Technology That Erases Handicaps

Technology has shaped society into a compelling digital platform where everyone can buy almost anything, book a table at a restaurant, or even make an appointment at the simple touch of a button. It’s fair to say that the way people interact and engage with each other has dramatically evolved since the introduction of digital and interactive technology. But, ultimately, when it comes to thinking about the impact of high tech on handicaps, the general public tend to think of wheelchairs, mobility scooters, and earring aid. It is difficult to bring together in the same image a person with a handicap – whether it is mental or physical – and your preferred digital gadgets. The main reason for this obstacle of the imagination is that, unfortunately, digital devices tend to be advertised only for and by able-bodied and mentally healthy individuals. In reality, if you dived in the potential of digital and AI technology, you can rapidly understand how it’s changing forever the way handicaps are perceived by society.

 

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Pixnio image

Mobility issues don’t exist anymore

In a world where remote work is becoming the new workplace culture, it’s easy for companies to ignore everything about the handicap of their employees or contractors. There’s been an ongoing discrimination practice in workplaces, that isn’t a reflection of what the company thinks but of what the company can provide to facilitate the access to work for disabled employees. Small corridors and narrow rooms are difficult for wheelchairs, for example. The lack of specialized equipment on the workforce can impact productivity. But remote workers for happen to live with a handicap have set up their environment to match their needs. Similarly, the gaming industry can give disabled players their lost ability back, such as this Pokemon Go hack on your iPhone which lets you play in remote areas with a joystick. Behind a screen, everybody assumes you’re able-bodied.

 

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Remote work option

Who’s blind?

How can blind people manage their household effectively? It’s a question you don’t need to ask anymore. They can now rely on the best of technology to ask their virtual assistant to come to their rescue. Siri has introduced the idea of audio command back with the iPhone4. But it’s truly the apparition of Amazon Echo, and the voicing control Alexa, that has transformed the lives of many people with a vision impairment. From getting the news to controlling your home appliances, there’s almost nothing a blind person can’t do with Alexa. Besides, a VA doesn’t need to know about your disability.  

 

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Alexa erases blindness

Autism is an advantage

If you think that working with autistic colleagues is difficult, you need to wake up to the reality of digital life. Interestingly enough, people with autism are key employees for companies that need to rely on long-term memory and high concentration in repetitive tasks. Programming solutions prefer to work with autistic QA testers, for instance, as these are better at identifying bugs and issues. Additionally, autistic workers are exceptionally gifted when it comes to thinking outside the box and coming up with creative IT solutions.

 

Ultimately, the 21st Century is the first century if the history of humanity where handicaps don’t need to be known. Our digital lifestyle paints a society that is more accessible for all.

Make The World A Smarter Place, Help A Student Today

The future of humanity lies in education. There’s no denying it. The more knowledge people have, the better they get at making the right decisions. The more you know, the least you err, to put things in simple words. However, the acquisition of knowledge can often feel like an impossible quest for nowadays students. There isn’t a week that goes by without mentioning high stress issues and tuition fees that students have to cope with. Additionally, the cost of education is increasing all over the world, making it impossible for some ever to get a chance at turning their life for the better. So what can you do to help students make the world a better place?

 

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Students need support to shine

 

Learning is a chance you can share

You may not have traveled far away, but you probably have heard of the countries where studying can make the difference between making a living or struggling in your home village. For many children and young adults in poor populations, the opportunities to get a scholarship are extremely limited. As a result, kids are forced to work from an early age to help their family. But if you take part to the child sponsorship programs you can help give teens a chance to study and establish themselves as professionals. When a degree can make all the difference between a healthy lifestyle and a famished existence, there’s no room left for hesitation.


 

Fight off the anxiety

One in 5 college students struggle with anxiety or depression disorder. The increase of tech gadgets has isolated the youth from their real life, while they try to maintain the virtual appearances on social media platforms. Additionally, the desire to succeed has driven many to seek out stimulant drugs, creating devastating addictions. It’s key for the education sector to acknowledge these mental health issues and provide personal support for those who need it most. It’s also recommended for student affairs professional to take a mental health first aid course.


 

Teach them to study

As scary as it might sounds, modern kids don’t know how to learn anymore. According to Daniel Willingham, professor of psychology, most students drop out of college because they don’t devise the right strategy to work. The common use of the highlighting approach to remember passages of a text doesn’t work, as it doesn’t bring students to think about the meaning of what they’re learning. Ultimately you can’t remember what you don’t understand. It’s therefore key to teach students how to best remember and understand their classes.
 

Talk about money

Last, but not least, a lot of people choose not to pursue their studies because they’re struggling with the burden of student loans. Therefore, students need the advice of experts who can help them to better understand the financial strategies to reduce and manage student loan payments. From refinancing options to enrolling in an IBR program, there as many options that young adults could use. Every student should be able to get access to a finance expert to discuss their long-term payments, budget and income potential.  

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Student loan application

Education pays for itself in the long term. But without your help, is there any chance for today’s students to get the chances their parents or grandparents had?

What's the best way to pick which headsets to buy?

As an increasingly important item for managing your business, it's important to choose wisely when picking a headset. There's a lot to consider: what sort of headset would be best to buy, what compatibility and connectivity will best suit your needs, the style and cost of the headset. As an important purchase, it's best to do your research, you don't want to be kicking yourself a few weeks down the line when you see a better headset at a better price, every penny counts when you're starting out, but you need a headset that will perform in the workplace (even if the workplace is your back bedroom). The workplace is changing, and headsets are a part of this revolution, enhancing the comfort of the work experience, and generally just making your working day that little bit easier.

 

Ask yourself what sort of headset you need. Like all technologies, there can be a dizzying array to choose from. Do you want one earpiece (Monaural) or two (Binaural)? There's a wide range in terms of comfort, innovations such as noise cancellation: even, at the top end, intuitive sets that can gauge the reaction of the person on the other end of the line.

 

Think about the type of connectivity you'll need, will you or your workers be desk-bound all day, in which case corded will be fine, or do you envisage arrangements where you can stand and walk around, in which cordless may be the way to go? It can be hard to know where to start, simply look at the range of Avaya headsets offered by PMC Telecoms for a good overview of the range available.

 

So to narrow it down you need to zero in on what's going to be most important for you in a headset. Comfort? Sound quality? Both are givens, you'd think; but budget is always a consideration in any business decision. Think about the quantity you're going to need, an individual headset may not look that much, but what if you need fifty, or a hundred? Often, with a start-up, cash is tight, but it does pay to get the best you can afford, as with all technologies, headsets take a jump in quality when you pay a little extra.

 

If it all seems a little too much then stop, relax. In this digital age, help is never far away. This is where doing your research comes in: take the opportunity to look around for advice and support. All manufacturers will have their own support teams in place; but for purchasing decisions, check out a number of sites, try consumer advice websites like Best Buy, or advice forums like Quora. As with any decision like this, it's best to read around the subject. Compare a few places until you feel that you're making a truly informed decision. Take your time, work out what's going to be best for you and then go for it.

What Will the Future Look Like?

Now, we know that there are enough pressing concerns in today’s world. We’re dealing with political issues, the environment, and a world that has rising inequality, and we should all be focusing our energies to rectify those problems. However, it’s also worth keeping one eye on the future - because like it or not, it’s going to be here quicker than we realize. So what will the world of tomorrow look like? We take a look below.

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Source: Pexels.com

Everything Talking

It’s tempting to think the digital age has already arrived, but this isn’t really true. People must have thought the age of the car had arrived way back when there were just a few hundred on the roads; they couldn’t have envisioned just how widespread they would have become. The same is true of technology. In the future, everything will be connected - including ourselves. The internet of things has kind of arrived, but in the coming decades, it’s going to become much more widespread. Your door, fridge, windows, and just about everything in your home will be automated. If you’re a Luddite, then it might be time to start looking at that cabin in the woods, basically.

