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A Guide to Understanding Assistance Dogs
By Jenny Ho The old adage says a dog is man’s best friend; however, for more than 7,000 people with disabilities across the UK, they are a lot more than that. To them, they are lifesavers. Assistance Dogs UK is an organization which works with eight assistance dogs charities to bring canine care to those…
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Assistance Dogs: Private vs. Program Training
By Kristin Hartness, Canines for Disabled Kids More and more often I meet people who tell me they self-trained or privately trained their service dog. The answers I get when I ask why they chose that route vary from thoughtful and well planned choices to vague and mumbled avoided responses. Sometimes I meet people who think…
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Eye-control Empowers People with Disabilities
By Tara Rudnicki, Tobii ATI WHO: Tobii Assistive Technology Inc. (ATI), a wholly owned subsidiary of Tobii Technology, is the leading global provider of eye-tracking and gaze interaction-based Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) devices that help improve the lives of individuals with disabilities by enabling them to communicate, control their environment and gain greater independence through their…
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FES Rowing Expands Exercise Possibilities for People with Disabilities
By Mark McAndrew, Concept2 Rowing Concept2 Rowing and Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital Cambridge will feature Exercise for Persons with Disabilities on September 21 at Abilities Expo Boston. Longtime hub of competitive rowing, Boston has been both witness and participant in an evolutionary form of the sport known as FES indoor rowing. (See front page Sunday Boston Globe…
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Product Spotlight: Sonus Hearing Care Professionals
An estimated 37 million people in the United States suffer from hearing loss. Let’s reflect on the enormity of that number—it’s about one out of every eight people. And of those, only one in four people who experience hearing loss actually seek treatment. When your hearing starts to fail, it is often so gradual that…
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User-focused Assistive Technology Development
By John Riggins, InvoTek Inc. It was bad enough the car accident took away Charlie’s vocation as a personal trainer. Now it threatened to rob him of his dream of teaching Bible students. That is, until some new assistive technology came into his life. Assistive technology (AT) tends to be a catchall phrase for any…
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I Am ‘Disabled!’ I Am Lucky!
By Jim Lynch College graduate, wrestler, team captain, Olympic Trials participant, coach, business owner, husband and father. I think that is a pretty impressive list of accomplishments. Oh yeah, I forgot one. I accomplished all of this in spite of the fact that I was born with cerebral palsy. Disability Does Not Define I have…
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Refocus the Major League Baseball Fan Cam in Honor of ADA
By Greg Smith, Sr., The Strength Coach If you are a baseball fan, surely you have experienced watching the “Fan Cam” during the Major League Baseball television broadcasts. Between innings, the television camera focuses on regular people enjoying their time at the ballpark. It opens showing a young couple on a date, unaware of their five seconds…
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Things that Go Growling in the Night
By Chris Kain, kellisaspath.com Kellisa—my 2 pound, 1 ounce micro-preemie miracle daughter was born in 1999 with hydrocephalus, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, significant developmental delays, sleep apnea, and restless leg syndrome—has always traveled well. I believe it started when she was a baby and had to travel 138 miles round trip several times a week to see…
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3 Tips for Creating a Bedroom for Children on the Autism Spectrum
By Jenny Wise, Special Home Educator Approximately four in five children on the autism spectrum struggle with sleeping. From sensory needs and functionality to promoting independence and safety, a lot goes into making a bedroom that meets their needs and preferences. When all you want is the best for your child, guidelines and intricacies can be overwhelming as…
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Best and Worst Places to Live for People with Disabilities
Congrats to the Heartland of America! According to an analysis by consumer finance website WalletHub, Overland Park, Kansas tops the chart as the best place to live for the disability community. The cities of Scottsdale and Peoria, Arizona and Tampa and St. Petersburg, Florida rounded out the Top Five. But how does your hometown stack…
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Raising Your Voice for a Better Medicare
By Lisa Wells, Wheel-Life.org Have you struggled to get the wheelchair repairs you need? Or found it nearly impossible to have the diabetic supplies you were prescribed (instead of another brand) delivered through Medicare’s national mail order program? Unfortunately, you’re not alone. Medicare reform mistakes are hurting millions of people nationwide who depend on medical…