Device would allow children with severe mobility issues to control toys or wheelchairs with their minds
Imagine children with severe mobility issues being able to move their wheelchairs with their minds. That’s the idea behind a new brain-computer interface being developed by researchers at the Universities of Alberta and Calgary. Think2Switch is designed to be a simple and nearly universal bridge connecting brain signals to switch-enabled devices such as a wheelchair,…
Edmonton researchers provide the tools parents need to make informed decisions about their children’s health in a crisis
It’s midnight and your four-year-old child is congested and struggling to breathe, with a barky cough. Do you go to the nearest hospital? The children’s hospital across town? Do you wait and call your family doctor in the morning? Many parents experience situations like this, and it’s terrifying. Edmonton researchers Lisa Hartling and Shannon Scott…
Ontario's single public school system will never adequately meet the needs of all of its families
Recent controversy over the provincial government’s provision of rapid tests to independent (private) schools but not public schools stems from the fact that independent schools in Ontario exist in a policy no-man’s-land. If education policy throughout the pandemic has proved anything, it’s that the provincial government doesn’t have the framework to make adequate provisions for…
And is accelerating the process with disturbing speed
Although euthanasia was illegal in Canada until five years ago, our country is on the verge of having the most liberal euthanasia laws in the world. Canada has shifted gears from a culture of life to one of death and is putting its foot to the pedal to accelerate the process with disturbing speed. How…
Ableism - discrimination in favour of able-bodied people - is a poisonous rot that eats away at the roots of care and life-giving supports for the disabled
In my work with Christian Horizons, I regularly provide grief training and debriefing in times of significant loss for people close to those with disabilities. In these profound moments of remembrance and mourning, it is evident that the human passing from life to death should be one of the most social and interconnected experiences of…
‘This is about the B.C. government destroying a sanctuary for dying patients who want the choice to stay in a facility where MAID is not offered’
You might think the middle of a global pandemic is less than an ideal time to disrupt the operations of a hospice where palliative care patients receive comfort as they approach death. If so, you would not share the apparent thinking of the B.C. government or its local Fraser Health Authority, which is forcing layoffs…
Ensuring physical accessibility is only the beginning of creating places where people can ‘be who they are,’ says design consultant and PhD student Lara Pinchbeck
When designing spaces for people living with disabilities, there’s more to consider than whether they’re physically accessible. A greater challenge is making sure the environments we work and live in accommodate ‘invisible’ or ‘hidden’ disabilities – a long list of conditions that range from hearing impairment to autism to anxiety disorders. Understanding the space requirements of…
U of A specialist identified gaps in care as patients age, developed app on his own time to ‘make a difference’
A University of Alberta family doctor has developed an app that he hopes will improve medical care for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Kyle Sue, clinical assistant professor of developmental pediatrics in the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry, built the app with the help of a friend to present family physicians with the best treatment…
Vast majority of athletics websites make it hard for people with disabilities to see themselves participating in sport, U of A researcher finds
Despite overtures to the contrary, para-athletes remain largely invisible within the vast majority of Canadian athletics websites, according to a University of Alberta study showing access to sport for people with disabilities is all but completely missing online. Danielle Peers, a professor in the Faculty of Kinesiology, Sport, and Recreation and Canada Research Chair in Disability and…
English language learners in Grades 7 to 9 perform worse than monolingual classmates in vocabulary, grammar and reading comprehension
A sizable proportion of junior high school students whose first language is not English are falling behind in oral language and literacy skills, according to a recent linguistics study. After testing 227 Edmonton and Vancouver English language learners in Grades 7 to 9, University of Alberta's Johanne Paradis and her colleagues found that many performed below…
Imagine children with severe mobility issues being able to move their wheelchairs with their minds. That’s the idea behind a new brain-computer interface being developed by researchers at the Universities of Alberta and Calgary. Think2Switch is designed to be a simple and nearly universal bridge connecting brain signals to switch-enabled devices such as a wheelchair,…