 

A Changing Workplace

The world of work is about to change dramatically, in ways that haven’t been seen since the industrial revolution. It’ll be in two main areas: the rise of artificial intelligence, and an overall changing attitude towards the workplace. You can expect the traditional work attire to be replaced by more casual clothing, and the 9-5 routine to be replaced by a more fluid, flexible approach to the working day. On the other end, AI will see somewhere in the region of 50% of jobs lost. If those who lost their jobs aren’t found something else to do, mass unemployment will follow.

 

The World of Politics

The world is getting smaller all the time, but that doesn’t mean that the problems will disappear. As technology improves and troubled international relations grow, we’ll see more attempts to undermine democracy. Indeed, this is already happening: as the AZ Sec of State says, last year there were instances ‘all over the country related to people trying to get into other people’s data and voter files.’ As such, cybersecurity related to voting will become a hot topic. So will the role of social media in elections, especially after Russia’s influence in the last presidential election.

 

A Move to Purpose

It’s not talked about anywhere nearly as much as it should be, but depression is a major concern among health officials. Indeed, it’s scheduled to become the world’s leading illness in the not too distant future. As such, we can see a greater move towards happiness, and to people choosing to live a life of purpose rather than being content with material goods and the traditional signs of success.

 

But Who Knows?

While the research shows signs of the above, it could also all be wrong. The future won’t be linear; it’ll be written by, well, whoever writes it.

What Is Hot In Science Right Now?

Trends and fashions seem to dictate everything that we do and experience in culture. After all, just look at how powerful fashion in clothing can be - when someone creates a new clothing fad, it can change the way everyone else starts to dress. You might think that these trends are only confined to a few sections of society and culture, such as music, clothing, and food. But that isn't the case In actual fact, trends are big news in almost every aspect of life - even in science and research!

Research in science is largely dictated by trends too. Sure, there are some fields of research, especially in healthcare and medicine, that won’t change as we are still striving to come up with new treatments and medicines. But in other fields of science, there are a lot of trends that drive the most popular research fields.

So, what exactly is hot in science right not? Read on to find out more!

 

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Xenografts

You will have no doubt already heard about organ transplants. This is when an organ from one body is taken out and transplanted into another body. The organ donors can be living when donating some organs, such as a kidney, but in most cases the donor is deceased. Well, have you ever heard of xenografts? If not, you need to listen up as it looks like these are set to be the next big thing. Right now, contract research organizations are looking into how xenografts can help cancer patients. These are basically cell, tissue, or organ transplants taken from a different species. The current tests are taking place on rats and mice, but this research looks set to develop soon, and it could be tested on humans before too long.

 

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Research Into Uploading Consciousness

If you keep up to date with news from the tech world, you might have heard about a new startup that is letting people join a waiting list to upload their consciousness to the cloud. This way, their whole consciousness will be able to, in theory, live on forever. However, there is just one problem - the whole process of preserving the consciousness is 100% fatal and isn't guaranteed to work. Regardless, there are still already a few people listed on the waiting list. There is a new branch of science interested in preserving life for the future and it is looking into whether or not we can code our consciousness and preserve is on the cloud forever. Is this really possible? It’s hard to tell right now, but there are lots of people who have faith in the science. This field of research is still in its infancy, so who knows where it will end up over the coming decades? It could be very exciting to watch!

 

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Anti-Aging Technologies

As well as trying to live forever by preserving our mind on the cloud, there are other scientists who are trying to research new anti-aging technologies. And by “anti-aging technologies” I don’t mean just applying some serums and anti-wrinkle creams to their skin, although there are of course some scientists who do look into that. Instead, there are other scientists who are looking into other more scientific-focused treatments. Many believe that the key is in our diets, and there are those who believe that an exceptionally restrictive diet can help us live for a  lot longer. There are also some scientists who believe that the key to anti-aging is locked in some treatments that are traditionally used for other ailments. One example of this is the group of scientists who are convinced that the treatment usually given to diabetic patients could help others live for longer while also preventing the aging process for as long as possible.

