disabilities
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Uber doesn't need to offer wheelchair-accessible vehicles in all cites, judge rules
A federal court has ruled that Uber does not need to provide wheelchair-accessible service in every US market.
This gesture-sensing band could make the Apple Watch more accessible
This device could one day make the Apple Watch more accessible to those with disabilities.
Twitter says two new teams will address its accessibility issues
Twitter vows to make its service more accessible.
Steam add-on makes VR games more accessible
New WalkinVR Driver software makes VR games in Steam more accessible to people with disabilities.
The terrible, fantastic life of AbleGamers COO Steven Spohn
When Twitch streamer DrDisrespect won the Trending Gamer prize at the 2017 Game Awards, there was a tiny riot on Twitter. There's always a buzz of hashtag activity after a winner is announced as people congratulate or disagree with the pick, but this time around, there was a small yet clear consensus: Steven Spohn should have won. As the Chief Operating Officer of AbleGamers, a charity working to make video games more accessible to people with disabilities, Spohn was the face of positive change in the industry. He regularly shared insightful affirmations on Twitter, as well as deeply personal stories about the realities of living with Spinal Muscular Atrophy, a disease that was progressively destroying his motor neurons and muscles. Meanwhile, DrDisrespect was best known for wearing a mullet wig and mocking his teammates with racist accents in Fortnite streams.
Nike puts an accessibility twist on its iconic Air Jordan 1
The Air Jordan 1, which NBA legend Michael Jordan debuted in 1985, continues to be one of Nike's most popular sneakers to this day. Throughout the years, the company has launched hundreds of different iterations of its iconic model, and now it's putting another twist on it that has the potential to help athletes and other people with disabilities. The AJI High FlyEase features Nike's FlyEase technology, one that was introduced in 2015 and is designed to make it easy for anyone to get their sneakers on and off quickly and easily.
Hulu hackathon leads to eye-tracking controls for Roku
Of the 40 project ideas that came out of Hulu's annual hackathon this summer, more than a quarter addressed the needs of users with disabilities. Today, Hulu shared some of those accessibility-focused concepts.
2019's emoji hopefuls include a service dog and flamingo
Unicode has released a preview list of what might end up in the next round of emoji. Potential additions to Unicode 12 include a diving mask, axe, falafel, waffle, diya lamp and Hindu temple. Oh, a flamingo and a white heart, too. Because people were apparently craving those. Most importantly, the list includes a smattering of new emoji for people with disabilities, like an ear with a hearing aid, a motorized wheelchair, a service dog and mechanical leg among others.
How Engadget's parent company is making sites like ours easier to use
Today, May 17th, is Global Accessibility Awareness Day, but in fact, this entire month has been an eventful one for people with disabilities. Two weeks ago, Google and Microsoft pledged to commit $20 and $25 million to the cause, respectively, to accessibility tech. Today, Microsoft revealed the Xbox Adaptive Controller while Apple unveiled a coding curriculum that can also be used by students who are deaf and/or blind. Meanwhile, Oath, Engadget's parent company, which also owns Yahoo, rang in the day by holding an open house at its accessibility lab, where, among other things, it works to make sites like ours easier for everyone to use. And that includes sites and services outside Oath too: The accessibility-tech community is a small one, with researchers at Oath, Apple, Microsoft, Google and other tech companies regularly collaborating with one another. (Microsoft Chief Accessibility Officer Jennie-Lay Flurrie made the same point in an interview with Engadget two weeks ago.) What Oath is working on might show up in another company's products, and vice versa.
FCC extends waiver for video game accessibility for the last time
The idea behind 2010's 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA) is to make sure that federal accessibility laws created in the '80s and '90s were updated to include new digital and communications technologies. The part of the Act pertaining to video games and advanced communications services (think gaming chat and the user interfaces around gamer communications) has been given a year's waiver. As reported by Gamasutra, this is the third and final time games will be exempted from accessibility requirements. The new deadline is set for January 1st, 2019.
Google cracks down on apps that misuse accessibility features
Android's accessibility services are supposed help disabled folks by letting app-makers integrate spoken feedback, voice commands and more. However, developers like LastPass have been using the functions for other purposes like autofilling passwords and overlaying content. That gives them an easy way to read data from other apps like YouTube, but it also creates a potential security risk. Now, Google is telling app makers that they must show how accessibility code is helping disabled users or their apps will be removed from the Play Store within 30 days.
Facebook Live closed captioning makes videos more accessible
Facebook announced today that it's extending video closed captioning to Live broadcasts. The move is part of the company's attempt to make Facebook more accessible to those with disabilities.
