Weekly Topics - Week 14: Accessibility and Assistive Technology

 

source: https://www.scewo.com/en/product/#

This week’s topic is about accessibility and assistive technology. I’m writing about a real-life case of the principle "if a person has control over any function, it can also be used to control the computer". The example I chose is the smart wheelchair than can climb stairs.

The case started with a man from Switzerland, Jose Di Felice. He had a major motorcycle accident in 2016 that resulted in a disability to move both legs and one arm. He found out during his new life on a wheelchair, that stairs are his biggest challenge in his day-to-day life. So, he started to look for a solution [1]. In his research he found the small startup Scewo from Switzerland. The startup has built a wheelchair that can be controlled through a smartphone. It can tackle a range of terrains and has special rubber tracks for climbing stairs. Di Felice asked for a test drive and climbed up successfully the stairs of the local town hall. The wheelchair can climb stairs up to 36°gradient. The CEO of Scewo, Bernhard Winter, said “We cannot wait on having all these ramps built. This is why we developed this product, so it gives you back mobility and freedom." [2]

On the website of Scewo it is further explained:

“You can activate the stair-climbing mode at the push of a button. BRO climbs up or down the steps on your command. With the help of sensors, it constantly measures its surroundings. All you have to do is move the joystick in the desired direction and enjoy the ride. Thanks to the optional rear-view camera you can also keep an eye on what is happening behind your back. For an even more relaxed ride, BRO continuously adjusts the seat height while climbing stairs so that you are always sitting upright. “ [3]

This invention sounds very promising. However, as of right now, only customers of Germany, Switzerland and Austria can buy this wheelchair since the company only has partners there. Another disappointing factor is that the price seems to be very high. They don’t display it on their website at all. In the FAQ section they answer the question how much the wheelchair costs with a vague “The costs of BRO are comparable to the purchase of a high-quality power wheelchair and an additional stair-climbing aid. The price varies depending on the chosen features.” [4]. Still, the idea is great, and it gives hope for further inventions for people with disabilities.

 

[1] https://www.rswebsols.com/tutorials/technology/recent-mobility-solutions-disabled-elderly-people

[2] https://www.vodafone.com/business/news-and-insights/blog/gigabit-thinking/the-tech-empowering-less-able-people-in-cities

[3] https://www.scewo.com/en/product/#

[4] https://www.scewo.com/en/goodtoknow/#financing

 

 

 

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Weekly Topics - Week 15: IT and Ethics

Image
  source: pixabay This week’s topic is about ethical theories. I’m picking the cultural relativism theory and apply an IT-related example to that. The cultural relativism theory sees that there is no right and wrong in the different cultures. “ Cultural relativism refers to the idea that the values, knowledge, and behavior of people must be understood within their own cultural context.” [1] When someone judges another cultures food it is an example for ethnocentrism. It means, that this person is using their own culture as the center of the world and evaluate other cultures based on that [2]. I found it hard to research a good example for its IT-related application, since most examples about cultural differences are about the different cuisines (eating bugs, eating pigs, etc.) and about their clothing style. The only, at least sort of, IT-related example I could think of is the cash-culture in Germany. Germans often pay for services and purchases with cash, which can annoy fo...
Read more

Weekly Topics - Week 3: How MMOs influenced the gaming industry

Image
Source: Dav, 2018, https://eastsidegamers.net/2018/a-brief-history-of-the-mmorpgs/ The blogging task for this week is to write about a short blog analysis about a new media component and how it has influenced its area. I am going to write about the Gaming Industry, in particular, how MMOs have influecned the gaming industry. MMO stands for massive multiplayer online games. The earliest version of a MMO started decades ago in form of text based Multiplayer User Dungeons (MUDs). A popular game was Colossal Cave Adventure, which was released in 1975 [1].  It was highly influenced by the tabletop fantasy game Dungeons and Dragons (DnD) [2].  Even though MMOs have been around for a long time, they didn’t gain that much popularity until the internet has risen to fame. But games in general have been around for very long time! Did you know, that the very first board game was invented 3500 before Christ? This game was invented in predynastic and first dynast burials in Egypt [3]...
Read more

Weekly Topics - Week 1: IT solutions in history

Image
This week I am going to talk about interesting IT inventions in history. Of course there are many, many interesting inventions. The three I picked interested me the most. The sources for my information are listed down below.  Let’s start with the first IT Invention:  The Black Box (1953) David Warren and his Black Box Prototype [3]  (imagesource: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dave_Warren_with_BlackBox_Prototype.jpg) Did you know, that the Black Box did a huge contribution to the international airline safety? The Black Box is a Flight Recorder, invented in 1953 by David Warren [1]. Warren was a aeronautical research scientist and invented this device, because a lot of high-profile airplane crashes went unsolved. Interesting fact: Contrary to popular belief, the black box is mostly bright orange , not black (like the name suggests). The Black Box Flight Recorder is able to record flight data, cockpit sounds and instruments during a flight. The recorder can s...
Read more