Tag Archives: disability

This story originally appeared on WIRED Italia and has been translated from Italian. John McFall’s sporting record alone would be enough to justify him being the flag bearer for the 2024 Paralympics. He won silver in the 100 meters (T42) and bronze in the 200 meters at the 2006 IPC …

On Wednesday, Neuralink introduced the first human subject to receive the company’s brain implant, a 29-year-old man who has been paralyzed from the shoulders down for eight years after a diving accident. In a brief livestream on the social media platform X, the man introduced himself as Noland Arbaugh and …

Jalon Hall thought she was being scammed when a recruiter reached out on LinkedIn about a job moderating YouTube videos in 2020. Months after earning a master’s degree in criminal justice, her only job had been at a law firm investigating discrimination cases. But the offer was real, and Hall, …

Born deaf, the 1-year-old boy had never responded to sound or speech before. But after receiving an experimental treatment injected into one of his ears, he started turning his head when his parents called his name. Five months later, he spoke his first words. The boy is one of six …

In September, Elon Musk’s brain-implant company Neuralink announced the much-anticipated news that it would start recruiting volunteers for a clinical trial to test its device. Known as a brain-computer interface, or BCI, it collects electrical activity from neurons and interprets those signals into commands to control an external device. While …

Two companies have launched clinical trials to see if they can restore hearing to children with a rare type of genetic deafness. Akouos and Decibel Therapeutics, both based in Boston, are testing experimental therapies in children with severe hearing loss due to variations in a gene called OTOF. A third …

Today, young people are becoming disabled in record numbers with all the various impacts of long Covid, which is estimated to affect between 8 and 25 percent of people who have been infected. The disabled future is coming to pass now, and we need to create inclusive and accessible environments …

Paralysis had robbed the two women of their ability to speak. For one, the cause was amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, a disease that affects the motor neurons. The other had suffered a stroke in her brain stem. Though they can’t enunciate clearly, they remember how to formulate words. Now, …

Stan Nicholas almost didn’t go through with getting a brain implant.  The Cleveland Clinic was seeking volunteers who had been disabled by stroke to undergo an experimental procedure meant to restore movement in their upper body. It would mean getting a thin wire placed in his cerebellum to electrically stimulate …