A database of news and information about people with disabilities and disability issues...
Copyright statement: Unless otherwise stated, all posts on this blog continue to be the property of the original author/publication/Web site, which can be found via the link at the beginning of each post.
A disabled man who set up a company making wheelchairs because he was frustrated with the lack of choice available to users has won an award.
Mark Owen and his brother Jon established Nomad in Ciliau Aeron, near Lampeter, just six months ago. (Both are pictured.)
The pair scooped a Design Management Europe (DME) prize, beating companies from France, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Belgium.
It is believed to be the first mobility company to win a DME award.
The brothers picked up the award at a ceremony in Eindhoven, in the Netherlands, after winning the "first time design project" category for their wheelchairs.
Mark Owen, a wheelchair user, started Nomad with his brother in response to over a decade of "feeling frustrated by the choice of wheelchairs available to the market".
The DME awards recognise companies for the management of the complete design process, from product design to branding, marketing and literature.
Company director Jon Owen said: "Even to be judged against such strong mainstream and lifestyle companies is a huge compliment."
Mark Owen started using a wheelchair after a road accident in 1996 left him paralysed from the chest down, and with the use of only his right arm.
Jon Owen said the award was "proof that it is possible to make the best of any situation, no matter how bad it seems at first".
Beth Haller, Ph.D., is Co-Director of the Global Alliance for Disability in Media and Entertainment (www.gadim.org). A former print journalist, she is a member of the Advisory Board for the National Center on Disability and Journalism (https://ncdj.org/). Haller is Professor Emerita in the Department of Mass Communication at Towson University in Maryland, USA. Haller is co-editor of the 2020 "Routledge Companion to Disability and Media" (with Gerard Goggin of University of Sydney & Katie Ellis of Curtin University, Australia). She is author of "Representing Disability in an Ableist World: Essays on Mass Media" (Advocado Press, 2010) and the author/editor of Byline of Hope: Collected Newspaper and Magazine Writing of Helen Keller (Advocado Press, 2015). She has been researching disability representation in mass media for 30+ years. She is adjunct faculty in the Disability Studies programs at the City University of New York (CUNY) and the University of Texas-Arlington.
From BBC News:
