Disability // Current

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9 months ago

Brain with ADHD develops differently

A National Institutes of Health study from November 2007 found that in youth with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, the... more

NotCaleb
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Amputee "bullied" out of her job at Abercrombie & Fitch sues

A young law student is suing Abercrombie & Fitch claiming that the US retailer "questioned her worth as a human... more

FreshPlastic
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MIGHTY MOVIE PODCAST on HuffPost: Max Mayer on ADAM

Turning out to be a rough month for romance, isn’t it? ADAM, the new drama directed by Max Mayer and starring Hugh Dancy and... more

DanPersons
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Rose Byrne & Hugh Dancy Take Over Current

Rose Byrne and Hugh Dancy of "Adam" take on the topics of love, relationships, and the challenges of living with... more

chapinyoung
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Downsyndrome Virgin: a Do or a Don't?

From Jezebel.com: " Brit Lucy Baxter, is a mother trying to help her son Otto — who has Down Syndrome — lose... more

catchiecoo
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Post-Polio Group’s Twelve Years at Camp ASCCA :: A reminder of therapeutic recreation's history

f you know your history, President Franklin Roosevelt (the first and only U. S. president to use a wheelchair) was a strong... more

CampASCCA
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Autism Teachers Know the Benefits of Camp ASCCA

Teachers working with children with autism attended our Autism Family Weekend a week ago. Nancy Barnes is an Autism... more

CampASCCA
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Parapalegic Skis :: Shepherd Center Adventure Skills Workshop at Camp ASCCA :: Clyde Adams

Shepherd’s Spring Adventure Skills Workshop featured a wide variety of activities. The sit ski program was very popular.... more

CampASCCA
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"Researchers long ago rejected the theory that vaccines cause autism, yet many parents don't believe them. Can scientists bridge the gap between evidence and doubt?

Pediatrician Paul Offit has made it his mission to set the record straight: vaccines don't cause autism. But he won't go on Larry King Live—where he could reach millions of viewers—or anyplace celebrity anti-vaccine crusaders like Jenny McCarthy appear. ''Every story has a hero, victim, and villain,'' he explains. ''McCarthy is the hero, her child is the victim—and that leaves one role for you.''

When she read that hecklers were issuing death threats to spokespeople who simply reported studies showing that vaccines were safe, anthropologist Sharon Kaufman dropped her life's work on aging to study the theory's grip on public discourse. To Kaufman, a researcher with a keen eye for detecting major cultural shifts, these unsettling events signaled a deeper trend. ''What happens when the facts of bioscience are relayed to the public and there is disbelief, lack of trust?'' Kaufman wondered. ''Where does that lead us?''

Despite overwhelming evidence that vaccines don't cause autism, one in four Americans still think they do. Not surprisingly, the first half of 2008 saw the largest US outbreak of measles—one of the first infectious diseases to reappear after vaccination rates drop—since 2000, when the native disease was declared eliminated. Mumps and whooping cough have also made a comeback. Last year in Minnesota, five children contracted Hib, the most common cause of meningitis in young children before the vaccine was developed in 1993. Three of the children, including a 7-month-old who died, hadn't received Hib vaccines because their parents either refused or delayed vaccination.

Now, more than ten years after unfounded doubts about vaccine safety first emerged, scientists and public health officials are still struggling to get the story out. Their task is made far more difficult by the explosion of misinformation on the Internet, talk shows, and high-profile media outlets, by journalists' tendency to cover the issue as a "debate," and, as Kaufman argues, by an erosion of trust in experts."

Is there a lack of Scientific Knowledge in America? Why?"Researchers long ago rejected the theory that vaccines cause autism, yet many parents don't believe them. Can... more

DeliaTheArtist
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8 months ago

Sex Sells... Autism Awareness?!? (VIDEO)

The sex-sells formula for advertising is a pretty good one, but some might argue it's not always appropriate in every... more

abbym0308
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4 comments

added
8 months ago

Students Build a Car the Blind Can Drive

The same technology that lets cars drive themselves allows the blind to drive, too.

Virginia Tech undergrads packed an all-terrain buggy with technology lifted from the university’s DARPA Urban Challenge entry to create a car the blind can drive. The semi-autonomous vehicle uses a laser range finder, voice software and other sensory technology, and it worked flawlessly when blind drivers took the wheel on a closed course. Advocates for the blind joined the lead researcher in calling the vehicle a breakthrough in independent living for the visually impaired.

“We are not only excited about the vehicle itself, but also the potential spinoff technologies from this project that could end up helping the blind,” Dennis Hong, the director of the university’s Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory, told Wired.com.

The car was born of a challenge the National Federation of the Blind’s Jernigan Institute issued in 2004 when it called on universities to develop a vehicle for the blind. Virginia Tech accepted the challenge in 2006 — the only university to do so — and received a $3,000 grant to begin the project.

The Blind Driver Challenge team at Virginia Tech’s Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory built the buggy. The steering wheel is hooked up to a distance monitor that gathers information from laser range finders, and it uses voice software to tells the driver how far to turn the wheel. For example, the monitor will tell the driver “turn left three clicks.” As the driver does that, the monitor makes three clicking noises.

A vibrating vest provides cues to follow when accelerating and decelerating. The vest vibrates in different places — the back, the belly and the shoulders — to convey different commands. When the entire vest vibrates, it means, “Slam on the brakes!”

“Originally we had a vibrating chair, but the vehicle was also vibrating on account of the motor, so drivers had some difficulty differentiating between the two,” Hong said. “The 2009-2010 team will be applying this technology to an electric vehicle to eliminate the vibration caused by the motor altogether.”

Hong wants to continue working on a tactile map interface. The system, called Airpix, shoots compressed air through tiny holes on a screen in real time, to provide a layout of the area surrounding the vehicle. Drivers can “read” the map with a hand, much like Braille. Hong said he needs more feedback from the blind and visually impaired to refine the system.

All this technology is clearly in its earliest stage,s and we’re a long way from the day when the blind join us in slogging through the morning commute. But the Federation for the Blind hailed the vehicle and the promise it offers.

“It’s a great first step,” Wes Majerus, an access-technology expert for the federation, said in a press release. “As far as the differences between human instructions and those given by the voice in the Blind Driver Challenge car, the car’s instructions are very precise. You use the technology to act on the environment — the driving course — in a very orderly manner.”

Majerus drove the car and said, “It was great.” Mark Riccobono, executive director of the Jernigan Institute, called his test drive historic. “This is sort of our going-to-the-moon project,” he said.

Although the technology is progressing, laws prohibiting the blind from driving — not to mention public perception about that possibility — must be changed, Hong said. That is why the Blind Driver’s Challenge team will be promoting the vehicle’s technology at a National Federation for the Blind–sponsored parade in Washington, D.C.

“People always say, ‘What’s the point of this project?’” Hong said. “But blind people who drive the vehicle always have a big smile on their face afterwards. It’s therapeutic and gives them hope of being entirely independent.”The same technology that lets cars drive themselves allows the blind to drive, too. Virginia Tech undergrads packed an... more