News
DISABILITY SCOOP: ABLE Accounts Shouldn’t Impede Access To Housing, Feds Say
By SD Network, 2019-05-23
Federal officials are looking closer at how money is being spent in ABLE accounts. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development recently issued guidance to public housing officials across the country clarifying how they should treat funds accrued in ABLE accounts.
ADMINISTRATION FOR COMMUNITY LIVING: New Research Grant Opportunity: Technology for People who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing
By SD Network, 2019-05-22
A new grant opportunity from the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR) at ACL has been announced.
Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Technology for People who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing: NIDILRR seeks to fund research and development that leads to innovative technological solutions and strategies to improve the accessibility, usability, and performance of technologies designed to benefit people who are deaf or hard of hearing.
The purpose of the RERC program is to improve the effectiveness of services authorized under the Rehabilitation Act by conducting advanced engineering research on and development of innovative technologies that are designed to solve particular rehabilitation problems or to remove environmental barriers. RERCs also demonstrate and evaluate such technologies, facilitate service delivery system changes, stimulate the production and distribution of new technologies and equipment in the private sector, and provide training opportunities.
Please visit the link above for more details about the grant opportunity and application process. This grant opportunity closes on July 19, 2019.
YAHOO: Unprecedented Opportunity for Entertainment Professionals With Disabilities in RespectAbility's New Summer Lab
By SD Network, 2019-05-22
Great entertainment requires authentic stories and genuine representation of all people. This includes diverse people with physical, cognitive, sensory, mental health and other disabilities. RespectAbility, the nonprofit which created The Hollywood Disability Inclusion Toolkit, is now offering a lab series for emerging entertainment professionals.
Voice activated digital assistants have become more and more popular in households around the world. Simple voice commands can literally do thousands of tasks. However, for some people with disabilities, these amazing tools are inaccessible without some sort of augmented feedback. An engineer at Google went on a mission to change that for a very special reason--his brother has disabilities and is unable to speak. He developed a device that triggers commands to the device without having to verbalize them. It involves a button that plugs into a phone, laptop, or tablet using a wired headphone jack that can be connected via Bluetooth to access the assistant.
- Is at least 18 years old
- Has a neurological diagnosis (such as but not limited to post-polio syndrome, spinal cord injury, multiple sclerosis) for at least 6 months.
- Use a wheelchair (manual or power) at least 75% of your mobility time inside your home and 100% of the time outside your home.
- Has a computer with internet access.
- Is able to read and understand English.
ADMINISTRATION FOR COMMUNITY LIVING: New Research Grant Opportunity: Technologies to Enhance Independence and Community Living for People with Cognitive Impairments
By SD Network, 2019-05-22
A new grant opportunity from the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR) at ACL has been announced.
Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Technologies to Enhance Independence and Community Living for People with Cognitive Impairments:NIDILRR seeks to fund research and development toward technologies that contribute to improved abilities of adults with cognitive impairment to perform daily activities of their choice in the home, community, or workplace.
The purpose of the RERC program is to improve the effectiveness of services authorized under the Rehabilitation Act by conducting advanced engineering research on and development of innovative technologies that are designed to solve particular rehabilitation problems or to remove environmental barriers. RERCs also demonstrate and evaluate such technologies, facilitate service delivery system changes, stimulate the production and distribution of new technologies and equipment in the private sector, and provide training opportunities.
Please visit the link above for more details about the grant opportunity and application process. This grant opportunity closes on July 15, 2019.
There's no doubt that technology has become much more accessible to people with disabilities. However, many people feel there's lots of room to improve things.Making it easier for developers to identify and correct errors in code that prevent platforms from being accessible is just one example. The good news is that companies are learning to cater to people with disabilities.
A growing collection of stock images that break stereotypes and authentically portray people with disabilities in everyday life are being compiled for use by the public. The efforts are being led by a partnership between leaders in the stock images and disability rights fields. There are over 350 images in the Disability Collection's inaugural batch of images. The images show people with disabilities participating in everyday life activities. The team took an unique approach to compiling the images. They performed focus groups and collected feedback from various disability organizations.