Cafe Disability

A Colorado man made history at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) this summer when he became the first bilateral shoulder-level amputee to wear and simultaneously control two of the Laboratory's Modular Prosthetic Limbs.

Larry Hester, 66, has been blind for half his life from a condition called retinitis pigmentosa. In September, 2014, an electronic stimulator was surgically implanted in his left eye. On October 1st, 2014 Duke eye surgeon Dr. Paul Hahn turned it on for the first time. While the device does not restore vision in the normal sense, it provides light-and-darkness differentiation.

While serving in Afghanistan, U.S. military combat dog Layka was shot four times by the enemy at point-blank range. Despite her injuries, she still attacked and subdued the shooter, saving her handler and the other members of the team. Seven hours of surgery and the amputation of one leg saved her life. Her handler, Staff Sgt. Julian McDonald, fought hard to adopt her and she's now become a part of his family.

Disabled mannequins will be eliciting astonished looks from passers-by on Zurich's Bahnhofstrasse today. Between the perfect mannequins, there will be figures with scoliosis or brittle bone disease modelling the latest fashions. One will have shortened limbs; the other a malformed spine. The campaign has been devised for the International Day of Persons with Disabilities by Pro Infirmis, an organisation for the disabled.

We had the amazing opportunity to work with Wheelz! He's awesome.

Paralyzed by a stroke, Henry Evans uses a telepresence robot to take the stage -- and show how new robotics, tweaked and personalized by a group called Robots for Humanity, help him live his life.