Orbit Research and the Transforming Braille Group Announce Agreement to Produce Low-cost Refreshable Braille Display
WILMINGTON, DE – August 6, 2015 – Orbit Research LLC and the Transforming Braille Group LLC are pleased to announce an agreement to produce a low cost, refreshable braille display.
Orbit, an international engineering company based in Wilmington, Delaware, specialising in high quality, low cost products for blind and partially sighted people, will be undertaking the research, development and manufacture of this unique product.
The Transforming Braille Group LLC is a global consortium of organisations of and for the blind which is investing $1m in the project.
The objective of the project is to produce a stand-alone 20-cell refreshable braille display for $300 (or £200) which will bring refreshable braille within the reach of children in developing countries and will provide libraries in developed countries with a viable alternative to hard copy braille. The product will be launched at CSUN in 2016.
The display is designed to work through USB and Bluetooth connectivity with 'smart' phones and tablets. It is not intended to compete with high specification refreshable braille display already on the market, primarily used in education and employment but is intended to bring braille displayed e-books to a wide audience at an economical price.
"The agreement with TBG is a landmark in our journey to develop and manufacture essential products at an affordable cost through the application of mainstream technology in unique and innovative ways" said Dr. Gina Spagnoli, Orbit Research's Founder. "While each of our previous products has brought a multi-fold improvement in the state of the art in terms of performance, cost, size and features, we are thrilled that through this partnership with TBG, we will be able to offer a game-changing product that will impact the daily lives of millions of blind people across the world"
TBG President, Kevin Carey said: "At last we have a technology which will guarantee the survival of braille. It has been my long-standing, publicly stated objective to find a disruptive technology which will radically force down the cost of refreshable braille so that the world's digital content becomes available in a tactile format. This new device will bring braille within the price range of educators in developing countries and will enable most blind people to access e-books and other internet material without resorting to specialist libraries."
TBG estimates that its new product will retail at a unit cost less than 20% of the current market price.
Contact details:
Kevin Carey, President,
Transforming Braille Group LLC
Tel: +44(0)1273 834321
Email: humanity@atlas.co.uk<mailto:humanity@atlas.co.uk>
www.Transformingbraille.org<http://www.Transformingbraille.org> (under construction)
Carla Morris
Orbit Research LLC
Tel: 1-888-606-7248
Email: morris.carla@orbitresearch.com<mailto:morris.carla@orbitresearch.com>
www.orbitresearch.com<http://www.orbitresearch.com>
________________________________
Email correspondence to and from this address is subject to the North Carolina Public Records Law and may be disclosed to third parties by an authorized State official. Unauthorized disclosure of juvenile, health, legally privileged, or otherwise confidential information, including confidential information relating to an ongoing State procurement effort, is prohibited by law. If you have received this email in error, please notify the sender immediately and delete all records of this email.
Thursday, August 7, 2014
FYI: [duxnews] Orbit Research Group & TBG announes project for low cost braille display.
Friday, July 18, 2014
FW: Presentation of Braille Community Resource Guide L-R Nags Head Lion Gail Sonnesso- Dare County Center Director, Sandy Scarborough - Lion Mary Ellen Hawthorne
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On Thursday July 17th The Nags Head Lions Club, Represented by Lion President Gail Sonnesso and Lion Mary Ellen Hawthorne presented Sandy Scarborough, Dare County Center director with 4 braille community resource guides.
Angelo Sonnesso
Secretary,
The Lions Club of Nags Head
Wednesday, June 11, 2014
Please share this Action Alert: Contact the Senate Appropriations Committee - National Plan to Address Alzheimer's Disease
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Alzheimer's Foundation of America | 322 Eighth Avenue | 7th Floor | New York | NY | 10001 |
Wednesday, June 4, 2014
FW: Walgreens adds talking prescription labels for customers blind or visually impaired
From: Margaret Cleary [mecleary511@gmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, June 03, 2014 6:52 PM
To: visionrehabtherapist@freelists.org
Subject: [visionrehabtherapist] Walgreens adds talking prescription labels for customers blind or visually impaired
June 3, 2014 04:45 PM
Colleagues:
Today
Walgreens announced that it is providing talking prescription labels at all of
its 8,000+ retail pharmacies in the United States and through mail order. The
talking prescription labels are free of charge to pharmacy customers
who are blind or visually impaired. The device also includes a
timer.
