Assistive technology (AT) is essentially anything that helps to support people with cerebral palsy and other disabilities in their daily living. Wheelchairs, speech devices, specialized keyboards - all of these are considered assistive technologies. However, the cost of AT devices such as these tends to put them out of many families’ financial reach.

This is why AT reuse is particularly important: It makes AT more accessible to those in need. People who no longer their AT need can donate it to an AT reuse program. The donated item can then be repaired, modified, sanitized and passed on to someone else who can use it - either at a more reasonable cost or free.

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) funds a national AT reuse coordination center called the Pass It On Center.  Individuals can visit the site to find reuse programs in their area, and there are reuse programs across the country.

The New Jersey Supreme Court has ruled that a woman who saw her mother die in a car crash can sue the other driver for negligently inflicting emotional distress.

In many states you cannot claim emotional distress as your only injury.  In some states you also have to prove in a car accident lawsuit that  you witnessed the accident or were within some “zone of danger” in order to claim emotional distress.  This decision appears to expand the types of damages that you can claim in a New Jersey Auto Accident case.

The 4-3 decision released Tuesday said such a claim can be made despite the state’s so-called “verbal threshold” for auto insurance, which generally allows victims to only sue for physical injuries.

The insurance industry criticized the ruling, charging it threatens efforts at reducing insurance rates.

The daughter was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and depression after the car she and her mother were in was rear-ended in 2000. The daughter got more than $500,000 for wrongful death and survivorship claims, but a judge dismissed the emotional distress claim.

The Supreme Court decision reinstates that claim.