Oregon looks to iPads to help disabled people vote
Exercising your civic responsibility? There’s an app for that. A handful of Oregonians voted with a tap of a finger this week in the state’s “latest attempt at using new technology to help voters with disabilities cast ballots privately,” the Associated Press reports. “Voters with poor vision can adjust the font size and screen colors, or they can have the iPad read them the candidates’ names and even the voter pamphlet. A voter with limited mobility could attach a ‘sip-and-puff’ device to control the screen.” Officials say the pilot program will be expanded if it proves successful. In related news, some say a new South Carolina law that requires voters to have a photo ID “will hit the state’s black, poor, elderly and disabled voters the hardest.”
Lewis Crew, 75, votes via iPad in Beaverton, Ore. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
Disabled in Japan take pride in wrestling
A controversial WWF-style event in Tokyo is putting disabled wrestlers in the ring. Competitors face a variety of challenges, ranging from psychological problems to physiological issues. For example, Relaxnews reports, “One of the bouts pitted ‘The Blind Giant’ against a profoundly deaf opponent,” and a “miracle heavy class” match featured a man with a dislocated neck fighting a partially paralyzed woman. Although organizers have received plenty of complaints about the event, participants say the forum is an important one. “I can say with pride that no one can defeat me in the ring of handicapped pro-wrestling,” says Makoto Tsuruzono, 34. “You can live with pride if you feel you are second to none when doing something, no matter how trivial it is.”
Disabled wrestler Makoto Tsuruzono fights against "Chest Man."
Technological advances take on challenges of aging
Although plenty of attention has focused recently on the babies that pushed the global population past 7 billion, the world’s seniors are getting plenty of buzz. In Japan, robots are being called into service to provide physical and emotional support to seniors: Toyota, for example, recently unveiled four nursing and health-care robots that help with such tasks at patient transfers. In the United States, the increasing number of seniors is prompting a look at the scarcity of geriatricians, or doctors that specialize in treating the elderly. If it’s hard for you to relate to the challenges older people face, you might want to check out a high-tech suit developed at MIT that puts “the wearer in the shoes of a person in their 70s suffering from advanced diabetes and osteoarthritis” and is meant to give product designers insight into users’ needs. Finally, a new poll finds that only 9 percent of centenarians think luck had much to do with them reaching 100 — click through to find out which factors get credit in their book.
A Toyota Motor Corp. staff plays a TV soccer game as she demonstrates a "balance training assist." (AP Photo/Itsuo Inouye)
More reading
- Five residents died when fire broke out at a California home care facility for disabled adults.
- Puerto Rico has agreed to make dozens of changes in how it treats people with mental disabilities.
- Autism or Asperger’s? It might depend on your doctor.
- Plus, despite recent reports that the job market is tough for young adults with autism, a professor of psychiatry outlines the ways in which autism can be an advantage.
- Tennessee basketball coach Pat Summitt’s dementia diagnosis is inspiring people to serve and raising Alzheimer’s awareness.
Tags: a11y, accessibility, Apple, Associated Press, disability, Disability News, IPad, news, Oregon, Toyota, United States
