometimes
struggles with its identity. The American Occupational Therapy Association is
geared for OTs. The American Physical Therapy Association is geared for PTs.
The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association is geared to SLPs. RESNA is
unique in that it welcomes all allied health professionals including
rehabilitation engineers and assistive technology specialists. However, RESNA
simply cannot be all things to all people so it will need to
continue.
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My suggestions for those just
entering the field
Ask lots of
questions; keep an open mind and learn as much as you can for as long as you
can; don't be afraid to try different things; and embrace RESNA and all that it
has to offer.
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