The U.S. Department of Education’s National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR) has awarded the Shepherd Center and the Georgia Institute of Technology a $4.7 million grant to research and develop wireless technologies for disabled people.
It is the third consecutive five-year grant awarded to the research team, according to a press release from the Shepherd Center.
The grant will support research at the Wireless Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center (RERC), a joint venture between Georgia Tech and Shepherd.
“In technology development, the Wireless RERC will launch a new incubator to develop software applications (‘apps’),” the center said via press release. “The Apps Factory will fund innovative internal and external ideas on a competitive basis to provide apps to people with disabilities across a wide range of platforms. This work will enhance accessibility to this critical wireless technology and build new assistive tools based on these ‘smart’ wireless platforms. Additionally, the Wireless RERC will continue its work developing solutions to enhance the effectiveness and accessibility of emergency alerting and access to 911 emergency services.”
