'The Black Balloon' Opens in NYC

The Black Balloon, a movie opening today in New York City and Los Angeles, is about an Australian family who has a severly autistic son, Charlie, and must find ways to cope with his emotions and antics. Calling the movie "harrowing," New York Times movie critic Stephen Holden asks: "Would you be able to cope? ... Would you find in yourself the seemingly infinite reserves of love and patience possessed by the Mollisons, the movie’s itinerant, highly stressed army family who have just moved to the suburbs of Sydney? Maybe not." The Black Balloon stars Luke Ford as Charlie, the autistic teenager; Rhys Wakefield as his brother Tommy, and the Oscar-nominated Toni Collette as their mother. With a tag line "Normal is Relative," The Black Balloon is a story about fitting in, discovering love and accepting your family, no matter the price.

Disabled Vet Duckworth May Serve U.S.

Barack Obama's election has left some important seats open in his cabinet and in the Illinois senate. His selection of Sen. Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State leaves New York Governor David Paterson, who is partially blind, to appoint Clinton's replacement. Paterson has ruled out self-appointment, and is likely to choose someone who could help him win re-election in 2010. Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is a frontrunner. The race for Obama's Illinois senate seat is also heating up, with Gov. Rod Blagojevich set to name a replacement. Among the handful of candidates being considered, Tammy Duckworth is a popular pick. Ms. Duckworth, 40, served in Iraq and flew combat missions as a Black Hawk helicopter pilot. During a mission in 2004, her helicopter was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade. Duckworth lost both of her legs -- one leg below the knee (BK) and one leg above the knee (AK). After a long recovery process, she uses prosthetics, (such as the Proprio electric-powered ankle shown), that allow her to walk and continue to fly aircraft. Ms. Duckworth ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 2006, and is currently the Director of Illinois Department of Veterans' Affairs. Even if she's not picked to serve in Illinois, the former veteran may have bigger shoes to fill as Obama is considering her for his Secretary of Veteran Affairs. In this role, she would work to strengthen financial and medical support for veterans, including those with disabilities, returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. With an American father and a mother who is ethnically Chinese, Ms. Duckworth was born in Thailand and is an American citizen. She is fluent in Thai and Indonesian and recently completed the Chicago marathon using a hand-cranked bicycle (see photo). Keep your eyes out for the prominent Ms. Duckworth as she continues to represent Americans with disabilities in places where it matters.

iPhone's Future could be "Touchy"

As I wrote in a previous post, most multi-touch smart phones -- like Apple's iPhone -- aren't suitable for blind and visually-impaired persons. There's good news, however, in the form of a prototype case from Portugal-based industrial designer Bruno Fosi. The Silicon Touch lays on top of the iPhone’s screen and works in tandem with an accompanying iPhone application, helping the user feel the icons and what it is they are typing. There are also many nice features like text to speech and moon type tactile feedback, which the iPhone lacked for the visually impaired until now. In my opinion, what makes Silicon Touch so promising is how Mr. Fosi has re-thought how a person physcially interacts with a smart phone: Surprise! It doesn't have to be just a visual user interface. One comment from a Yanko Design reader: "The idea can be applied to any usage scenario requiring [or] benefiting from tactile signage over the touch sensor ... This might just be the killer mobile platform for the visually impaired." Apple should call the designer right away and put the Silicon Touch into production. It will open up its smart phone to a wider audience, and show that it's serious about accessibility.

"Robot, Fetch my Slippers!"

Engineers at Georgia Tech are developing a health care robot for home use. The robot, named El-E (pronounced "Ellie"), can help people with disabilities accomplish some simple household tasks, such as fetching a bottle of pills or a cell phone. El-E is being tested by patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, which affects motor skills. Health care robots may be commercially available in less than 10 years. The robots can also help the elderly and those with arthritis. El-E is about five feet tall and is equipped with a laser pointer interface that detects when a user illuminates a location with an off-the-shelf green laser pointer and estimates its whereabouts. The robot is trained to find objects that are on flat surfaces, such as a shelf or table. Once the object is acquired, the robot can place the object on a laser designated surface above the floor, follow the laser pointer on the floor, or deliver the object to a seated person selected with the laser pointer. The project's head researcher, professor Charlie Kemp, has created a video that shows what El-E sees as it navigates across a room.

