BY CHARLOTTE SCHUBERT David Hojah is a former NASA engineer, but his real passion is healthcare. Growing up, he saw his family members taking care of his aunt, who had multiple sclerosis, and his uncle, who had a spinal cord injury. Now, he’s developing tech to help people with disability have more independence. The company he founded, Parrots Inc., makes...

Customised electronic toolkits designed to improve STEM accessibility for those with intellectual disabilities have been developed by Monash University researchers. TronicBoards, created by researchers from the Faculty of Information Technology (IT), are a range of customised colour-coded printed circuit boards with large controls and recognisable symbols adapted to facilitate easy circuit-making for diverse intellectual abilities. Lead researcher PhD candidate Hashini...

Comfortable, intuitive and precise, bebionic continues to transform the lives and abilities of amputees around the world. From helping them perform simple tasks like tying their shoelaces, to giving them back their control and pride. With 14 different grip patterns and hand positions, the bebionic artificial hand is designed to handle almost anything that you need to do in an...

For people with disabilities, the digital divide predates the pandemic. But new tools are opening new pathways for participation. Last year, Google introduced a virtual Braille keyboard for Android to allow the visually impaired to read and write on smartphones. When Covid-19 catapulted society into a new age of remote work, school and life, educators, economists, and activists warned of a widening...

Eirrace Snead wheeled into her therapy session in pain, something she'd experienced often since sustaining a spinal injury in a car accident two months earlier. But this session on a recent morning at Craig Hospital in Englewood, Colorado, where the 19-year-old is being treated, was different. With the Xbox Adaptive Controller, Snead, an avid gamer, was able to play her...

Written by Brad Smith, Microsoft President More than 1 billion people around the world live with a disability, and at some point, most of us likely will face some type of temporary, situational or permanent disability. The practical impacts are huge. Employment and education rates are lower and poverty rates are higher for people with disabilities. And unfortunately, societal inclusion for this...