In a New York Times report, Project: Possibility, a corporation set up by students and graduates of the University of Southern California, has sponsored a two-day software-writing competition where the goal of all the projects entered was to develop useful applications that can assist people with disabilities in their everyday lives. 

Of note pertaining to wireless technology, one team developed a program that allows a visually impaired user to scan store items with their cell phone.  The phone then reads a description of the product and its price. 

Other projects worth mentioning are a neurally operated computer mouse, and a  captioning program called Community Captioner, that integrates subtitles to  You-Tube content enabling equal access for hearing impaired users.

Project: Possibility projects are all open source,  allowing users of the technology to easily implement the applications for their use, as well as edit the code to tailor to their specific needs. 

Short-term goals of Project: Possibility are to recruit more development teams through other universities, as well as add industry volunteers as mentors for teams.  They are also looking to industry for sponsorship opportunities and grant-type funding for their code-writing competitions.

Do you have a need because of a disability that a specialized software application might assist you with?  Project: Possibility is also tapping the disability community for ideas for upcoming projects. 

You can find more information about Project: Possibility by visiting their website below:
http://projectpossibility.org/viewNews.php?id=31

The full  NYTimes article can be read here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/18/business/smallbusiness/18edge.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1230744945-yHmly3zPdDs6FiKwOZUW8g