Technology has a way of skidding from science fictions’ past into the present like Michael J Foxs’ Delorean in “Back to the Future”. Remember those sliding doors in Star Trek on the U.S.S. Enterprise? We take them for granted now. And every time I see someone flip open a cell phone and talk to someone, I expect to hear them say “Beam me up Scotty.” The day of live streamed video mail is coming soon -very soon. Every science fiction movie I ever saw had someone talking to someone else from a TV screen and we all laughed, yet today I heard that our IT department is supplying built in web-cams standard on all newly issued laptop models.

I had a real wide-eyed moment today and I have to share it with you. I watched our doctor wave a Dr. McCoy-Star Trek-type “tricorder” over my sons chest. “What IS that?” I had asked. The doctor explained that it would “re-align the electrical impulses that were out of sync so his respiratory infection could heal.”

“Seriously?” I thought to myself. This was real. My son thought it tickled and the doctor did the treatment until the levels on the front showed the body had re-calibrated. Just when you think you are getting a handle on things, something new pops up and surprises you.

I am a specialist in assistive technology. I see new things that come out on the market all the time. I have been following the research and development … Read more