BANGOR – The grand opening of Maine’s first TEC-Assist system center at 146 Center St. will be held 4-7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 6. The center’s purpose is to provide adaptive equipment to people with disabilities at an affordable cost.

The Occupational Therapy Department of Husson University has developed TEC-Assist, the first statewide assistive technology device reutilization program in the state to ensure that individuals with disabilities have access to assistive technology.

The changing and challenging health care environment requires looking for creative ways to ensure affordable access to assistive technology for people with disabilities and the elderly who require its use. The Technical Exploration Center and TEC-Assist are designed to create that access.

TEC-Assist will become a part of the Technical Exploration Center, a community-based program of Husson University.

The long-standing mission of the Technical Exploration Center is to provide Mainers with access to, knowledge of, education and services regarding assistive technology to enhance independence, productivity and quality of life. The Technical Exploration Center serves people of all ages and all abilities throughout Maine. This mission will be carried through in the equipment reutilization project called TEC-Assist.

TEC-Assist is a nonprofit outreach program of Husson University designed to establish the first statewide system for receiving, refurbishing and redistribution of quality used “assistive technology” equipment to older persons and those in Maine of all ages with disabilities.

The project accepts donations of gently used equipment such as wheelchairs, walkers, bath seats and many other items. The equipment is then sanitized, restored to working condition and made available for purchase at a much reduced, affordable price.

Consumers of restored equipment will save approximately 65 percent in purchasing through TEC-Assist over purchasing the same item new.

People with disabilities and the elderly need and use assistive technology in many different aspects of their lives, from school to work to home, recreation and leisure activities. It is, for many, the difference between doing and not doing and, for some, the difference between independence and dependence. Access to the technology is essential, but ready access is far from simple.

The number of people who are uninsured and underinsured is growing. The need, and therefore the demand, for assistive technology among aging baby boomers and those with developmental disabilities or chronic illness are increasing.

At the same time the need has been rising, the advent of managed care has lowered insurance caps and made fewer dollars available to people for the purchase of assistive technology.

Those dollars are, in 40 percent of all cases today, spent on equipment that will be abandoned because of changes in medical need, growth, death or because the equipment was inappropriate to the needs of the consumer, officials said.

In November 2007, the trustees of the Bingham Betterment Fund, created by the late William Bingham II of Bethel, provided Husson University with a $10,000 grant to be applied solely toward the work of the TEC Equipment Reutilization Project. The TEC-Assist Center is also supported, in part, by Husson University and Webber Energy Fuels.

For more information, contact Colleen Adams, co-director, Technical Exploration Center, at 992-9270 or toll-free 866-274-0029, or visit www.tecmaine.org or TECAssist@tecmaine.org.