Short-term Device Loan

Device loans can either have a decision-making purpose, with the decision-maker borrower completing the access performance measure, or they can be for one of three other purposes in which the identified borrower will complete the acquisition performance measure. Nationally and historically, about 80% or more of device loans are for a decision-making purpose. Far fewer are for the combined total of the other three short-term purposes. Each of those have a situational time-limited purpose (e.g., accommodation for an event, loaner while waiting for funding/repair, professional development event). It is important to remember that these are confirmed “short term” situations — not someone borrowing a device to use while they are waiting for funding when they have yet to even identify a potential funding source. Events that are not clearly time-limited are better served through open-ended loans or other acquisition activities.

The accommodation purpose is one that can be misused for loans that are not short-term. This purpose is limited to providing AT for a fixed, time-limited event such as a two-day meeting, a week-long class, or a short inpatient hospital stay. One way to think about this: helping an organization provide an auxiliary aid as required under the ADA for a time-limited event. When a device is loaned out and used as an accommodation for the policy period of the loan program (e.g., 30 days) rather than a fixed, time-limited event unique to that person, that is not likely to be a short-term loan. For example, if a portable ramp is loaned to someone discharged from the hospital and there is no way to know how long they might need to keep it, that would be better as an open-ended loan that could be kept until a permanent solution is obtained. Additional guidance on distinguishing between the two types of loans can be found in Resource Brief #2 on short-term loans versus open-ended loans.

Red Flag: Number of short-term loans for decision-making is not the majority.

Unless there is another program meeting decision-making needs, this should be the primary focus of short-term loans. Resources used to purchase AT device inventory critical for short-term loan decision-making (e.g., complex communication and vision devices) should not be diverted for other uses. AT device inventory that can be obtained via donation and refurbished can/should be prioritized for non-decision-making purposes to ensure access to AT needed for complex decision-making.

Red Flag: Number of loan days by policy is more than a month.

If the primary purpose of short-term loans is decision-making, the loan period should ensure enough time to evaluate the effectiveness of the device but return quickly enough to allow the next borrow access in a timely manner. Loan periods that exceed one month suggest the primary purpose is something other than decision-making.

Red Flag: Borrower and device number is always equal, especially for decision-making loans.

This indicates that each borrower was loaned one device, which means there was no device comparison done before decision-making. It is possible that the borrower participated in a demonstration first and did the compare/contrast at that time and then borrowed the one device they thought was most appropriate. The challenge in this situation is that if the demonstration was also reported as a decision-making event, then there really is not another decision made for the device loan (more of a confirmation of the prior decision). When a demonstration and short-term loan blend together, it is very difficult to report two distinct decision-making events.

It is also possible that these numbers are equal because the AT device borrowed is the core record and the associated borrower data is duplicative. If one borrower gets three devices on short-term loan but each is reported as a separate device loan, then the borrower is reported three times and provided three separate decision performance measures (one for each device), which is not consistent with the APR provisions. This should have been reported as one device loan with three devices and one performance measure.

Last updated January 2023