Virginia Tech closer to prototype car so blind people can drive

From Red Orbit:

Researchers at Virginia Tech and have partnered with the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) for an upcoming demonstration of a prototype vehicle equipped with new technology that allows a blind person to independently drive a car.

The custom Ford Escape prototype, which uses non-visual interface technology, is scheduled for a public demonstration as part of the pre-race activities at the 2011 Rolex 24 At Daytona on January 29, 2011. A blind person, who has yet to be selected, will drive the prototype on a course near the famed Daytona International Speedway, and will attempt to simulate a typical driving experience.

“Three years ago we accepted the NFB Blind Driver Challenge to develop a vehicle that can be driven by a blind person. The challenge was not the development of an autonomous vehicle that could drive a blind person around, but rather the creation of non-visual interfaces that would allow a blind person to actually make driving decisions,” said Dr. Dennis Hong, Director of the Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory at Virginia Tech.

Dr. Marc Maurer, President of the Baltimore-based NFB, praised the development, saying the demonstration would “break down the wall of stereotypes and misconceptions that prevent our full integration into society by showing the public that the blind have the same capacities as everyone else.”

“Virginia Tech has accepted our challenge to apply non-visual interfaces to the task of driving, which has always been wrongly considered impossible for blind people,” Dr. Maurer said.

The vehicle’s non-visual interfaces use sensors that allow a blind driver to maneuver the car based on information transmitted to the driver about his or her surroundings. These include factors such as whether or not another car or object is nearby, out in front or in an adjacent lane.

“We are not trying to build a technology alone. We are trying to build a technology that can be combined with an intellect to do things that neither could do alone,” Dr. Maurer said.

Many blind people consider the idea of ever driving a car impossible, but scientists hope the initiative could help challenge such long-held assumptions.

"We're exploring areas that have previously been regarded as unexplorable," Dr. Maurer told the Associated Press.

"We're moving away from the theory that blindness ends the capacity of human beings to make contributions to society."

The NFB announced its plans for the vehicle demonstration during a news conference on Friday in Daytona Beach, Florida.

Dr. Maurer began thinking about building such a vehicle about ten years ago when he founded the NFB’s research institute.

"Some people thought I was crazy and they thought, 'Why do you want us to raise money for something that can't be done?' Others thought it was a great idea," he said.

"Some people were incredulous. Others thought the idea was incredible."

The new vehicle originated, in part, from Virginia Tech's 2007 entry into the DARPA Grand Challenge, a contest funded by the U.S. Department of Defense to develop driverless vehicles.

Virginia Tech took third place in the competition, having built a self-driving car that used sensors to detect traffic and avoid hitting other vehicles and objects.

On the heels of their success, the team responded to an NFB challenge to help build a car that could be driven by a blind person.

The researchers began by conducting a feasibility study using a dune buggy equipped with sensor lasers and cameras that acted as the “eyes” of the vehicle. A vibrating vest directed the driver to accelerate, slow down or turn.

Impressed by the results, the NFB urged the team to continue their work, which will be demonstrated next January in Daytona.

One of the non-visual interfaces on the new custom Ford Escape is called DriveGrip, which uses gloves with vibrating motors on areas that cover the driver’s knuckles. The vibrations let the driver know when and where to make turns.

Another interface, known as AirPix, is a tablet about 4 inches by 5 inches in size with multiple air holes. Compressed air flowing out of the device informs the driver of his or her surroundings, effectively creating a map of objects in the vicinity of the vehicle. It also tells the driver whether another vehicle is in a neighboring lane, or whether there is an obstruction on the road.

Dr. Hong, a Virginia Tech mechanical engineering professor who led the research, said the interface technology could not only someday help blind drivers operate a vehicle, but could also help make conventional cars safer.

He said the researchers hope to someday turn the new technology into a consumer product.

However, "this is not going to be a product until its proven 100 percent safe,” he said.
Advocates for the blind say it will likely be a while before the idea of blind drivers is widely accepted, and years of testing will be needed to prove the new technology is safe and effective.

The latest prototype is part of a more comprehensive mission to change the way people perceive the blind.

Mark Riccobono, executive director of the NFB's Jernigan Institute, said when people see him out with his 3-year-old son, they think his son is guiding him.

"The idea that a 3-year-old takes care of me stems from what they think about blindness," Riccobono told The Associated Press.

"That will change when people see that we can do something that they thought was impossible."

Washington state teen with Asperger's creates winery game

From KNDO-TV:

PROSSER, Wash.-- A Prosser teen has created another version of a famous board game based on the wineries in the area.

