[Blind-rollers] Cool motor for wheelchairs

[lauren at catlines.com]

Sent from my iPhone

> On May 3, 2016, at 5:19 PM, Becky Frankeberger via Blind-Rollers <blind-rollers at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> 
> 
> Link:
> http://www.gizmag.com/google-impact-challenge-disabilities-grants/42771/
> 
> Text:
> Google awards $20 million to 29 innovative disability nonprofits
> Stu Robarts | April 12, 2016
> 
> Google has announced 29 winners of its Google Impact Challenge:
> Disabilities, which it launched in May last year to invest in non-profit
> organizations using technology to increase independence for disabled people
> around the world. The organizations will receive US$20 million in Google.org
> grants.
> 
> Google launched the challenge with an open call to global non-profits,
> seeking to find organizations that were developing "transformative
> technologies for the billion people around the world with disabilities." It
> received ideas from over 1,000 organizations in 88 countries.
> 
> In picking the winners, Google says it planned to provide resources to
> support their missions and investment to help them scale. Each winning
> organization has committed to open-sourcing their technology, so as to
> ensure that the help it can provide can be shared.
> 
> Google has picked out four winners by way of example. To begin, it has
> awarded $1.125 million to the Center for Discovery for its development of
> the indieGo wheelchair add-on that converts any manual wheelchair into a
> powered chair. The device is aimed at providing the mobility and freedom of
> a powered wheelchair at around one-seventh of the average cost.
> 
> The Perkins School for the Blind has been awarded $750,000 for its work
> tackling the "last 50 feet problem," whereby GPS can help direct blind
> people not just to an area, but to a precise point. The organization is
> creating an app via which navigation tips can be crowdsourced and logged in
> a standard format so as to help blind people find specific points.
> 
> A $1 million award has gone to Miraclefeet, which partners with local
> healthcare providers around the world to help children born with clubfoot.
> Its grant will go to providing support for families via SMS, using software
> to monitor patient progress and training to local clinicians online.
> 
> Finally, a $400,000 was awarded to Ezer Mizion and Click2Speak to help
> people with high cognitive function but impaired motor skills to better
> communicate. Their partnership is aiming to develop an affordable, flexible
> and customizable on-screen keyboard that provides hands-free operation.
> 
> All 29 projects that have been awarded grants through the Google Impact
> Challenge: Disabilities can be seen online at link:
> https://www.google.org/impactchallenge/disabilities/grants.html
> 
> 
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> Hi, that motor sounds like a great idea. I used a manual chair last summer at the NFB 75th anniversary convention. Having a motor so I could go by myself sometimes would have been great.
Thanks,
Lauren