No Limits to Life Blog

Since June 20, 2008, over 50,000 tickets have been sold to attend events in the paralympics which are scheduled for September 7th through the 16th in Beijing. It is interesting to note though, that American TV networks don’t seem to see them as a ratings grabber enough to broadcast them.

In an article by the IPC (International Paralympic Committee), a list of the countries and networks covering the paralympic games did not include the U.S. The list included the BBC which will cover the opening/closing ceremonies  and athletics, swimming, wheelchair basketball, and equestrian events which will be covered daily.

Other countries include China, which will show the events via closed circuit TV, Canada, Australia, Germany, Brazil, Japan, South Africa and Spain. Over 32 EBU (European Broadcast Union) locations and the Eurosport Network will be covering the games. Maybe one day the United States will get a clue and allow us to view too.

Disabled World has a piece in an article about the upcoming event stating that ESPN will do a 1 hour special on the events, other than that, in the U.S. we are out of the picture. I just want to say that in my mind, to be able to perform as a world class athlete and have a disability has to be the most incredible example of achievement by the human spirit. To all the athletes, I say “Thank you” and want you to know we appreciate you!

All the best to you!

Lon

I have been on  hiatus awhile with this blog and I apologize. I need to call this blog “The one that got away” because it kind of did here for awhile. I wanted to keep at least one post a week going, but my time has been spent on my other blog on education and assistive technology (No Limits to Learning) and the Blog Talk Radio show I do every week or so. I have also been working on some online web site content so it has been busy.

I want to focus more on diabilities and ways to create an income if home and out of the work force. There are many for hire type enterprises that anyone with the assistive technology and time can do. I would like to share my ideas, report on others that are doing it as well as the usual equipment reviews and news stories.

I have so appreciated the folks I have met here and the blog writers I have built friendships with too. I had some nice comments and emails awaiting me when I got back into cleaning out the spam comments and spam emails from ythe past month - yes, I REALLY ignored things - sorry…

Please expect to see more here in the future as school approaches and I get back into the normal swing of things.

All the best to you!

Lon

Creature Discomforts is a UK-based site which has developed its’ second wave of ad campaigns. The sponsor, Leonard Cheshire Disabiity, has taken real audio interviews of folks sharing about their disability and then matched the voice with a “claymation” type critter who tells the story. Their site states that they support over 21,000 disabled people in the UK and works in 52 countries.

“We campaign for change and provide innovative services that give disabled people the opportunity to live life their way.”

The videos are an entertaining and effective way to spread the message of how society impacts folks with disabilities through real stories with real voices of the actual storyteller. The goal is to create more awareness and educate folks on the feelings, dreams and struggles of those with a disability.

The Creature Discomfort site also has a blog and a forum as well as links to see behind the scenes on how they made the videos, etc.

All the best to you!

Lon

Penny Richards has written a post on Independence Day and I wanted to submit it here. I LOVE her writing and posts and highl;y recommend reading them.

I also received an email about a restaurant and cooking show for reality TV involving the vocational training of special needs adults for the restaurant business. I loved the idea and will be sharing more on it to come. I hope all my U.S. friends have a great Independence Day. I am taking a few much-deserved days off to be with family.

All the best to you1

Lon

More information and support are needed for adults with autism, who can have a range of symptoms and needs, RN Amy Feldman says. The Autism Center at the UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School, where she works, plans to use a grant to expand education and cultural outreach in its “Bridging the Gap” program for adolescents, adults and families dealing with autism. You can read the article here on Nurse.com (June 16th).

All the best to you!

Lon

It’s Graduation Time and Four Students with Mental Disabilities are Walking

I am so happy to see that Bellevue Community College in Bellevue, Washington - in the Seattle area, has developed an associate degree program for students with mental diabilities to be sense the accomplishment and pride that comes with earing a degree. An article in the Seattle P.I. Newspaper (link here) stated:

“To earn the degree, students must complete 90 credits over four years — twice as long as traditional associate degrees. But unlike transitional programs at high schools and expensive private academies, the degree pushes students to flex their academic muscles while also developing life skills.”