18-year-old James Weisz created the game "Vineopoly." He says, "Basically, it works just like regular Monopoly. You just have your pieces, roll the dice, you move your spot." The difference, though, is that the properties on the board are based on Prosser wineries and breweries.

Weisz has Asperger's Syndrome, which is a high-functioning form of autism, but he hasn't let that stop him from creating the game. Over the past three years, he's worked on a design and getting sponsors. He says, "What we had to do is go around to the different wineries and.. businesses and ask for their sponsorship and support to the board."

After working with a company that produces other "--opoly" games and knocking on a few doors, "Vineopoly" now sits in 500 perfectly packaged boxes, ready to be shipped to customers or sold at local wineries.

One of the wineries featured on the board is Kestrel. Winemaker Flint Nelson says, "They looked pretty darn good, so we started selling them here and it's been a real success."

Weisz hopes to sell enough to make $7,500 so he can go to the British Isles. He says, "I'm going with an organization called People to People, which sends students overseas to different countries and to learn about the culture."

Each game costs $35.

World Cup promotes wheelchair-accessible seating

From Eyewitness News in South Africa:

MATCH is making more tickets available to wheelchair users.

Some disabled users have reported difficulties getting tickets for the games as many have been mistakenly purchased.

MATCH official Imran Patel said on Friday disabled tickets can only be sold over the counter to ensure they land up in the right hands.

“MATCH has been selling tickets over the counter to wheelchair customers when they were available. Wheelchair tickets are not available online at this stage. This is due to the limited inventory and this is to make sure that any remaining inventory is sold to wheelchair users and not purchased by customers who do not truly need them,” he said.

Fertility treatment tied to risk of cerebral palsy

From Reuters Health:

A new study confirms that children conceived via infertility treatment may have a higher-than-average risk of cerebral palsy -- explained largely by their higher rates of multiple births and preterm delivery.

The study, of nearly 590,000 children born in Denmark between 1995 and 2003, found that those conceived through assisted reproduction were about twice as likely to be diagnosed with cerebral palsy as children who were conceived naturally.

The findings, reported in the journal Human Reproduction, confirm those from a number of past studies. They also suggest that the increased risk of cerebral palsy can be largely attributed to the heightened odds of twin or higher-order births, as well as preterm delivery, with assisted reproduction.

However, the absolute risk of having a baby with cerebral palsy is still quite low for couples undergoing infertility treatment.

In the U.S. and Europe, it's estimated that two or three of every 1,000 babies are affected by the disorder. So even with a relatively increased risk, the vast majority of children born via assisted reproduction techniques will not have cerebral palsy.

Still, researchers say their findings offer an argument for implanting women with only one embryo at a time, in order to cut the odds of multiple births and preterm delivery.

Cerebral palsy refers to a group of conditions, usually present at birth, that permanently impair movement, balance and posture. The impairments range from mild -- some children have only relatively minor problems with movement -- to more severe, with some children being unable to walk or having additional impairments, such as mental retardation or vision and hearing problems.

The precise cause of cerebral palsy is unknown, but it is believed to involve a disruption in normal fetal brain development. Premature and low-birthweight infants are known to have a higher risk than full-term, normal-weight babies.

For the new study, researchers led by Dr. Dorte Hvidtjorn, of the University of Aarhus in Denmark, examined national data on all 588,967 children born in the country between 1995 and 2003. That included 33,139 children conceived via in-vitro fertilization (IVF) or with the help of fertility drugs to stimulate the ovaries to produce eggs.

IVF, the most technologically advanced of assisted reproductive technologies, involves removing an egg cell from a woman's body, fertilizing it in the lab, and placing it in the woman's womb. It can cost up to $15,000 per "cycle" of medications and procedures, with successful pregnancies often requiring several cycles.

Overall, 0.2 percent of all children were diagnosed with cerebral palsy. The risk was more than doubled among children in the IVF group, and 55 percent higher among those conceived using fertility drugs, compared with children conceived naturally.

When the researchers factored in the effects of multiple births and preterm delivery, the link between fertility treatment and cerebral palsy disappeared -- indicating that those two factors are likely responsible for the connection.

In fact, the researchers found no increased risk of cerebral palsy among singletons born via IVF.

The findings, according to Hvidtjorn's team, indicate that the risk of cerebral palsy among children conceived through assisted reproduction is "strongly associated" with their high proportion of multiple births and premature deliveries. In this study, 63 percent of children conceived through assisted reproduction were premature, versus 33 percent of those conceived naturally.

Similarly, 54 percent of births in the assisted-reproduction group were twins or triplets, compared with 7 percent of births among children conceived naturally.

As it stands, doctors often transfer more than one embryo to a woman's uterus during an IVF procedure, with the goal of boosting the chances that at least one will successfully implant and result in a birth.