Fighting, and for Disability Benefits, Too

In an L.A. Times story today, many soldiers are fighting another battle -- trying to collect disability benefits after being injured on tour in Iraq or Afghanistan. According to the story:

In a little-noticed regulation change in March, the military's definition of combat-related disabilities was narrowed, costing some injured veterans thousands of dollars in lost benefits -- and triggering outrage from veterans' advocacy groups. The Pentagon said the change was consistent with Congress' intent when it passed a "wounded warrior" law in January. Narrowing the combat-related definition was necessary to preserve the "special distinction for those who incur disabilities while participating in the risk of combat, in contrast with those injured otherwise," William J. Carr, deputy undersecretary of Defense, wrote in a letter to the 1.3-million-member Disabled American Veterans. The group, which has called the policy revision a "shocking level of disrespect for those who stood in harm's way," is lobbying to have the change rescinded.

Kurzweil: The Grandfather of Assistive Tech

Ray Kurzweil is a scientist and inventor of groundbreaking assistive technology, including a text-to-speech synthesizer, voice recognition software, and a print-to-speech reading machine for the blind. Known as the grandfather of assistive technology, Kurzweil is highly regarded in disability circles as well as the broader technology sphere. He placed 14th on Silicon.com's Agenda Setters list for 2008, mainly for his current work surrounding artificial intelligence and robotics. Cnet.com posted Silicon.com's Q&A with Kurzweil, where he discussed his vision of the future and AI. I find Kurzweil's research and philosophies fascinating. Not only has he improved the lives of people with disabilities with assistive tech, he has been on a mission for the last decade to make bionics and AI a cornerstone of human existence -- and help us live better, smarter, longer lives. Some key points from his interview:

On the law of accelerating returns: "What used to fit in a building now fits in your pocket, what fits in your pocket now will fit inside a blood cell in 25 years."

On the most exciting technologies in recent years: "Health and medicine ... We have software that's running in our bodies that's thousands of years old or more and it evolved when conditions were very different, such as the fat insulin receptor gene. And what would happen if we turned that gene off? There are other genes that are necessary for heart disease or cancer to progress that we'd like to turn off."

On the limits of computer intelligence: "In order for a computer or any entity to pass the Turing Test it has to master human emotion ... Getting the joke, being funny, expressing a loving sentiment -- these are actually the most complicated things we do, the cutting edge of human intelligence." [Editor's note: This statement speaks volumes for austism and other disorders, in which such emotions are seemingly impossible to convey yet have no direct relevance on intelligence.]

On whether super intelligent machines will have a soul: "The soul is a synonym for consciousness ... It's not going to be a clear distinction of where humans or biological intelligence stops and machine intelligence starts ... You won't be able to walk into a room and say, 'OK, humans on the left, machines on the right,' because it's going to be all mixed up ... we will attribute consciousness to entities even if they have no biology."

On man vs. machine: "Ultimately non-biological intelligence will be much more powerful than biological human intelligence, but it's not an invasion of intelligent machines from Mars -- it's coming from our own civilization. And we will use it as we do today to expand our own reach--we will make ourselves smarter."

Innovative Ideas from the Disability Forum

What do a professional skier, a Hollywood consultant and a business blogger have in common? A disability, of course. On Tuesday I attended the Disability Innovation Forum in Washington, and met a great group of people who are leading the conversation on hiring and marketing to people with disabilities. The keynote speaker was Bonnie St. John, an African-American leg amputee who became a Paralympic medalist in downhill skiing in 1984. Using comedy and an authenic voice, Bonnie broke down the sterotypes surrounding disability and made everyone in the room feel comfortable. The forum was organized by Working Mother Media's Diversity Best Practices division, with the help of Jonathan Kaufman of DisabilityWorks. An education and policy extraordinaire, Jonathan told me he's about to begin creating a ph.D program in Disability Studies at Columbia University's medical school. He also consults with Hollywood on movies that feature disabled characters. Some lively afternoon panels included executives from Wal-Mart, Verizon and Harrah's Entertainment, who offered their perspectives on hiring the disabled to shore up a worker shortage and build a more representative workplace culture. Jennifer Croft at the U.S. Dept. of Commerce emphasized the Clinton-era Executive Order 13173, which President-elect Obama will reinstate, that will require federal goverment to hire 100,000 workers with disabilities in the next five years. A very successful day, indeed.

