Sesame Access are not only a disabled access lift manufacturer but we are also advocates for an accessible and inclusive society. We create products which change peoples lives and ensure they can access the buildings and places they WANT to go to and not just because it is accessible.

The news stories below demonstrate the struggles and obstacles the disability community face everyday. Raising awareness is essential to combat the issues and make a change. Educating society on these problems is the least we can do and implementing products which benefit the lives of wheelchair users is our passion.

New disability benefit replacing DLA starts rolling out next week for people in these areas

Social Security Scotland is launching a pilot scheme for the new Child Disability Payment benefit in three local authority areas from Monday, July 26, ahead of national roll out in autumn 2021.

Child Disability Payment will replace Disability Living Allowance Child (DLA Child) in Scotland and will be the next new benefit to be introduced by the Scottish Government.

The new benefit will provide additional financial support to children and young people under the age of 16 with disabilities, as well as their families, to help with the additional costs they incur as a result of having a long-term health condition.

Families currently receiving DLA Child payments from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) will start to be transferred to the new Scottish system later this year and do not need to do anything.

Guidance states: “We will write to them ahead of transferring them to Child Disability Payment, which will be paid through Social Security Scotland. They will not need to re-apply, they will be transferred automatically.

“The amount they are paid, when they are paid and where they are paid to will all stay the same once they have transferred.”

The pilot will open for new applications only in Perth and Kinross, Dundee City and the Western Isles - families in these areas who already receive DLA for children don’t need to apply.

Full article here https://www.msn.com/en-gb/mone...

This teenage-led website is the first media company ‘by and for’ young people with disabilities

For one, she loved teenage magazines. Inspired by teen-led brands like Rookie magazine, Flores found herself alone in her room at age 15, Googling “how to create a magazine.”

She also wanted to make friends. When she was starting her brand, she spent hours interacting with other teenagers on Twitter and Instagram — some of whom would later become her full-time staff members.

Above all, though, Flores said she founded Cripple Media (originally called Cripple Magazine) because she couldn’t find anything else like it.

“I wanted to create a space that was for young people like me because I didn’t see a space that was anything at all like it,” Flores, now 18, told In The Know.

Flores, who has muscular dystrophy, spent a lot of her childhood in spaces designed by people without disabilities. She grew up in the suburbs of Austin, Texas, where she spent years attending events for other kids with her disability — which she described as “inauthentic,” “patronizing” and “confusing.” Those meet-ups, which felt awkward and wrong, affected her in more ways than she realized at the time.

“When I was younger, I didn’t have disabled friends up until like two years ago, I think,” Flores said. “So that — I didn’t realize it until later — really did impact the way I viewed myself and the way I viewed other disabled people.”

When Flores founded her community, it wasn’t at some staged, in-person meet-up event — it was online. Through social media, she found other teens with disabilities. Like her, many of them wanted something they could totally call their own. So, Flores got to work.

“I wanted to create a space where it truly felt authentic, and a space where you felt cool and fashionable and so just – trendy, for lack of a better word,” Flores said.

Full article here https://uk.news.yahoo.com/teen...

Accessible devices for kids with disabilities

July is Disability Pride Month, and in addition to it being a time of celebration, it’s also an opportunity for institutions and businesses to understand how to be better allies to members of the disabled community. Fortunately, tech and gaming companies have stepped up when it comes to creating products geared toward kids with disabilities. Here are cool gadgets designed to meet the needs of kids with disabilities.

1. Xbox Adaptive Controller

The Xbox Adaptive Controller is a unified hub for devices that helps streamline gaming. The device was created to accommodate gamers with limited mobility. Players can connect external devices such as switches, buttons, mounts and joysticks to create a custom controller experience. Discussions with The AbleGamers Charity, The Cerebral Palsy Foundation, SpecialEffect, Warfighter Engaged and others have helped shape this device’s design, functionality and packaging.

Decode and demystify Gen Z's latest online slang terms with In The Know's new glossary.

2. MusicGlove hand therapy for PC and Mac

MusicGlove combines music and gaming for an immersive therapeutic experience. The device is FDA recommended for neurological recovery to improve mobility for hands and fingers. The MusicGlove can help with developmental disabilities as well as long-term recovery from a brain injury, such as a stroke. Through playing an engaging musical game, users are motivated to perform hundreds of healing hand and finger exercises.

3. Dot Watch: The world’s first braille smartwatch

Dot is a motorized braille smartwatch designed for visually impaired users. Worn by celebs such as Stevie Wonder, this watch can tell time up to the second in braille. But this watch can do more than just tell time. Once the Dot is connected to a smartphone through Bluetooth, each smartphone functionality, such as texts and alerts, is translated into braille.

Full article here https://uk.news.yahoo.com/5-ac...

500 children with lifelong disability, guardians to benefit from simplified social benefits process

The lifelong disability of a child like Down syndrome no longer needs to be re-evaluated by a medical board at Agenzija Support when the child turns 16 in order to receive social security benefits, it was announced today.

Till now, the guardians of these children had to reapply for benefits and be interviewed again - along with the person with disability when they turned 16 - as they would no longer fall under the disability allowance for children.

Around 100 children and their guardians will benefit from this new process this year, Family Minister Michael Falzon said.

Benefits for unemployed guardians who are the fulltime carers of children with disability have also been introduced this year. Around 400 people are currently benefitting from this scheme.

Notifications have already been sent to 60 guardians whose child with a disability will have turned 16 between the period of January and August 2021.

Forty more notifications will be sent to those families whose child will be turning 16 between September and December 2021.

As from 2020, eligible applicants will be notified further in advance to ensure that the benefits will be received as soon as the child turns 16.

Full article here https://www.independent.com.mt...

Disclaimer- We do not own/write any of these article extracts, we are simply sharing to our audience in order to raise awareness and increase coverage. Credit is always given.