However, Hvidtjorn's team writes, the current findings make an argument for transferring only one embryo at a time.

Recent research also suggests that women implanted with one embryo during IVF have a similar success rate as those who receive two embryos. A Swedish study published last year in the New England Journal of Medicine found that among 661 women implanted with either one or two embryos during their first IVF attempt, 53 percent and 57 percent gave birth, respectively.

Zimbabwe activist speaks out for better treatment of people with disabilities in Africa

From Afrik News:

Masimba Kuchera was born blind in Zimbabwe. He struggled through primary and secondary school and university to become an information specialist, and now works for the Students’ Solidarity Trust, a non-governmental organization striving to protect students’ rights.

Although he feels a sense of achievement in his personal life, he remains saddened by the fact that many others in his situation will not be able to live full and productive lives, or even go to school. “There are very few government schools that cater for children with disabilities. I wonder how many disabled people are in school right now,” Mr. Kuchera asks.

In the streets of Harare hundreds of disabled people beg for alms. Most do so in dirty clothes, in makeshift wheelchairs or on crutches, while the less fortunate drag themselves on their hands and knees.

Many were previously cared for in special homes, including the Jairos Jiri Centre, Copota School, Danhiko and the Chinyaradzo Children’s Home. Such institutions used to get financial support from the government and the corporate world, but the economic decline that began in Zimbabwe in 2000 made life in the homes difficult and forced most residents to opt for life on the streets.

“The government has forgotten the disabled people,” laments Mr. Kuchera. “Nothing was mentioned in the country’s 2010 budget. There are no projects or programmes whatsoever for disabled people.”

Part of the problem stems from social attitudes, experts say. The general feeling is that the only places for a disabled person are in the street or in front of either a church or mosque, begging. The situation is worse in rural areas, where children with disabilities are usually confined to the house because of long-held beliefs that they are curses from God.

“Society views disabled people as useless liabilities that have no role to play in society,” says Gladys Charowa, a single mother who was left wheelchair-bound by a 2001 car accident. She is a founding member and executive director of the Disabled Women Support Organization, a group that focuses on helping women and girls with disabilities in Zimbabwe.

It is vital work, because women with disabilities face especially severe discrimination. A 2004 report by Save the Children Norway found that nearly 9 of every 10 girls with disabilities had been sexually abused. Approximately half of these girls were mentally challenged. Of those who had been abused, 52.4 per cent tested positive for HIV.

In a number of countries in Southern Africa there are non-governmental organizations that agitate for the welfare of disabled people, with some focusing on those with specific needs, such as the blind, deaf, paralyzed or mentally ill. Most groups also challenge governments to implement policies for the rights of the disabled.

One such organization is Disabled People’s International. Joshua Malinga, who is wheelchair-bound, is a founding member. He also belongs to the Political Bureau of Zimbabwe’s ruling party, the Zimbabwe African National Union–Patriotic Front, led by President Robert Mugabe.

While Mr. Malinga himself wields some political influence, most people with disabilities do not. “The quality of life of disabled people in Africa is pathetic because disability has not been mainstreamed,” Mr. Malinga told Africa Renewal. “Disabled people are not represented in parliaments, in organs of decision-making, even on issues that concern them. Governments do not plan with the disabled in mind.”

The African Union is trying to change that. The continental body has developed a Plan of Action for Disabled People. Among other things, the plan recognizes the need to integrate people with disabilities into society, and to empower and involve them in the formulation and implementation of social and economic development policies. It urges governments to allocate sufficient funds to ministries and departments dealing with people with disabilities and to establish national committees to coordinate all disability issues and include those concerns in their national programmes.

Nationally there have also been some improvements as well. Ghana is a shining example. It is estimated that about 1.8 million Ghanaians — about 5 per cent of the total population — are in some fashion disabled, with problems of sight, hearing and speaking in the lead.

In 2006 Ghana’s parliament passed the National Disability Act, intended to ensure that people living with disabilities enjoy the same rights as the able-bodied. The act offers a legal framework to protect the rights of physically and mentally disabled persons in all areas of life, from education, training and employment to physical access and health care. It also is intended to promote the creation of an environment that will advance the economic well-being of disabled people and enable them to function better.

Most recently, the government has decided to incorporate disability issues into the country’s national budget. Minister of Finance and Economic Planning Kwabena Duffour announced in parliament on 19 November 2009 that his government will give all children with disabilities free education.

In Namibia, all government ministries have been instructed to integrate disability issues into their work, while in South Africa the Ministry of Women, Children and People with Disabilities takes up their concerns.

But political will is still sorely needed in most other African countries. “Being disabled is a permanent state which needs permanent solutions,” Mr. Malinga argues. Those solutions, he concluded, “can only come from our governments.”

