Many people have disabilities. With the help of assistive technology, they can live normal, happy lives. Assistive technology is technology used to help someone with a disability; like hearing aids for the deaf, hard ware that reads out-loud words on the computer, or even a wheelchair. There are many people out there with disabilities educating and researching better ways to fix the problem, like Deidre Downs, Jenny McCarthy, and Helen Keller.
Deidre Downs was Miss America 2005. She has been struggling with hearing loss, since she was in kindergarten. After Miss America, she went back to college to become a doctor. She now is a speaker for the Better Hearing Institute and travels, helping kids with their hearing loss problems.
Aimee Mullins had fibular hemimelia (missing fibula bones) and had both of her legs amputated below the knee when she was just one year old. While attending Georgetown University she competed against able-bodied athletes in NCAA Division I track and field events and set Paralympics’ records in 1996 in Atlanta in the 100-meter dash and the long jump. The prostatic legs allowed her to be able to run and still do everything she wanted.
Jerry Traylor has cerebral palsy. He is the only person to jog across America on crutches. Traylor underwent 14 corrective surgeries and spent nearly a year in the hospital when he was 6 years old. When crutches replaced the braces holding his legs at age 14, Traylor said he experienced a sense of freedom that was unbelievable. Traylor has also participated in the running of 35 marathons, climbed to the top of 14,110 foot Pike's Peak, parachuting and other adventures.
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