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Online AI breastfeeding advice causes dangerous delays in infant care

For sleep-deprived nursing moms, artificial intelligence may feel like a lifeline.

12 Aug 2026

Telepractice resilience program helps stuttering children build coping skills

A new University of Mississippi-led study suggests that a telepractice resilience program may help children who stutter develop coping and self-advocacy skills.

7 Jul 2026

New embodied AI system teaches users complex movements via muscles

A new system from Yun Ho, Romain Nith, and Pedro Lopes combines AI and electrical muscle stimulation to physically guide users through unfamiliar tasks—marking a leap toward general-purpose, context-aware embodied assistance.

10 Apr 2026

MIT engineers design ultrasound wristband to track complex hand movements

The next time you're scrolling your phone, take a moment to appreciate the feat: The seemingly mundane act is possible thanks to the coordination of 34 muscles, 27 joints, and over 100 tendons and ligaments in your hand.

25 Mar 2026

Trump’s cuts to Medicaid threaten services that help disabled people live at home

Leisa and Kent Walker recently received a disturbing notice: The private company managing their son's Medicaid coverage intends to cut nearly 40% of what it spends for caregivers who help him live at home instead of in a nursing home.

5 Mar 2026

Calculator offers accurate scoring of multilingual language ability

More than half of the world's population speaks more than one language-but there is no consistent method for defining "bilingual" or "multilingual." This makes it difficult to accurately assess proficiency across multiple languages and to describe language backgrounds accurately.

5 Jan 2026

Deaf women remain invisible in Scotland’s domestic abuse system, report warns

A new report warns Deaf women experiencing domestic abuse in Scotland remain "effectively invisible" due to the chronic absence of specialist services and a lack of coordinated national support.

9 Dec 2025

UC Davis researchers lead $5.5 million study on language development in children with Down syndrome

UC Davis researchers are leading a $5.5 million study to better understand how children with Down syndrome develop expressive communication - the skills used to share what we want, think or feel.

21 Nov 2025

Hearing loss in infancy linked to disrupted brain organization and language pathways

Infants born deaf or hard of hearing show adverse changes in how their brains organize and specialize, but exposure to sound and language may help them develop more normally, according to new research.

11 Nov 2025

Social Security praises its new chatbot. Ex-officials say it was tested but shelved under Biden.

John McGing couldn't reach a human. That might be business-as-usual in this economy, but it wasn't business; he had called the Social Security Administration, where the questions often aren't generic and the callers tend to be older, disabled, or otherwise vulnerable Americans.

2 Sep 2025

Deaf patients face persistent communication barriers in NHS care

A majority of individuals who are deaf or have hearing loss face significant communication barriers when accessing care through the National Health Service (NHS), with nearly two-thirds of patients missing half or more of vital information shared during appointments.

7 May 2025

Trump’s DEI undoing undermines hard-won accommodations for disabled people

For years, White House press conferences included sign language interpreters for the deaf.

3 Apr 2025

UK’s hearing loss organizations address misleading claims about dementia

The UK’s leading hearing loss organizations have joined forces to highlight misleading reports by some health professionals and the media that hearing loss causes dementia, and treating hearing loss will reduce our individual risk of dementia.

2 Dec 2024

California fails to adequately help blind and deaf prisoners, US judge rules

Thirty years after prisoners with disabilities sued the state of California and 25 years after a federal court first ordered accommodations, a judge found that state prison and parole officials still are not doing enough to help deaf and blind prisoners — in part because they are not using readily available technology such as video recordings and laptop computers.

12 Apr 2024

Soft, stretchy throat patch empowers speech in people with voice disorders

People with voice disorders, including those with pathological vocal cord conditions or who are recovering from laryngeal cancer surgeries, can often find it difficult or impossible to speak. That may soon change.

15 Mar 2024

Study reveals extent of mental health challenges for transgender and non-binary patients in England

Researchers assessed gender-related disparities in self-documented mental health disorders and support in England.

5 Feb 2024

Deafness does not affect brain mechanisms for social skills, research suggests

Hearing impairment may cause difficulties in social interactions, but new research indicates that social struggles experienced by deaf individuals are likely not due to brain alterations but rather due to non-supportive environments.

23 Aug 2023

Specialized weight loss program for deaf people helps participants lose weight

Shedding unwanted pounds can be hard for anyone, but may be especially difficult for Deaf sign language users who experience barriers to mainstream weight loss programs and the social support they offer.

8 May 2023

Hearing aids could be effective in mitigating the impact of hearing loss on dementia

People experiencing hearing loss who are not using a hearing aid may have a higher risk of dementia than people without hearing loss, suggests a new study published in The Lancet Public Health journal. However, using a hearing aid may reduce this risk to the same level as people without hearing loss.

13 Apr 2023

Limited exposure to language during childhood alters adult brain structure

Researchers assess the impact of restricted language access among children on the organization of the adult brain in specific language regions.

8 Feb 2023