Gold-medal-winning sled hockey player nominated for ESPY

From the National Hockey League:

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- USA Hockey will be well represented at the 2010 ESPY Awards on July 14 in Los Angeles. The 2010 U.S. Olympic Men's Ice Hockey Team, Ryan Miller, Blake Geoffrion and Steve Cash (pictured) have all been nominated for ESPY Awards for the Best Game, Best NHL Player, Best Male College Athlete and Best Male Athlete with a Disability, respectively.

Best game
The U.S. Olympic Men's Ice Hockey Team was nominated for its Olympic gold-medal showdown with Canada. Team USA's Zach Parise (Minneapolis, Minn.) scored with just 24 seconds remaining in regulation to tie the score, 2-2, and send the contest into overtime. Despite Team USA's eventual loss, the largest television audience for a hockey game in 30 years witnessed the U.S. capture its second silver medal in three Olympic Winter Games.

Best NHL player
Miller (East Lansing, Mich.), a member of the 2010 U.S. Olympic Men's Ice Hockey Team and the most valuable player of the Olympic tournament, recently won the NHL's Vezina Trophy as the league's top goaltender in 2009-10. USA Hockey honored Miller with the 2010 Bob Johnson Award for outstanding performance in international play.

Best male college athlete
Geoffrion (Brentwood, Tenn.) won the 2010 Hobey Baker Memorial Award, men's college ice hockey's top individual honor, after helping lead the University of Wisconsin men's ice hockey team to an NCAA Division I championship game berth. He was also named USA Hockey's College Player of the Year.

Best male athlete with a disability
During the 2010 Paralympic Winter Games, Cash (Overland, Mo.) backstopped the U.S. Paralympic Sled Hockey Team to its second-ever gold medal. He achieved what no other sled hockey goaltender has ever done by not allowing a single goal throughout the tournament. He turned aside all 33 shots faced in the five games of the Paralympics.

Begun by cable sports channel ESPN in 1993, the annual ESPY Awards allows sports fans worldwide to join in an online vote for their favorites in multiple categories. Fans can vote for the USA Hockey nominees here.

Cooking club for kids with disabilities filled with fun and life skills

From The Philadelphia Inquirer. In the picture, Kevin Flocco (left) and Annie Boyle work together as they stir their brownie mix.

Brownie pizza was the featured entree at a recent cooking club meeting in Burlington County.

Four tiny chefs scrambled around the kitchen in the Medford community center, grating their white chocolate "cheese" and taking a quick break for "pin the pepperoni on the pizza."

Brownie pizza may not be the most essential recipe for a 9-year-old to master, but Rosy Gruber says the cooking is secondary for her son, Jason.

"I tell people he's going to a cooking class and they think, 'Oh, he's learning to cook.' No, he's learning to be a competent human being," she said.

The class is part of a program organized by KidsAhead Consulting & Center for Development, which works with autistic children and their families to foster emotional development and basic life skills. KidsAhead offers consultations and parent education, with supplemental summer programs such as the cooking club, a crafts club, and a summer camp.

KidsAhead approaches autism using Relationship Development Intervention. Instead of an approach that focuses on reinforcing or discouraging specific behaviors, RDI takes a more general approach to education in the hope that children will learn to apply patterns of behavior to different situations.

KidsAhead's RDI programming focuses on strengthening the "core deficits" that most autistic children struggle with, such as problem solving and emotional development. Though the cooking club is not officially an RDI program, Gruber said cooking is a good way to start because it can improve an autistic child's "flexible thinking."

"Some kids, for example, if they bake cookies the first time, then every time they bake they think it has to be cookies, it always has to be the same bowl," she said.

She also said the social aspect has helped Jason, who has always struggled with making friends. She said Jason had gotten especially attached to a 10-year-old with Down syndrome who was sporting a bright green polka-dot apron as she meticulously arranged her pizza.

"I was like, 'So, do you like Annie?' He said, 'I love Annie.' . . . He said, 'I like all the kids in cooking club,' " said Gruber.

Because Jason struggles with anxiety and panic attacks, he has not been able to attend school. So Gruber and Jason have been together all day, every day, for almost 10 years. She said his autism was so severe that he was nonverbal for the first four or five years of his life, and they had to communicate with sign language.

"Before, he used to be very withdrawn, introverted. He's more part of the family, he's more social. Definitively much more talkative," she said.

Founder and director Libby Majewski says KidsAhead, which has about 30 clients, tries "to give parenting back to the parents."

"What has been really great to see is that we have many parents who now say that they have a relationship with their child," she said.

