Technology

Let us find out what epilepsy is and what are the technologies that can help people avoid or minimize the problems brought by its effects.

What is Epilepsy?

Epilepsy refers to a group of disorders that causes disturbances in the brain’s electrical signaling.

Pulses of energy travel in the brain at a certain rate. During an epileptic seizure, these pulses of energy travel much faster for a specific period of time. Epilepsy may be caused by abnormalities in the brain, illness, and brain damage.

Could a blind person drive a car? Researchers are trying to make that far-fetched notion a reality.

The National Federation of the Blind in the US and Virginia Tech plan to demonstrate a prototype vehicle next year equipped with technology that helps a
blind person drive a car independently.

The technology, called "nonvisual interfaces," uses sensors to let a blind driver manoeuvre a car based on information transmitted to him about the surroundings:
whether another car or object is nearby, in front or in an adjacent lane.

“More important than the right to speech is the right to speak.” The world renowned British theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking knows this exactly to be true. Having been robbed of his ability to speak to a motor neuron disease, Stephen Hawking had to struggle with crude communication systems just to be able to tell his wants and needs…until he discovered VOCAs.

If it had not been for VOCAs, Stephen Hawking’s insights into the nature of space and time would not have been known. This assistive technology has allowed him to communicate, write and publish his works, and give lectures to live audiences around the world in spite of losing his ability to speak.

In this post we will explore what VOCAs are and how these instruments give people an ability that most of us take for granted.

Tied up with an invisible chain -- you’d probably think this to yourself if you suddenly found out that you can’t walk, move, lift your arms, or even just curl your fingers.

This could easily be anyone’s reaction if they’ve had a spinal cord injury and is left paralyzed from the neck down. But this doesn’t have to be so. For the many people living with quadriplegia, life doesn’t have to slip away from them even if it had slipped away from their limbs.

This is exactly what our friend will show us as he invites us to a day in his life. We will see the daily challenges that he has to face and how assistive technology and adaptive tools are helping him to overcome them.

In an earlier post, I have written about how a deaf blind person does her daily tasks with the help of assistive technology. Let us now focus more on the communication devices that deaf blind people use to connect with other people and exchange information with the world around them.

There are many ways for deaf blind people to communicate. The methods that they use vary with the degree or combination of their vision and hearing loss, their background, and education. And with the recent advancements in assistive technology, deaf blind people are now finding more ways to connect with other people, whether they are sitting side-by-side or kilometers apart.

We all know that sign language is used by people who are deaf and hard of hearing to communicate with other persons. But while this form of communication is essential to this group, only a small percentage of hearing people know this language.

To address this issue, developers of technologies have created ways to use sign language in software and similar products. Below we offer a glimpse of some of these assistive technologies. You may be surprised by how innovative these products are.

Before you think I went totally crazy, let me explain where this question is coming from. Recently I was checking this blog's traffics statistics, and I found that somebody asked this same question in Google, which led to this blog: "Can blind people see?". First, I thought it is just some nonsense, they can't. That's why they are blind. but the more I thought about it, maybe for some reason somebody asked this question in all sincerity, so let me answer it.

When somebody is blind, there are whole lot of things which are given for many, but the lack of sight takes it away. By default, blind people are not able to enjoy many things which eye-sight provides. They cannot enjoy a harmony of colors, cannot explore the environment farther than their arms' reach, they cannot read regular print books, etc. However, as these things are very important to function in life, many technologies were developed to compensate for the lack of site. Here I will discuss some, and will provide links for additional reading.

Having a disability can truly affect many aspects of a person’s life. But try to ask yourself this: What if you had, not one, but two disabilities? You may probably think to yourself, “I’d most likely just stay at home and have someone to take care of me 24/7.”

You are not the only one having this opinion, as many people would think of the same thing. But let us read on and find out if this would really be the case.

In most electronic devices today, sound is included as a primary or secondary feature. This provides a good deal of convenience for users as it enables them to be aware of certain events without looking at the device.

However, sound may not be that useful for people who are deaf or hard of hearing. So to solve this issue, providers of electronic devices have thought of an ingenious feature that can be used when sound is not a good option. This feature incorporates vibration which is activated during specific events.

Imagine yourself without the ability to hear, not even the slightest sound. How would you carry out your daily tasks and activities? What would you do to complete them properly?

We’ll try to answer these questions and much more by following a person with a hearing disability for one day. We will focus on how he uses technology in his daily life.