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Bruce McMahan

In July of 1988, U. S. News & World Report described a stunning problem facing people with disabilities: “There is little doubt that for millions of disabled Americans, access to the right assistive technology can mean independence, employment, and a more meaningful life. But the world of high tech help for the handicapped seems completely upside down. The most logical major obstacle—inventing the new devices—has been the easy part. How to get those new devices to the people who need them makes up the puzzle. We hold out technology to people as a little, shimmering dream, and then we don’t deliver.”

The National Cristina Foundation (NCF) began bringing technology to people with disabilities in 1983. My donation of an Apple computer to the special education class taught by Dr. Yvette Marrin launched our first step into the future of NCF. My daughter, Cristina, born with cerebral palsy was a student in that class. Yvette had a vision of personal computers improving the lives of people with disabilities. This truth helped Cristina blossom, as well as the other children in her class. This single event led to the founding belief of NCF: Technology, applied with proper expertise, can dramatically improve the lives of people otherwise destined to be isolated and dependent.

In 1984, the second piece of the puzzle fell into place: where to find the resource for this work! A business mistake turned a million dollars worth of perfectly functioning computer technology into $40,000 worth of scrap, and drove home the consequences of what we now call technology rollover. This modern day phenomenon creates huge amounts of inexpensive, perfectly functioning technology—ideal for our purposes. The rollover effect creates an endless supply of resource for the people who need it most.

These pioneering concepts converged into a not-for-profit Foundation in August of 1985. For 20 years we have worked to make the power of independence, employability, and choice in life a reality for millions of people around the world in the dark corners society ignores. NCF’s mandate delivers the dream to these places.

Cristina Connections continues to be a way of reaching out yet again. We never charge a fee for any service, never require publicity for our work, and share wherever we can the knowledge and strengths necessary to recreate this process at every level, in every place. The success in our nation’s fifty states and in countries touched by NCF around the world forms the foundation of our effort to solve forever the puzzle troubling U. S. News & World Report in 1988.

Ours is a jungle fighter’s mentality of surviving and succeeding. Such thinking brings together the effective use of available abilities and resources for empowerment to people we care about as we progress in the new millennium. We can succeed with what we have. We hope in this 20th anniversary issue you can see reflections of that effort.