Since the inception of voice assistants like Amazon Echo and Google Home, a lot more products have voice assistants built in now – be it smartphones, headphones, various devices around the house, and even vehicles. It is estimated that by 2023 there will be 8 billion voice assistants in use! Voice Assistants are becoming a way of life for many people. With just a simple voice command, these assistants can perform simple to complex actions – be it telling what the weather is to ordering a pizza for you. However, for people with speech impairment, using a voice assistant is not easy because of its inability to understand the person’s speech, People with Down Syndrome, for example, have a unique speech pattern that makes it difficult for voice technologies to understand them, Why do voice assistants have trouble understanding people with speech impairments to begin with? Because today’s voice assistants are trained on what’s known as “typical speech ...
It didn’t take long for the watch, which, for the longest time, had just one purpose (of telling time!), to go smart. For a smart watch, telling time is just one of the hundreds (if not thousan ...
MDA Avaz Reader, built in association with the Madras Dyslexia Association, is an app that helps and encourages children with Dyslexia to read independently by offering various features and techniqu ...
Whether the text is too small, the meaning of the icons are hard to identify and remember, or one finds themself making accidental calls because of the complexity of modern smartphones, Simple Smartp ...
Mattel and the National Federation of the Blind have partnered together to create the first ever Braille edition of UNO®. Now, both sighted, blind and low vision people can play together! UNO Braill ...
Nobody likes picking up poop, but for some people with disabilities, this activity can be difficult or impossible. With Beetl Robotic’s Poop-Scooper prototype, this challenge may soon be a thin ...
Seriously MAGIC Wheelchairs The nonprofit, Magic Wheelchair, is an organization that “builds epic costumes for kiddos in wheelchairs — at no cost to families.” Founder, Ryan Weimer, fir ...
Growing up, did your grandma ever make you handmade apparel? Karen Bowersox took this idea for her granddaughter who has Down Syndrome to the next level. She founded the clothing line, NBZ Apparel In ...
A study conducted by the Occupational Therapy in Mental Health journal revealed that 63% of subjects using a wieghted blanket reported lower anxiety and 78% preferred the weighted blanket as a calmin ...
People with vision impairment who are also Google Maps users are in for a nice surprise! Starting October 10, which was also World Sight Day, Google announced a new update to Google Maps that will pr ...
If you are an arts and culture enthusiast living in or planning a visit to The Windy City, the Chicago Cultural Accessibility Consortium is definitely worth checking out. It highlights over twenty Ch ...
Did you know October 7th is National LED Light Day? To celebrate, today’s blog highlights 3 creative projects that use LED lights to help kids with visual impairments have more independence  ...
There are manythings an able bodied person can do very easily on their phones. Want to gosomewhere? Open the lyft app and get a ride. Cooking dinner? Look up a recipeonline. However, for the 630 mill ...
Tablift is a low tech assistive technology device that can provide relief and relaxation to people with disabilities by giving them the ability to use tablets in a “hands-free” manner. Ta ...
A new paradigm in music creation has been officially recognised at the prestigious International Sound Awards 2019 at the World Music Showcase, Reeperbahn Festival Hamburg Germany this week. LOOPFREE ...
Developed in association with Sense International India, Samsung Good Vibes is an app for deafblind people that lets them communicate with others using Morse Code! The app has two interfaces – ...
Acoustic-motion sensors enable a completely new sound processing technology that measures more aspects of sound than existing hearing aids to deliver vastly improved hearing from any direction, in an ...
A new startup, WeWalk, which recently graduated from the Microsoft for Startups program, is making waves in the assistive technology world. WeWalk has invented a product by the same name that attache ...
Continuing their trend of making shoes that works for everyone , Nike just announced a new shoe that’s easy to take on and off for people with disabilities. The Air Zoom UNVRS was created kee ...
Lego sets are possibly the most fun construction toys that are enjoyed by both children and adults. Through these fun lego sets, children learn a lot about planning, communication (if they are buildi ...
Engineers at DeMontfort University have found an ingenious and inexpensive way of creatingprosthetics. These engineers ground regular plastic bottles down and createdpolyester yarns from them. They t ...
Whether we are at home or work, we don’t really pay attention to the many sounds that surround us, and that we depend on to take action. Think of the microwave beeping – if it beeps, our ...
Cashel Enterprises, LLC (DE) has launched a Kickstarter for their new product HealthWhale , the next best thing in Disability Technology. HealthWhale, which is being released online and is soon to be ...
Brad and BryanManning were diagnosed with Stargardt disease when they were very little. Sincethen, they have been known as the blind brothers. Stargardt is a form ofmacular degeneration that causes a ...
According to a 2016 study , someone develops Alzheimer’s disease every 66 seconds. Alzheimer’s causes progressive memory loss as well as slow degradation of other cognitive functions that ...