About the RSA-911 & RT
Introduction
The RSA-911 database was of interest to the ATOMS Project due to its immense size, standardization across the United States, collection of pre and post intervention data, and its inclusion of rehabilitation technology (RT), which makes it a source of AT outcomes data. The RSA-911 report is submitted annually for the preceding fiscal year (FY) by each state’s vocational rehabilitation agency. If the state has a separate agency to specifically serve individuals who are blind, that agency can submit a report with a separate agency code.
The report contains a record for each case closure that occurred in an agency, regardless of the reason for closure. Because case closure is the trigger event, it is feasible that a consumer: 1) may not appear in the report in a given year, even though they received VR services during that year or 2) an individual may appear more than once in one year, if their case was closed on two or more separate occasions. The FY 1997-2001 data specifically indicates whether the individual received, rehabilitation engineering (RE), assistive technology devices (ATD), and/or assistive technology services (ATS) (see RSA-PD-95-04). The FY 2002-2004 data does not include the break-down of RT into the three components and instead indicates the general type of vendor/provider and source of funding if RT was provided (see RSA-PD-00-06 & RSA-PD-00-07). Neither isolates the cost of RT from the total cost of the vocational rehabilitation (VR) services.
For additional information:
- ATOMS Project's RSA-911 bibliography
- ATOMS Project's RSA-911 technical report
- RSA Policy Directives
- RSA-PD-95-04 (PDF)
- RSA-PD-00-06 (PDF)
- RSA-PD-00-07 (PDF)
- RSA FY Statistics
- ICI's RSA-911 graphing - Choose "VR Combined/General" agency or "VR Agency for the Blind" when selecting options for a graph.