“Design for accessibility, build for usability.” The importance of inclusive design has been emphasized by many people for a long time. However, creators and developers, more often than not, do not necessarily consider it as an important aspect of product conception and development. I…

A few years ago, New York Times published an article that had 36 questions. These questions could supposedly make two complete strangers fall in love with each other. How well do these questions work? The video below shows two people matched up for a blind date, and both of them are deaf. Patric…

San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) is planning to roll out a new app to its police officers that will help them communicate more effectively with deaf victims, witnesses or perpetuators of crime. The Police Commission will soon vote on a new policy that intends to improve communication between p…

Kyungho Jeon is a blind virtuoso percussionist from South Korea who would love to play in an orchestra one day. However, because of his blindness, he has been told that he cannot since he cannot see the conductor. When Rolf and Vahakn, a team of father and son who build musical instruments for peopl…

More than 30 million people around the globe have speech impairments and rely on sign language for daily communication. To eliminate the barrier that comes with communicating with non-sign language users, Roy Allela has invented a glove that converts sign language into spoken words. Sign-IO, the…

“Everything in this whole building makes me feel like I have traveled to the future.” Ninja Camper Microsoft will be conducting a 5 day boot camp during the week of August 12, 2019 at its headquarters in Redmond, WA for current 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th grade students with disabilities …

If you opened a sliding door and entered a space with soft blankets, pillows, multicolored lights, speakers and air conditioning, where do you think you would be? If you answered “my personal heaven”, we may consider that as the right answer but we are really talking about a little po…

Huawei, a company known for its phones and tablets, has created a new storytelling app that uses artificial intelligence, a digital avatar and sign language in order to help deaf children learn to read. The StorySign app has a pre-built library of books that a parent or child can choose to read. …

We have learnt quite a bit about 3d printed prosthetics and how they can be created easily and inexpensively. Just like prosthetics and a lot of other things, 3d printing can be used to print another very commonly used assistive technology device – hearing aids. However, what is the reason for…

SignGlasses, a company based out of Salt Lake City, UT, is changing the way deaf students interact with sign language interpreters and professors in classrooms. SignGlasses offers a pair of glasses that show a miniature video of the sign language interpreter on one side of the lenses signing in rea…

Age related Macular Degeneration and Diabetic Retinopathy are the leading causes of blindness in developed nations, and age related vision loss, such as Coloboma, Macular Degeneration, Diabetic Retinopathy, and Stargardt disease, is an issue for many.  In order to compensate for vision loss fro…

Sixteen years ago, Henry Evans was driving his kids to school when he suddenly fell sick – He started slurring his words and had trouble seeing. In a matter of hours, he went into a coma. When he came out of his coma, he couldn’t move or speak. Several years later, Evans is using a new s…

Phil Schlangen, a resident of Minneapolis, has limited mobility in his legs and arms because of a bad diving accident right after high school. For his every day commute, he used to use a ramp to get in and out of his car but because of an accident – in which he fell backwards and hurt his head…

It’s not time to file taxes yet but in a couple of months, starting January, each and every one of us (especially in the US) would be scrambling around to get their taxes filed. For deaf people, who need help filing their taxes, and would prefer interacting with tax experts in ASL, they would possib…