disabilities

For some people, touching a touch screen is difficult, if not impossible.

According to Georgia Tech, more than 200,000 kids in the U.S. public school system have some sort of orthopedic disability that hinders them from experiencing the vast information that awaits them on a tablet or smartphone. Children with neurological disorders -- such as muscular dystrophy, cerebral palsy, and spina bifida -- can also have difficulty using touch-screen devices due to motor skill impairments.

The need to counteract this limitation inspired Ayanna Howard, a Georgia Tech engineering professor, and graduate student Hae Won Park to create Access4Kids, a prototype assistive device that could level the playing field.… Read more

Of course you use antivirus software and maybe a firewall, too, but keeping your PC safe only starts there. One of the simplest yet smartest things you can do is disable Autorun in Windows. It's a convenience that runs programs automatically; for example, Autorun starts playing a CD as soon as you close the tray. It's even more convenient for the viruses and other malware that use autorun.exe to do everything from infiltrating your system to destroying it. One of the simplest ways to disable Autorun completely or selectively is with AutoRun Disable by Endpoint Protector. This … Read more

You might think you can't have a phone conversation with someone who's deaf, but Dimitri Kanevsky would not only disagree, he'd prove you wrong.

Deaf since he was 3, Kanevsky has hardly let his disability get in the way of progress -- or success. Born in the Soviet Union, he eventually emigrated, first to Israel, and then to the United States, and went on to become a research staff member in the speech and language algorithms department at IBM's Thomas Watson Research Center.

On Monday, Kanevsky and 13 others were honored at the White House in … Read more

Office add-ins range from indispensable to strictly optional, but they can pile up, which sometimes slows down your Office apps. Of course, minutes after you disable one, you'll need it (we exaggerate, but not much). If add-ons cramp your style when you open Word, Excel, or other Office tools, take a look at EnableDisable for Office. This standalone freeware lets you enable or disable Office add-ons as needed. It works with all versions of Office and Windows 2000 to 7, both 32-bit and 64-bit versions.

EnableDisable's simple interface has tabs for each Office application: Access, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, … Read more

Using a new iPad, but don't live in an LTE market? Or, maybe you're looking to slow down your connection speed (crazy talk) to prevent you from using up your data plan? In just a few short steps you can disable the LTE connection on your new iPad, and hopefully save some battery in the process.

Here's how to disable LTE on your new iPad:

Should you ever find yourself in an LTE market, you can follow the same steps to turn it back … Read more

Bloatware and custom apps preinstalled by wireless carriers are to be expected on Android devices. These types of apps have even made their way on to one of Google's own devices--the Samsung Galaxy Nexus on Verizon.

While rooting your device will allow you to uninstall any unwanted apps, we know rooting isn't for everyone, no matter how simple it may be. We also know how annoying it can be to have multiple apps preinstalled on your device, with no way of uninstalling them.

Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich allows you to disable an app, in lieu of … Read more

Google+ users can now lock their posts or disable comments before they share them, courtesy of the latest update to the social network.

Both options have been available for awhile. Disabling comments ensures that no one can respond to a post, while locking your post completely prevents someone from sharing it as well. But until this week, you could turn on these features only after you had already shared your post with your circles, a rather backwards approach.

"Oh, hey there, Skype Home window. I was going to watch this movie but I see you've decided to randomly open a window over it instead. Thanks!" Sound familiar? If you're a Skype user who's updated to version 5.5, you've probably come across this issue (only happens if you use Compact mode). There isn't a way to disable the pop-up in the application (yet), so follow these steps if you'd like to get rid of it:

Step 1: Download and install the Kill Skype Home program from SourceForge.

Step 2: … Read more

As consumer technology begins including features that let the disabled express themselves, the cost of access to assistive technologies has gone down significantly, from thousands of dollars to the price of a tablet.

For instance, the BBC reports that a patient with locked-in syndrome lost his ability to speak, so he uses an Apple computer and an Android phone to communicate.

While touch-screen devices are popular, they're still limiting--especially in cases when the disabled person can't type on the virtual keyboard.

Apple may soon get around this touch-screen issue.

In a recent patent application, the company outlined a … Read more