What We Are Reading

A big thank you to all of you who sent us articles to be included in this edition of “What We Are Reading” Please keep them coming! You can send them to info[at]Diagramcenter[org] or to me directly at amayaw[at]benetech[dot]org.

• Su Park worked with Pearson to develop new software and hardware that allows students using Braille to interact with math on a computer. Read her story in the article A blind high school senior helps make learning history
• Researchers at Thammasat University in Thailand have created something that will potentially make it a lot cheaper for the blind to read. Read Thai university creates cheap, touchable ink for the blind to learn more.
• Strides in special education have not caught up with technology, leaving disabled students in the digital dust as their peers type and swipe through daily lessons.  Schoolchildren with disabilities face digital gap is an article that discusses the issue and what some people and agencies are doing about it.
• Long-Term Training with a Brain-Machine Interface-Based Gait Protocol Induces Partial Neurological Recovery in Paraplegic Patients. Learn more at http://www.nature.com/articles/srep30383.
• DIAGRAM Community member Saqib Shaikh, an engineer at Microsoft, has developed technology to help compensate for the sight he lost at a very young age. The technology leverages a range of leading-edge technologies, including visual recognition and advanced machine learning, and was featured in the article The Partnership of the Future.
• Deep learning research company will use 1m anonymised eye scans to train a neural network to identify early signs of degenerative eye conditions. Read the article Google DeepMind pairs with NHS to use machine learning to fight blindness to learn more.
• A clutch of entrepreneurs have set aside cash and raised funds to build apps and devices for people with disabilities. Learn more about their efforts and what they’ve built at http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/trend-tracking/startups-products-for-disabilities/articleshow/53468249.cms
• Tulane University has created a guide to help teachers create classroom resources that are accessible. The guide is under the creative commons license and is available at https://accessiblesyllabus.tulane.edu/text/
• A Working Draft of Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA) 1.1 is available for review. It is intended to be the last Working Draft before the specification becomes a Candidate Recommendation.
• Innovation in food packaging and ‘use-by date’ labels being tested at the University of Chester combining sustainability with tech for the print disabled. The full article can be read at https://www.chester.ac.uk/node/37608 .