Sunday, July 15

Camp Courage Journal

Today Jen came to talk during the high tech camp about the next generation of wheelchairs and other assistive technology. She said that the next version of wheelchairs will have the ability to climb stairs and control the user's environment. She also talked about the fact that they are developing a robotic guide dog (that will have a GPS tracking system so that it will know where it is). Some scientist are also working on implants that can be placed in people's brains so that they can control their environment without the use of their hands. After Jen talked about assistive technology she showed us a robot car that was built entirely out of legos. Another volunteer came and showed us his robot which was in the shape of a person. Than we learned how to program the robots to do certain things like turning around in circles and to say "Have a nice day." It was fun. After lunch, we talked with a professor and got to learn what is expected from students with disabilities at the college level. The most important thing for a student with disiblities to know is that they should try to tell the professor that they will work hard but they need some assistance from the professor as well. She also talked about the importance of watching application deadlines because they may be different depending on which major you choose for college. Then we watched a movie about that interviewed professors who work with students with disabilities.