Mom in wheelchair can take baby for walks with specially designed stroller

Sep. 29, 2015 at 11:24 PM

Terri Peters

Since being shot by another child when she was 5 years old, Sharina Jones has been a paraplegic, using a wheelchair to go about her daily activities. The now-35-year-old has made helping other wheelchair users a life mission — delivering wheelchairs to children in Third World countries through her non-profit organization, Think Beyond the Chair, and motivating others through her blog, Push Goddess.

But when the Detroit, Michigan, resident learned that she and her husband, Grover Jones III, were expecting their first child last fall, she found herself in the position of needing someone else’s help to make her dream of a wheelchair-friendly baby stroller come true.

Jones on a walk with son, Grover, using the wheelchair stroller attachment designed by Alden Kane.

Jones on a walk with son, Grover, using the wheelchair stroller attachment designed by Alden Kane. Courtesy of Sharina Jones

Jones on a walk with son, Grover, using the wheelchair stroller attachment designed by Alden Kane.
“I was thinking ahead, because you always have to think ahead. After that first doctor’s appointment, we started asking, ‘How are we going to do this? And this? And this?'” said Jones, adding that she wanted the freedom to take her baby on walks, or detach her stroller from her wheelchair and pull up to a restaurant table.

When a friend told Jones about a unique partnership between University of Detroit Mercy and University of Detroit Jesuit High School and Academy — the university works with high school students to give them college-level STEM research projects, some of which are designed to meet the needs of disabled individuals through engineering — she decided to give the program head, Dr. Darrell Kleinke, a call.

Alden Kane, a 16-year-old high school senior enrolled in the program, was assigned to Jones’ project. Kane was tasked with the job of creating a wheelchair stroller and baby carrier that the expectant mother could use when her baby arrived that summer.

Photos taken of the stroller wheelchair attachment when Kane presented it to Jones.

Photos taken of the stroller wheelchair attachment when Kane presented it to Jones. Courtesy of Alden Kane

What began as 15 potential designs were slowly whittled down to just one through Alden Kane’s trial and error. Here, the end result.

Kane said he worked for several hours after school every day for six months to come up with the device — drawing plans, making prototypes and testing out different materials. What began as 15 potential designs were slowly whittled down to just one through Kane’s trial and error, and with feedback from Kleinke and Jones.

The final result, made from stainless steel piping with connectors (donated by material company Creform), was ready at the perfect time — when Jones son, Grover IV, was around 2 weeks old.

“It’s not so much a stroller where you’d want to use it independently,” Kane said of his invention. “It’s designed specifically to attach to a wheelchair. In a sense, it is a stroller, but instead of a person pushing it, a wheelchair pushes it.”

Jones and Kane at a school ceremony acknowledging Kane's achievement.

Jones and Kane at a school ceremony acknowledging Kane’s achievement.

University of Detroit Jesuit High School
Sharina Jones and Alden Kane at a school ceremony acknowledging Kane’s achievement.

Jones’ son is now 10 weeks old, and the new mom says Kane’s stroller has given her a great deal of freedom, allowing her to shop at the mall, use public restrooms and go for walks with her son, all while knowing he is safe and secure.

“I love it. It makes everything so much easier,” Jones told TODAY Parents.

And, she said she can’t thank Kane enough for his hard work.

“I just love him,” Jones said. “He’s a great kid. He is going to be an amazing engineer.”

“It was extremely exciting and rewarding to see Sharina using it,” Kane said. “Throughout the project, being the only person working on this, I was always wondering if I was going to have it done by the time her child came along … but meeting the due date and having a great working design was just an extremely rewarding sight.”

Photos taken of the stroller wheelchair attachment when Kane presented it to Jones.

“I love it,” Jones said of her stroller wheelchair attachment. “It makes everything so much easier.” Courtesy of Alden Kane

Dominic Coccitti-Smith, the instructor for Kane’s high school STEM research course, said the partnership with University of Detroit Mercy has been a wonderful opportunity for his students to grow and learn.

“Alden’s passion for his quest for innovation and improving the lives of our community members came together through this project,” Coccitti-Smith said. “As the instructor for this course, I have great confidence in the future through seeing these wonderful projects that high school students are completing.”

Kane’s plans for the future include studying biomedical engineering or aerospace in college next year. And the teen hopes to patent his design and pursue having it mass-produced by a major stroller or wheelchair company.

