In our last post, we said that “We think (Broadway-bound) Abigail Breslin will make a PHENOMENAL Helen Keller, even though she’s neither deaf nor blind.”
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Brent Boyd #62
Quoting Brent Boyd, Former Minnesota Viking and founder of Dignity After Football:
“The carnage left behind from decades of NFL concussions is unspeakable. The only thing worse is the NFL’s entrenched stance not to acknowledge or accept responsibility or any liability—as every other American business must adhere to. The NFL, by virtue of compounding billions of dollars each year, is above the law, legally and morally.
I played seven years with the Vikings. I am 52 years old, have been suffering from post-concussions since 1980, and was diagnosed with early dementia and Alzheimer’s at the young age of 49. The NFL insists concussions could not be remotely responsible, despite countless concussions or hitting the rock hard original Astro-Turf. My headaches, total lack of energy (I am reduced to sleeping most of the day after graduating with Honors from UCLA, and being accepted to law school) are only silly coincidences according to the NFL’s corrupt disability system … Continue reading this editorial
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Read Irked posts tagged “sports”
Read Irked posts tagged “dementia”
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Via GimpGirl’s Twitter feed comes this powerful poem:
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Then…
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Dr. David E. Thomas is a 60-year-old male physician specializing in psychiatry. He was diagnosed with Lewy Body Dementia (LBD) in October 2007, and currently runs this very active, very wonderful blog. Here’s a lighthearted poem about an utterly unfunny subject that recently appeared on Dr. Thomas’ website:
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Forgetter Be Forgotten
My forgetter’s getting better,
But my rememberer is broke
To you that may seem funny
But, to me, that is no joke
For when I’m ‘here’ I’m wondering
If I really should be ‘there’
And, when I try to think it through,
I haven’t got a prayer!
Oft times I walk into a room,
Say ‘what am I here for?’
I wrack my brain, but all in vain!
A zero, is my score.
At times I put something away
Where it is safe, but, Gee!
The person it is safest from
Is, generally, me!
When shopping I may see someone,
Say ‘Hi’ and have a chat,
Then, when the person walks away
I ask myself, ‘who the hell was that?’
Yes, my forgetter’s getting better
While my rememberer is broke,
And it’s driving me plumb crazy
And that isn’t any joke.
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World-record-setting Paralympian sprinter Aimee Mullins, as you know from our last post, is a bilateral amputee—i.e. both of her legs were amputated below the knee. She learned to walk on prosthetics, then to run.
Aimee said some truly tremendous things during her TED Talk.
But this quote in particular, this hilarious and delicious nugget of a sound byte, is so off-the-wall funny that it bears repeating…
“From an identity standpoint, what does it mean to have a disability?
Pamela Anderson has more prosthetic in her body than I do.
Nobody calls her disabled.”
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Another time, being interviewed by Mavian Arocha for Aventura Magazine, Aimee was asked “What quality do you lack that you wish you could attain and embrace?” Not missing a beat, Aimee ran with the generic line of questioning and dryly responded: “Besides being able to bend my ankles? Jeez, this is hard.”
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Excerpting Meagan VanBurkleo’s phenomenal article for gameinformer.com, titled Accessibility: Creating Games For A Diverse Audience:
The practice of escapism intuitively becomes more important to an individual who is disabled by society or their surroundings. Whether the individual has a physical, auditory or cognitive impairment, the video-game experience in theory should act as a great equalizer. As we said, [in] the world of video games anything is possible, if the capacity to engage in these experiences is not denied to us. What if a physical limitation leaves a gamer unable to use a standard console controller? What if the lack of subtitles prohibits the entire Deaf community from experiencing a blockbuster title? The bottom line is that the majority of video-game hardware, software and peripherals are unnecessarily inaccessible to many gamers with disabilities. Through simple lack of awareness or an intentional marginalization of their demographic, disabled gamers routinely take the backseat in the game-development process. There is no denying that the vast range and degrees of disabilities makes the situation complicated, however, there are simple steps developers can take to improve the accessibility of their titles. By studying the basics of accessibility and usability, fostering an awareness of common disabilities and how they affect gameplay, and giving disabled gamers a voice through participation in game testing—the current situation can be vastly improved.
