Molly Littleton

Molly Littleton says she has the best job in the world, and it’s hard to argue with her.

One day she gets to test toys. Another day she gets to try out the coolest, latest technology devices. One afternoon last week, she was examining colorful outdoor musical instruments that two eager UTC engineering students had made for some of her clients. Later this week she’s heading to Slovakia to help enlighten that country’s special-education teachers.

“I’m on Cloud 9,” Mrs. Littleton said. “I love my job.”

Earlier this month, the director of the assistive technology center at Signal Centers was honored with the Thomas Morales Leadership in Accessible Technology Award.

The national award from the Alliance for Technology Access — only one is presented per year — was presented to Mrs. Littleton at the organization’s 20th anniversary celebration in Los Angeles.

“It’s like a lifetime achievement award,” said Donna McConnico, executive director of Signal Centers. “It’s given to someone who’s invested their heart and soul over a number of years.”

Mrs. Littleton, approaching her 31st year with the agency, has been its only assistive technology center director since the sector was created 17 years ago.

She said in fairness the award should go to Signal Centers itself since her job wouldn’t exist without the support of Ms. McConnico, past executive director Linda McReynolds and a supportive board of directors.

“If I can dream it,” Mrs. Littleton said, “they find ways to make it happen.”

Her passion, she said, is to link a client with a disability to a product that will make life easier for that client.

“It’s a new challenge every day,” Mrs. Littleton said. “It’s so much fun to find solutions for them.”

She is proud, she said, to have an award named after the late Mr. Morales, an Alliance for Technology Access director she knew and who “always put the person with the disability first.”

“He was excited about what people with technology could do,” Mrs. Littleton said.

She was nominated for the award by funders in Nashville, staff and directors of the other assistive technology centers across the state and didn’t know she’d been nominated until a few days before the event.

In a space of a few minutes late last week, Mrs. Littleton displayed her enthusiasm for how others might be assisted, first with the outdoor musical instrument center built by University of Tennessee at Chattanooga engineering students Taylor Lawson and Nicholas Tomaszewski, then with a cell phone designed with AT&T’s Mobile Speak technology.

She chatted with the UTC students about the red, blue and yellow instruments that rattle, clang and drum.

One pint-sized Signal Centers client, said Mr. Tomaszewski, approached the instruments with no instructions and no trepidation and began hitting them.

“It sounded like a seal of approval for him,” he said.

The cell phone, which Mrs. Littleton said had been sent for her clients to try, is embedded with a screen reader that provides speech feedback that a blind user would need.

“This is the first we’ve seen,” said Assistive Technology Center coordinator Steve Powell. “I can think of (clients) right now who can use this.”

On Friday, Mrs. Littleton and Signal Centers teacher Michele Valadie will join a 10-day, Bryan College-led trip to Slovakia.

There, with transportation assistance from the Rotary Club of Chattanooga and two communication systems from Prentice Romich Co. to leave in the country, they will instruct special education teachers in the country on best practices to use with children from birth to 8 years old.

“They will train teachers how to use assistive technology and how to adapt other technology to children with special needs,” Ms. McConnico said.

They’ll also give the country more general training in special education, she said.

“We won’t just be training in technology,” said Mrs. Littleton, who was a special education teacher for three years in Cincinnati and later at the Mary Ann Brown Center in Chattanooga before joining Signal Centers. “We’ll be looking at educating children and the best practices and the best ways to educate the children with the disabilities.

“It’s very exciting,” she said. “It’s a wonderful opportunity.”