Women-led and women’s rights organizations are on the frontlines of today’s humanitarian crises—but many are at risk of disappearing. As global needs rise due to conflict, climate change, and displacement, deep cuts to foreign aid are threatening organizations that provide life-saving services for women and girls. In March 2025, UN …
LIKE most other tissues in the human body, nerve tissues, too, can regenerate after being damaged. However, a damage to the central nervous system - the spinal cord and the brain - is a different matter. When this happens, the nerve bundles begin to repair themselves feebly, but soon degenerate …
Students at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, USA, have devised a more efficient trike, a human-powered vehicle somewhat like a bicycle but with three or four wheels, for disabled people who cannot use their legs to get around. it has a novel up-and-down pump drive mechanism that people work …
TWO young students have developed a computerised glove which can convert the deafmute alphabet into speech and another has invented a blind person's stick which can "hear" obstacles. As part of a special competition held by the Christoffel Mission for the Blind at Bensheim, Germany, young inventors exhibited their gadgets …
DAM FAILURE: Boliden, a Canadian mining company, blamed falling metal prices and costs associated with a dam rupture for the company's second-quarter loss. Pre-tax losses were $52.1 million compared with restated earnings of $19.7 million in the same time last year. The dam failure at the Los Frailes zinc mine …
THE computer scores another point. Distance learning became possible years ago with the advent of the World Wide Web. Now, us software experts have taken "distance learning" a step further. Deaf children in the US will soon be able to learn written English with the help of an Internet program …
A cane with a magnetic guide for blind people is currently being patented by the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing company of St Paul in Minnesota, USA. The tip of the cane houses a sensor that measures the strength of a magnetic field along a guide track. The track is made …
soon, people restricted to wheelchairs will be able to enjoy freedom. Freedom not only from strenuous physical effort and constant dependence on caretakers, but freedom of motion and manoeuvrability as well. A revolutionary new omnidirectional wheelchair based on technology developed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ornl) , Tennessee, usa, will …
Researchers at the University of Birmingham, uk, have developed a navigation and orientation device, called MoBIC (Mobility of Blind and Elderly People Interacting with Computers). The device would help blind people to increase their independent mobility. The system works in association with satellites. MoBIC changes satellite signals into computer data …
people with visual impairment can now take help of a newly developed cane that would use sonar beams to guide them. Sonar is a system for detecting the position of objects by emmiting sound pulses. Johann Borenstein and Iwan Ulrich, mechanical engineers at the University of Michigan, usa , have …
millions of people in tropical regions of Asia, Africa and South America suffer from permanent disability due to leprosy, river blindness, Chagas disease and lymphatic filariasis. The World Health Organization (who) has predicted that these four diseases will be "eliminated as public health problems" within 10 years. These predictions are …
A ROBOT clerk that can turn pages, load fax machines, staple documents, put office rubbish in bins and open cans has gone on trial with severely disabled people in the uk. Currently on trail at Papworth Hospital, Cambridge, the us $5,0000 pc system can be controlled by a joystick on …
an exciting experiment has opened up new vistas for arthritis research. For the first time gene therapy has been tried on a chronic disease which is not life-threatening. It is also the maiden effort at using gene therapy to correct an autoimmune disorder like rheumatoid arthritis. An autoimmune disorder is …
EVEN severely disabled people have reasons for hope with the unveiling of a new device in Australia recently. With the help of this device, disabled people can one day use their brain waves to operate stereos, lights, telephones and even scroll through a computer menu of more complex options. The …
A device to aid walking, comprising eight wheels for maximum stability, built-in automatic brakes for security and a seat for resting, has been .developed by the Kingswood Supply Company of UK: to assist the elderly and others suffering from restricted mobility. The aid can also be folded up for easy …
Arthritis patients have a cause to celebrate. A group of British researchers confirm that treatment with low dose of steroids can prevent the progress of arthritis in people who are just exhibiting the early symptoms of the disease. The study suggests for the first time that bone and cartilage deterioration …
RECENTLY, a woman in France was convicted to 10 years in prison for letting her quadriplegic husband rot to death. What would that man have given to be able to use his hands can well be imagined. But awaiting the us Food and Drug Administration's approval is a medical device …
MODIFIED agricultural implements that could be used by the leprosy-afflicted has made agriculture a worthwhile profession in Shahadara's Tahirpur leprosy colony in Delhi. Although farming in the colony started 17 years ago, the leprosy-afficted farmers could not use conventional implements as many had lost fingers or limbs. The scenario has …
NGOs in India have joined hands to oppose the Rehabilitation Council of India (RCI) Act, 1992, which, they allege, will further handicap the care of India's 90 million physically challenged. Following a series of meetings, over 100 NGOs and individuals submitted a memorandum to the Union welfare minister, Sitaram Kesri, …
A SPASTIC is one who suffers from cerebral palsy, an impairment of the muscle control centres of the brain, rendering ordinary activities like speaking, swallowing and walking very difficult. More often than not, a narrow social outlook is responsible for the isolated existence of these children affected by this condition. …
VIRTUOSI such as violinists and ballet-dancers have excelled often because of joint hypermobility, also known as joint laxity, which is a range of motion in excess of normal. It was joint hypermobility that enabled Indian cricketer B S Chandrashekhar to bowl his legendary spin and gave the nimble-fingered Niccolo Paganini, …
