photography

Filed under: Themes, Blind Visionaries

Intel is doing its part to help people with sight or reading disabilities enjoy the written word.

The company announced on Tuesday the debut of the Intel Reader, a handheld text-to-speech device that can read any printed text aloud to those who are blind or have difficulties seeing or reading.

The Atom-powered device uses a high-resolution camera to capture images of any printed text, which it then converts into digital format to read out loud. The Reader can be used as a standalone device to snap pictures of text. But paired with Intel’s Portable Capture Station, which can hold the Reader in place, the device can grab huge amounts of text, such as an entire book, according to Intel.

“We are proud to offer the Intel Reader as a tool for people who have trouble reading standard print so they can more easily access the information many of us take for granted every day, such as reading a job offer letter or even the menu at a restaurant,” said Louis Burns, vice president and general manager of Intel’s Digital Health Group, in a statement.

A check at some of the retailers selling the Intel Reader revealed its base price to be $1,499, with the Portable Capture Station an additional $399.

Weighing one pound, the Reader is the size of a paperback book. The tactile buttons and voice-operated menus that control the device have been designed so sightless people can use it, Intel said. Individuals with poor vision can also zoom in or out of the display and increase the font size of its text.

The 5-megapixel, autofocus camera can … Continue reading about this and watch a corresponding video on news.cnet.com

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Filed under: Themes, Wheelchairman of the Board, Campaign Watch

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One in fifty Americans is now living with some form of paralysis.

Meet 35 of them.

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Filed under: Uncategorized

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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Filed under: Art Gallery

Here’s our favourite shot from Karen Stuebing’s recent photo gallery, titled Home of the White Tail Deer. Karen, your work is utterly magnificent! Keep the incredible photographs coming:

Click here to see the other beautiful photos

Then…

Click here to read all Irked posts by Karen

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Filed under: Books & Book Reviews, Campaign Watch

Quoting a recent announcement written by editor Susan Burch, Ph.D., published on the History of Disabilty listserv:

On behalf of the advisory board and our publisher (Facts on File), I am pleased to announce the release of the first historical encyclopedia of disability in America. The 3-volume “Encyclopedia of American Disability History” showcases nearly 800 subject entries and includes more than 350 authors. A wide array of primary sources, including letters, interviews, paintings, newspaper clippings, photographs, cartes des visites, pamphlets, speeches, laws, song lyrics, and literary works complement many of the articles. The extensive chronology of significant events in American disability history extends from the colonial period to present day. Throughout the volumes, breakout quotes from “common folks” offer insights into daily lives that typically have remained in the margins of historical study. The bibliography includes hundreds of books, articles, and documents, as well as sections on electronic resources: CDs, DVDs, videorecordings, and Web sites. A digitized version of the encyclopedia will be available in several months. We hope that you will find this a useful tool and encourage institutions, organizations, and libraries to order copies of it. Most major booksellers are offering the encyclopedia. You may also visit the publisher’s website by clicking here. This encyclopedia simply could not have been completed without the hundreds of talented and generous contributors. We offer our deep thanks to everyone who participated in this project.

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NOTE: If you live in Canada, you can buy this historic book AND help support Irked Magazine! We hope you’ll do just that…

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Filed under: Themes, Blind Visionaries, Books & Book Reviews

If you are in New York on September 10th (i.e. Thursday from 6-8 pm), please join award-winning photographer Jed Fielding at Andrea Meislin Gallery for the opening of his new exhibition Look at me: Photographs from Mexico City—a fascinating, stunning, in-depth pictorial study of blind schoolchildren in Mexico (running until October 17th, 2009).

According to his blog, Jed will be there signing copies of his book Look at me, published by the University of Chicago Press.

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Learn more at jedfielding.com

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Filed under: Regular Contributors, David Roche, Art Gallery

Original text by David Roche after the jump…

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Filed under: Campaign Watch

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Filed under: Themes, Bum Deal, Campaign Watch

After we published info on July 1st about Headlines Theatre’s fantastic AFTER HOMELESSNESS… project, we received a very gracious thank you note from Artistic/Managing Director David Diamond. A few days later, we received another email, this one from Headlines’ official publicist Gabriela De Lucca:

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Filed under: Regular Contributors, Lewis Schofield, Themes, Auties & Aspies, QuIrked Kids

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