Designing for Calm
IT should come as no surprise that violence in mental health facilities causes psychological and often physical harm to health care workers and patients. What’s shocking is how prevalent it is.
Deaftel Wireless – Phone Service for Deaf and Hard of Hearing
A new iPhone app for the hearing impaired recently hit the market late last year. Deaftel Wireless uses state of the art technology to convert a hearing person’s voice into a text message and a deaf person’s text response into a voice during a phone call. iphone users need only to visit the Deaftel website […]
The Vodafone Foundation Smart Accessibility Awards
The Vodafone Foundation Smart Accessibility Awards is a contest that promotes the development of apps designed specifically to improve the lives of older adults and people with disabilities. The program is supported and co-organized by AGE Platform Europe, the European network of around 160 organisations of and for people aged 50+, and the European Disability […]
Color Accessibility
Designer and illustrator Geri Coady authored an interesting piece about designing for people who are colorblind on the web design blog 24 Ways to Impress Your Friends. Coady provides background about colorblindness and explains how it can affect the usability of various visual media such as websites, graphs, maps, and even video games. Coady also […]
Improving ADA Paratransit Demand Estimation: Regional Modeling
The Transportation Research Board’s Transit Cooperative Research Program has published a report, TCRP Report 158: Improving ADA Paratransit Demand Estimation: Regional Modeling, which includes planning models to help regional, state, and federal agencies that oversee public transportation plan for the projected future demands of ADA paratransit. The report, also includes planning models that predict travel by […]
Free Online Tourism Tool
The Instituto de Biomecanica de Valencia has been presented with the Ulysses Award for Innovation in Research and Technology. Presented by the World Tourism Organization, the institute was given this honor for its online application tool, TurAcces/IBV. With this tool, tourism managers can assess their facilities for accessibility based on current ADA laws and standards. This […]
100 Resources for An Accesisble Website
WHdb has put together a great list of ‘100 Killer Web Accessibility Resources: Blogs, Forums and Tutorials.’ The list is broken up into several categories, including resources for people who are color blind and hard of hearing, or those looking to expand their knowledge on how to create an accessible website.
Study Finds that iPads Help People with Low Vision Read Better
At the American Academy of Ophthalmology annual meeting, researchers from the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School reported on a study that found that digital tablets improve reading speeds for people with low vision. The study was made up of two separate experiments. In the first experiment, 62 people read newspaper articles in three formats – […]
Aging in Place: A Toolkit for Local Governments
Aging in Place: A Toolkit for Local Governments is a guide created by the Atlanta Regional Commission to help local governments plan and prepare for their aging populations. The guide explains the importance of coordinating housing development regulations and healthcare supports so older adults can stay in their homes, and it also investigates quality growth […]
Senior settings
A facility that is properly constructed to meet the needs of a patient also serves as an integral part of patient care. If the facility is less than an optimal caregiver, it could contribute to stress-creating conditions, medical errors and extended lengths of stay. This is especially true for elderly patients, who are sensitive to […]