In August 2022, I got involved with Rochester Housing Solutions, a group of parents building housing for their adult children with intellectual and developmental disabilities. There I met Sue Chaplin, and we became interested in smart homes for this population as a way of mitigating the critical shortage of direct care workers and promoting independent living. We soon learned that Michigan was one of handful of states in the US in which Medicaid waivers did not cover enabling technology. So we asked ourselves, how hard would it be to get this changed?

Two and a half years later, we - along with Easterseals MORC of Michigan and MOKA - are at work on a statewide task force to bring Technology First to the State of Michigan. Our 20-person task force consists of self-advocates, parents, representatives of advocacy groups and community mental health organizations, representatives of the business, technology, and philanthropic communities, plus individuals who have served this population their entire careers. We are on our way to creating a blueprint to deliver to the State. We will show them how to get this done, based partly on the experience of other states and partly on the idiosyncrasies of Michigan.

michigantechfirst@gmail.com