There's a story in the NY Times about a man and his souped up truck. It is special in that the driver was paralyzed from the chest down when 17 and has no use of his hands or legs. Anyone who needs a modified vehicle to drive can be inspired by his tale.
Story ->

A story to warm your heart's cockles..
An eleven year-old cancer survivor with a prosthetic leg was carried across the finish line of a triathalon by a US marine after the boy's leg failed.
Story ->

A Japanese company has a prototype wheelchair that can use its wheels like legs to climb curbs.
The story->
Unfortunately it looks like this will only work with one or two low steps. The other "innovation" of turning in a tight circle looks even worse than existing functionality on center-drive power chairs. It's also less functional overall than the iBot and look what happened to that..

The company says it will set up focus groups next. What are the odds this becomes available in less than five years? If so, what are the odds it will cost under $100k?

Saw this on Facebook today. It's almost a year old but definitely worth watching.

D-PAN White Stripes

"In a settlement reached this week, Netflix said it will provide closed captioning on all television shows and movie content it streams by 2014."

Source ->

I hadn't heard the term "universal design" before. It refers to architecting places for greatest accessibility. This blog post likens universal design to just plain "good design".

"New animal studies provide additional support for investigating stem cell treatments for Parkinson's disease, head trauma, and dangerous heart problems that accompany spinal cord injury, according to research findings released today."

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Two research studies were posted recently on ScienceDaily:
First
"Using tiny spheres filled with an anesthetic derived from a shellfish toxin, researchers... have developed a way to delay the rise of neuropathic pain, a chronic form of pain that arises from flawed signals transmitted by damaged nerves."
Second
"Scientists at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center have taken the first steps to create neural-like stem cells from muscle tissue in animals."

Appropriate as we head into winter.
Blog Article->

Many existing iPad magazines use pure graphics for pages, so they're not compatible with VoiceOver, used by the blind. A new technology/geek culture magazine called The Magazine will address this. Free trials are available.
"Instead of the traditional labor-intensive magazine layout and expensive multimedia production, The Magazine’s article format is similar to Instapaper’s: one clean, adjustable, reader-friendly template with HTML, occasional images, and some small conveniences. It loads quickly, integrates well with sharing and system conventions (including text selection and VoiceOver), occupies minimal storage space, and shows the utmost respect for your time and attention."