NEC Foundation of America has awarded grants to five organizations “that advance the independence and full participation in society of people with disabilities through the use of innovative technology.”

The five organizations to win grants:
•    Brave Kids, Ponte Vedra, Fla. — A $28,150 award to expand a bilingual Web site that disseminates assistive technology information to families and health-care providers. Brave Kids was created in 1999 by Kristen Fitzgerald, a mom who lost two of her children to catastrophic illness: www.bravekids.org.
•    Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST), Wakefield, Mass. — $60,000 to publish and disseminate a Web-based tool that helps students with disabilities to write formal science research reports: www.cast.org.
•    New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, N.J. — $32,000 to help nationally disseminate Hands-Up therapeutic video game software for children with severe sensory-motor disabilities: http://rerc.njit.edu/research.html
•    Purdue University, West Lafayette, Ind. — The $50,000 grant will support a Nationwide Assistive Technology Awareness & Education Program for Rural Youth, targeting agricultural teachers of high-school students in rural areas: www.breakingnewground.info.
•    The College of William & Mary, Williamsburg, Va. — $60,000 to support the Accessible Courts Initiative, which encourages and enables courts to adopt assistive technology so people with disabilities can more fully participate in the judicial system, whether as judges, witnesses or jurors: www.accessiblecourts.net.