The Blackwood Design Awards are open to anyone, who has produced a great idea that supports people with disabilities, regardless of their background or level of experience.  

The competition is looking for inventions, designs, and concepts that can enable people with disabilities to live their life to the full.

There…

Organised by the …

For Gary Smith, retiring from a career in wheelchair Basketball due to a long-term shoulder injury was not an easy decision. He had played wheelchair basketball for as long as he could remember and made many lifelong friends through the…

When the first snowflake fell this year, it made me think about the amazing  Amanda Lees (pictured right). To me, I see snow as something that makes it really difficult to get around in my wheelchair. To Amanda, snow is an opportunity to travel, meet with friends and hit the slopes! We asked her to write a guest blog telling us all about her ski adventures........and she didn't disappoint. Here it is......

"As I zoom down the mountain, making…

Georgia Tech researchers have created a new brain-machine interface (BMI) that uses a new class of nano-membrane electrode combined with flexible electronics and a new deep learning algorithm to help disabled people wirelessly control devices. The BMI could be used to control things like an electric wheelchair, interact with a computer, or operate a small robotic vehicle without having to use a hair-electrode cap or mess with wires.

Read the full article at:…

I am very excited that the 2020 NAIDEX show will be better than ever.  As always I will be talking at NAIDEX.  I just published a post about disability dating on the NAIDEX Blog 

https://www.naidex.co.uk/news/blog.asp?blog_id=19855

Also of great interest to the Bespoken community is an article about independent living that I wrote for the independentliving site.…

Anyone who either uses or has an interest in electric wheelchairs and the way the industry behind them works might be interested in the (warning: long) article I published at:

https://www.biznik.co.uk/of-wheelchairs-and-pricing-and-a-challenge-to-an-open-source-hardware-project/

In addition to calling out the appaling…

With the success of last weeks Blackwood Design Awards it seems only fitting that we made a video from the day! 

Watch the full thing below: 

Another year and it was another successful Blackwood Design Awards.

Held in Datalabs conference room in the magnificent Bayes Centre in the heart of Edinburgh’s University campus it was a setting fit for the occasion.

Judges arrived from across the country at mid-day:

Toby Mildon – A diversity and Inclusion…

BDA 18/19 Finalist Shortlist               

It’s the shortlist time…

Since autumn term 2018 Blackwood Innovation team have been actively working with third- and fourth-year students from the School of Engineering and Built Environment at Edinburgh Napier University. The students are tasked to work in teams to create and design a product that promotes digital technology and a roadmap for that product…

It was Disabled Access Day on Saturday the 16th of March so we braved the snow and delayed trains to visit …

Ramble Tag is one of the entries to our Blackwood Design Awards and yet is already something of a success story. From it's fairly humble beginnings as two neighbours dog walking and an old luggage handle to a successful Kickstarter to a fully fledged product already being used in major airports in the UK. 

It's innovation is in it's simplicity…

Today is my last day working at Blackwood and managing bespoken. After giving it a lot of thought I decided it was time for a change, and so, I’m going off to teach English as a foreign language in Japan. I wanted to do a short blog post reflecting on my time at Blackwood, so here goes. 

In 2013 I had just finished university with a very fancy degree…

Cooling backrest cushion start up, wheelAIR, remain cutting edge in their e-commerce sales strategy by offering their website customers the option to try out the wheelAIR before they buy. They are also making purchase easier for customers by offering a payment plan. 

‘Try before you buy’ will allow wheelchair users…

Blackwood Homes and Care were honoured this week at the Herald Scottish Digital Business Awards 2018 taking home the Charity & Social Enterprise Award.

This is a tremendous honour and recognises Blackwood’s outstanding work and dedication to using technology and innovation to help people live life to the full. It especially acknowledges our work in…

BRITAIN’S Got Talent winner, Lee Ridley, has performed a special show to help promote the work of Blackwood.

Lee, who shot to fame by winning this year’s series of the ITV talent show, performed a laughter-filled routine as the main guest at our AGM, which explored his rise to fame as ‘Lost Voice Guy’.

The theme of the day focused on communication as we launched…

Following a successful summer trial, Edinburgh Airport have purchased wheelAIR cooling backrest cushions from Edinburgh-based mobility dealer FastAid Products for customers with wheelchairs to use whilst in the airport.

Working with…

Scottish healthcare start-up wheelAIR were key supporters of what have been described as the UK’s first ever Adaptive Highland Games. Adaptive events took place at the largest ever Mey Highland and Cultural Games in the very north of Scotland, in John O'Groats on Saturday 4^th August.

This marks a…