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Quoting Nomensa.com:
Nomensa have created an accessible media player, capable of playing audio and video content. The player can also pull in content from YouTube, making it the perfect accessible YouTube player for embedding into any website. A standard Flash media player has been wrapped in HTML/CSS content, to give it an accessible interface. Advanced techniques, including Accessible Rich Internet Application (ARIA) code, have been used to produce this revolutionary media player. The media player is keyboard accessible, making it enjoyable for people to use without a mouse. It’s screen reader friendly as well, and also offers an unparalleled experience for people using the latest screen readers with ARIA support. People who are deaf or hard of hearing can also enjoy using the media player, as it has the ability to display captions as standard. It really offers an inclusive experience for everyone visiting the website. Most Flash based media players use a fixed interface, but the accessible media player from Nomensa can be adapted to suit any website. The HTML/CSS interface provides great flexibility for branding and styling. Compared to other options, such as the standard YouTube player, the Nomensa accessible media player really offers some tremendous benefits. It’s accessible, can be uniquely branded, and offers a truly inclusive experience. The Nomensa accessible media player is perfect for public, private or third sector websites wanting to participate in the social media scene. To find out more about including content without excluding people, please contact us.
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A Japanese company, Haruyama Trading Co., has developed a suit that it claims protects the wearer from the deadly H1N1 strain of influenza.
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Quoting Julian Ryall, writing on telegraph.co.uk:
The company has produced 50,000 of the suits and will start selling them on Thursday, according to a company spokesman. The suit is coated with the chemical titanium dioxide, which reacts to light to break down and kill the virus when it comes into contact with it, according to Junko Hirohata. The chemical is a common ingredient in toothpaste and cosmetics. The suit—which is indistinguishable from any other worn by Japan’s legion of “salarymen”—comes in four colours and styles, which are medium grey, charcoal, navy and a grey pinstripe. It will go on sale for about £365. The company said it spent a year developing the suit, which retains its properties even after being washed numerous times. Japan has been gripped by swine flu fear since the global outbreak began a year ago…[Continue reading, see photos]
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From Tim Hornyak article on news.cnet.com:
South Korea’s Hoya Robot is developing a mini firefighter helper bot that can enter burning buildings to conduct reconnaissance and check for people. The Firefighters Assistant Robot can apparently operate for up to 30 minutes in fires, and can withstand temperatures up to 320° F. It can also survive falls of more than 6 feet [and] it’s water-resistant. It may look like a tank up close, but the bot can nearly fit in the palm of your hand and weighs only 3 pounds. The remote-controlled rover can scoot into a blaze and transmit image, sound, temperature, smoke, and gas data to firefighters up to 54 yards away. Firemen can decide on a course of action based on the findings. Onboard lights below the fire-bot’s camera help illuminate its path amid smoke and darkness. It can travel about 1 foot per second…[Continue reading and watch YouTube videos]
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Quoting businessweek.com:
Apple is widely celebrated for making devices as easy to use as they are elegantly designed. What customers probably don’t know is that some of these features aren’t exactly new—they evolved from software Apple created to help disabled people use PCs. Among them: the new iPhone’s voice control option, which allows users to speak to their handsets to prompt an action, such as calling Mom, or to get a spoken answer to such questions as “What song is playing?” And “mainstreaming” tools for the disabled is spreading. Software developer Nuance Communications, for instance, invented voice command technology to help people who are unable to type on a computer. Today, the company’s algorithms are used in products ranging from Amazon.com’s latest Kindle e-reader to cars from Ford Motor. Meantime, Mattel is incorporating technology, initially intended to help paraplegics, into a soon-to-be-released game controlled by players’ brainwaves. Other companies should consider following these trailblazers, say innovation consultants. “Companies could look at designing for accessibility as a sales opportunity. Most features that are accessible for the disabled have great value to everybody,” says Donald A. Norman, a former Apple vice-president for advanced technology who heads a joint business and engineering program at Northwestern University.
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