#assistive-technology — Public Fediverse posts

Share Your Experience To Improve Accessibility: The Accessible Pharmacy Research Project With Dr. Alex Cohen | By Dr. Kirk Adams | Courtesy of the PWD Media Co-Op
🔗 Accessible Employment Search Survey: https://njitmanagement.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_9Ak1vW4EpjeQVr8
🔗 Accessible Sports Team Websites Survey: https://njitmanagement.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0J29DOgFz3sU2UK

For blind adults 18+ who use assistive technology. Five minutes each, anonymous, with a chance to win a gift card.

#DisabilityInclusion #BlindAndLowVision #AccessibilityResearch #AssistiveTechnology

Share Your Experience To Improve Accessibility: The Accessible Pharmacy Research Project With Dr. Alex Cohen | By Dr. Kirk Adams | Courtesy of the PWD Media Co-Op
🔗 Accessible Employment Search Survey: https://njitmanagement.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_9Ak1vW4EpjeQVr8
🔗 Accessible Sports Team Websites Survey: https://njitmanagement.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0J29DOgFz3sU2UK

For blind adults 18+ who use assistive technology. Five minutes each, anonymous, with a chance to win a gift card.

#DisabilityInclusion #BlindAndLowVision #AccessibilityResearch #AssistiveTechnology

Share Your Experience To Improve Accessibility: The Accessible Pharmacy Research Project With Dr. Alex Cohen | By Dr. Kirk Adams | Courtesy of the PWD Media Co-Op
🔗 Accessible Employment Search Survey: https://njitmanagement.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_9Ak1vW4EpjeQVr8
🔗 Accessible Sports Team Websites Survey: https://njitmanagement.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0J29DOgFz3sU2UK

For blind adults 18+ who use assistive technology. Five minutes each, anonymous, with a chance to win a gift card.

#DisabilityInclusion #BlindAndLowVision #AccessibilityResearch #AssistiveTechnology

Disability Innovation Forum 2026, Presented By Enable Ventures And SmartJob | By Dr. Kirk Adams, Publisher | Courtesy of the PWD Media Co-Op
📅 Thursday, October 22, 2026
🔗 Learn More: https://www.disabilityinnovationforum.com/

📍 9 AM–7 PM ET • Grand Hyatt Washington, DC

🎤 Ten startup pitches, bionic pop artist Viktoria Modesta, and eight panels. 💵 Early bird through Sept 15.

✏️ Register: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/disability-innovation-forum-tickets-1991728873677

#DisabilityInnovation #InclusiveEconomy #FutureOfWork #AssistiveTechnology #DisabilityInclusion

Disability Innovation Forum 2026, Presented By Enable Ventures And SmartJob | By Dr. Kirk Adams, Publisher | Courtesy of the PWD Media Co-Op
📅 Thursday, October 22, 2026
🔗 Learn More: https://www.disabilityinnovationforum.com/

📍 9 AM–7 PM ET • Grand Hyatt Washington, DC

🎤 Ten startup pitches, bionic pop artist Viktoria Modesta, and eight panels. 💵 Early bird through Sept 15.

✏️ Register: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/disability-innovation-forum-tickets-1991728873677

#DisabilityInnovation #InclusiveEconomy #FutureOfWork #AssistiveTechnology #DisabilityInclusion

Disability Innovation Forum 2026, Presented By Enable Ventures And SmartJob | By Dr. Kirk Adams, Publisher | Courtesy of the PWD Media Co-Op
📅 Thursday, October 22, 2026
🔗 Learn More: https://www.disabilityinnovationforum.com/

📍 9 AM–7 PM ET • Grand Hyatt Washington, DC

🎤 Ten startup pitches, bionic pop artist Viktoria Modesta, and eight panels. 💵 Early bird through Sept 15.

