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Rambunctious, curious, and a little bratty

A sick child affects the whole family, so Montreal Children’s Foundation is launching ‘Long Live Little Brats’—the boldest fundraising campaign in Quebec’s history. The goal—to raise $200 million by 2026 for pediatric research, care and teaching at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre.

Renée Vézina, the Foundation’s President, who leads the campaign says, “The doctor knows the ones who are playing tag or teasing their sibling in the waiting room are generally not too sick. It is the ones sitting solemnly and listlessly in their parent’s arms that she worries about. The goal of this campaign is to help sick children be little brats again. That is why I am proud to say, with affection, long live little brats!”

Source: The Montreal Children’s Hospital Foundation

Bisexual adults and health benefits

Education has long been linked to health—the more schooling people have, the healthier they are likely to be. But recently, sociologists found that the health benefits of a good education are less evident among well-educated bisexual adults.

Rice University researchers found that while having at least a bachelor’s degree was linked to better health among bisexual adults, they received less benefit than heterosexual and gay or lesbian adults with similar education. This effect was especially true for bisexual women. Theory is, the difference is caused by social stigma and anxiety due to gender discrimination.

Source: news.rice.edu.

Arthritis linked to depression and lower employment

Among working-age adults with arthritis, about one in eight also experience depressive symptoms, according to a new study by the Institute for Work & Health (IWH).

Researchers found that having both arthritis and depressive symptoms is associated with the risk of work disability, particularly for people in the middle of their earning years. For this middle-age group (ages 35 to 54), having depressive symptoms in addition to arthritis can lower the likelihood of working by 17 per cent.

Source: iwh.on.ca

How blind people use tech

Most of us don’t do a deep dive into the features of our gadgets and gizmos. However, after being shown the six dots of braille on her iPhone after five years of ownership Kristy Viers launched her own YouTube channel. Her goal: to educate the sighted community as to how blind people use technology and to educate people with vision loss on how they might more easily use their tech.

Mind-reading caps to detect tinnitus

Up to 15 per cent of adults are plagued by a constant roaring or ringing in the ears that only they can hear. And with no way to test or treat it, this subjective experience, called tinnitus, can go undiagnosed for years.

But in a new study, researchers announced they can objectively test for both the presence and severity of someone’s tinnitus for the first time, using a brain-reading cap and machine learning. In their trials, this technique was able to determine the severity of a person’s tinnitus with close to 90 per cent accuracy.

Having a way to objectively measure tinnitus will not only ease the burden felt by millions of people who struggle to convince people of the existence of their condition, but will also help develop clinical treatments.

Source: PLOS One.

Assessing disruptive behaviours with a new validated survey tool

The Healthy Workforce Institute Disruptive Behaviour Survey (HWI-DBS)* is designed to measure the frequency of witnessed and experienced disruptive behaviours in the workplace. The simple 15-question survey highlights both overt (yelling, cursing, threatening) and covert behaviours (gossip, favouritism, and unfair workload) using a Likert scale ranging from never to frequently.

The most commonly experienced behaviours reported by 2500 nurses were being mocked, having someone roll their eyes, and unprofessional conduct behind others’ backs.

Source: HealthyWorkforceInstitute.com

Fable Tech Labs

Toronto-based Fable Tech Labs wants to make the digital world better for people with disabilities by putting them at the forefront of improving it. Fable tests organization’s websites, apps, and software to ensure that they’re accessible to the widest possible range of users. To do that, Fable has built a community of testers who don’t just advise but get directly involved in the design process. Graduates of OCAD U’s Masters of Inclusive Design program, Alwar Pillai and Abid Virani, co-founded Fable Tech Labs in April, 2018. As a social enterprise, the growing company has an impressive list of clients and provides flexible employment for people with disabilities while offering an essential service to companies that are required to comply with digital accessibility standards.

makeitfable.com

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