Living with a disability entails major challenges modern technology can assist in managing them But even people not challenged by disabilities can benefit from such innovations by Christiane Link INTEGRATIVE INNOVATIONS The mechanic Guiseppe Pellegrino Turri fell in love with the beautiful Countess Carolina Fantoni da Fiviz zano They wrote love letters to each other but the lady suffered from progressive blindness Her handwriting became illegible Turri wanted to continue reading her letters so at the beginning of the 19th century he de signed a machine consisting of keys and metal bars to which characters were attached When the countess de pressed a key one of the bars would hit a piece of pa per the first typewriter had been invented And as is commonly known the typewriter would eventually evolve into the keyboard that today makes it possible for us to type text electronically at high speed and to oper ate a computer Other sources assume that the countess brother invented the machine to help his blind sister and that Turri merely improved it No matter which version we choose to believe history is full of technical achieve ments that had their origins strictly in the desire to help people challenged by disabilities From transistors to scanners and touchscreens to audiobooks they all 70 71

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