✏️ Register: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/disability-innovation-forum-tickets-1991728873677

#DisabilityInnovation #InclusiveEconomy #FutureOfWork #AssistiveTechnology #DisabilityInclusion

SHOKZ, ACCESSIBILITY
SHOULDN’T BE MY JOB. 💎

Today I got angry at a pair of lightweight Shokz headphones I just paid over $200 for. Not because the headphones are bad. They’re actually rather good. I got angry because I had to charge them. I am 70 years old. I had a major stroke many years ago. I am paralysed on my left side, and I have the use of only one hand.

So something as ordinary as plugging in a charging cable can become a bloody engineering project, and then I have to admit that I just can't do it. The cable falls. The plug turns the wrong way. The socket is designed for two hands, good eyesight, good balance and fingers that work independently of each other. And suddenly, an object that is supposed to make my life easier is asking me to adapt to it. Again. That was what made me angry. This isn't really about Shokz. And it isn't really about a charging cable.

IT IS ABOUT THE THOUSANDS OF TINY BARRIERS PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES ARE EXPECTED TO QUIETLY ABSORB EVERY DAY.

A door handle. A package. A keyboard. A bottle top. A heavy door. A charging cable. A shower. An article of clothing. A knife. None of these objects looks like discrimination. Nobody deliberately designed them to exclude me. But they, along with several thousand other objects, do.

They simply designed them without me or anyone with a disability in the room. And then I am expected to solve the problem. Not only pay for the item, but also come up with the disability fix so that I can use the bloody stupid thing.

For most of my life, I could solve these things. Before my stroke, the physical world largely worked for me. I didn't have to think about how many hands something required. I didn't notice where the socket was. I didn't examine a packet and calculate how I was going to hold it still while opening it.

NOW I NOTICE.

And after decades of noticing, occasionally I get fucking angry. Not because I am incapable. Because I am capable, and I am tired of wasting that capability fighting stupid little barriers that never needed to exist. Accessibility isn't a special favour for a small, unfortunate group of people.

IT IS GOOD DESIGN.

And sometimes the difference between independence and dependence is something as ridiculously small as where somebody decided to put the bloody plug.

@3goodthings
@DigitalCoup
@meditation
@economics_that_works
@disability
@pwd
@joinin

#Shokz #Accessibility #Disability #InclusiveDesign #AccessibleDesign #OneHanded #DisabilityAwareness #AssistiveTechnology

♿ EaZyHold — A Simple, Elegant Solution For People Who Have Trouble Grasping Or Holding Items | By Steve Barclay, Canadian Assistive Technology Ltd. | Courtesy of the PWD Media Co-op
https://canasstech.com/search?q=ezhold

A patented universal cuff — no pinch grip, no clenching. Holds forks, cups, toothbrushes, crayons. 32 products, $20–$130 CAD, all in stock.

#AssistiveTechnology #OccupationalTherapy #DisabilityInclusion #IndependentLiving #AdaptiveEquipment #SpecialEducation #AccessibilityMatters

♿ EaZyHold — A Simple, Elegant Solution For People Who Have Trouble Grasping Or Holding Items | By Steve Barclay, Canadian Assistive Technology Ltd. | Courtesy of the PWD Media Co-op
https://canasstech.com/search?q=ezhold

A patented universal cuff — no pinch grip, no clenching. Holds forks, cups, toothbrushes, crayons. 32 products, $20–$130 CAD, all in stock.

#AssistiveTechnology #OccupationalTherapy #DisabilityInclusion #IndependentLiving #AdaptiveEquipment #SpecialEducation #AccessibilityMatters

♿ EaZyHold — A Simple, Elegant Solution For People Who Have Trouble Grasping Or Holding Items | By Steve Barclay, Canadian Assistive Technology Ltd. | Courtesy of the PWD Media Co-op
https://canasstech.com/search?q=ezhold

A patented universal cuff — no pinch grip, no clenching. Holds forks, cups, toothbrushes, crayons. 32 products, $20–$130 CAD, all in stock.