The director of the program, Mary Allason, said that the goal is to see everyone become self-sufficient and advocate for themselves. The program is the first of it’s kind and the cost is approx. $300 a credit. The program involves 90 credits over a four year period, and students must have an IQ of 70 or above and a minimum of fourth-grade reading, writing and math skills.

 Check out more on the article at the link above.

All the best to you!

Lon

I read this post by Susabelle, on ATHENS blog today. I thought it would be a great topic for this blog…

“Eitan Glinert, an MIT graduate student in computer science, has developed a prototype game called AudiOdyssey. AudiOdyssey is a game strictly for visually impaired players, along the lines of Guitar Hero, or Rock Band, whose premise is that of a DJ who must layer up sounds to create music. The DJ keeps “alive” in the game by keeping his players on the dance floor with his riffing tunage.A short and tutorial introduces the player to the functions of the game, and can be played with either the arrow keys on a regular desktop keyboard or blue-tooth-enabled Nintendo Wii remote controller for motion play. All of the cues for the game are in audio, and no visual acuity is required to play the game.”

Go to the Gambit download area for Audiodyssey to check it out.

All the best to you!

Lon

June 27 is Deadline for Submissions and ATBC #4 Goes Up on June 30th.

I am excited that the next edition of the AT Blog Carnival is ready to receive submissions. Our topic for Edition #4 is “Grab Bag”. This means that any topic of interest is open in the realm of AT. I have found submissions take on a sort of theme of their own even though we have tried to make the month’s edition be on a certain area. With the loss of the blog carnival network service because of their lack of doing anything about Captcha, we have gone to using our own blogs to share the new topic and deadline - so, if you wouldn’t mind emailing folks about it or putting a post up on it - or better yet, start a small sidebar block with the latest date and submission info , that would be great. The purpose of it is just to network with others that use, teach, train or design assistive technology. My hope is to see a community of bloggers be able to support each other with ideas, information and new friendships - so join us. I think we have had about 12 or 13 people contribute to this point. I know there are lots more out there!

Send submissions to me at: lonthornburg@nolimits2learning.com

All the best to you!

Lon

I spent the weekend in Portland, Oregon. The city has a growing number of dragon boat racing teams. Portland embraces its’ dragon boat racing. When I was in Singapore years ago, I remember being there during the Dragon Boat Racing International Finals. The day of the finals, Portland, Oregon’s team won first place.

While on the streetcars going here and there for the Portland Rose Festival this weekend, I read a free city paper that had an article on teams of Dragon Boat racers that will compete June 7 and 8 in the Rose festival Dragon Boat Races. The teams are: Sound Waves, Blind Ambition and Lethally Blind. There are teams with breast cancer survivors (Pink Phoenix), deafness (Silent Dragon), and developmentally and physically disabled (the Special dragons).

The blind captain of “Sound Waves”, Mark Francis, says it is a level playing field. They are not distracted by the visuals either. They can focus on the commands. “When we beat’em, we really beat ‘em!” He said. What a wonderful thing to be able to do!

You can read the full article on the Portland Tribune website.

All the best to you!

Lon

T.Reid, of the Reid My Mind blog, sent my a kind email today, recognizing that we have steered away from using the blog carnival service to publicize or receive submissions for our blog carnival on assistive technology. You can read his post on this here.

I really didn’t mean to get in the middle of a heated issue - but ever since I got caught up in the blog carnival captcha it has made me more sensitive to what is going on. I spent a good deal of time this past week working with a boy on getting his Braillenote to get on the Internet. He is blind and was wanting to access his own email and get online to download and upload documents. I helped him set up his gmail account and Google docs and calendar so he can work online anywhere - he goes to the Oregon School for the Blind in the summer and does work experience, etc.

He was thrilled. I was glad I could walk him through it because in some step of a process, there was the captcha again. Tonight I went on several blogs and commented and …there it was again - without a disability access alternative. This isn’t only a speed bump but a brick wall and I recognize that now. From now on, every time I see a captcha required, I think, “There’s another place shutting folks out.”

Will you help us and send an email to the blog carnival service (on my sidebar) or any other site you come across that doesn’t provide an alternative and ask them to do something about it?

Thanks…All the best to you,

Lon