GDDC Conducts Surveys

The CNMI Governor’s Developmental Disabilities Council is in the process of conducting three separate surveys. The surveys are on inclusive education, education of children and youth with disabilities in the Asian and Pacific regions, and issues relating to Medicare.

The CNMI Assistive Technology (AT) Project, under the GDDC, conducted a consumer satisfaction survey on AT devices and services for persons with disabilities last June. A more detailed description of the purpose of each of the surveys follows:

A survey for educators and parents on inclusive education has been distributed to all CNMI public school principals for their support in seeing to it that the surveys are completed. The survey targets all teachers, both regular and special education, and is aimed at measuring how far and how well the CNMI has come in implementing inclusive education as well as to evaluate the effectiveness of special education services.

The parent survey, which targets parents of school-aged children in public schools, will assess the satisfaction of parents receiving special education services for their children with disabilities. Once the surveys are completed, they are to be submitted to the principals of each public school for the GDDC to collect. By next week, GDDC will send out the surveys to Wayne State University of Michigan for analysis.

The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) requested the assistance of the GDDC in completing a two-part survey: 1) Education for Children and Youth with Disabilities and 2) Early Childhood Intervention, Care and Education of Children with disabilities since the information sought has to be collected from different sources, GDDC has requested the assistance of various departments and/or agencies such as the PSS special education and Early Childhood Programs, Central Statistics Division Of the Department of Commerce, Distance Education Program of the Northern Marianas College and the AT Project of GDDC. Information gathered from the survey will be taken into consideration in regional preparations for the forum on education for children and youth with disabilities scheduled to be held in Bangkok from Nov. 15 to 19, 1999. The purpose of the forum is to open up discussions on the status of the education of children and youth with disabilities within the Asian and Pacific regions. With this, measures on how to promote the full participation of children and youth with disabilities in education programs will be identified.

The National Association of Developmental Disabilities Council has just recently circulated a survey to its networks to gather data that will assist the Medicare Informal Work Group in evaluating how changes in the Medicare program will affect persons with disabilities. The survey targets single SSDI Medicare beneficiaries under age 65. The purpose of the survey is to identify memorable examples for advocacy use. The information obtained from the surveys will be used for the upcoming Medicare debate in U.S. Congress scheduled for September or October of this year. The survey focuses on Medicare prescription drug coverage, therapies and out-of-pocket expenses. For this, GDDC has requested the assistance of the CNMI Medicaid Program.

In June of last year, AT Project conducted a consumer satisfaction survey on assistive technology devices and services for persons with disabilities. The surveys have been submitted to the Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology Society of North America (RESNA) and the analysis are just now in the process of being finalized. Local government departments and/or agencies that assisted in the distribution and collection of the survey included the Office of Vocational Rehabilitation, Office on Aging, PSS Early Childhood and Special Education Programs, and the general public.

For additional information, please contact the GDDC at 322-3014 (Voice/TDD) or 322-3015 (voice).