Even cerebral palsy can't stop this dedicated video creator

Christopher Hill isn't your typical video producer. The youngster whipped up the clip after the break controlling his array of Macs almost entirely with a single switch. Chris has cerebral palsy, a severe motor function impairment that makes it all but impossible for him to interact with a computer through a traditional keyboard and mouse. Instead, a button is mounted behind his head on his wheel chair, which connects to a Discover Switch. That blue and green USB peripheral, which looks quite a bit like the Staple's Easy Button, allows him to manipulate anything on the screen with nothing more than the back of his head. The one thing Chris left to someone else in the clip below is the subtitles. While he could actually type them himself, it would have taken a very long time, so he graciously accepted some help from his father. Click on through for a nice heart-warming tale about the power of modern technology.
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Tek Robotic Mobilization Device helps paraplegics stand, huge improvement over the wheelchair

Tek Robotic Mobilization Device helps paraplegics stand, huge improvement over the wheelchair:






If you've ever spent any significant amount of time with a wheelchair user, you'll know that the tool isn't the perfect design — it often gets in the way, and it is difficult to get in and out of. The Tek RMD (Robotic Mobilization Device) looks to be a major improvement over the years-old wheelchair design. It's a "motorized standing movement device," and while it's not the first such product that'll hold a paraplegic in a standing position, the makers say it's the smallest of its kind. Size is important for a device like this; the world still is full of places that aren't designed for those who are paralyzed, and at 36cm wide and 62cm long (a third the size of a typical wheelchair), it looks much easier to squeeze through aisles at...
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App turns Android tabs into math tools for the visually impaired (video)

Two high school students are taking part in a bit of an experiment at Vanderbilt University. The college's Medical and Electromechanical Design Laboratory (MED Lab) is working on an Android app that turns tablets into a teaching aid for the visually impaired. Areas of math that rely heavily on visual elements, such as algebra and calculus, prove problematic for students with poor eyesight. A common solution involves pipe cleaners, a cork board and push pins, to recreate graphs, but the method is quite slow. The MED Lab is looking to haptic feedback as a way to help the visually impaired identify lines, graph points and other data that is normally represented visually. For more details about the project check out the video after the break.

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Google aids accessibility with ChromeVox reader, better YouTube captions and more

Engineers from Google have commandeered a booth at this year's CSUN accessibility conference and they're keen to talk up their latest efforts. For the visually impaired, there's now a beta version of a Chrome screen reader called ChromeVox (demo'd after the break), plus improved shortcuts and screen reader support in Google Docs, Sites and Calendar. Meanwhile, YouTube boasts expanded caption support for the hard of hearing, with automatic captions enabled for 135 million video clips -- a healthy tripling of last year's total. Check the source link for full details or, if you're anywhere near San Diego, go and hassle those engineers the old-fashioned way.

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BrailleTouch brings 'eyes-free' texting to the visually impaired

Georgia Tech is developing a mobile app to help the visually impaired type on their phones. Called BrailleTouch, the open-source app features a six-button set-up — with three buttons on either side of the screen — and the device is held with the screen facing away from you. Written Braille characters use a six-dot code for the English alphabet, with different combinations of dots corresponding to each of the 26 letters (and various symbols). BrailleTouch will read out the letters as you type, and early research shows that users have been able to type at speeds of up to 32 words per minute while maintaining 92 percent accuracy. In addition to aiding the visually impaired, the team behind BrailleTouch is also looking at turning the...

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ColorNote Notepad App

Color Note is a notepad app which give you a better note editing experience.

Color Note is a simple notepad app. It give you a quick and simple notepad editing experience when you write notes, memo, email, message, shopping list and todo list. Color Note makes taking a note easier than any other notepad and memo apps.

source:https://market.android.com/details?id=com.socialnmobile.dictapps.notepad.color.note&feature=top-free

New wheelchair designed to encourage seated movement

New wheelchair designed to encourage seated movement:

If you sit behind a desk in an office all day then you'll be all too aware of the effects from not changing your position regularly. Wheelchair users spend the majority of their day seated, with long periods in the same position, resulting in severe pain, deformities, and even bedsores. Roger Hochstrasser, founder of r going, plans to improve the situation with a new adjustable wheelchair.

Hochstrasser has teamed up with Swiss research group Empa, and the pair have developed an ergonomic seat for electric wheelchairs which helps users move around frequently. The wheelchair, which is undergoing testing, consists of ribs and movable joints inside an articulated backrest that match the contours of a user's body. The unique backrest, powered...

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