As any aspiring actor will no doubt testify, carving a career in Hollywood is tough. So imagine the challenge if a hopeful were paralysed and confined to a wheelchair. A new show based on just that scenario is set to be the next big thing in reality TV. Push Girls, which will air on the Sundance Channel in April, follows the personal lives of four wheelchair-bound women as they negotiate familiar struggles from motherhood to relationship break-ups.
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The EC funded ATLEC (Assistive Technology Learning Through A Unified Curriculum – 518229-LLP-1-2011-1-UK-LEONARDO-LMP) project organises its kick-off meeting on 16-17/01/2012 in Nottingham, UK.
Studies throughout Europe under ACCESSIBLE and AEGIS (FP7 projects), and KA3 project ImPaCT highlighted in their pan-European surveys with over 1000 end-users and AT (Assistive Technologies) specialists that training is the core barrier towards using AT by end-users.
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On Monday, as MPs and peers begin to return to Westminster to debate the final stages of the controversial welfare reform bill, sick and disabled people from around the UK will present their own report to parliament. We are not a think tank or a charity, simply thousands of individuals with talent, experience and a forensic knowledge of how the bill will affect every aspect of our lives.
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The 48-year-old motivational speaker and author had been flying for years. Like many professionals, his job takes him around the country — and as a wheelchair user with cerebral palsy, he’s a seasoned veteran when it comes to traveling with a disability. So in December 2010, when he boarded a US Airways flight from West Palm Beach, Fla., to Kansas City, he wasn’t expecting any problems. The airline staff knew he depended on a power chair.
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The 2011 Person of the Year is an unorthodox choice for the editorial brain trust at NEW MOBILITY. Unlike in years past, this year’s honoree is not a person of great achievement and stature in the world of disability and disability rights. He has not led the charge to enact new laws or break down historic barriers. In fact, he’s not even out of high school. A traffic accident in his mom’s car when he was 8 years old left him paralyzed from the waist down, but that has not stopped this product of Anytown, USA, from dreaming and working and living the fullest possible life of an American teenager.
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There is a whole new generation of performers with disabilities who have pulled into Hollywood in the last few years, and they arrive with certain advantages. First of all, they are young and fresh; the “industry” rarely grooms new stars from 40-year-olds. They are also savvy from years of media input and unburdened with repeated failure.
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Most of us realize we are fortunate to be living in the United States, but at the close of 2011, getting the adaptive equipment you need is getting trickier. Pressure on legislators to reduce budget deficits by making deep cuts in Medicare and individual state Medicaid programs is reducing available funding for wheelchairs. And most private insurance companies are following suit, covering fewer durable medical equipment costs. In the current economic climate, wheelchair users must become adept at navigating the system and advocating for their own needs.
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Στα πλαίσια της πρωτοβουλίας που έχει αναλάβει η Άλλη Όψη (www.alli-opsi.gr) για την ανάπτυξη του Παραολυμπιακού αθλήματος Ράγκμπι με Αμαξίδιο στη χώρα μας, θα πραγματοποιηθεί εβδομάδα προώθησης στην Αθήνα από 9 ως και 13 Ιανουαρίου. Πιο συγκεκριμένα, η εβδομάδα προώθησης θα ξεκινήσει με δράση ενημέρωσης στο Εθνικό Ίδρυμα Αποκατάστασης Αναπήρων (ΕΙΑΑ) στο Ίλιον (επί της Λεωφόρου Χασιά).
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It’s not rare for brotehrs to want to play together, but for 2 siblings in White House that wasn’t possible until now. As FOX17’s Cindy Carter shows us, triathlons have given them the opportunity to build the relationship they’ve longed for. For brothers Conner Green and Cayden long, coming in last place is a sweet victory. The brothers run, swim and bike. They compete together in triathlons as one team. 6 year old Cayden has cerebral palsy, but 8 year old Conner is more than happy to pull and push his little brother toward that finish line. In fact, he refuses to race without him.
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The Access City Award sets out to showcase and reward cities with over 50,000 inhabitants which take exemplary initiatives to improve accessibility in the urban environment.
In the context of a steadily ageing population living in European cities and its correlation with disabilities, accessibility has important social and economic benefits.
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Plenty has been written about the new iPhone 4S, with its voice-controlled virtual assistant Siri, and about iOS 5, its software. But in writing a book about both, I stumbled across an amazingly thoughtful feature that I haven’t seen a word about: something called AssistiveTouch.
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