Extreme Makeover's Disability Message

Last night I watched the latest episode of ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, where Ty Pennington and his crew helped two St. Louis-area families, the Martirizes and the Maleks, who are struggling to live life with major disabilities. Emmanual and Dawn Martirez's home was refurbished to make it accessible to their twin boys, Evan and Alec, who have rare neurological diseases that cause extreme physical and cognitive disabilities. And Egyptian-born Sam Malek, who has cerebal palsy, owns a small coffee shop that was demoed and rebuilt to make it accessible to him and his employees with disabilities. In doing so, ABC makes a strong statement for supporting small-business and equal-employment opportunities for the disabled. Since its start in 2003, Extreme Makeover has touched the lives of dozens of people with disabilities by renovating their inaccessible or otherwise unlivable homes for free. Each project, which takes seven days, results in significant structural and design improvements to every room in the house, often bringing tears or joy to those who have lived with the difficulty of navigating through the place they call home. With more than 13 million U.S. viewers, the program gives a high profile to disability issues and inspires Americans to give back to their communities. Equally important is the primetime face-time for vendors that donate the funds to make these homes a reality. For example, Sears provides home appliances, CVS provides medical supplies and scholarships to families and Ford Motor occassionally donates vehicles. Southwest Airlines donates airfare for the families’ vacations, which include trips to Disneyworld, donated by Disney. Hilton and Marriott donate accommodations. These initiatives send a powerful message that companies are serious about reaching the disabled market, which holds a collective $300 billion in discretionary income. Families who want to be considered for Extreme Makeover: Home Edition can submit a video, complete an application, and mail both to the show's producers. They can also ask a non-profit organization, church or neighborhood association to submit an application on their behalf.

New Disability Career Sites

Up until recently, job seekers with disabilities have had to reverse-engineer their job search. First, they sought out disability-friendly companies, such as those lauded by DiversityInc. and Careers & the Disabled magazines. Then they set about seeking open positions within those companies. Some disability-career sites are trying to make the job search easier. The newest, GettingHired.com, launched on Nov. 12. The site’s resume-builder tool is one of the smartest on the web, and the site has signed on a half-dozen corporations including CIGNA and Pep Boys. GettingHired also hosts a series of videos to prepare a job seeker for potential interviews; the videos are fully accessible and can be viewed with full voiceover and captioning. Another valuable job board for people with disabilities is Disaboom. Launched in late 2007, Disaboom’s job board has gotten more robust and claims to have more than 500,000 job listings. Job listings include those for temporary-staffing agencies, which can be a good way to get your foot in the door. Big-name job board Monster.com has also gotten into the disability-hiring game. It recently hosted a virtual career fair for job hunters with disabilities. Its job listings include those from Spherion, MetLife, H-P, and Schering. One site that’s geared towards more entry-level job seekers is HirePotential, whose small job board includes listings from IBM and Microsoft. The less-experienced set may want to try the disabled alumni network at LimeConnect, an organization that recruits disabled college graduates. While most of the site’s job listings are culled from the web, an icon next to the job post alerts the member that someone in the LimeConnect network has a connection to the company. LimeConnect also features jobs from companies that are dedicated to hiring the disabled, such as Google, Credit Suisse, Enterprise Rent-a-Car and Verizon Telecom.

