Tech & industry
An IBM training manual from 1991 reads: “For people without disabilities, technology makes things easier. For people with disabilities, technology makes things possible.” But for a long time, much of the technology widely used by people with disabilities was distinct from the sleek gadgetry of the mainstream. Occupational therapist Keith Norman says: “It used to be that the only technology we would prescribe for people with disabilities would look odd. Other people would wonder ‘why has that person got that device?’
The brain injury technology University College London has been working on for eight years looks decidedly unremarkable. Barely noticeable in the neonatal skyline of equipment is a trolley housing a laptop and what looks like a projector. Yet the data it offers clinicians could accelerate improved care for brain injured babies in their crucial first [...]
Anna Khan woke up in February 2016 adamant that it was still 2015, but the date was correct - she had ‘lost’ almost two months of her life. The Sheffield lass had been walking home from college with her twin sister and best friend Lauren when a car hit her; she was thrown over the [...]
iReadMore provides computer-based reading therapy using written and spoken words and pictures, and aims to improve word-reading speed and accuracy. It was developed by the Aphasia Lab, part of the UCL Institute of Neurology. Stroke patients typically need around 100 hours of speech and language therapy (SaLT), to see a marked improvement. The NHS, however, provides [...]
The lightning speed of games technology development in recent decades has unearthed a multitude of opportunities in healthcare Yet for all the headway made since the dawn of the home computing era, a gaping lack of knowledge about the true impact of games on the body and brain remains. Behind the mind-blowing graphics, Hollywood soundtracks [...]
Since a computer defeated world champion Garry Kasparov in 1997, chess has been a continual marker of AI’s progress. In December, the world marvelled at the latest machine-driven victory on the chequered board, which underlined just how far the technology has come in the last 20 years. AlphaZero - Google Deep Mind’s gaming AI – [...]
The power of exoskeletons was shown to the world earlier this year when Simon Kindleysides became the first paralysed man to complete the London Marathon on foot. Simon (pictured) was paralysed from the waist down due to an inoperable brain tumour. Thanks to an exoskeleton, and sheer perseverance, he crossed the line after 36 hours. This [...]
When a young British woman with learning difficulties announced she was marrying an Egyptian she’d met online, her guardians were unsurprisingly sceptical. The 21-year-old, who'd been brain injured in a car accident as a child, was going to pay for Asrat to come to the UK, where they’d live happily ever after. What her support [...]
Political pugilism gave way to a rare outbreak of unity at Westminster recently. An event, in the palatial quarters of Speaker John Bercow, officially celebrated the birth of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Assistive Technology (APPG AT). APPGs bring cross-party members together to pursue a particular interest. While they have no official status in Parliament, [...]