#AssistiveTechnology #OccupationalTherapy #DisabilityInclusion #IndependentLiving #AdaptiveEquipment #SpecialEducation #AccessibilityMatters

Disability Innovation Forum 2026, Presented By Enable Ventures And SmartJob | By Dr. Kirk Adams, Publisher | Courtesy of the PWD Media Co-Op
📅 Thursday, October 22, 2026
🔗 Learn More: https://www.disabilityinnovationforum.com/

📍 9 AM–7 PM ET • Grand Hyatt Washington, DC

🎤 Ten startup pitches, bionic pop artist Viktoria Modesta, and eight panels. 💵 Early bird through Sept 15.

✏️ Register: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/disability-innovation-forum-tickets-1991728873677

#DisabilityInnovation #InclusiveEconomy #FutureOfWork #AssistiveTechnology #DisabilityInclusion

Disability Innovation Forum 2026, Presented By Enable Ventures And SmartJob | By Dr. Kirk Adams, Publisher | Courtesy of the PWD Media Co-Op
📅 Thursday, October 22, 2026
🔗 Learn More: https://www.disabilityinnovationforum.com/

📍 9 AM–7 PM ET • Grand Hyatt Washington, DC

🎤 Ten startup pitches, bionic pop artist Viktoria Modesta, and eight panels. 💵 Early bird through Sept 15.

✏️ Register: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/disability-innovation-forum-tickets-1991728873677

#DisabilityInnovation #InclusiveEconomy #FutureOfWork #AssistiveTechnology #DisabilityInclusion

Disability Innovation Forum 2026, Presented By Enable Ventures And SmartJob | By Dr. Kirk Adams, Publisher | Courtesy of the PWD Media Co-Op
📅 Thursday, October 22, 2026
🔗 Learn More: https://www.disabilityinnovationforum.com/

📍 9 AM–7 PM ET • Grand Hyatt Washington, DC

🎤 Ten startup pitches, bionic pop artist Viktoria Modesta, and eight panels. 💵 Early bird through Sept 15.

✏️ Register: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/disability-innovation-forum-tickets-1991728873677

#DisabilityInnovation #InclusiveEconomy #FutureOfWork #AssistiveTechnology #DisabilityInclusion

New from me: TG Imprint, a free PDF creator for Windows.

Write a document, get a PDF a screen reader can actually read. Real headings, real lists, a description on every picture, and it checks its own file before you send it.

It also opens a PDF or a Word file somebody sent you, so you can make that one accessible too.

If you cannot see the picture you are describing, Claude, ChatGPT or Gemini can draft it on your own key. You edit it before it goes in.

Open beta. Tell me what breaks.

https://tgstudios.app/tg-imprint/ #PDF #AccessibleDocuments #WorkPlace #AccessibleTech #AssistiveTechnology

"CSUN Call for Pre-Conference Workshops

The 42nd Annual CSUN Assistive Technology Conference will host pre-conference workshops intended to provide attendees in-depth skill-building tools on topics that offer career advancement and professional development. "

https://conference.csun.at/event/2027/c4pcw

#WebAccessibility #AssistiveTechnology #CSUN #Conference #Workshops

EXPERIENCE MATTERS
ENORMOUSLY 💎

I've realised there is a question I should probably ask more often when someone tells me AI is useless, dangerous to our thinking, or something nobody actually needs. The question is:

HOW MUCH HAVE YOU ACTUALLY USED IT?

Daily? Weekly? Monthly? Tried it a couple of times? Never?

Because I don't think those are equivalent positions. I'm not suggesting that people who use AI every day are automatically right about it. There are legitimate questions about energy use, copyright, employment, privacy, corporate power and plenty more.

But if you're going to tell me what AI is like to use, what it can and cannot do, or whether somebody else needs it, then surely your experience with the technology matters.

I've discovered that these systems take time. You learn how to talk to them. You learn what they're good at and what they're crap at. You correct them. They acquire context. You develop ways of working together. After sustained daily use, the experience can be quite different from opening a chatbot occasionally and asking it a few questions.

For me, that matters particularly because I'm a person with a disability. I use AI as assistive technology. It allows me to do things at the speed of speech that otherwise require a lot of slow, one-finger typing.

