Author Archives: wendy
Internet and Disability in the USA
Inequality and the Internet: Why Some Remain Offline
Published: August 22, 2013
For Op-Ed, follow @nytopinion and to hear from the editorial page editor, Andrew Rosenthal, follow @andyrNYT.
Your otherwise excellent article about the digital divide (“Most of U.S. Is Wired, but Millions Aren’t Plugged In,” Business Day, Aug. 19) missed an opportunity to discuss the significant digital divide between people with disabilities and those not (yet) disabled.
Government should do more to get ‘marginalised’ older people online
Age UK has said the number of old people who feel isolated would be reduced if more of them were online.
The charity cited a study showing that older people who know how to use the internet are nearly three times less likely to say they are lonely than those who do not.
Despite this, figures from the ONS released this month show that almost three quarters of women aged 75 and over – two million people – have never been online.
Dogs 'warn diabetics' after smelling low blood sugar
Dogs may be able to smell changes in sweat and breath
“Dogs could be trained to warn diabetic patients when their blood sugar levels are about to become low,” The Daily Telegraph reports.
The story comes from a study of 17 people with diabetes who had been given a dog trained to sniff out and alert them when their blood sugar (glucose) levels were too low (hypoglycaemia).
Hypoglycaemia is potentially serious and if left untreated could result in coma.
During interviews the owners reported the dogs had improved their lives and helped with their diabetes. Blood test results confirmed the perception that the dogs could detect glucose levels outside of a desired range in many cases, and that having a dog made the owner more likely to remain in a desired range.
