As dog owners know, you are lucky if your pooch can be persuaded to collect your slippers without chewing them to pieces. But golden labrador Byron performs dozens of such tasks faultlessly for his owner every day. He helps ‘best friend’ Kate Cross peg out her washing, make her bed, go shopping and even take money out of the cash machine.
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Genzyme, a Sanofi company, announced today the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has accepted the filing of the marketing authorization application (MAA) for once-daily oral teriflunomide for the treatment of relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis (MS). Acceptance of the MAA starts the EMA’s review process.
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He may spend his working days contemplating the deepest mysteries of the universe, despite having been robbed of almost all physical movement by the cruelties of motor neurone disease. But it seems the world-famous British physicist Stephen Hawking also has an interest in more earthier matters.
Cambridge university today admitted the 70-year-old has visited a swingers’ sex club in California.
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Jonas Franksson, 35, actor, journalist and debater, lives in Stockholm, Sweden, with wife and two kids. He works at the assistance cooperative STIL with advocacy and is also member of the board in STIL.
1998-2003 Jonas was director of the board in the Swedish Federation of Young Disabled. 2004 he won the Swedish Journalist Award as the renewal of the year for his participation in the TV-program CP-magasinet (“the Cerebral Palsy Show” in translation). He has, among a lot of other things, been involved in initiating the Accessibility March in Sweden.
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Catheter valves have been available for many years and are a popular alternative to the more customary urine drainage bag. However, many healthcare professionals are unaware of the range of valves available and prescribe only one or two types that they always use.
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Studies suggest that women with disabilities are subjected to violence at least as often as the general female population. The problem has long been invisible in research, health and human services, and public debate. But it has been rising to the surface in recent years.
Women with disabilities run a high risk of violence for a number of reasons, which are all related to their dependence, invisibility or defencelessness. Many of the women are dependent on the support and service of family members, personal assistants, transport service drivers or other personnel for their activities of daily living.
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For those unfortunate enough to suffer from severe spinal cord injuries, the tongue is often the only extremity still under their control. To take advantage of this fact, engineers at the Georgia Institute of Technology (GIT) have developed what they call the Tongue Drive System (TDS), a wireless, wearable device that allows the user to operate computers and control electric wheelchairs with movements of the tongue. The latest iteration, which resembles a sensor-studded dental retainer, is controlled by a tongue-mounted magnet and promises its users a welcome new level of autonomy with both communication and transportation.
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Chris Colwell, a professional skydiving instructor, had made four jumps that day – April 23, 2003 – and everything was going well. Until the fifth dive.
One of the sky divers he was instructing appeared to have lost control after jumping out of the plane at an altitude of around 3,900 metres. Desperate to help, Chris, who is also a passionate photographer and had a video camera attached to his helmet, dived out behind him. But he couldn’t see the student and a few seconds later he crashed into him in mid-air.
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The analysis covers the market and the legal frameworks and implementation of support schemes (referred to as Service Delivery Models) for assistive ICT in nine EU Member States (Germany, Spain, France, Italy, UK, Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark and Latvia). The market is analysed from a supply and demand side perspective. This has been done through a mixture of desk research and over 110 in depth interviews with key actors at national and European level as well as targeted case studies and scenario analysis.
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This book brings together global expertise in planning, design and management to inform and stimulate providers of travel, transport, accommodation, leisure and tourism services to serve guests with disabilities, seniors and the wider markets that require good accessibility. Selected country reports, detailed case studies and technical guidance from leading experts provide an essential resource for academics and practitioners.
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More than one billion people in the world live with some form of disability, of whom nearly 200 million experience considerable difficulties in functioning. In the years ahead, disability will be an even greater concern because its prevalence is on the rise. This is due to ageing populations and the higher risk of disability in older people as well as the global increase in chronic health conditions such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer and mental health disorders.
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Mobile communications have become in less than two decades omnipresent in all countries, reaching out to the most isolated and underserved populations in developed and developing countries alike. In 2011more than 5.4 billion mobile phones are in use, almost one per human being on the planet. In the midst of this telecommunication revolution, however, populations of senior citizens and persons living with disabilities have been left out due to accessibility factors:
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ETNA is a thematic network funded by the European Union, within the framework of the ICT PSP Programme. Over a period of 3 years, it will establish a European Web Portal able to provide a unified access to information on European ICT assistive products, on related organisations, services, and to allow access to repositories of freeware, open source software products and tools useful for e-accessibility.
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