One of the greatest obstacles faced by persons with disabilities is finding a way to pay for assistive technology and/or equipment to be able to work.  Two innovative programs are operating in states/territories across the country to do this: The Alternative Financing Program and the Access to Telework Program.

The Alternative Financing Technical Assistance Project (AFTAP) is funded by federal funds from the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR) and the Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA). The AFTAP goal is to provide technical assistance to Alternative Financing loan programs and to Access to Telework loan programs. AFTAP has three partners: the Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology Society of North America (RESNA), the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) and the Virginia Assistive Technology System (VATS).  For more information about these programs and to find program contacts in participating states/territories, please go to the RESNA website: http://www.resna.org/  (and click on the link to Alternative Financing).

This website has been specifically developed by the UIC Department of Occupational Therapy to allow states and territories to enter data about their loan applicants in the alternative financing and telework programs. The public can view this information by state or nationally.