12^th May 2012

10 Ways to Optimize Your iPad for Kids With Special Needs

When we think about ways the iPad has changed the world, our minds usually shoot to publishing, entertainment, or mobile communication.

For the community of people living with disabilities, the iPad may have broken even more ground. The iOS device is not only cool, but provides education, therapy and, of course, entertainment.

http://mashable.com/2012/05/11/ipad-special-needs/

14th May 2012

Connecting through dots

Two mums learn Braille to better understand their blind children

By Noh Hyun-gi

Even for the mothers who are daily at their side, the world of visually-impaired children remains largely a mystery.

The darkness, loneliness, and frustration are difficult to imagine for people with sight. Fortunately, Kim Young-mi and Byeon Hyun-jin are taking this matter into their own hands.

The two mothers of preschoolers have been attending weekly Braille classes with instructor Jang Yong-jeon. Byeon is the mother of a seven-year-old boy who was born completely blind, and Kim has a five-year-old daughter who can only detect light.

During the 50-minute classes at the Korean Braille Library for Students in Nuha-dong, northern Seoul, they not only learn to read the raised dots, but also get a glimpse of the children’s unseen world with the help of Jang.

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/art/2012/05/147_110979.html

3^rd May 2012

TVonics team with RNIB and IVONA for set-top box for the blind and partially sighted

TVonics have teamed up with the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) and software developers IVONA to develop an updated version of their DTR-HD500 aimed at blind and partially sighted people.

Using text-to-speech technology, the updated box is easier to navigate for those with poor eyesight, with audio descriptions of both the TV shows being broadcast and descriptions of the box’s navigational features.

http://www.techdigest.tv/2012/05/tvonics_team_wi.html

15^th May 2012

Talking with your hands is innate, study finds

By Brian Alexander

Good news for those of you who are so self-conscious about gesturing when speaking you issue that “I use my hands when I talk” line: You can stop apologizing.

As Spencer Kelly, the co-director of Colgate University’s Center for Language and the Brain will tell The Acoustics 2012 Hong Kong scientific conference later today, gesturing is integral to language. In fact, he argues, it’s “innate.”

“Blind people gesture, even if they are blind from birth,” he explained in an interview. “They often gesture even when talking to other blind people. So there is some kind of predisposition to using our hands.”

http://bodyodd.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/15/11704228-talking-with-your-hands-is-innate-study-finds

25th April 2012

The visually-impaired can now write their own exams papers in Braille: Board of Intermediate Education Karachi chairman

The visually-impaired students now will be able to write on their own, in Braille, for intermediate exams, starting from May 7, according to the chairman of the Board of Intermediate Education Karachi (BIEK).

Chairman Anwar Ahmed Zai made this announcement at the launch of Braille textbooks at Ida Rieu Welfare Association on Tuesday. He was invited as the chief guest.

Twenty-three Braille text books, from grade one till five, were on display. All of them were transcribed by a team of experts associated with the association’s Hatim Alavi Memorial Braille Library, headed by Jameela Majeed.

http://tribune.com.pk/story/369413/the-visually-impaired-can-now-write-their-own-exams-papers-in-braille-biek-chairman/

5^th May 2012

Software to track children with disabilities to be upgraded

The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan’s software used for tracking children with disabilities and those with special needs studying in government schools in Dakshina Kannada district will be upgraded, according to N. Shivaprakash, Deputy District Coordinator for the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan in Dakshina Kannada.

Called Children with Special Needs (CWSN) Database, the software has enabled for the first time a digitised version of data on such children in government schools, it is claimed. “So far as we know, it is the only district to have a digitised database of students with special needs,” Mr. Shivaprakash said.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Mangalore/article3384888.ece

App turns tablet into math aid for visually impaired students (w/ video)

Kira is one of two visually impaired high school students who are testing a new Android app, one designed to assist students like her in mastering algebra, geometry, graphing and other subjects that are particularly hard to comprehend without the aid of normal vision.

The app is the brainstorm of Jenna Gorlewicz, a graduate student in the Medical and Electromechanical Design Laboratory (MED Lab) at Vanderbilt University, and her advisor Robert Webster, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering, who directs the lab.

http://phys.org/news/2012-03-app-tablet-math-aid-visually.html

24^th January 2012

Toronto’s Audiobooks.com launches all-you-can-hear cloud streaming

Canadian fans of Stephen King and Mary Higgins Clark who prefer to do their reading aurally will soon have access to an all-you-can-eat audio books service courtesy of Toronto’s ‘Audiobooks.com’.

On Tuesday, ‘Audiobooks.com’ — a subsidiary of privately held ‘Simply Audiobooks Inc’. — launched what it is calling the first North American service to offer an unlimited, cloud-based streaming vice for audio books.

The company, which was started as a ‘Netflix-style audio books by mail service’, believes the new digital subscription service will help the company differentiate itself from its competitors, including e-commerce giant ‘Amazon.com Inc.’

“We believe our ability to empower users to stream from anywhere using a mobile device, the cloud-based bookmarking function and the affordable access to unlimited streaming of thousands of bestsellers will transform the way customers use audio books,” chief executive Sanjay Singhal said in a statement.

http://business.financialpost.com/2012/01/24/torontos-audiobooks-com-launches-all-you-can-hear-cloud-streaming/

Rome Reports

Vatican Discusses How to Help the Blind

According to the World Health Organization, four percent of the global population has a vision disability. There are some 39 million blind people and about 246 million more have impaired vision. On February 11, 1985 John Paul II established the Pontifical Council for Pastoral Assistance to Health Care Workers.

It serves as the Vatican department that aids the training and studies inhealth care. Their most recent conference was this one held at the Vatican on the topic of blindness.

“The sense of solidarity, closeness, and fraternity can not be destroyed or separated based on a person’s health, in no way diminishing the value of human beings,” said cardinal Peter Turkson, President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. “We need to support people living with this, who have a disease and not lose hope or sense of dignity,” added.

http://www.romereports.com/palio/vatican-discusses-how-to-help-the-blind-english-6792.html

29^th April 2012

All-women blind orchestra to visit Malta

Orchestra members double up as musicians and singers.

An Egyptian chamber orchestra made up entirely of blind women will be performing in Malta on May 6.

The Cairo-based Al Nour Wal Amal Blind Girls Chamber Orchestra will present a classical music concert – called “Love, Hope and Music” – at the Manoel Theatre in Valletta. All proceeds will go towards helping the blind.

The 38-piece orchestra is unique. It is composed of sightless women from all walks of life who study the notes in Braille and learn the musical pieces by heart.

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20120429/local/All-women-blind-orchestra-to-visit-Malta.417452