Gruber says KidsAhead has been especially helpful for Jason because its programming takes into account his struggles with anxiety and panic. Still, she said, Jason will always have to deal with his autism.

"We're not looking for a cure," she said. "There is no cure. We're looking for remediation."

21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act approved by House subcommittee

From Multichannel News:

WASHINGTON -- The House Communications Subcommittee June 30 approved a bill that would put additional disability access requirements on broadcasters, cable operators, Web-video outlets and consumer-electronics companies.

But that approval came in part because both Republicans and Democrats were assured more changes would be made to the measure.

The legislation is a work in progress, said subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher (D-Va.), who added that more changes will be reflected when the bill is brought up in full committee in two weeks. Energy & Commerce Committee chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) wants the House to approve the bill by July 26, the 20th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (HR 3101) would update communications accessibility provisions in the 1996 Communications Act as well as apply them to access to broadband.

During the June 30 markup at which the bill was favorably referred to the full committee on a voice vote, both Republican and Democratic lawmakers made note of the issues they still had with the legislation, which was itself a new draft of the bill, reflecting changes from a version considered earlier this month in a hearing at which some sparks flew.

Among the bill's key points are: 1) requiring equipment for small-screen video devices to convey closed captioning and emergency information; 2) requiring user interfaces for viewing video on such devices be accessible, including an accessibility button on remote controls; 3) reinstating FCC video description requirements for TV programming (they were vacated by a federal court in 2002); applying closed captioning requirements to the Internet; and requiring that video programming convey emergency information to the visually impaired.

Among the changes to the bill since it was first introduced is one that would give the FCC more flexibility and power to determine how broadcast and cable operators would meet a new congressional mandate that disability access to telecommunications requirements be updated to reflect the rise of broadband and other technologies.

In the previous version of the bill, the FCC would have to require accessibility unless it would result in an undue burden on equipment manufactures. That standard has been changed to "unless it is not achievable," with achievable defined as "with reasonable effort or expense."

The FCC would have the job of determining whether that standard had been met, based on the nature and cost, the impact on the manufacturer and distributor and the deployment of new technologies, the manufacturers financial resources, and "the type of operations of the manufacturer or provider."

Among the changes to the bill that concerned some Republicans was a provision allowing the FCC to expand the video-description requirement beyond the 50 hours per quarter the FCC had required before those rules were struck down. Some Democrats, on the other hand, thought the two years the FCC was given to implement new video description requirements was too long.

Some Republicans argued against giving the FCC what they viewed as open-ended authority over the accessibility updates. Rep John Shimkus (R-Ill.) said the FCC needed more direction than broad guidelines, and Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) alluded to the issue of broadband authority -- which centers on which powers Congress did or did not give the FCC. She said that any authority should be explicit, with plenty of congressional oversight, adding that Congress should not just delegate items to the rulemaking process."

Ranking member Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.) said he was concerned that the bill not stifle innovative technologies like Apple's iPhone. The Consumer Electronics Association, which has major issues with the bill, has argued that under such access provisions like mandatory buttons, the buttonless iPhone might never have made it to market.

He is also concerned that the mandates apply to every feature of every device, rather than, say, making all those features available on only some of a product line.

Other issues with the bill include whether the "operator financial resources" test for achievability is based on total resources, or just those applied to the device or service, and whether the FCC should have to report to Congress before deciding how many hours of video-described programming broadcast and cable outlets have to provide.

An issue that concerned several Democrats, including Waxman and the bill's chief sponsor, Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), was a change to the bill that applied video-description mandates in only the top 25 markets.

Markey, who thought the two-year phase-in was unnecessarily lengthy, said it did not make sense that the mandates would exclude millions of the blind because they lived in New Orleans rather than Orlando or Nashville rather than New York.

Rep. Mike Doyle (D-Pa.) pointed to another issue with the top 25 markets cut-off. Doyle, who represents No. 23 market Pittsburgh, noted that DMA has only 40,000 more people than the No. 26 market. Should Nielsen shift a county on next year's map -- or were there population growth elsewhere combined with decline in Pittsburgh -- Doyle's constituents might lose the guarantee of video description. He said he was sure broadcasters would continue to deliver the descriptions if that happened, but the FCC would not have the power to enforce that.

Doyle also said he was concerned that if the accessibility standard was only designed for digital delivery, some small cable operators would be forced to upgrade.

Boucher said he would be happy to resolve Doyle's issues and those of other affected parties by markup in the full committee.

The National Cable & Telecommunications Association agrees with Boucher that the bill is, and should be, a work in progress. It still has some issues with the legislation.

