Here’s how it all beganIn the fall of 2013, New York ad executive Tom Webster came to our shop with a dream on four wheels . . . a run-down but running Bentley Continental R.  I just bought it, he told me.  Can we make it run right, and make it special, he asked?Tom's Bentley as it looked …

Disability empowerment … can bend the moral arc of a neurotypical universe into one which supports the idea that initiative and hard work is valuable in and of itself, in whichever way it chooses to manifest. By Nils Skudra A little prefatory material is perhaps in order before I engage in a bit of …

“It is toxic to think that the worth of a person comes only from what they can provide. This is, in my opinion, a major source of ableism. “By Baylie NixonLast month was autism awareness month. Fortunately, April is slowly but surely becoming better known as “Autism Acceptance Month” in…

“You cannot fix what is not broken. Autism is not a disease. We are not incomplete puzzles—we are whole human beings. We are not tragedies—we are products of neurodiversity. Eliminating autism means eliminating us,” Chelsea Dub The Art of Autism celebrates Autistic Pride Day today. Autism prid…

Toddlers with autism are oblivious to the social information in the eyes, but don’t actively avoid meeting another person’s gaze, according to a new study1. The findings support one side of a long-standing debate: Do children with autism tend not to look others in the eye because they are uninterest…

The first monkey with a mutation in SHANK3, a top autism gene, is nearly 3 years old1. It spends its days circling its cage rather than interacting with other monkeys. The monkey lacks SHANK3 in only some of its cells — and yet shows traits reminiscent of autism, including social disinterest and rep…

“When I step on the ice, I feel clarity and my worries disappear,” Walker Aurand By Ron Sandison Walker Aurand, a natural on ice, began skating at the age of two. When his dad took him to the rink for open skate, he was astonished to see his two year old son skating without any training…

By Katherine Lockhead That day was overwhelming for me. I woke up that morning, feeling excited and ready for the event that every student looks forward to from Grade 1. I called salons to get my hair and makeup done. It came as a shock to me that most of these places did not have any slots availabl…

We have seen many types of prosthetic arm, especially for kids, that can be easily printed on a 3D printer for as low as $50. Low cost and easy access make sure that a child can get a new prosthetic arm as they outgrow it. What can be more fun for those kids is if they could have an arm they could h…

In order to help people with disabilities use its products much more comfortably and independently, and to foray into inclusion, Ikea recently launched the “ThisAbles” project that includes a line of low tech assistive technology devices that bridges gaps between existing Ikea products a…

I’ve been asked to discuss some of the questions I see swirling round the discovery of the reliquary in Jamestown.  I wrote about the remarkable find last week on this same blog.The later Anglican church at Jamestown (as reconstructed at the turn of the 20th century)It’s always hard to put ours…

Children who are born with heart problems are 32 percent more likely to have autism than their typical peers are, according to a large study1. Unexpectedly, milder defects are strongly linked to autism, but more serious ones are not, the researchers found. A growing body of research shows that child…

The one lesson we can learn from this story is to never be afraid to express what we need or desire because most likely, there is someone out there that will make it happen.Nike's new shoe, FLYEASE, is designed with accessibility in mind, thanks to Matthew Walzer, who asked Nike to design shoes that…

What is the extent assistive technology can go to in order to provide solutions? Creativity, combined with technology, knows no bounds, and that can be clearly seen in this story. Emily Gossiaux was hit by a truck (18 wheeler) a few years ago because of which she lost her vision. Being a visual arti…