Obama Gives Disabled a Voice in Victory Speech

Americans with disabilities were given a voice last night with President-elect Obama's victory speech in Chicago. "If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer...It's the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Latino, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled -- Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been a collection of Red States and Blue States: we are, and always will be, the United States of America." By including the disabled as a specific group, Obama has sent a message that he will put disability issues on the map. No other president of our time has done this before, not even Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the 32nd president, who struggled with an illness that left him paralyzed from the waist down. In order to win the re-election, FDR believed he had to convince Americans that he was getting better; he wore iron braces and leaned on his sons or aides in public, but used a wheelchair in private. Today is a new day for Americans with disabilities, and the opportunities are vast. Take employment: Of the 22 million working-age Americans with disabilities, only 38% are employed, vs. 78% of those without disabilities, which I wrote in a Wall Street Journal article. Soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan who are returning home with severed limbs and brain injuries need rehabilitation. Children who are being diagnosed with special needs require a strengthened education plan. An aging population that can benefit from new technologies such as hearing aids needs better healthcare options. Obama has made it clear throughout his campaign that his vision for America includes the needs of the disabled, the nation's largest minority group. His task in 2009 will be to listen to these issues and find comprehensive solutions that help all Americans -- disabled or not disabled. A rising tide lifts all boats.

A (High-Tech) Room of One's Own

Someday soon, older adults may not need to move into nursing homes because they'll have a household of technological wonders to keep an eye on them when they become frail. That's what this Dallas Morning News article says, after taking a look at what the University of Texas is doing to keep seniors more independent for longer. UT's Human-Centered Computing Laboratory houses a make-believe one-bedroom apartment equipped with high-tech cameras, motion sensors and robots, and surrounded by computer stations. Robots scoot from room to room to wake the homeowners in the morning, remind them to eat and send for help if someone falls. Sensors embedded throughout home detect when the resident has a sleepless nights or forgets to take his medication. Web-based computer software will notify family members and caregivers. The UT lab will be "the springboard for what experts predict will be an exploding assistive technology industry within a decade," according to the article. No doubt, UT lab's technology can be modified to help people with disabilities, too -- especially those who are unable to care for themselves but wish to live on their own. These are the kinds of stories I love to read, because they position assistive technology as cool, helpful and synonymous with independence.

Palin's Disability Disappointment

A few hours ago I read about Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s first policy speech detailing how a McCain-Palin administration would help children with disabilities.

In Pittsburgh on Friday, Palin dotted her speech with references to her six-month old son, Trig, who has Down syndrome. Oftentimes, these are the most powerful moments in her speeches, where mothers of special-needs children come to her rallies desperate for a remedy to the educational and health-care failures that have plagued them over and over again. Special-needs children are “especially close to my heart,” she tells the crowds.

But Palin isn’t the answer. I repeat, she ain’t the quick fixin’ we’re all needin’ in the disability space.

Many months ago, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama published on his website a detailed plan to support disabled Americans. The four-point plan is designed to improve educational opportunities, end discrimination, increase employment rates, and support independent living for Americans with disabilities, plus any soldiers who might be disabled upon their return home from Iraq and Afghanistan.

GOP presidential candiate John McCain never published such a plan. Through his personal anecdotes, however, we know that he has a soft spot for veterans and that his running mate understands special needs. So what will McCain-Palin do for the 54 million Americans with disabilities?

• Palin said Friday she’d fully fund the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Obama has already pledged to do this.


• Palin would boost funding for special-needs children from birth to age three, marking a split from McCain’s pledge to freeze spending for most educational programs. So will they or won't they? Obama wants $18 billion in new funds each year to revamp education, including $10 billion directed towards kids zero to five years old.


• Palin pledged more funding to help parents identify a child’s disability earlier. Obama seeks universal screening for newborns and wants to set a national goal for re-screening two-year olds.


• Palin promised funds to find cures for disorders such as autism. Obama’s got that covered in his plan, too, and has a track record for doing so -- unlike Palin.

Here’s where Palin switches to politics. “Our opponent has an ideological commitment to higher taxes,” she says, adding that an Obama plan would tax special-needs trusts that families have set up to cover medical and other costs. There’s no mention of all the ways in which Obama would help the American disabled population thrive.

