A New Zealand company has invented a pair of bionic legs that allows a paraplegic to walk again. Rex, the Robotic Exoskeleton, is the brainchild of Auckland inventors Richard Little and Robert Irving, both who have mothers who use wheelchairs. Irving also found out seven years ago that he has Multiple Sclerosis, a nerve disease [...]
By Suzanne Robitaille Apple’s Facetime feature for the iPhone 4 is already making waves in the deaf community because for the first time, two deaf people can use sign language to communicate with each other. FaceTime also lets hearing-impaired people supplement voice calls with video; features like lip-reading and facial expressions go a long way [...]
Quanek Collins is just finishing the fourth grade. At 10 years old, he loves basketball, playing chess, drawing, and watching TV. Life just got a little easier for Collins, who has a rare condition called Aniridia that results in severe vision loss. Through an alliance between Optelec, a maker of vision assistive technology, and Sight [...]
[By Penny Reeder] Last year, I attended a multi-day conference to provide input to the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped on its then-new digital book playback equipment. My employer was enthusiastically supportive of my participation, as long as I kept up with my work responsibilities. But things went awry the [...]
I’m really glad the New York Times is paying notice to the issue of captioning on new and digital technologies (“On Web Video, Captions Are Coming Slowly”, June 21.) What a hassle and annoyance (and frankly, somewhat of a civil rights violation, in my opinion) this has been for the deaf and hearing-impaired community. We [...]
Microsoft unveiled its new add-on for the Xbox 360, known as Kinect, which uses motion detection instead of hand controls to play –- similar to Nintendo’s Wii. Microsoft, which launched Kinect at E3 in L.A., believes the program will make the Xbox more accessible to disabled gamers. Ablegamers.com writer Steve Spohn has some nice things to [...]
[By Michael Janger] On Saturday, May 15, the State University of New York in Orange County (SUNY Orange) hosted its first annual Hudson Valley Assistive Technology Expo. Over 60 exhibits and vendors advertised their services and products. Headlining the expo was a keynote speech by Dr. Nancy Sulla of IDECORP (an expert on Universal [...]
The deaf community’s frustration with Netflix may be going away, or at least subsiding for now. Netflix has enabled closed captioning for some TV episodes and movies that you can watch instantly on your PC or Mac, says Neil Hunt, Chief Product Officer at Netflix. Although it’s a limited library of content with subtitles available [...]
For four years, I have lived within three blocks of two major movie theaters on the Upper East Side in Manhattan, yet, as a deaf person, I have never gone to a movie in these theaters because they do not use captioning systems. Consequently, my wife and I are forced to go across town to [...]
In a move that has been eagerly anticipated by the disability community, the Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday submitted its National Broadband Plan to Congress. The 360-page plan, which lays out a vision for high-speed broadband that’s both affordable and accessible, has wide implications for American with disabilities. Only 65 percent of American households are [...]
