Easterseals North Georgia has received a $20,000 grant from the Comcast Foundation as part of the Comcast NBCUniversal Assistive Technology Grant Fund.

With the grant, Easterseals North Georgia will invest in state-of-the-art technology to assure that the early childhood and autism experts at its 12 Child Development Centers throughout metropolitan Atlanta and Northeast Georgia can effectively identify children with autism and other disabilities as early as possible to assure they get the interventions needed to meet their full potential.

Among the technologies to be leveraged is an online screening tool. The tool can identify concerns as early as 9 months in a child, allowing effective treatments early.

Nationally, the Comcast Foundation gave $200,000 in grants to Easterseals, including Easterseals North Georgia.

Easterseals allocated $80,000 to support Make the First Five Count, a free online developmental screening tool for parents and caregivers of children aged newborn to 5 years old designed to help ensure they are meeting developmental milestones. In addition, Easterseals Metropolitan Chicago, Easterseals Colorado, Easterseals Goodwill Minnesota, Easterseals Serving DC MD VA and Easterseals Massachusetts each received a $20,000 grant from the Comcast Foundation.

The Comcast NBCUniversal Assistive Technology Grant Fund, established in 2011, supports technology programs and services that benefit children and adults, including veterans living with developmental disabilities. Assistive technologies can vary from braille-equipped handheld computer systems and voice command telephones to height adjusted tables and augmentative communication systems — all helping individuals with disabilities to overcome barriers in the home, on the job, at school or on the go.

Easterseals is the leading non-profit provider of services for individuals with autism, developmental disabilities, physical disabilities and other special needs. The Comcast Foundation was founded by Comcast Corporation in June 1999 to provide charitable support to qualified non-profit organizations.

For more information, visit www.easterseals.com or www.comcast.com/community.