Wink to send a text with these experimental earbuds
We're always looking for new ways to control our mobile phones without using our hands, whether we're driving or at work. Voice control is fine but not always welcome in quiet spaces. The next frontier? Facial expressions. Imagine winking to pause your music while in the car, or smiling to text a smiley face. It could even help those with motor disabilities, too.
Indie devs with disabilities win full ride on Train Jam to GDC
Two game developers with disabilities are headed to the 31st annual Game Developers Conference (GDC) this year via Train Jam, a four-day rail excursion from Chicago to San Francisco that was founded in 2013. Train Jam participants collaborate to create new games during the trip, which they can debut at GDC. Both developers are being sponsored by the AbleGamers Foundation, a nonprofit that provides access to video games for people with disabilities via assistive technologies like adapted controllers.
Google.org pledges $20 million to support disability technologies
The World Health Organization estimates 1 billion people across the world live with disabilities, and Google's philanthropy division, Google.org, just pledged $20 million to help improve their situations. The money is spread across 29 programs working on disability technologies -- the average amount they'll each receive is $750,000, with six of the grant winners getting more than $1 million, Wired reports.
ICYMI: Bendy batteries, spray-painting drones and more
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-895750{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-895750, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-895750{width:570px;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-895750").style.display="none";}catch(e){} Today on In Case You Missed It: The flexible battery that takes its style notes from kirigami (origami's hipper cousin); a VR musical visualizer that will have you tripping like it's 1998; and a tutorial for a DIY spray-painting drone that may not fly so well now — but try and diss it when it's painting your 11-foot ceilings. One of the collaborators on that last project is the graffiti artist who defaced Kendall Jenner's billboard using a drone—so you know, I'm a fan.
Kids with disabilities can teach this robot how to play 'Angry Birds'
As a way to help children dealing with cognitive and motor-skill disabilities, researchers from Georgia Tech have developed a rehabilitation tool that pairs a robot and an Android tablet. To demonstrate this system in action, the research team used Angry Birds to let kids teach the humanoid how to play Rovio's popular game. Essentially, the robot is smart enough to learn by simply watching each move the child makes while flinging those birds toward the iconic green pigs. "The robot is able to learn by watching because it knows how interaction with a tablet app is supposed to work," writes project leader Ayanna Howard, a professor at Georgia Tech. "It recognizes that a person touched here and ended there, then deciphers the information that is important and relevant to its progress."
Deaf gamer connects, educates through Wizard101
Even though she can't hear any of the music or sound effects in the game, Kelsey Fireheart professes a strong love for Wizard101. In a guest post on the KingsIsle blog, Kelsey shares a little of what it's like to be a deaf gamer and why this MMO means so much to her. Shortly after starting her adventures in the game, Kelsey had a profound encounter: "I remember questing in the Pyramid of the Sun of Krokotopia and I bumped into a fellow wizard named Diana Wildheart. She mentioned that she was deaf, and I gasped in astonishment. I replied, I am deaf too! That's when I realized that I could meet fellow deaf gamers through games like Wizard101." Kelsey said that this friendship made her realize that MMOs could be used for more than just fun and to educate others about what it's like to be deaf. "This game is a wonderful educational tool that I can use to teach countless others and it gave me a way of communicating with no barriers. In fact, it gave me a greater purpose within the game," she wrote. Kelsey said that the visuals of the game are quite important to her and that she wished sign language would be available as in-game emotes.
Google aids accessibility with ChromeVox reader, better YouTube captions and more
Engineers from Google have commandeered a booth at this year's CSUN accessibility conference and they're keen to talk up their latest efforts. For the visually impaired, there's now a beta version of a Chrome screen reader called ChromeVox (demo'd after the break), plus improved shortcuts and screen reader support in Google Docs, Sites and Calendar. Meanwhile, YouTube boasts expanded caption support for the hard of hearing, with automatic captions enabled for 135 million video clips -- a healthy tripling of last year's total. Check the source link for full details or, if you're anywhere near San Diego, go and hassle those engineers the old-fashioned way.
Ekso Bionics' exoskeleton used to let paraplegics walk (video)
It's not just nuclear-powered super soldiers who will use exoskeletons -- it can also be used to help those with physical disabilities. The Kessler Foundation grabbed one of Ekso Bionics' Ekso units and gave six people with severe spinal injuries, including a tetraplegic, the chance to walk. It's part of a trial study to examine the effects of walking for wheelchair-users, to see if it's better for their overall health or if it could contribute to their rehabilitation. A wider study will begin early next year with the hope of expanding use of the gear to domestic situations in the future. After the break we've got video of the people walking for the first time since their injuries and it's hard not to find yourself feeling a little emotional at the sight of it.
