Abled Body Where can-do is done different

In a verdict that will serve as another likely nail in the coffin for an autism theory, a federal vaccines court threw out three cases last week that dispel a belief that thimerosal — mercury-containing preservative — causes autism. I have previously covered this controversy: Some people believe vaccines with this preservative can cause autism, a complex neuro-developmental disorder. Yet piles of scientific research disprove this theory. Earlier rulings on this matter have been sent to the U.S. Court of Appeals, and that’s where these three cases are likely to end up. But not even case dismissals help us to better determine the real origins of autism, which affects 1 in 110 children. Autism today remains a tangle of environmental and genetic leads, but nothing conclusive. Those who are most affronted by this verdict are, obviously, the more than 5,300 parents who had filed claims with the U.S. Court of Federal Claims ... keep reading »

While I can only hope that the recent retraction of a 1998 study that claimed the vaccination for measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) could increase children’s risk of developing autism will close the door on this staunchly held belief, I’m afraid the myth still will prevail. In a statement explaining its retraction, The Lancet, a British medical journal, which published the study by Dr. Andrew Wakefield, said, “it has become clear that several elements are incorrect … in particular, the claims in the original paper that children were ‘consecutively referred’ and that investigations were ‘approved’ by the local ethics committee have been proven to be false.” To parse that out for you, the main issue with the Wakefield study was a misleading breach of ethics. Specifically, Wakefield wrote that the 12 children in his case report were referred to his clinic with stomach problems; actually, the children were part of a lawsuit ... keep reading »

I recently did an interview for ABC news video. They asked me to come and talk about five new assistive technologies. I did the interview in their New York City studio, which presented somewhat of a difficult challenge as ABC News’ anchor is based in Washington, D.C. Which meant a remote feed — an earbud, which I couldn’t use in my ear because I have a cochlear implant. Fortunately we arrived at a solution to tape the earbud as close as possible to my cochlear implant. So that’s why you can see a wire, and is also why I purposely move my head slowly when demonstrating the products. The sound technician said the next time I can buy a mono adapter for the awesome NoizFree headset that I use with my cochlear implant, which would have plugged nicely into ABC’s sound system. In any event, the ABC News interview was ... keep reading »

Ah, video and search. Frank Sinatra said it best: Try, try, try to separate them – it’s an illusion. Here’s proof of that: Speech Technology. This week, Google sealed the deal on video search capabilities for its YouTube portal, saying it would provide auto-captions for all of its uploaded videos using proprietary Google’s Speech Technology. Google’s initiative, piloted in November, began with a handful of partner channels including PBS, Stanford University and National Geographic. It has now expanded to all uploaded English-speaking videos, with more languages to be added later this year. With this news, Google establishes itself as a frontrunner in the Internet programming space. As a company built on search, search, and more search, Google is now able to capitalize on its investment in speech-to-text technology to index videos, target advertising and create an actual profit margin for YouTube. In fact, video search is likely why Google acquired YouTube in ... keep reading »

At the start of every month, ReadHowYouWant, the company that translated my book into braille and audio formats, offers a free chapter download of 20 books. Since March is Women’s History Month and celebrates women authors, ReadHowYouWant is giving away a free chapter of my new book, The Illustrated Guide to Assistive Technology! Australian-based ReadHowYouWant partners with leading publishers to make their content accessible at the time of publication. It has a small collection of 3,500 titles but they are adding 200 new titles every month. Braille and DAISY titles range in price from $4.99 to $12.99. The free chapter download program is a joint project between ReadHowYouWant and Humanware, an assistive technology company that makes accessible digital book readers for the blind such as the VictorReader Stream. The chapters are available in digital braille (which can be read on a braille display) as well as two audio types: regular MP3 ... keep reading »