So when somebody tells me, "You don't actually need AI," I'm aware we've skipped an important question.

How much have you actually used AI?

You don't get to decide that another person doesn't need an accessibility tool simply because you don't need it yourself.

@3goodthings
@DigitalCoup
@meditation
@economics_that_works
@disability
@pwd
@joinin

#AI #Accessibility #PWD #Disability #AssistiveTechnology #copyright #employment #privacy #corporate #power #technology #chatbot

The Innovative Impact Newsletter By Dr. Kirk Adams for Monday, September 7, 2026 - Issue 118 | By Dr. Kirk Adams, Publisher | Courtesy of the PWD Media Co-Op
https://drkirkadams.com/newsletter-09-07-2026/

💡 Practical Strategies for Workplace Inclusion and Leadership
#InclusiveLeadership #WorkplaceInclusion #DisabilityEmployment #AccessibilityMatters #AssistiveTechnology #HRBestPractices #InclusiveWorkforce #LeadershipDevelopment #FutureOfWork

Email Subscribers: 6,812 🔢️

Social Media: 199,512 🔢️

The Innovative Impact Newsletter By Dr. Kirk Adams for Monday, September 7, 2026 - Issue 118 | By Dr. Kirk Adams, Publisher | Courtesy of the PWD Media Co-Op
https://drkirkadams.com/newsletter-09-07-2026/

💡 Practical Strategies for Workplace Inclusion and Leadership
#InclusiveLeadership #WorkplaceInclusion #DisabilityEmployment #AccessibilityMatters #AssistiveTechnology #HRBestPractices #InclusiveWorkforce #LeadershipDevelopment #FutureOfWork

Email Subscribers: 6,812 🔢️

Social Media: 199,512 🔢️

The Innovative Impact Newsletter By Dr. Kirk Adams for Monday, September 7, 2026 - Issue 118 | By Dr. Kirk Adams, Publisher | Courtesy of the PWD Media Co-Op
https://drkirkadams.com/newsletter-09-07-2026/

💡 Practical Strategies for Workplace Inclusion and Leadership
#InclusiveLeadership #WorkplaceInclusion #DisabilityEmployment #AccessibilityMatters #AssistiveTechnology #HRBestPractices #InclusiveWorkforce #LeadershipDevelopment #FutureOfWork

Email Subscribers: 6,812 🔢️

Social Media: 199,512 🔢️

I'm a seeing-eye dog for a computer

https://claytonwramsey.com/blog/seeing-eye/

Comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49550276

#HackerNews #seeingeyedog #techinnovation #assistivetechnology #AIblogging #computervision

@stekopf @prahou This is exactly the business model of assistive technology vendors. They raise prices because health insurers are willing to pay "medical device" prices, as are businesses because of disability accommodation law. For example, Matias was charging $600 for a keyboard whose layout could be flipped horizontally by holding the space bar, making it usable by people with one hand.

#AssistiveTechnology #fleecing #HalfKeyboard

I THINK WE JUST FOUND
THE STAR TREK COMPUTER 💎

Something happened yesterday that I initially thought was an accessibility story. I’m no longer sure that’s big enough. I’ve used accessibility software for decades. Dragon NaturallySpeaking was one of my early encounters with speech technology, so I’m under no illusion that AI suddenly invented voice control.

It didn’t.

But traditional speech software still required me to operate the computer. I dictated words, corrected errors and worked inside the software’s rules.

Yesterday felt different.

I was writing something, but I wasn’t really dictating it. I spoke about what I wanted to say. I changed my mind halfway through. I corrected myself, refined the thought, wandered off and came back. And the conversation stayed with me.

SPEECH RECOGNITION CONVERTS SPEECH INTO TEXT.
THIS WAS HELPING TURN THOUGHT INTO WRITING.

That is the shift.

