It’s called Wheelmap, and it tells you the accessibility status of public places all over the world. It’s free and grades locations in a traffic light-style, red-yellow-green scale of wheelchair accessibility. Developed by German nonprofit SOZIALHELDEN e.V., it’s now celebrating five years since launch. Since 2010, users have added nearly half a million entries across the globe.

Learn more at Gizmodo.

http://gizmodo.com/this-massive-open-source-map-makes-the-world-more-whee-1710196200

MAY 14, 2014 BY TED DRAKE

They say 2014 is the year of wearable computers and devices. While marketed mostly towards the busy professionals and health conscious athletes, there’s far more to these devices.

This presentation looks at the intersection of wearable computers and accessibility. How can these sensor filled devices provide alternative displays and gestures? How can they help a blind person see the world, a person with a mobility issue explore, track health and detect traumatic events before they happen?

This presentation was created for the Inclusive Design 24 series of webinars that celebrate Global Accessibility Awareness Day 2014

Facial prostheses, 1919 Anna Coleman Ladd fashioned much-admired face masks for WWI soldiers in the European theater. Facial prosthetics and reconstructive surgery advanced significantly because of the war.

The obstacle detection device from WLVAfrom 2004 consists of three major components:

The HMD incorporates the scanning fiber display and optics mounted in a tube on one side of a spectacle frame, and a video camera with IR light emitting diodes mounted on the other side. The backpack-mounted equipment consists of a laptop computer, an embedded processor, and hardware to drive the scanning fiber display.

Iglasses have obstacle detection and vibrate when the user gets close to a low hanging branch or other object.

Google patent on eye frame based obstacle detection.

Which of these kids is using an assistive technology device? Tablets, phones, and assorted mobile devices are so common that stigma associated with earlier devices has diminished.

IPV6 allows every object to have its own ip address. Wearable devices can surround and work within your body and be uniquely defined. Lamprey inspired nano-robots are being developed that can migrate through your body for healthcare. photo: pacific lamprey by USFWS Pacific...

Read the full article at Wearability

http://wearability.org/wearability-inclusive-design.html

> Solving Problems for Real World, Using Design

The front and back of the phone is constructed using 3D printing techniques and can be customised.

Other companies have designed Braille phones in the past, but OwnFone says its device is the first of its kind to go on sale.

For those who can't read Braille, the company can print raised text on the keypad.

The phone, currently only available in the UK, retails for £60 and according to its inventor Tom Sunderland, 3D printing the front and back of the device helped to keep the costs down.

"3D printing... provides a fast and cost-effective way to create personalised Braille buttons," he says.

The device is designed to provide an instant connection between blind users and their friends and family.

In 2012, OwnFone launched what was one of the world's first partially 3D printed phones.

A year later, the company developed a special child-friendly version called 1stFone, a credit-card sized device with programmable buttons for crucial contacts.

OwnFone's new Braille phone is based on these previous two devices, keeping its small form factor and colourful design.

"The phone can be personalised with two or four Braille buttons which are pre-programmed to call friends, family, carers or the emergency services," Mr Sunderland told the BBC.

"This is the first phone to have a 3D printed keypad and for people that can't read Braille, we can print texture and raised text on the phone. Our 3D phone printing process is patent pending."

Those who wish to buy the phone can create a custom design on the company's website.

However, at £60 it's the most expensive of the three available options, with their previous models selling for £40 and £50.

While this may be the first Braille phone available to consumers, the idea is not an original one.

India-based start-up Kriyate built a prototype Braille-enabled smartphone in 2013, featuring a repressible Braille display and feedback controls (known as haptic touch) that beep or vibrate after receiving certain commands.

Some visually impaired users of mobile phones may not see the need for this device however, with features such as Apple's VoiceOver becoming more sophisticated.

VoiceOver is a "screenreader" that allows users to navigate their phone using gesture-based controls.

There are also a number of apps on both the Apple Store and Google Play that allow for an easier reading experience for the visually impaired.

Read more at BBC

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-27437770

> A new golden age for cane design?

> Closed-captioning glasses get big rollout to cinemas

How long could you cope without music for? In terms of addiction, it’s not exactly heroin, but as anyone who has embarked on a long distance journey with an MP3 player that is devoid of battery will tell you, going without music is hard. Imagine then, being unable to hear properly for your entire life. Austin Chapman has struggled with profound deafness since birth until a year ago, when he received a new set of hearing aids that changed his life. To him, it was like seeing the world through a pair of high definition 3D goggles, when he’d previously only witnessed monochromatic pixelated visuals. It changed his perception of everything. 

With a lifetime worth of music to catch up on he posted on Reddit, asking people to tell him what music to listen to. Eager to find out what a previously deaf man’s perception of music is, and eager to hear his story, I sat down with Austin and asked him a few questions. 