"We appreciate the changes that have been made to the bill and look forward to working with all members of the committee as this legislation continues to move," said NCTA spokesman Brian Dietz. "We believe that further improvements are needed if we are to be successful in developing targeted legislation that focuses on reasonable, attainable goals in improving the accessibility of communications services and equipment for persons with disabilities."

Football legend Dan Marino receives "Point of Light" award for work for autism research

From The Associated Press:

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Miami Dolphins legend Dan Marino (pictured) has been named the latest recipient of Florida Gov. Charlie Crist's "Point of Light" award, in recognition of the Hall of Fame quarterback's work for autism research.

Marino and his wife Claire founded the Dan Marino Foundation in 1992, the first of many initiatives the couple has taken on to enhance the lives of people with disabilities.

Crist says Marino's "passion and dedication has led to innovative advancements in treatment and improved the quality of life of thousands of individuals."

Marino's foundation has raised more than $28 million for medical research.

The Point of Light award is given weekly to a Floridian who demonstrates exemplary service to the community.

Irish company hopes its GPS system will revolutionize navigation for blind people

From The Irish Times:

An Irish company is testing new technology that could revolutionise navigation for the blind. Point The Way is conducting early tests of its phone application that helps visually impaired users follow GPS directions easily.

The application uses a phone’s built-in GPS receiver and compass to gauge its location. It then vibrates when the phone is pointed in the correct direction, allowing users to follow a route by touch.

“A normal GPS may say ‘go straight’, which makes sense to most people but may not to a blind person,” says Tim Walsh, director of Point The Way. “Our tool will let them put it in their breast pocket and follow it quite easily.”

The company is currently running a small trial in conjunction with the National Council for the Blind of Ireland but is hoping to expand this soon. As part of this, it is already in early stage talks with manufacturers like Motorola, which has an accessibility programme in the US.

Another application designed by Walsh is being used to assist Team Daft.ie in this year’s Round Ireland Yacht Race. It was developed as an extra safety precaution to track the boat in case of emergency as one of its crew, Mark Pollock, is blind.

“It basically looks at the GPS location and texts it off to a particular number, we pick up that on our database and pull it into Google Maps,” says Walsh. “SMS is a very robust way of doing things as it requires the least signal and battery power to work . . . it means we get updates every five minutes compared to every 20 on the official race trackers update.”

The phones used were provided by O2 and run on Google’s Android system. As part of this agreement Point The Way is also recording mast signal details so O2 can gauge the quality of its network in coastal regions.

Walsh says that while the application started as a side-project, he now sees commercial potential to it. “When I built it it didn’t occur to me, but I realised this is actually quite useful.”

Scholastic magazine covers wheelchair stunt master, Aaron Fotheringham

From Scholastic magazine:

Aaron Fotheringham (pictured) has been amazing people with backflips and other skate-tricks throughout his teens. The 18-year-old's skillful stunts have made many crowds at his favorite skate park in Las Vegas, Nevada, cheer. But Aaron's signature backflip won worldwide notice in 2008—in the form of a Guinness World Record. Why did his particular backflip earn such an honor?

Aaron was the first person to successfully perform a backflip in a wheelchair.

Aaron was born with spina bifida, a condition that prevents a person's spinal bones from forming properly. He has been in a wheelchair since the age of 3.

Since then, he has been figuring out the physics of his wheelchair through trial and error. He has even developed a new extreme sport in which wheelchair-bound athletes use their chairs like skateboards or bikes to do tricks. Aaron calls it "hardcore sitting."

Now Aaron's friends call him "Wheelz," and he says it's a huge compliment.

Though Aaron makes his stunts look easy, doing tricks in a wheelchair is very different from using a skateboard or BMX bike.

James Riordon, a skateboarder and scientist at the American Physical Society, agrees.

"It's a completely different skill set," says Riordon.

If a skateboarder goes into a flip like Aaron's and doesn't start out with enough spin, he or she can tuck in to speed up. This allows a skateboarder to make a complete revolution in time for a successful landing. But Aaron can't tuck his body in any more than it is already.

That means Aaron has to have everything perfect before going into a flip. He needs to launch himself to just the right height. If he doesn't, he could wipe out on the concrete.

"My rotation is so quick, I don't have much time to think," says Aaron.

Aaron's stunts take a lot of practice. He tries to make it to the skate park every day to work on his backflip and try out new tricks.

Even though he's a top-notch athlete, Aaron doesn't always land his stunts perfectly. Sometimes he makes it, and sometimes he overshoots and gets roughed up. But Aaron says he doesn't let bad landings stop him. He gets right back up and goes for it again.

He also competes in the BMX division at the Vegas Am Jam and travels all over the United States and abroad to perform at extreme-sporting events, like last year's X Games.

