The Voiceless Minority

 Did you know that for the 4th year, law firm Bolt Burdon Kemp announced that entries are being accepted for the Design the Change competition?   It’s true! The firm invites UK students to design a product that helps make the lives of people with spinal cord injuries easier. The winner will receive £5,000, and the runner-up will receive £2,500. Last year’s Design the Change competition winners included Tom Baker, who created a state-of-the-art wheelchair buggy to help parents with spinal cord injuries safely and efficiently transport their children.   I love that this is a competition. I genuinely appreciate the work that Bolt Burdon Kemp is doing to promote innovation and inclusivity. By encouraging young minds to think creatively about solutions for those with spinal cord injuries, they’re making a real difference in people’s lives and showing how important accessibility is in design. This type of initiative raises awareness and inspires a future generation of e...

I have been in a wheelchair for the majority of my life. I even had one of those cool moms who would decorate my wheelchair and turn it into a rolling Halloween costume. So, in short, I have never known life outside of a wheelchair. Okay, so I may have fibbed a little bit. I used to use a walker and do the gimp shuffle around my elementary school, but for the most part, I have always sat on my ass. While I like the view from my chair, and my feet never hurt, I have always wondered what it would be like to move my feet like everyone else. Well, now there is a company that may one day allow me to experience what walking like a “normal” person is like. A company based in the United Kingdom known as Wandercraft has just received its second U.S. patent for an Exoskeleton that is completely hands-free and allows the user to move with the assistance of a trained companion. When I first learned about Atalante X, I was mindlessly scrolling on Facebook after posting an update on The Voiceless Mi...