Tina Crook’s son suffered a brain injury from an infection 12 years ago. At the time, she knew little about how to connect with special needs services that provide resources for families like hers.

So Crook went it alone, quitting her job to become a full-time caregiver as her son relearned how to walk, talk and read.

“There were resources, but you had to search,” she said. “Sometimes you ended up down deep rabbit holes that didn't do you any good, but you just continued that search.”

It wasn’t until several years later that she discovered the West Virginia University Center for Excellence in Disabilities, or CED. Crook recalled buying her son a reader pen from eBay, a device that scans text on a page and speaks it out loud. She paid a little over $100 for the pen, but her son wouldn’t

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