The
Walgreens press release is here: http://lflegal.com/2014/06/walgreens-talking/
This
initiative is a result of ongoing Structured Negotiations with the
American Council of the Blind, The Illinois Council of the Blind, and the
California Council of the Blind. Linda Dardarian of Goldstein, Borgen,
Dardarian and Ho and I represent the organizations.
Please
help us spread the work about this important health, safety, and accessibility
initative. As always, feedback welcomed.
Lainey Feingold
Law Office of Lainey
Feingold
Margaret E. Cleary, MS, RN, CHE, CVRT®
2240 Linden Avenue
Boulder, CO 80304
303-443-0836 home
303-579-6901 cell
303-443-1750 fax
mecleary511@gmail.com
Email correspondence to and from this address is subject to the North Carolina Public Records Law and may be disclosed to third parties by an authorized State official. Unauthorized disclosure of juvenile, health, legally privileged, or otherwise confidential information, including confidential information relating to an ongoing State procurement effort, is prohibited by law. If you have received this email in error, please notify the sender immediately and delete all records of this email.
Saturday, May 10, 2014
North Carolina moves forward to be a more "DEMENTIA CAPABLE STATE"
North Carolina, through its Alzheimer's and dementia Coalition, is moving
forward on addressing five elements key to making North Carolina a more
'dementia capable' state. The key elements are:
1. Public Education and Awareness including early detection, public
education, general awareness and advocacy.
2. Workforce Development including training for professionals,
paraprofessionals and direct care workers to enhance quality care or create
efficiency.
3. Care Transitions which include integrated care, discharge planning
and medical homes.
4. Supports for People with dementia including consumer directed care,
reaching-out to and respecting diversity.
5. Caregiver Supports including caregiver training, respite care,
information and assistance, support groups and options counseling.
Recommendations around these elements will be addressed in the next
four-year DAAS Aging Services Plan. Mark Hensley is the Project C.A.R.E.
lead, is the contact person for our work on this plan and the Coalition.
GEM has been the lead agency in Dare County proactively addressing these
issues. We have provided complimentary Memory Screenings since 2007
promoting early detection. GEM's Community Outreach parties have been
instrumental in providing public education, general awareness and advocacy
reaching out to the many volunteers that helped provide these events. We
present a National Candle lighting to "Honor, Remember and Care" for our
friends and families that have experienced cognitive challenges since 2007.
Gail developed with Susan Firman, RN and Linda Hester Caring Effectively for
people with dementia. Gail has been teaching this class at the College of
the Albemarle for over 10 years. Students include Nurse's aides, family
and professional caregivers and community friends. We are working together
to promote quality care for people with dementia. This class carries 12.0
Continuing Education Credits for staff of Assisted Living facilitates. GEM
also collaborates with the Alzheimer's Foundation of America to provide
qualification classes for [Qualified Dementia Care Provider] increasing the
knowledge of professionals and family caregivers in dementia Care. Our next
class will be June 21, 2014.
GEM has partnered with Dr. C. Petzing, Cathy Pfendler, RN together we
developed a four page document, Who am I? This is for family caregivers to
complete and bring to the hospital Emergency Department if a visit is
necessary. [You can view the document at www.gemdayservices.org.] This
document will assist the staff in caring for your loved one with memory loss
in the most proactive way.
GEM's newest program is geriatric care management which will help caregivers
and people with cognitive challenges with care transitions and community
inclusion.
Supports for People with dementia including consumer directed care,
reaching-out to and respecting diversity. GEM has learned through the years
and applied this knowledge by providing programming that enhances the
quality of life for people with dementia and their caregivers. Our
programming is designed to provide purpose and ensure success.
