 Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Good afternoon and welcome to the White House. It's a pleasure to be able to welcome participants in the National Initiative on Technology and the Disabled, men and women who have given so much to their fellow Americans. This is an age of marvels, technological marvels. And today we have calculators the size of playing cards and computers that can fit inside a suitcase, or a briefcase. Boil it down a little. We have home entertainment centers that put the great music and literature of the ages at a family's fingertips. And we have dazzling communications. Indeed, I remember my disbelief when I still have trouble with this, when I was told one day of a satellite that could transmit the entire encyclopedia Britannica in three seconds. Perhaps the central marvel of our age is space travel. It was less than three decades ago that the first U.S. satellite was launched and less than two decades ago that man first walked on the moon. And yet today the dream of regular space travel is already becoming a reality, a working part of our everyday lives. It seems like yesterday when Nancy and I watched the space shuttle Columbia glide to a magnificent landing in the California desert, one of 23 space shuttle missions so far, I think my greatest surprise was out there in Edwards Air Force Base to be told to get up on the platform that it was on its approach. And I said, where is it now? And they said just over Honolulu. And it was on its approach. I have to tell you it was the biggest thrill I'd felt since hearing that Lindberg had landed in France. But reflecting on the new technology, and in particular on aerospace technology, Secretary Heckler and others began to wonder about its wider applications. They thought that maybe technology could be applied not just out in space, but here on Earth. If we could give astronauts jet packs, couldn't we give the disabled better wheelchairs? And if we could enable a spacecraft orbiting the Earth to talk to Houston control, couldn't we help those with speech impairments? And so it was that an exciting new partnership between the government and the private sector was born. The national initiative of technology and the disabled. Already the initiative is hard at work, encouraging the development of dramatic new technologies. Our one new device is called CompuTalk, and is designed for people incapable of intelligent speech. The intelligible speech, I should say, the person simply types the phrase he wants to pronounce, then a computer synthesizes the sound. The whole unit, that's the one that fits inside a suitcase. It can bring to an end the misery of those who can think clearly but cannot make themselves understood. Another new device is called the Blink Rider. And this is designed to help persons like stroke victims who are completely paralyzed and can neither speak nor write. Imagine the frustration they encounter when trying to communicate. But with the Blink Rider, a paralyzed person can look at a television screen and construct phrases simply by blinking. In a very real sense, the Blink Rider is a device of liberation, an instrument which sets free men and women who would otherwise be trapped in the isolation of their own minds. Other new high-tech medical instruments and techniques are being developed every day. There are motorized wheelchairs made of strong, lightweight, weight-mental alloys. There are the artificial heart, the pacemaker, and a handheld x-ray device called the Lixoscope. There's an implantable device called the Human Tissue Stimulator, which shows great promise for controlling chronic pain like that associated with arthritis, rheumatism, and cancer. And there's a remarkable arrangement called the Programmable Implantable Medication System, or for short, PIMS. Although still in the testing stages, it's hoped that PIMS can actually be inserted into the patient's body and used to deliver specified doses of medication to particular parts of the body at carefully chosen times. It holds out enormous hope for people who must receive periodic injections, people like diabetics or patients within operable tumors. To help make certain that these technologies reach the people who need them, you of the National Initiative on Technology and the Disabled are assembling TechNet, a national information network that can be consulted by physicians and disabled citizens alike. You're also working on TechTeam, a network of local technological professionals who are applying their skills, knowledge, and talents to the problems encountered by the disabled. And day in and day out, you're hard at work raising the money to make all these efforts possible. In the last year alone, I understand the initiative has raised more than $2 million. What it all comes down to is remarkable American know-how being used to help the American people. Tom Cusworth on The Day Us With Us Today understands five years ago at the age of 19, Tom suffered a swimming accident which left him a paraplegic. But Tom went to a high technology rehabilitation center in Seattle and overcame his handicap so well that he even learned computer programming. And I have to tell you, Tom, that's a subject we didn't have when I was your age. Today, Tom is a computer analyst in TechNet. And Tom, I know I speak for everyone here when I give you my heartfelt congratulations. Susan Yim is also with us today. She is also someone who understands. While a graduate student in biology at Duke University, Susan suffered a severe brain stem stroke which left her a quadriplegic. She was unable to speak and unable to move any part of her body except her thumbs. But Susan's mind was sound. For months, she struggled to communicate. Always depended on others to decipher her thoughts. Then nothing less than a miracle took place. Jim Jackalich, a brilliant engineer who's also with us today, designed a computer that could be operated by Susan's thumb movements. And Susan became able to communicate on her own. And today she has retained a large measure of the freedom that she thought was gone forever. Susan, you're what it's all about and you make us very proud. On behalf of Susan and all of the disabled Americans, I want to thank Secretary Margaret Heckler, the Department of Defense and NASA for bringing the National Initiative on Technology and the Disabled into being. And I know that each of us wants to express his deep gratitude to Robert Kirk, the head of the initiative's executive committee. But the initiative would be nothing without its many participants. And so it is that I want to thank you, the men and women who have given this initiative its drive and substance. Yes, technology can lift hopes and dreams. And so really I can say it all. I just want to thank you all for what you're doing and God bless you all. Mr. President, in the last six years, your leadership and patriotism have inspired all Americans to cherish anew with a fresh spirit, the freedoms, independence, and resourcefulness of our nation. A new season of partnership has flourished between government and industry, government and private citizen. And today we are harvesting the fruit of your efforts. Gathered here are leaders of America's technological industry who have joined hands to offer freedom and independence to disabled Americans in a way in which government itself could never provide such help or hope. The business leaders, scientists, researchers, and engineers who unlocked the heavens and gave birth to industry and to great new developments in space and here on earth are now adapting on a voluntary basis their technology to help the disabled. I would like to emphasize how truly remarkable this initiative is. 16% of Americans suffer from physical, sensory, developmental, or mental disabilities. And until now there has been no central source of information for them. Disabled citizens in every state had to go through weary, frustrating, and a confusing maze in the process of trying to find equipment, trying to find resources and services time after time, in place after place. And until now we have only dreamed of applying technology to the problems of the disabled. No plan, no system has been in place or has ever existed. Through your leadership, Mr. President, the drive and industry and imagination of leaders such as Mr. Robert Kirk and our executive coalition here on the dais has provided a means of reaching out across the country to embarking the talent and dedication of all Americans to embark on a brand new journey. The Bible has told us of all of the episodes in which the Lord was able to make the blind see and the deaf hear and the lame walk. But today we are making our own advance toward these goals. We have the imagination, we have the knowledge and the resources in this nation to take us into the future, a new future for the disabled. The leaders in this room today who have led and financed America's great technological present and future can work to make this a better world for all of us, especially for those among us with limitations or disabilities. This initiative will give wings to your proclaimed decade of the disabled. Mr. President, it emancipates, it creates new hope for those most severely disabled. And you, Mr. President, and those who are putting this program into practice have earned our deepest gratitude, our respect and our applause. Thank you, Mr. President. President, Mr. President, is Mr. McFarlane going to say in the administration or is he going? I'm not going to take any questions here. Have you spoken to Mr. McFarlane, sir? We talk every day. Have you talked to him about his job?