Since we started to see the advances of technology in the most simple things around the world, we human beings have wanted to find the way of adapting technology for making our lives more comfortable and easier, for example all appliances we find in our kitchen,our computers,cell phones,etc, all these items serve its purpose on making our life easier, we know preparing the breakfast just takes minutes nowadays.

We have seen Robots becoming a "natural/normal/familiar thing" into our lives, for example in movies we see them as helpers (just see Bicentennial man- a movie based on a book written by Isaac Asimov ),and for the medicine field,there have been great advance with the implantation of chips for helping disabled people to control their sphincters and body movements,or even for being able to recover sensitivity in our bodies, also we have witnessed the implantation of robotic arms and legs for many disabled people or war victims...technology might never have an end which is amazing and fabulous, especially if it is well used, used especially for helping people who suffer and it's a great hope for many of us disabled people...

We never know, maybe tomorrow,in a few years more, many of us can walk again,first with a robot helping us and then maybe we can have some of our damaged body parts replaced by robotic technology.

Sandra Villanueva (Salimacatwoman/Savipe/Salima)

Robot-Assisted Exercise May Help Disabled Stroke Patients Regain Arm Movement

Newswise --

An experimental robotic device that provides a "power assist" to weakened muscles shows promising results in improving arm motion in partially paralyzed stroke survivors, according to preliminary research in the April issue of the American Journal of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation. The principal investigator was Dr. Joel Stein of Harvard Medical School and Chief Medical Officer of Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital.

Since I was very young (maybe when I was 14), I remember my parents bought for my brothers and me our first video game,it was a BIG Atari (the box or console was even bigger than a VCR), it was such a great time killer!, my parents used to allow us to play every afternoon for 1 hour and 20 or 30 mins,of course after we had finished school tasks and all the school stuff plus changing our uniforms,had dinner,etc...

New web tool to help colour blind

From: BBC News

New technology is being developed to make websites more accessible to those with colour blindness. University of East Anglia PhD student Luke Jefferson is developing plug-in software to adjust colours according to the user's type of colour blindness.

He has been funded by a £10,000 Enterprise Fellowship Scheme.

He now aims to transform his research into products that will make money and improve access to the web for those with colour blindness.

Was it Andy Warhol who said, "In the future everyone will be famous for 15 minutes"? Or Was it the Pope, or Buddha? Well, that's not important right now, what IS important is that it is true, Yes, it is true even for the inhabitants of the Internet Forrest: deviant Trojan horses, virii, Worms, Malware, Spyware who are trying just as hard as us people to get into magazine covers and feature stories both on paper as in html all over the globe.

Yesterday it was Zotob who enjoyed it's 15 minutes. But why?

It firstly sounds funny,though if we think carefully,maybe it's part of the technological future,especially for helping to detect diseases,what sounds weird is the use of: PEE! for creating inexpensive,disposable, and renewable, urine-powered batteries that would be used for healthcare test kits ,it's sounds weird but it's well known that some body fluids have minerals,proteins and other things that maybe if there are "more scientists who dare to use those body fluids",soon there will be more resources for saving electricity,and also for stopping diseases in an early stage.

Sandra Villanueva

Sound detector hope for the deaf
20/06/05 - Health news section
From: Daily Mail

Super-sensitive sound detectors used by crickets to spot predators have been recreated in the laboratory.

Scientists hope studying the tiny artificial hairs might lead to the development of new cochlea implants for the deaf.

The sensors will also have a range of other research applications, such as measuring airflows over aircraft.

Crickets spend most of their lives on the ground, making them vulnerable to predators such as wasps and spiders.

Species like the wood cricket have developed a pair of hairy appendages on their abdomens called cerci which can detect the smallest fluctuations in air currents.

Each of the hairs is lodged in a socket. Air vibrations drag on the hair, rotating its base and triggering specific nerve cells. The nerve messages allow the cricket to pinpoint low-frequency sound from any direction with incredible sensitivity.

Physicists at the University of Twente in the Netherlands built their own version of the system with up to a few hundred artificial hairs, the Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering reported.

The fine plastic hairs are attached to membranes with built-in electrodes and capacitors.

Airflow on the hair causes an electrical change which sends out a signal in a similar fashion to the cricket's cerci.

Hearing is made possible by tiny hairs disturbed by liquid in the cochlea of the inner ear. If the sensitive hairs are destroyed they cannot send out nerve messages in response to sound, and deafness results.

Most of us disabled people have a few "troubles" for using our computers,I mean that it's obvious the keyboards and mices plus other gadgets,peripherals and more we use aren't adapted for disabled people who sometimes doesn't have enough strenght in the hands and fingers,the same issue happens for blind and people who suffer other diseases/conditions that limitate their body movements.