I understand how the GOP's lower taxes proposition can promote growth by spurring spending and job creation. But a huge benefit of helping the disabled is that it lifts most of disadvantaged America, too, through improved education more affordable college, expanded health care, and reducing the national workforce shortage.

I have a hunch that, under different circumstances, Palin would have made a fine appointee to the National Commission on People with Disabilities, Employment and Social Security. What's that? Oh, it's in Obama's plan. Check it out.

Making Moolah More Accessible

Many years before spearheading a $700 billion package to rescue Wall Street banks despite cries from exasperated Americans who didn’t like where their hard-earned money was going, U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson found himself in hot water with another group of irate Americans -- 10 million to be exact -- who didn’t like how their money looked or felt. Mr. Paulson was sued in 2002 by the American Council of the Blind (ACB) on behalf of blind and visually impaired Americans, who said the Treasury was being discriminatory by failing to make U.S. currency accessible. According to the ruling, blind and visually impaired people must rely on the “kindness of strangers” for help reading their money, or else use an electronic bill reader to identify and speak the dollar denomination. In a landmark ruling in May 2008, the U.S. Court of Appeals said the Treasury Dept. must make U.S. currency accessible to blind and visually impaired Americans under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 -- as soon as possible. Which means in about five to eight years, or whenever the next bill redesign begins. I’m a big believer in assistive technology, and relying on the "kindness of strangers” isn’t very high-tech. Nor is the the “origami” solution, where the blind person folds their currency into different shapes and sizes in order to identify it. Many blind people do use bill-reading machines, such as the Note Teller 2 from Brytech, which costs about $300 and is the size of an iPhone. However, these machines have an 80 percent accuracy rate, and require the user to enter the bills properly. Like vending machines, a bill reader will reject bills that are too old or wrinkled. There is also a peripheral issue, here: Some people I know, my 64-year-old father included, have trouble reading smaller print and won’t carry anything larger than a $20 bill out of fear of tipping the waiter too much. Tactile feedback would be very helpful to our country's aging population. More than 100 countries already have systems of currency where a blind person can pick up a bill and know right away what denomination it is. For instance: the euro, the Japanese Yen, the Swiss Franc, the Canadian dollar, as well as Australian, Argentinean, Chinese, English and Israeli currencies. The Bank of Canada even provides free electronic bill readers to those who need them. It has been suggested that blind people should use their credit or debit card instead of paper money. A credit/debit card could work, if it weren’t for some glaring barriers, the largest being that credit-card users are charged interest for purchases. And debit cards require entering a personal identification number (PIN) at the point-of-sale on a screen that offers no tactile or audio feedback. So while the blind person is relying on the "kindness of strangers" he's putting his bank account at risk, too. Banks like Bank of America have been doing a great job at making their ATMs accessible for the blind through the use of audio features and a headphone. Now let’s make sure that the money that comes out of them is, too.

