DuPage Easter Seal and the United Cerebral Palsy Association of Greater Chicago have teamed up for an ambitious new program that will allow DuPage and Kane County children and adults with disabilities to communicate and compete more easily through technology.
The not-for-profit joint venture, called Infinitec West, will provide expanded technology assistance programs and services in a $5 million facility to be built on the site of the DuPage Easter Seal-Rosalie Dold Center for Children, 830 S. Addison Ave., Villa Park.
UCP Chicago’s Infinitec program, launched in the early 1990s, seeks to improve access to technologies that enable people with disabilities to live, work and play as independently as possible.
The Rosalie Dold Center provides a wide range of services, including physical, occupational and speech therapy and child care, according to Cindy Klima, director of development for DuPage Easter Seal.
The DuPage Easter Seal program serves about 5,000 people, most of them ages 6 months to 18 years, who are living with cerebral palsy and other disabilities. Though most of the center’s clients are DuPage residents, about 10 percent come from surrounding counties, Klima said.
“What this joint venture means for DuPage,” Klima said, “is that as the kids we serve grow up and their needs change and grow, they will have better access to the technology they need to communicate and compete with their peers in the classroom and other environments.
“This also will allow UCP Chicago to provide some additional adult services in DuPage, such as educating classroom teachers and families about new assistive technology.”
Though devices exist that make communication easier for people with disabilities, choosing the right device and adapting it to individual physical needs and limitations can be confusing, Klima said.
“Anybody who has tried to buy a computer knows how frustrating it can be when you don’t really know what you need,” Klima said. “For families looking for technology to assist a member with a disability, it can be overwhelming.”
DuPage Easter Seal programs at the Dold Center will continue as usual while the new facility is under construction nearby. When the new facility is completed, the Dold Center building will be torn down and the land turned into a parking lot, Klima said.
The proposed facility, scheduled to open in June 1999, will consist of a pair of architecturally linked one-story buildings–UCP Chicago’s Arthur and Mary Rubloff Center, financed in part with a bequest from the Chicago-area real estate developer, and a DuPage Easter Seal building financed with Easter Seal funds. Each building will cost $2.5 million to $3 million, Klima said.
In addition to assistive technology assessment and demonstration programs, Infinitec West will offer a disability information service and hold classes and conferences at the Rubloff Center, while DuPage Easter Seal will offer expanded therapy programs in its portion of the complex.
Dr. Paul J. Dulle, executive director of UCP Chicago, described the joint venture as “combining the best of UCP and DuPage Easter Seal.”
UCP Chicago, a not-for-profit human services organization dedicated to advancing the independence of people with disabilities in Cook, DuPage, Kane and Lake Counties, established a similar Infinitec satellite location in 1994 with Oak Forest-based Southwest Cooperative Foundation.
Bill Wiet, director of community development for the village of Villa Park, said village officials had yet to formally review the site plan for the proposed facility. However, Wiet noted that the DuPage Easter Seal-Rosalie Dold Center for Children has existed for many years at the Addison Avenue location with no problems.
