Where It's AT – Assistive Technology Blog

The Washington Wheelchair Society is a non-profit organization focused on refurbishing and redistributing manual wheelchairs, walkers, scooters, hospital beds and more. Run by a dedicated team of volunteers, the Washington Wheelchair Society provides additional consultation on how to work with insurance companies and doctors to ensure that the correct device is prescribed.

If you’re interested in donating or receiving a wheelchair or other medical equipment, contact the Washington Wheelchair Society between 2pm-8pm at 301-495-0277.

The Lollipop Kids Foundation is an organization run out of the Maryland/DC cooridor that focuses primarily on providing support to kids with disabilities and their families. Programs include an equipment closet, respite care, support groups, sibling support groups and more.

Equipment Closet

The Lollipop Kids Equipment closet contains durable medical equipment such as wheelchairs, gait trainers, prone boards, adapted chairs, adaptive bicycles, portable ramps, cushions and adaptive bathroom equipment donated to children in need. Our goal is to match equipment to a child’s specific need. A licensed Physical Therapist will fit each piece of equipment to the child before it will be donated.

The Equipment Closet is intended to meet the needs of children whose families lack private insurance coverage or sufficient funds to purchase needed equipment.

Most of the equipment in the closet has been donated by families that are no longer in need of the equipment. In most cases, the child has outgrown the equipment.To donate equipment or refer a child, please contact

equipment@lollipopkidsfoundation.org or call 202-640-2035.

AT in the news for the week of 9/3 – 9/7

285 Million Billion People Poised to See Bionic Eye Bring Sight

Paralympic sailing: A tale of triumph and technology – CNN

Paralympics 2012: 13 ways digital and disabled arts can work together – The Guardian (blog)

NFB and AccuWeather have joined forces to provide accessible weather alerts to the blind and print disabled!

Sharp-eared glasses let deaf people ‘see’ sounds – tech – New Scientist

The Conversational Internet. A project that enables people who are blind to ‘talk’ with web pages

Stealth cyborgism: pacemakers, cochlear implants and prosthetics

More Apps for Eye Care

Mind-reading exoskeleton could help rehabilitate stroke victims

Technology gives paralyzed individuals an opportunity to control environment – Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier

Braille competency decline led industrial design grad student 2 design educational toy 4 vision-impaired pre-schoolers

WheelMate: app helps wheelchair users find parking spaces and toilets that are accessible

Study: Technology Can Put Autistic Adults to Work

US university at forefront of design for the deaf

Technology gives paralyzed individuals an opportunity to control environment

Why exoskeletons are cool: New technologies that could one day help patients

Sexy Microphone Dress Doubles as a Hearing Aid – Discovery News

An Introductory Set of Accessible Mobile Applications

MDTAP is accepting grant requests, due by September 14th. Here’s a synopsis of what we’re looking for:

What we are seeking

MDTAP is seeking to expand its impact through collaboration with other organizations that serve persons with disabilities and seniors living in Maryland.  To support these collaborations, MDTAP will issue grant awards of $5,000 to qualified entities.

Entities may submit up to 3 proposals for a total request of $15,000.

All grant proposals should be submitted via email no later than September 14, 2012.

Types of Activities Funded

Grant money can be put towards the following:

• Purchase of assistive technology devices that is demonstrated or loaned to individuals for short periods (ownership remains with the entity)
• Purchase of cleaning supplies for used devices
• Rent/storage costs of devices
• Personnel costs for staff responsible for activity (including wages, travel expenses, relevant education or training)
• Activity operations costs (including telecommunications, webinar services, ASL interpreter services)
• Activity publication costs (including printing/photocopying, postage, Braille translation)

Activities not listed here will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Grant money cannot be used to directly purchase assistive technology devices or durable medical equipment for individuals.

To read the full request for grant proposals, visit the MDOD website and click on the first link on the right hand side of the page under News and Publications.

Document Language

The natural language of every web page should be defined. This is typically done by simply specifying the appropriate language code in the lang attribute on the <html> tag (<html lang="en">, for example).

This WCAG 2.0 Level A requirement is vital to ensure that assistive technologies present content in the appropriate language. Consider a user that understands and has set his screenreader to read in both French and English, with French being the primary language. If he encounters an English page that does not have the language specified, it would likely be read using the screen reader’s French language settings, intonation, inflections, etc., thus making it very unintelligible. Specifying the document language ensures that it be read in the appropriate way, so long as the screen reader supports that language.

The language should also be defined for portions of a page that are not in the document’s language, such as a quotation in French found on an English web page. This is also done using the lang attribute (e.g., <div lang="fr">).

The Iowa Center for Assistive Technology Education and Research (ICATER) at the University of Iowa has recently launched its “AT tip of the Day.”  These tips are quick ideas, devices, apps, or resources that keep AT in front of educators.

Sign up for ICATER’s AT Tip of the Day by following https://twitter.com/Iowa_ICATER on Twitter, or “friend” ICATER on Facebook.  You can also read monthly posts as they appear at http://www.education.uiowa.edu/centers/icater/default.aspx.