Iron Man vs. Iraq Superhero

I've often argued that people with physical disabilities are functionally more 'interesting' human beings because they've incorporated machines into their brains and bodies. For those of you who haven't already seen Iron Man, the superhero escapes from a cave in Afghanistan in part by building a pair of robotic legs. This sci-fi movie is more grounded in reality than it appears. Earlier this month, researchers at a university in Japan unveiled a robotic suit that reads brain signals and helps disabled people walk. The suit, known as HAL -- short for "hybrid assistive limb" -- is available to rent in Japan for $2,200 a month. (Cost to buy will be around $15,000-$20,000). This invention will have far-reaching benefits for the disabled as well as the elderly, giving them the "potential to lift up to 10-times the weight they normally could." Other researchers around the world, including those at MIT, are working on similar robotic suits that increase mobility and lighten the burden for soldiers and others who carry heavy packs and equipment. Which brings me to my point. Today I watched a video of Army Sgt. Erik Schei, who was shot in the head in 2005 while serving in Iraq and given zero chance of survival. Schei is now 23 years old and uses a wheelchair. He can't stand by himself. He can't feed himself. But with the help of a computer that he activates with his head, he spoke in an ad on behalf of Tom Udall, a Democrat running for the Senate in New Mexico. To compose his ad, Sgt. Schei used hardware -- a computer screen attached to his wheelchair -- and software, such as an on-screen keyboard and perhaps a word-prediction program. He also used a text-to-speech (TTS) synthesizer to 'deliver' the ad for him. I noticed that his TTS program doesn't offer the best-quality speech -- some advanced programs on the market have very human-like intonation, such as the AT&T Natural Voices, or the voice-over programs built into Windows XP and Mac OS X Leopard. But Sgt. Schei is just getting his bearings; he can always upgrade to better programs, even ones that include fully functioning PCs so he can surf the web and check email. I also mentioned that he activates the computer with his head. This doesn't show in the ad, but it's likely that he uses a wireless optical sensor which tracks a tiny, paper-thin sticker placed on his glasses or his forehead. It connects to a USB port and works just like a computer mouse, with the mouse pointer being moved by the motion of his head. He also seems to have a microphone near his mouth, which he may use for executing computer commands using vocal chords, or maybe for practicing his speech and synthesizing it to the computer for clarity. Sgt. Schei is telling viewers that he appreciates Congressman Udall's push in support of the U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans' Care, Katrina Recovery, and Iraq Accountability Appropriations Act of 2007 which became Public Law 110-28. It included $600 million in funding for post traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injuries. Maybe when Sgt. Erik Schei gets stronger, he can run for Congress, too.

A New Mouse in the House

Sometimes I get Mac envy. Like today when I was switching between my touchpad and wireless mouse to prevent hand fatigue and cramping, I had wished I owned a MacBook Air, which has a giant touchpad and offers an easier, more fun ‘touch’ experience using several fingers. I began thinking about alternative mouse devices, especially for people with physical and motor impairments. For those with limited motor skills, there are a variety of options that have been around for a while, including the joystick, head pointers, Mouse keys and eye gaze devices. But the coolest non-mouse is known as multitouch, which was popularized by Apple’s iPhone, and lets computer users control graphical applications with their fingers. Touch is quickly becoming a common way of directly interacting with software and devices. Today iPhone and MacBook Air are used by millions of people with and without disabilities, and other companies are bringing products with multitouch to the market. For instance, Microsoft recently unveiled its Surface product that runs on Windows 7 (due out in late 2009) which lets its corporate customers use multi-touch in their stores. While Surface costs an approximate $5,000-$10,000 for each unit, it’s likely that Surface will one day be integrated into consumer PCs and the price will come down. Already, the Dell Latitude XT tablet uses multitouch, which is a good option for someone who can’t grasp a mouse and wants the functionality of a traditional PC. You can use your finger or a stylus instead. Take a look at other cell phones that are utilizing touch to let you zoom in on text, advance through a photo album, or adjust an image. These include the Blackberry Storm and Google's G1 (reviewed here by Information Week). G1 uses a combination of touch, trackball and physical keyboard, which is nice for the user who likes to have navigation options. Some people with motor disabilities already use their chin, elbow, or tongue to control a trackball. The Storm multitouch screen uses something called "haptic touch" so when you press a button on the screen or on the virtual keyboard it feels as if you're actually pressing on that specific spot. It’s tactile, which provides more peace of mind if you're hearing-impaired. If you’re blind, this makes typing and clicking a lot easier. What’s important is that multitouch provides a non-mouse alternative for people with limited physical use of their fingers or arms. And it’s an assistive technology that’s already built into the systems of mainstream technology, so there’s no adaptation needed once you take your new phone, PC, GPS system, etc., of the box. But multitouch can help, say, a person with arthritis, MS or cerebral palsy who can't grasp or click a mouse. Touch isn’t an all-in solution, of course. Some people have no use of their forelimbs at all. That’s why the joystick is operated by tongue; a head pointer is operated by the head. But as technology advances we’ll be seeing more interaction and collaboration with our sensory and motor processes. For someone with a disability, any way that we can manipulate content to get what we want is something we’re great at.