 

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Nanotech

Scientists have been researching the field of nanotechs for quite some time already, but now it looks like it is all set to get very exciting indeed! Not too sure what nanotech is exactly? It’s the study of structures at their atomic level. Basically, just looking at the smallest parts of things. One of the most exciting things about nanotech is that it affects almost everything on the planet. After all, everything is made up of atoms that we can take apart and look at and study. Everything from toilet cleaner to newly discovered elements could be studied through nanotech and its exact impact on us and the world in which we live.

 

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Robotics and AI

It’s impossible to write a blog post about the current biggest science trends and not include robotics and AI. This is likely to be the biggest scientific news of the century! It is now believed that robots will soon be able to join us in the workplace and help with all manner of tasks and responsibilities. Even though basic robots have been used in factories and warehouses for some time already, it is thought that they are going to become a lot more important and more sophisticated robots will be able to take care of more important jobs in dangerous workplaces. It is even thought that they will be able to take on creative tasks as well, which was once thought of as impossible as we previously thought it not possible to code creativity and imagination into robots. AI is also set to come on a long way. In fact, it could enter the mainstream a lot sooner than robotics. After all, just take a look at Tesla.  Elon Musk’s famous company that is developing self-driving cars uses advanced AI in its autos. So, the next time you need to buy a new vehicle, you might want to invest in a self-driving auto. You’ll have some very sophisticated AI at your fingertips!

There are always new trends and fashionable research areas that are popping up in the world of science. If you ever want to find out more, it’s worth googling some research areas to see what you can find out. There are lots of papers and news articles that break everything down so that the facts are easy for all us non-scientists to understand!

How to Choose the Best Stationery Supplier for Your Office Needs

Choosing the right stationery supplier for your business can be a tough and difficult decision. On one hand, it's a mundane task that distracts you from your main focus, on the other hand, picking the wrong supplier could leave you without essential supplies at the wrong moment. So how do you choose the best stationery supplier for your office?

Product range is a key factor in choosing the right supplier. A good supplier will leave no gaps in their product range when it comes to providing the best choice for their clients and maintain a healthy amount of stock too. A good sign of a reputable stationery supplier will have a wide range. You can find the widest range here from Office National. As you can see from the web page, they carry all the necessary business stationery to suit your needs under a very easy to use website. 

Pricing is one of the hardest challenges when it comes to finding a reputable stationery suppler. Cheap doesn't always mean the best quality, expensive sometimes leads costs spiralling; these are all factors to take into account when choosing your stationery supplier. Branding, quantity & quality are all factors that should be taken into account when weighing up the costs of a prospective suppliers' merchandise. Paying the extra for a reputable brand can cut costs in the long run if a product has notable durability. 

Getting hold of essential stationery also has another important consideration: delivery time. It's no use picking a supplier and placing an important order to find out the delivery will take weeks. Ideally you want no more than 3 – 5 working days for shipments to arrive. Whilst quicker deliveries are great, they usually come with a premium, therefore increasing costs. On the other hand, slow deliveries can be crippling to businesses and leave you without vital equipment at the worst possible time. 

The final consideration for a supplier, is how much they value you as a customer. In the world of business to business transactions you will more than likely be a repeat customer. This goes hand in hand with a prospective suppliers after sales customer support. The last thing any business wants is to find their new printers not working correctly and no support to get them running. If a company does have a dedicated after sales support team then they will usually make this very clear to any possible clients visiting their page, like this one

Obviously, this article is aimed at those who've got their footing and are preparing to launch into the world of business so if you are just entertaining the idea of starting your own business, or entrepreneurship, then it would be worth your while reading this very informative article, especially if you've just left college. Ultimately you will need stationery supplies at some point and when you do, you should have the supplies to pick the right supplier.