The Assistive Technology Queensland Conference and Exhibition is being held on 9th & 10th November at the Royal International Convention Centre, Bowen Hills.
Category Archives: Research and Technology
Wheeling backwards to go forwards?
That probably sounds like a riddle but we’re talking about a new type of “rowable” ergonomic wheelchair wheels that propel you forwards by pulling backwards on the handrims. Continue reading
Stem Cell Scammers
Stem cell therapies have been in the news recently. Whether it’s documentaries like Stem Cell Highway or the sad news of Australian “stem cell tourists” dying overseas, stem cell therapies are gaining a higher profile.
The ABC News website has a story (originally aired on The 7.30 Report) covering not only the Brisbane mother who recently died undergoing treatment in Russia, but highlighting just how prevalent “stem cell scammers” really are.
Iron Man paraplegics?
The Brisbane Times had an article last week about the development of hi-tech suits known as “exoskeletons”. These suits enable the wearers to carry heavy loads and/or travel further than they would otherwise be able to.
The article notes that the development of these suits is rapidly moving out of the research lab and into the world. While the biggest interest is from high-tech industrial manufacturing and the deep-pocketed military sectors, it also has interesting health applications. The most recent example was the Brazil 2014 World Cup, where a paraplegic man used such a suit to kick-off the tournament.
Stem cell therapy patient dies in Russia
A few weeks ago we noted stem cell highway, a documentary about the growing trend of international stem-cell tourism, and this week it seems we have a tragic real-world example of it. According to the Brisbane Times, Kellie van Meurs, a woman with “Stiff Person Syndrome” (or SPS) undergoing an experimental stem-cell treatment has died in Russia. Stiff Person Syndrome (according to wikipedia, so “your mileage may vary”) “is a rare neurological disorder of unclear etiology characterized by progressive rigidity and stiffness” and is quite rare, affecting only one in a million people.
The FingerReader
From the tech-website Mashable comes a story about the “FingerReader”, a device worn on the finger that scans text on a page and reads it out loud in real-time. Aside from the benefits for people with visual impairments it may also be useful for translating languages on the fly.
App accessibility bites Apple?
Once upon a time Apple was considered a pioneer in accessibility issues. More recently however, they’ve had a checkered record with accessibility, lurching alternatively from innovation to neglect.
Apple (and to a lesser extent Google) is under fire from disability groups for lax accessibility standards on its App store. While Apple itself has made significant strides to make both its desktop and mobile software more accessible, third party software on the app store is much more messy.
Stem Cell Highway
Tomorrow night on ABC1 at 8.30pm returns the second series of the TV documentary Head First. The first of the five-episode series, Stem Cell Highway, covers the growing international trend of stem-cell tourism, people traveling overseas for controversial, expensive and sometimes unproven or untested treatments. The desire to try absolutely everything to recover from a catastrophic accident is understandable, but do these procedures work, are they safe, or are they just a con?
The little high-tech sleeve that could…
“I think I can, I think I can!” – said the little red train engine, er no, said Ian Burkhart, a Quadriplegic who has, according to tech-site Giz-Mag, been “given the ability to move his fingers and hand with his own thoughts thanks to the implantation of an electronic device in his brain and muscle stimulation sleeve.”
Israeli company re-invents the wheel?
Courtesy of reuters, good news for manual wheelchair users and/or people with bad backs!
This news article is best explained by watching the attached video.