Tag: Inclusion

Some wheelchairs can be steered by head movements or facilitate conversations at eye-level. But recording cinema-quality moving images from different perspectives has - until now - proved challenging for wheelchair users. Enter the founder of an inclusive film production company in London and his ingenious wheelchair-based camera mounting system. Like a steadicam, the system delivers 3-stage image stabilisation, while...

A venture capital firm is specifically backing LGBTQ+ teams, while an app focuses on the community’s mental health. For some time, a German non-profit organisation has been using wool from gay rams to promote its pro-LGBTQ+ message. A message that was recently given a global platform with financial help from a queer dating app: special wool pieces, whose designer...

A new screen displays the highest resolution humans can perceive. Now for people who use bi- or varifocal lenses comes the latest development from a Finnish startup: ‘autofocus’ glasses. Its lenses are cut for users’ distance vision and feature embedded liquid crystals in a large circular area in the centre. Sensors in the frame send invisible infrared light to...

A one-minute dance could help diagnose autism in children. Now, an Irish startup is helping teachers spot literacy issues in primary-school children. In its animated game, stemming from a research project, children go through a series of exercises on areas like letter recognition, rhyme awareness and the reproduction or merging of individual sounds. Upon completion, analysis is shared with...

Parkinson’s could soon be detected early using a diagnostic pen. Meanwhile, in Portugal a startup has developed a table lamp that monitors epileptic fits. Seizures present a particular risk at night with some 86% going undetected during sleep. An infrared light sensor in the lamp registers movements and an algorithm analyses any data recorded. If movement patterns are consistent...

A pop-up display could help those with limited vision access the digital world. Meanwhile, a Cologne-based startup is offering the German-speaking deaf community, who also have difficulty reading, a similar opportunity: its avatar renders website content into sign language. Website administrators use an internet platform with a toolbox to arrange pre-defined blocks of text and tailor them to individual...

In Africa, group buying is making fresh produce more affordable. Meanwhile, a new startup in Germany is aiming to provide warm meals to those in financial need, while simultaneously reducing food waste in canteens. Students or those on a tight budget register on the app. After vetting, they can request food each day from a nearby canteen for a...

An app is inspiring children to read books. But as a non-profit organisation in the US has shown, books are also highly valuable in prisons. The organisation’s founder, a former prison resident himself for nine years, discovered how stories and books could provide perspective during his long stay in solitary confinement. In the meantime, the registered lawyer has been...