GEM has provided many workshops supporting caregivers, our first caregiver
education conference featured Teepa Snow and Melanie Bunn at St. Andrews -by
the -Sea in 2001. Our latest workshop Hopeful Aging promoted the" I'm Still
Here Approach"C of Hearthstone Alzheimer Care in February 2014.
GEM developed the first Group Respite Care program in Dare and successfully
provided care for 10 years. We currently provide the GEM CLUB a monthly
lunch and learn for anyone interested in the BEST Practices in Care for
people with cognitive challenges. GEM's website provides the latest
information about issues in dementia. GEM's Issues and Concerns of
Caregivers was the first Alzheimer's Support Group on the beach beginning in
1997.
If you would like to know more about GEM please call Gail Sonnesso, MS, QDCS
@ 252-480-3354 or email her at gsonnesso@gmail.com and visit our website:
www.gemdayservices.org
73 N2DYN Angelo
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
2014 National Alzheimer's Disease Plan Available
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | Contact: HHS Press Office |
2014 National Alzheimer’s Disease Plan Available
Updated Plan highlights 2013 achievements, new goals in research, care, and services
HHS today released the National Plan to Address Alzheimer’s Disease: 2014 Update, reflecting the nation’s progress toward accomplishing goals set in 2012 and current action steps to achieving them. The 2011 National Alzheimer’s Project Act calls for all Plans to be updated annually; the 2014 Plan follows the initial Plan released in May 2012 and an updated Plan released in June 2013.
The 2014 Plan was developed with input from experts in aging and Alzheimer’s disease from federal, state, private and non-profit organizations, as well as caregivers and people with the disease. The 2014 Plan includes the following five goals: finding ways to prevent and effectively treat Alzheimer’s disease by 2025; enhancing care for Alzheimer’s patients; expanding support for people with dementia and their families; improving public awareness; and carefully tracking data to support these efforts.
“Since 2012, we have made strides in our fight against dementia under the framework of the National Plan,” HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said. “We continue to strive to reduce the burden of these conditions on people, their families, and our health care system.”
Highlights during the past year include:
· Identification of 11 Alzheimer’s risk genes, providing new insights about disease pathways and possible drug targets;
· Training and support to more than 23,000 health care providers on dementia;
· Focused and coordinated public-private efforts that reduced the inappropriate use of antipsychotics among long-stay nursing home residents with dementia by nearly 14 percent; and
· Funding to states for development of dementia-capable long-term services and supports systems.
The 2014 Plan also identifies the following action steps led by HHS to better research, treat and prevent Alzheimer’s disease:
· Acceleration of efforts to identify the earliest stages of Alzheimer’s disease and to develop and test targets for intervention;
· Move research and care forward by increasing collaboration in science, data sharing, and priority setting among Alzheimer’s disease experts, health care providers and caregivers;
· Expansion of current work to strengthen dementia-care guidelines and quality measures, including meaningful outcomes for people with dementia and their families;
· Help for health care providers to better address ethical considerations related to caring for people with dementia, including how to balance privacy, autonomy and safety; and
· Enhance support for global collaboration on dementia, including hosting a February 2015 follow-up meeting to the December 2013 G8 Summit on Dementia.
“The scientific opportunities in research on Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias have never been greater,” said Richard J. Hodes, M.D., director of the National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health. “We have made important discoveries about factors influencing development of the disease and in 2014, based on what we have learned, will focus on building and testing interventions that can make a difference.”
For more information about Alzheimer’s disease, visit www.alzheimers.gov.
To read the National Plan to Address Alzheimer’s Disease: 2014 Update, visit http://aspe.hhs.gov/daltcp/napa/NatlPlan2014.shtml.
Gail E. Sonnesso, MS, QDCS
GEM Adult Day Services, Inc.
Gentle Expert Memorycare
252-480-3354
Use of this approach has been shown to provide significant benefits such as decreasing falls by as much as 50% and antipsychotic drug use by as much as 75%,
Hearthstone Alzheimer Care
This is a good summery of This program.
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Gail E. Sonnesso, MS, QDCS
GEM Adult Day Services, Inc.
Gentle Expert Memorycare
252-480-3354