Read the full article at Noisy.Vice

(http://noisey.vice.com/blog/we-spoke-to-a-man-who-has-been-deaf-his-whole-life-about-hearing-music-for-the-first-time)

Without technology, the human body is a pretty limited instrument. We cannot write without a pen or pencil, nor eat hot soup without a bowl and, perhaps, a spoon.

And yet, only certain technologies are labeled "assistive technologies": hearing aids, prostheses, wheelchairs. But surely our pens and pencils, bowls and spoons assist us as well. The human body is not very able all on its own. 

My curiosity about how we think about these camps of "normal" and "assistive" technologies brought me to Sara Hendren, a leading thinker and writer on adaptive technologies and prosthetics. Her wonderful site, Abler, was recently syndicated by Gizmodo. I talked to her about why crutches don't look cool, where the idea of "normal" comes from, and whether the 21st century might bring greater understanding of human diversity.

Read the full article at the Atlantic 

(http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/12/why-are-glasses-perceived-differently-than-hearing-aids/282005/)

By Stuart Burns, 8th October 2013

Shortly after being told I have Asperger's syndrome, I stood in front of 30-odd people, my work colleagues, telling them I have Asperger’s and what it means to them and to me. Some were like: "Meh, whatever!", some were busy looking their watches: "Is it lunchtime yet?" I could feel my job slowly ebbing away.

It was like crashing your car, in slow motion. You can see it coming but it takes its own sweet time. It wasn't my idea to make the disclosure, I hated doing it, and I really don't know what HR were thinking. (Does anyone, ever?)

My diagnosis had come about via a very non-standard route. During a course I attended I scored off the chart on a personality test in certain traits. At the end of the class and the teacher and I got talking. There were lots of questions along the lines of "Do I do this? Do I do that?"

Then she dropped the bomb. "I only do this as a stand-in for when the lecturer is not available. My day job is working with people who have ASD and I think you may have it."

On further questioning, as to her validity to make that call, it turned out she is one of the UK’s few specialists in the field of diagnosis. Fast-forward two months and I had more offers of help than I knew what to do with.

via the Register 

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/10/08/managing_aspergers_techies/

  SEPTEMBER 09, 2013

AS STUDENTS return to school this fall, most will find a plethora of new technologies and virtual environments, on which their institutions have been spending millions of dollars to bring into the classroom. Yet many of these resources will be needlessly discriminatory. What would happen if an institution constructed a new state-of-the-art building but neglected to make it accessible to the disabled? People would rightly be outraged. Yet even as new technology-rich environments revolutionize the classroom, few make provision for people who are blind, dyslexic, or otherwise print-disabled.

By Tanya Lewis, Staff Writer
Published: 09/03/2013 09:22 AM EDT on LiveScience

When Kaiba Gionfriddo was just a few months old, a 3D-printed device saved his life.

Kaiba was born with a rare condition called tracheobronchomalacia, which meant his windpipe was weak, and would collapse and prevent air from flowing to his lungs. Researchers at the University of Michigan sought approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for a 3D-printed tracheal splint, which they implanted around the baby's airway to help him breathe.

Thanks to 3D printing, a technology that produces objects of any shape, including medical devices highly customized for patients, from a computer model, these kinds of stories are becoming increasingly common. In order to keep up, the FDA is now looking at how it might evaluate medical devices made using 3D printers.

Read the full article at the Huffington Post 

(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/03/3d-print-medical-devices-fda_n_3860477.html?utm_hp_ref=tw)

Many of our Pass-It-On award winners are making Big change in small ways. Casey, one of our Spring Pass-It-On award winner is using her award money to help empower women with disabilities through technology. Read her personal note to our community about her journey and her intent with the PIO award.

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My name is Casey and I am 30 years old. Close to 10 years ago, I was involved in a road crash that left me quadriplegic, on a wheelchair and paralyzed from the shoulders down. After rehabilitation and learning to live as a quadriplegic in a developing country, I discovered through several challenges the enormous burden women with disabilities face in the country, not just by being a woman but a disabled woman. I founded the Chariots of Destiny Organization(COD) with the aim to empower especially women living with spinal cord injuries as well as to advocate for road safety. As a result of my injury, I am disabled from the neck down and hence cannot use my hands. I have learnt to use voice-activated software which has also enabled me to run COD strictly by voice.

Through working with COD I have been able to empower women economically, socially and psychologically through different projects. Through the “Adopt a Chair” project, we were able to provide wheelchairs to a number of women with disabilities. Some of these women we found crawling on the ground due to lack of the resources to purchase a wheelchair, while others had been using the same wheelchair for years since they were injured. We started the “Bags of a New Destiny – BAND” project to empower women through education. This project focuses on educating women with spinal cord injuries on everything they need to know with regard to living with a spinal cord injury. The beneficiaries receive bags of information post discharge from hospital. The bags contain journals and reading material on spinal cord injuries as well as DVDs and CDs to train them on different issues including physiotherapy. The beneficiaries also receive samples of healthcare products to start them off on the journey living with a spinal cord injury.

Read more at Anita Borg