“That’s really the end goal here,” he said. “It’s great to have served Mrs. Jones — as one person, it’s had a great impact on her life. But imagine the impact that it could have on hundreds or thousands of lives.”

Jones said she and her husband are enjoying their first weeks as parents, adding that she, too, hopes to see the stroller design become available for more wheelchair-using mothers.

“I’m very thankful for everything that I have, and getting the opportunity to have something like this new stroller,” Jones said. “I’m just very excited about it.”

http://www.today.com/parents/mom-takes-baby-walks-special-wheelchair-stroller-t47011 04032016

18-year-old creates first sign language messaging app

Mateusz Mach is set to transform online communication for the hearing impaired by creating the world’s first sign language messenger app.

Mateusz Mach, a high school student together with a small group of developers initially launched the app in 2015 as a fun means to communicate custom, hip hop-style hand gestures with friends, Business Insider reports.

When deaf users started contacting Mach to thank him for creating an app that allows people with hearing loss to communicate over an app, he realised he could transform his app to serve a far more useful purpose.

The app allows users to either choose an existing sign or create their own using the app’s sign maker which allows you to have “thousands of different options and combinations”. You can even name your sign if you’d like to.

You can then select a friend to send the sign to. The app is integrated with Facebook Messenger to allow you to send signs to friends that aren’t yet using the Five app.

Mach plans to relaunch Five in this summer in the USA (winter in South Africa). The current version is available for download on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.

http://www.health24.com/Medical/Hearing-management/News/18-year-old-creates-first-sign-language-messaging-app-20160202

Read more:

Deaf-blind lawyer uses tech to communicate with Obama

New technology helps diagnose hearing disability

1.1 billions youths at risk of hearing loss due to loud music

Sources:

Business Insider, Teenage Polish CEO Messenger App Deaf People,http://www.businessinsider.com/teenager-polish-ceo-messenger-app-deaf-people-2016-1

Five website, http://fiveapp.mobi/

Twitter, https://twitter.com/mandmach

Unintentional Injuries

Injuries are not accidents – they can be prevented.  Injuries are not random, uncontrollable events, but rather predictable and preventable incidences with identifiable causes. Unintentional injuries are events that happen which are not deliberate or done with purpose. Of the 3,178 injury deaths in Alabama in 2001, 70% were due to “unintentional” injury and 30% were due to violence, or “intentional” injury. Injuries affect everyone.

Five Leading Causes of Unintentional Injury in Alabama

1. Motor Vehicle Crashes
2. Falls
3. Suffocation
4. Fire/Burn
5. Poisoning

http://www.adph.org/injuryprevention/Default.asp?id=1053

Intentional Injuries

Injuries are not accidents – they can be prevented. Injuries are not random, uncontrollable events, but rather predictable and preventable incidences with identifiable causes. Of the 3,178 injury deaths in Alabama in 2001, 70% were due to “unintentional” injury and 30% were due to violence, or “intentional” injury. Injuries affect everyone.

Intentional injuries are something you do with the purpose of hurting yourself or others. These are planned actions. Homicides and suicides are the top two intentional injuries in Alabama.

Examples of intentional injuries include the following:

http://www.adph.org/injuryprevention/Default.asp?id=1054

Disability Rights Awareness Month 2015

3 November to 3 December

South Africa commemorates National Disability Rights Awareness Month annually between 3 November and 3 December. 3 December is the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, and is also commemorated as National Disability Rights Awareness Day.

Disability is the consequence of an impairment that may be physical, cognitive, mental, sensory, emotional, developmental, or some combination of these. A disability may be present from birth, or occur during a person’s lifetime.

Activities during the Month will

  • Provide a platform for government, civil society, business, labour and the media to celebrate, showcase and dialogue on progress made over the past 20 years in promoting and protecting the rights of persons with disabilities
  • Isolate remaining challenges that hinder the building of inclusive caring societies where the contributions of persons with disabilities are valued and ensured
  • Foster consensus on priorities to be addressed in the next five years, including re-positioning and packaging messages that promote disability as a primarily human rights issue.

The Department  of Social Development is responsible for driving the government’s equity, equality and empowerment agenda in terms of those living with disabilities.

http://www.gov.za/disability-rights-awareness-month-2015