The T.K. Martin Center for Technology and Disability is a facility at Mississippi State University in which people with disabilities can seek help.
According to the center’s director, Janie Cirlot-New, the center can serve anyone, regardless of their age or disability. “We have many different clients from all around the state and some in Alabama,” Cirlot-New said.
The staff of the T.K. Martin Center includes speech pathologists, rehabilitation engineers, occupational therapists, special education and rehabilitation and biomedical engineers. The center has a number of unique facilities including computer laboratories, design and fabrication workshops, a seating and mobility center, an augmentation lab and specialized evaluation rooms.
These facilities help the T.K. Martin Center serve its patients by providing many different benefits and services including adaptive driving, assistive technology for visual and hearing impairments, seating and mobility, adaptive computer access and job and home accommodations.
The T.K. Martin Center opened in 1996 and is named after a former MSU vice president. “T.K. Martin had a vision for students with disabilities,” Cirlot-New said. “He made every effort to make sure the campus and classrooms were opened to disabled persons. He believed everyone had a right to an education.”
Today, Martin’s vision is becoming a reality with over 200 disabled students enrolled at MSU.
The T.K. Martin Center is also involved in many projects such as Project IMPACT (Insuring Mississippi Parents And Children’s Tomorrows) and MS AgrAbility.
Project IMPACT targets infants and toddlers and provides evaluation and intervention services to maximize the developmental potential of children in Mississippi.
Project IMPACT gives services such as Educational Therapy, Physical Therapy and Parent/Caregiver training and support.
The MS AgrAbility Project provides help for people with disabilities involved in agriculture and provides many educational activities like outreach programs on disability awareness of school-aged children and training for rehabilitation.
The T.K. Martin Center also has many work study students who answer the telephone, help around the center, have engineering co-op positions and other duties.
“The students learn how to put wheelchairs together and fix them,” Cirlot-New said. “Some students do practicums where they come and work for three months and work every day.”
The center also has special education students come for half a semester and work. Jacob Davis, a sophomore from the Gulf Coast, is one of the center’s student workers.
“When I was deciding where I wanted to go to college, I heard about the T.K. Martin Center and how they use engineering to help out handicapped people,” Davis said. “I decided this is where I wanted to go and that this is what I want to do.”
Davis is a mechanical engineering major and says that he has been impressed with all the great things going on at the T.K. Martin Center.
“The center helps people with their daily living, and it gives disabled people more freedom and independence,” Davis said.
“You can really tell a lot of difference in people when technology helps them,” Davis said. “It makes them really happy.”
Davis is involved in a project called Project MACC, which is headed by Gavin Jenkins, a professional engineer at the center.
“We’re just now starting it,” Davis said. “We develop a commuter car for those who can’t drive standard vehicles.”
The T.K. Martin Center is unique in the field of assistive technology because it is a direct clinical service center located on the campus of a major research university.
“Assistive technology is our main reason for being here,” Cirlot-New said.