I didn’t have to formulate the finished sentence first and then dictate it. I could think out loud and let the writing emerge from the conversation. That is why it can feel almost like an extension of my own thinking. The gap between having the thought and getting it onto the page is becoming much thinner. And THAT is what I mean by the Star Trek computer. #STC

It isn’t one miraculous new technology. It is what begins to emerge when voice, language understanding, memory, reasoning and writing are joined behind one continuous conversation.

THE BREAKTHROUGH IS THE INTEGRATION.

Perhaps people with disabilities notice it first because we’ve spent decades feeling every bit of friction between thought and expression. Yesterday I thought I had discovered an extraordinary accessibility feature. I think I was looking at something bigger.

I wasn’t dictating to a computer.

It was thinking with me.

@3goodthings
@DigitalCoup
@meditation
@economics_that_works
@disability
@pwd
@joinin

#Accessibility #AssistiveTechnology #AI #VoiceTechnology #PeopleWithDisabilities #InclusiveTech #HumanComputerInteraction #DigitalAccessibility #STC

HAVE I BROKEN YOU? 💎

Something happened this morning that completely blew me away.

I’m disabled; typing is difficult. For years, the keyboard has determined how quickly I can participate online. I generally avoided social media because typing was so laboriously slow. It was simply easier not to participate.

Then something changed.

ChatGPT suddenly appeared in a whole new arrangement. The blue orb was now bouncing just above the text input field at the bottom of the screen, and I could also see the actual typed words GPT and I were speaking as we spoke them.

At first, I didn’t know what was happening and, thinking out loud, I actually said, “Have I broken you?”

I hadn’t, apparently.

Then GPT calmly explained the new interface to me as though it were a perfectly ordinary change. But for me, it was anything but. I was talking by voice and reading the conversation as streaming text, without typing anything.

Then the penny dropped.

I WAS USING THE COMPUTER AT THE SPEED OF SPEECH,
NOT AT THE SPEED OF MY DISABILITY.

That is an accessibility story worth talking about. For decades, humans have had to adapt to computers: keyboards, mice, menus and software. Now the computer is beginning to adapt to us.

For millions and millions of people with disabilities all around the world, AI isn’t just a clever chatbot or productivity tool. It can mean participating freely online without the machinery getting in the way.

Accessibility shouldn’t be a footnote in the AI story. It should be one of the headlines.

@3goodthings
@DigitalCoup
@meditation
@economics_that_works
@disability
@pwd
@joinin

#Accessibility #Disability #AssistiveTechnology #VoiceTechnology #AI #people #humanRights #leadership #OpenAI

PROGRESS FOR WHOM? 💎

There is something almost completely missing from the public argument about AI.

PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES.

We talk endlessly about jobs, electricity, lazy students, creativity and billionaires. Meanwhile, something much quieter is happening.

AI IS GIVING PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES LOST PARTS OF THEIR LIVES BACK.

I am disabled following a stroke, so this is not abstract for me. I’m always happy to discuss my own experience, but this post is about what AI is making possible for people around the world.

For someone with impaired vision, AI with video glasses can describe surroundings in real time, read labels and signs, identify objects and people, and explain documents.

Someone who struggles to speak can get help communicating. Someone who cannot hear can have speech transcribed. Someone with dyslexia can have dense writing explained. Someone with cognitive difficulties can ask for instructions one step at a time, as often as needed, without embarrassment. Someone with limited mobility can rely more on speech than keyboards, mice and touchscreens. Someone who cannot easily leave home can still learn, create, participate and communicate.

And yes, there is another one we seem almost frightened to mention.

LONELINESS.

AI can talk to someone who is alone. No, that does not mean replacing human beings. A telephone did not replace friendship either. It means that at three in the morning, or during a long day when nobody visits, there can be a voice answering back. For an isolated elderly or disabled person, that is not trivial.

THEN THERE IS PRIVACY.

Every time technology lets someone do something without asking another person for help, a little independence and dignity returns. And we have barely started.

Give AI reliable eyes and ears. Let it operate computers without keyboards and mice. Connect it safely to homes, vehicles and eventually robots capable of fetching, cleaning, cooking, navigating, dressing and helping with personal care.