He even appeared on the television show Secret Millionaire, where he received $20,000 from undercover millionaire Greg Haerr to pursue his dream of designing his own wheelchairs and teaching others his wheelchair stunts.

In Canada, wheelchair-using soldier denied elevator ride

From UPI:

EDMONTON, Alberta -- The director of Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton, Alberta, has apologized to a wheelchair-bound Canadian soldier who was refused an elevator ride.

Kurtis Gaucher's fiancee, Tarama Poloway, told the Edmonton Sun the military amputee had to hobble down about 65 stairs Monday after they were denied elevator service. She said stadium staff told them they were too late to use the elevator to join other families on the field.

Gaucher, Poloway and their 5-month-old daughter had attended an event at the stadium honoring Canada's Winter Olympic gold medalists and military heroes.

"My fiance is one of those military heroes," she said. "I was scared he would fall because he doesn't have very good balance."

Gaucher suffered an amputation when he was injured in Afghanistan in November and has difficulty walking.

Experts say eating disorders, addictions more difficult to treat in teens

From HealthDay News:

When it comes to treating eating disorders and addictions, the path to recovery may be even harder -- and less straightforward -- for children and teens than it is for adults, experts say.

"Disorders that start when you're young, in adolescence, no matter what the disorder, are always harder to treat and harder to recover from," said Dr. David Schlager, a clinical assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral science at Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine.

This applies both to a wide range of problems, he said, from eating disorders such as bulimia and anorexia, to addictions and mental illness.

No one knows exactly why this is so, in terms of brain chemistry, but adolescence can be hard enough even without these complications.

"There are so many crucial things going on, so much pressure to establish yourself in various ways," explained Schlager, who's also a psychiatrist with Lone Star Circle of Care. Mental health can be easier for adults, he reasoned, because "if you've made it to 30 you've carved out a little groove for yourself, most people will give you a little latitude."

Also, the bodies and minds of people suffering from any of these disorders work differently than those of healthy individuals, making the challenge even tougher.

"In anorexia, [which typically sets in between the ages of 14 and 17], when someone is severely underweight, their brain and their body tend to react differently," said Andrea Vazzana, a clinical assistant professor of child and adolescent psychiatry at New York University Child Study Center. "Someone who is severely underweight is likely to have difficulty concentrating, making good judgments. Reasoning becomes more difficult and their mood is affected. They're more irritable and depressed and anxious."

People with bulimia suffer from a similar problem. "They're binging and purging and their body is affected. They have the same preoccupation with weight [as anorexics] and, to a lesser extent than with anorexia, their judgment is impacted," Vazzana said.

But clinicians are at a disadvantage when it comes to treating troubled teens, because there's a dearth of research into what treatments actually work for the younger people.

For example, "there aren't a lot of treatments [for eating disorders], especially in adolescence, that have been proven to work," Vazzana said. Family therapy is one treatment that has shown good results in randomized, controlled trials.

There are good treatments that work for bulimia in adults but no one knows if they trickle down to children, though anecdotally they do seem to have some effect, Vazzana said. These include cognitive behavioral therapy and interpersonal therapy.

None of this means that parents should give up hope. Treating eating disorders, addictions and other mental health issues in younger people can be difficult, but it's not impossible, said Schlager.

"It depends on the condition. If it's one of the conditions that only have behavioral treatments and no medication, then it's hard first of all to get them [children] to participate in behavioral treatment," he said.

And, according to Vazzana, there's no evidence yet that 12-Step programs work for eating disorders, especially in younger people, because they require people to acknowledge their illness.

"To get a teenager to acknowledge that they have an illness and that they need care, that's narcissistically overwhelming," Schlager said. "Like most young people, they pretend it's not happening."

Wynn Oleson is a pseudonym for the author of My Daughter Is Bulimic and the Cat Has Hairballs: The 95-Pound Addict in the Room. She found that neither 12-Step programs for addiction, nor a host of other "adult-oriented" treatments, helped her daughter, who has struggled with both eating disorders and addiction.

"As a young girl, she was treated like anybody who showed similar symptoms -- meaning adults," Oleson recalled. "In the rehab center, her roommates were 35 or 40 years old. She was placed with hardened heroin addicts who had been in prison. They're not bad people. But they are very deep into their addiction and their stories to a young, impressionable girl from a very different background who has not lived that life, it's all pretty exciting stuff."

After several inpatient treatment programs failed, Oleson tackled her daughter's problems with her own brand of at-home family and cognitive behavioral therapy.

"What seems to work with young people, and what ultimately we did with our daughter, was go back and say my daughter is not at the point where she is able to logically process what's happening to her," Oleson said. "We had to go back and teach her some of life's basic lessons."