In my case,as I mentioned a few days ago,It's easier for me using a trackball than a mouse,it adapts better to my hand,I am a fast typist although I have learned to use the keyboard with 2 fingers! (in the past I always used a typerwritter in the same way),it's because I don't have strenght in my fingers but for me it's a normal thing to type as I do.

If you have an idea for this topic please email me or post at Wheels' forum,thanks.

Sandra Villanueva

Technology Helps Disabled Workers


A Department of Defense program aids employees who are blind, deaf, or injured.

From: PCworld.com
Grant Gross, IDG News Service

Thursday, May 05, 2005

WASHINGTON -- For many people, technology is a tool that allows them to work more quickly and efficiently. For people with disabilities or those who have physical challenges, technology offered through the Computer/Electronics Accommodation Program at the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), makes it possible for them to do their jobs.

The program, called CAP for short, has provided a wide range of assistive technology to DOD employees and other federal workers since the DOD established it in 1990. CAP uses technology to assist federal workers, including employees with hearing or sight impairments and even workers injured in terrorist attacks on the Pentagon--DOD headquarters--on September 11, 2001.

In many cases,CAP provides technology to help, and encourages federal agencies to hire, people with long-term disabilities,including people who have been blind or deaf for their entire lives. But other CAP clients are workers who encounter challenges later in life: repetitive stress injuries, loss of sight as they grow older, or war wounds that make it difficult to stare at a computer screen all day.

"Our mission is to ensure people with disabilities have the technology they need to do their jobs," says Dinah Cohen, CAP director. "We know if people live long enough, they will have a disability issue."

Technologies employed by CAP include speech-recognition software for people who have trouble using a keyboard, computer screen magnification programs for people with sight disabilities,and talking dictionaries for people with cognitive disabilities. CAP gives screen-reading software, or readers that print out the text of a screen in Braille, to people with sight problems, and it provides equipment such as fax machines for government workers who, because of injuries or disabilities, have permission to work at home.

CAP averages about 5000 requests a year from employees of the DOD and about 50 other government agencies and offices, and the program has filed about 40,000 requests in the past 15 years.

Communication Aids

For Jeffrey Dallos, who's deaf, CAP has provided captioning services for videotapes, a Web cam to be able to see sign language interpreters, and Text Telephone, often called TTY. Dallos, National Disability Program manger for the Office of Equal Opportunity at the U.S. Geological Survey, educates his agency's workers on disability issues and coordinates a training program for young people with disabilities.

"The technologies have helped me communicate with my colleagues, supervisor, and the public," he says in an e-mail. "Communication on a daily basis is an integral part of my job."

Because of the nature of his work, Dallos is familiar with assistive technologies, he says. But other workers with disabilities may not know where to find assistive technology, and the cost of such technology can be prohibitive, he adds.

"I could find the same technologies elsewhere because CAP procures from many different vendors," he says. "The only difference is that they are providing funds for the technologies. CAP gives managers and supervisors a greater value and not having to worry about using their office budget to get technologies. I believe that is the greatest value to any manager or supervisor."

Not all CAP assistance comes in the form of complicated software such as speech recognition programs.

For Major Stephen Redmon, a lawyer in the Army Space and Missile Defense Command, CAP has helped him recover from a neck disc injury. After going through a needs assessment with CAP workers, Redmon was fitted with an ergonomic computer workstation. Activities such as turning his neck or holding a phone between his head and shoulder aggravated the injury, but CAP's equipment, including a telephone headset and a document holder, helped him avoid those activities.

"The equipment allowed my pain to go away," he says. "Basically, it healed itself over time."

More information on CAP is available online. Government workers whose agencies have an agreement with CAP can apply for assistance online.

As a disabled person,wheelchair user I know what a nuisance is going shopping and finding narrow aisles,or not finding the merchandise I am looking for.

Although the article below is about a Robot that will help blind shoppers,it can also be useful for disabled people that are wheelchair users,because it can save time for the wheelchair user to go around the store,sometimes the aisles have obstacles and maybe the Robot could help us to reach what we need,etc,technology has great uses if it's well developed.

For disabled people adapted technology is wonderful!

Sandra Villanueva

Although this report is more focused on visually impaired,some gadgets and items that have now became "an every day need" are also difficult to be used by people who use wheelchairs, I must say people with SCI and other situations that don't allow them to move their hands easily,for example people who have arthritis,also for Senior Citizens and people  with burnt hands.

I can say there are many new tech gadgets I have had to learn to use them,adapting my hands to the very small buttons,for example my Kodak digital camera,I wish it had a handler for grabbing it into one hand and clicking with the other,also my motorola cell phone,the keys are too small!,even my "normal-desktop" computer,I write using 2 or 4 fingers and sometimes the keys are not too wide for my fingers,though I have became a faster typist!

I think the developers/designers should create more gadgets that also can be used for disabled people too!

Sandra Villanueva