The University discontinued the Computer Rehabilitation Training Program, designed to provide computer training for disabled individuals, last year after 23 years in service.
The Computer Rehabilitation Training Program Web site described the program as one “for individuals with disabilities who want a rapid transition into technology positions.”
Doug Weimer, associate dean of Continuing Education, said the program simply had reached the end of its life cycle.
Weimer said the decision came because of moves to include disabled individuals in the general community.
“This program separated them and trained them on its own,” Weimer said. “The campus is now doing more to include disabled individuals.”
The Web site now displays a new message announcing the discontinuation of the program.
“From 1980 until 2003, the CRT program operated under the combined sponsorship of Louisiana State University, Louisiana Rehabilitation Services and CRT’s Business Advisory Council,” the statement said. “Graduates received intense technical instruction to help them prepare for careers in COBOL programming (1980-2000) and Web development/Visual Basic Programming (2001-2003).
“After 23 years of operation, the CRT Program closed operations in August 2003, thus no longer offering courses,” the Web site said.
Weimer said the decision also reflects a nationwide trend toward fewer types of programs. Weimer said about 100 such programs formerly existed in the United States, but that number is now about 24.
Rosemary Yesso, a rehabilitation program manager with Louisiana Rehabilitation Services, said changes in the technology industry also contributed to the decision to end the CRT program.
Yesso said University and Louisiana Rehabilitation Services officials agreed the program had served its time, and the departments needed to move forward with other trends.
Yesso said although Louisiana Rehabilitation Services has taken budget cuts in recent years, there were no financial reasons behind the decision to end the CRT program.
The decision to end the program comes nearly a year after Kenneth Hopkins, a blind student in the CRT program, sued the University, alleging violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
In the lawsuit, Hopkins alleged that program officials told him he was “too disabled” to participate in the program and “he should consider leaving the program.”
The University has settled the lawsuit with Hopkins, and details are expected to be finalized next month. But Weimer said Hopkins’ lawsuit did not have anything to do with the decision to end the program.
“There was no relationship with that,” Weimer said.
Neither Karl Koch, Hopkins’ attorney, nor Vicki Crochet, an attorney for the University, could be reached for comment on the settlement.