Olseon put together spread sheets outlining the choices her daughter might face with particular situations, such as a party, asking her what has happened at parties in the past and what decisions she could make now.

"My goals in writing the book were to help other families avoid some of the dangerous traps we fell into in trying to help our daughter -- to open the public's and the profession's eyes to the urgent need for new treatment methods for the young person 24 years and under," she said.

Today, Oleson said, her daughter is on the dean's list at college and "building healthy relationships with others and, little by little, with herself."

"She continues to be challenged, especially when stressed, by urges to fall back on old behaviors," Oleson added. "But she now understands what is driving that tension, has developed new healthy rewards, and has found goals in life that are greater than her desire for the addictions."

Ann Arbor high school specifically serves students with Asperger's

From myFOXDetroit.com:

A high school in Ann Arbor may look like your typical, pristine, private school, but it is the first of its kind in the Midwest.

Ross Dunlap squeezes in a little saxophone practice. In many ways he's like any other 14-year-old. He loves his video games and tolerates family game night.

But since he was a baby, his parents knew something was different.

"He had trouble acquiring language and then, of course, there was the no eye contact or anything like that. So, it all started about one, one and a half. We started to get concerned," said Gwen Dunlap, Ross' mother.

It wasn't long before Ross was diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum. When he started school, teachers notice his anxieties.

"Midway through the year, the teacher would come back and say, huh, I've never see anything quite like this before," said Dale Dunlap, Ross' father.

School life is about to change for Ross. He's one of the first students to enroll at a Veritas Christi in Ann Arbor, a high school for students with Asperger's or high functioning autism. The small classrooms are surrounded by soft lighting and soothing wall colors and there are many spots to socialize.

"Kids that are on the spectrum that have autism or Asperger's tend to have problems and issues with socializing and relating to each other, and so that's one of the things we want them to do and we encourage that," said Richard Nye, head of Veritas Christi.

Nick Dubin is not only the dean of students, he's also an author. He's got his Ph.D and he has Asperger's. In high school and not yet diagnosed, he remembers the tough times.

"I was bullied a lot. My interests were different from everyone else, and it was a time of great confusion," said Dubin.

That is why the Dunlaps have saved every penny to pay the $14,000 a year tuition so that Ross can learn in his own way.

We asked Ross what he wants to do after high school. He answered, "I was going to go to college, and this school's going to help me get there."

"It's much easier to start with a safe environment, expand your comfort zone from there as opposed to starting in a huge school, large classes, lots of social interactions. Then it becomes overwhelming, and if everything, every part of your school day is outside your comfort zone, it's really hard to learn," Dale Dunlap said.

"We're capable of amazing things, but also the fact that... to achieve those amazing things, we may get there following a different path," Dubin said.

Justin Dart puppet marches at U.S. Social Forum

From the U.S. Social Forum. Here are the pictures of the puppet in the march from the Matrix Theatre Company.

In the wake of Arizona’s new racial profiling law, the BP oil disaster and the acute financial crisis, thousands of progressive organizers are coming together in a National People’s Movement Assembly (PMA) to set a national action agenda coming out of the US Social Forum (USSF). The National People’s Movement Assembly will be the culmination of nearly 100 local, regional and issue based People’s Movement Assemblies engaging tens of thousands of people nationwide.

“The process will be short on talk but large on action,” says Elandria Williams of the Highlander Center and member of the PMA working group. “It’s been incredible to watch everyday people – parents and young people, unemployed folk and grandmothers participate in this grassroots community governance process. This is not about the politicians or what the pundits think.”

According to organizers, communities around the country are preparing for the US Social Forum primarily through thesePMAs. “There will be more than 50 PMAs on every front of struggle in this country and across the globe. PMAs are where the rubber meets the road, where talk becomes action – and people are coming to this Social Forum ready to strategize, converge and meet the challenges ahead,” says Project South’s Stephanie Guilloud, PMA Working Group co-chair.

People’s Movement Assemblies will take place throughout the USSF starting Wednesday, ending with the National PMA scheduled for Saturday, June 26, the final day of USSF, from 12:30-4 pm in Cobo Hall. Topics range from developing cross cutting approaches to environmental justice in the wake of the BP oil disaster to coordinated communications strategies to counter the Right. A key focus will be Detroit, itself, the host city of the US Social Forum. There are five actions planned as part of the Detroit PMAs including local protests and marches. See www.ussf2010.org/actions.

“PMAs are tackling the hard issues that we, as a nation, are facing,” says Ruben Solís of the Southwest Workers Union and PMA working group co-chair. “We are coming out of this process stronger, more organized and ready to take the gloves off. This is a battle for our lives. Losing is not an option.”