ISN'T THAT WHAT WE WANT TECHNOLOGY FOR?

We are not only talking about clever chatbots.

WE'RE TALKING ABOUT INDEPENDENCE.

I understand the concerns about AI. Some are serious and deserve serious answers. But when deciding what this technology is worth, do not measure it only in jobs lost, electricity consumed or dollars made.

ASK WHAT IT GIVES BACK TO PEOPLE WHO HAVE HAD THINGS TAKEN AWAY BY DISABILITY.

For some people, the AI revolution is not waiting in the future.

IT HAS ALREADY BEGUN.

@3goodthings
@DigitalCoup
@meditation
@economics_that_works
@disability
@pwd
@joinin

#Disability #Accessibility #AssistiveTechnology #AI #DigitalAccessibility #Independence #Inclusion #PWD

♿ Accessibyte Studio — Simplified Every Day Computing Tools For Home, Schools, Libraries, the Elderly And More | By Steve Barclay, Canadian Assistive Technology Ltd. | Courtesy of the PWD Media Co-op
https://canasstech.com/products/accessibyte-studio-annual

A self-voicing Windows app that gathers everyday computer tasks into one calm place. Three keys run it: Up, Down and Enter. $220 CAD a year, in stock.

#AssistiveTechnology #Accessibility #DigitalInclusion #ScreenReaders #Libraries #SpecialEducation #IndependentLiving

♿ Accessibyte Studio — Simplified Every Day Computing Tools For Home, Schools, Libraries, the Elderly And More | By Steve Barclay, Canadian Assistive Technology Ltd. | Courtesy of the PWD Media Co-op
https://canasstech.com/products/accessibyte-studio-annual

A self-voicing Windows app that gathers everyday computer tasks into one calm place. Three keys run it: Up, Down and Enter. $220 CAD a year, in stock.

#AssistiveTechnology #Accessibility #DigitalInclusion #ScreenReaders #Libraries #SpecialEducation #IndependentLiving

♿ Accessibyte Studio — Simplified Every Day Computing Tools For Home, Schools, Libraries, the Elderly And More | By Steve Barclay, Canadian Assistive Technology Ltd. | Courtesy of the PWD Media Co-op
https://canasstech.com/products/accessibyte-studio-annual

A self-voicing Windows app that gathers everyday computer tasks into one calm place. Three keys run it: Up, Down and Enter. $220 CAD a year, in stock.

#AssistiveTechnology #Accessibility #DigitalInclusion #ScreenReaders #Libraries #SpecialEducation #IndependentLiving

I’M LIBERATED BY IT 💎

I’m only just beginning to understand how important the #Disability discussion underneath #AI actually is.

I have been abused for using AI. I have lost a dear friendship over it. I have been told, in various ways, what I should use instead.

Yet many of the alternatives people have suggested, from modern dictation to speech tools, already use AI themselves. AI is increasingly woven into ordinary technology, whether we call it AI or not.

And still, I choose AI Support, #AIS.

Not because I couldn’t survive without it. I could. I lived with the slower rhythm of my disability for decades before this technology appeared.

But with AIS, I feel liberated.

I can speak, I can write, and I can think things through. I can participate without the physical effort of typing, constantly determining how much of myself I get to express before exhaustion takes over.

That matters to me.

People are entirely free to criticise AI. They can refuse to use it themselves. They can raise every legitimate concern about what this technology is doing.

But I am the person with a disability in this life.

I get to choose the tools that help me live it.

@3goodthings
@DigitalCoup
@meditation
@economics_that_works

#Accessibility #AssistiveTechnology #DisabilityRights #Agency #Communication #Voice #Inclusion #Technology #Fediverse #Mastodon

New educational tool available, for free! American Explorer. A gamified database with all 50 states, territories, and a built in quiz to test your knowledge. Great for k12, and the curious geography guru. Read more and download it here, https://tgstudios.app/american-explore…r/ #geography #USA #Knowledge #Education #AssistiveTechnology #Tools #Teaching