Tagged with: accessibility assistive technology blind disability GPS visual impairments This GPS unit is perfect for someone on the go, who wants to find their way around town using voice rather than vision. The GPS unit “Where Am I” tool gives you your precise location and a description of what is around you; and even allows you to save your destinations and trips so that you can use them again (called geotagging).
Tagged with: accessibility android applications apps smartphone Android offers a wide range of FREE disability apps for any user with an Android phone.
Tagged with: accessibility android apps cell phones disability free phones Android offers a wide range of FREE disability apps for any user with an Android phone.
With the new Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) accessibility laws issued in January of this year, places such as the T.W. Patterson Sports Complex Dog Park is taking a pro-active approach. Without any complaints or lawsuits pending from community members, the park district felt the need to make the dog park accessible to everyone. Additionally, the new ADA accessibility laws are stricter. The city has also learned that there have been a number of facilities shut down in other cities due to litigation and the city wanted to avoid a similar action in Patterson.
Tagged with: accessibility disability research robotics visually impaired wheelchair A “sighted” wheelchair has been taken on a successful first test drive by a PhD-student who is visually impaired. The electric wheelchair is steered with a joystick and has a “haptic robot” that works like a virtual white cane. A laser scanner helps to create a simplified 3D map of the wheelchair surroundings. The laser scanner uses a technique called “Time-of-flight.” After the 3D map is produced, it transfers back to the haptic robot. This allows a wheelchair user with a visual impairment to “feel or see” obstacles like oncoming people or open doors, and navigate past them.
Tagged with: accessibility awareness inclusion participation I always learn so much when I give presentations. I love it! A few weeks ago I presented to a group of campus recreation professionals on ways that they can prepare their fitness staff so that they are able to provide inclusive services. My favorite thing happened during this presentation – it quickly turned from a lecture that I was giving to a discussion that everyone was involved in. People started asking questions and giving each other resources and ideas. I hope it was as informative for everyone who attended as it was for me.
Carol Shultz, a woman with multiple sclerosis and that uses a wheelchair is suing a central Ohio fitness center for a lack of accessibility. While the new fitness center, Urban Active, was still being built, Carol Schulz and her daughter signed up during a health fair. Carol’s daughter, Amy,34, also uses a wheelchair as a result of having transverse myelitis when she was 19. She had planned to use the track to help strengthen her muscles so she could use a manual wheelchair. Carol was told “they’d helped so many people like me”.
Tagged with: accessibility accessible advocate disability research Even though inclusive education has increased, many kids with disabilities still feel excluded during playtime and recess, leaving them on the sidelines as observers and not active participants. Researchers from the University of Leeds engineering and sociology departments are working together to make playtime fun for all kids by taking out the barrier often present when a child has a disability.
Tagged with: accessibility ADA advisory board awareness The township of Barnegat in New Jersey is probably one of few that has an Americans with Disabilities (ADA) Advisory Board. Barnegat, which has a population of about 20,308, is very proud of their ADA advisory board. The goal is to bring awareness of the advisory board itself and help members of the township.
Our culture has introduced the idea of inclusion (age appropriate participation with our peers) for years. Laws support it, schools teach it, and many advocates work tirelessly to bring the concept of disability awareness, inclusion, and participation into schools, workplaces, and general communities.
