All posts tagged: disabled

I disabled one hidden Windows setting and freed up CPU performance instantly

I disabled one hidden Windows setting and freed up CPU performance instantly

Published by skeptic

If you’ve spent a ton of cash on a CPU for gaming or content creation purposes, you’ll want to get all of the power you can from this piece of hardware. Before you jump into Ryzen Master or Intel Extreme Tuning to overclock it, there may be a Windows setting you can enable that gives you a significant boost in daily use. While most Windows PCs run on the “Balanced” hardware setting, switching to High Power can improve overall performance and smoothness. But there’s another, hidden option that pushes your CPU to the limit without overclocking. Ultimate Performance Mode keeps your CPU running at 100%, making gaming and creation tools run smoother than ever before. Related I thought my CPU was maxed out until I tweaked these BIOS settings A few BIOS tweaks made my PC feel brand new without a hardware upgrade. Unlocking your CPU’s potential There’s an incredibly good chance that if you access your Control Panel –> Hardware and Sound -> Power Options, you’re not going to see the option for the …

I disabled this hidden setting and got a faster GNOME desktop

I disabled this hidden setting and got a faster GNOME desktop

Published by skeptic

There’s a special kind of annoyance reserved for systems that aren’t technically slow, but still feel … busy. Like your computer is constantly doing something just out of sight, breathing a little too loudly in the background. That was my setup for months. Apps opened fine, nothing crashed, and CPU usage looked normal at a glance. And yet, the whole experience had this faint, persistent hesitation. Not enough to blame anything specific, but enough to make me slightly irritated every time I sat down. Turns out, it wasn’t my imagination. It was GNOME Tracker quietly chewing through resources in the background, indexing files I didn’t need indexed, at times I didn’t ask for. And once I dealt with it, my system stopped feeling haunted. Not faster, exactly, but finally at peace. The system felt busy, not slow When tools say “fine” but your brain says “nope” Screenshot: Roine Bertelson/MUO This is the worst kind of performance issue to troubleshoot, because every tool you trust insists everything is fine. CPU usage behaves, RAM isn’t screaming, and …

Why universities still struggle to make degrees accessible for disabled students

Why universities still struggle to make degrees accessible for disabled students

Published by skeptic

The higher education sector is more aware of disability than it was a few years ago. Universities are more willing to provide support, and attitudes have improved. What students describe day to day, however, tells a different story. A recent report on accessibility for disabled students in UK universities, produced by Disabled Students UK in partnership with charity The Snowdon Trust, shows that access continues to break down. This is not because support is never agreed, but because it is not consistently delivered. Disabled students’ ability to attend, participate in, and complete their studies depends less on what exists on paper and more on how well institutional systems work in practice. This pattern is also the focus of my ongoing PhD research, which examines how accessibility support systems operate in UK higher education and how reliably agreed adjustments are delivered in practice. Most disabled students who disclose their disability to their university receive some form of support. However, fewer than half of the over 1,000 disabled students surveyed by Disabled Students UK report that all …

.6 M. Grant Will Support Low-Income and Disabled Museum-Goers

$7.6 M. Grant Will Support Low-Income and Disabled Museum-Goers

Published by José Betancourt

Earlier this week, the William Penn Foundation announced a slew of grants, totally $7.6 million, that will support access to museums for low-income families and people with disabilities. The grants apply to six specific organizations based on the number of ACCESS visitors each received during the 2024-25 fiscal year. (The ACCESS card allows people who receive public assistance or identify as having a disability to receive heavily discounted tickets to participating cultural institutions, of which there are nearly 100 in the Philadelphia area.) Related Articles The following organizations will receive funds from the William Penn Foundation: The Academy of Natural Sciences, the Franklin Institute, the Morris Arboretum and Gardens, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Philadelphia Zoo, and the Please Touch Museum. Art-Reach, the organization that administers the ACCESS program, also received financial support as part of this series of grants. John Orr, executive director of Art-Reach, said in a statement that “ACCESS was built 11 years ago by the Philadelphia residents who relied on SNAP and Medicaid benefits. Since then, it has been embraced …

What Romances by Disabled Authors Do Differently

What Romances by Disabled Authors Do Differently

Published by José Betancourt

This content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. Romance can be a fraught genre for disabled readers and authors. “Conventionally attractive” has often meant white, thin, straight, and non-disabled. Some romance novels emphasize physical stamina and acrobatic positions. When I was younger, this focus made me feel insecure, as if sex and romance were only possible for non-disabled people. There’s also the ableist literary stereotype of disability as worse than death, like in Me Before You. For many years, prevalent, ableist language and stereotypes in books made me hesitant to read romances with disabled characters. This has started to change only in the past few years, as more books by disabled authors get published. Disability informs many aspects of someone’s life. When disabled authors write disabled characters, they often incorporate important aspects of everyday life with disabilities, such as ableist microaggressions, or medical appointments and symptoms. Writing Disability in YA Romance Keah Brown has written for years about bias in the romance genre and its negative …

U.K. Hospital Unilaterally Cuts Off Life Support of Disabled Patient over Family Objections

U.K. Hospital Unilaterally Cuts Off Life Support of Disabled Patient over Family Objections

Published by Jenni Sidey

This republished article first appeared in The National Review Readers may recall the Charlie Gard and Alfie Evans cases in the U.K., in which National Health Service hospitals took the parents of terminally ill children to court after they refused to acquiesce in doctors’ recommendations that life support be ended. In both cases, the court ruled in the hospital’s favor in determining both that life support could be ended and preventing the parents from transferring care of their children to medical facilities willing to provide last-ditch treatments that the families wanted. Now, a Trust hospital hasn’t even bothered going to court. Instead, doctors have unilaterally withdrawn kidney dialysis over family objections from Robert Barnor, who was profoundly disabled by a stroke, stating that letting the man die is merely a “clinical” decision. From the Telegraph story: The 68-year-old suffered extensive brain damage and can now only open his eyes and move his head. He requires twice-weekly dialysis treatment for kidney disease, without which he would be expected to die within days. On Wednesday, the hospital told his family it had made a “clinical decision” to end …

The academic study of politics is failing disabled people – with real-world consequences

The academic study of politics is failing disabled people – with real-world consequences

Published by skeptic

Diversity among students and researchers is a common goal across academia. This has been driven by a desire to increase opportunities for the historically marginalised in higher education – moving away from the straight, white and male personification of academia. It also comes from a recognition that diversity brings innovation. It enhances the quality of research and teaching. It improves how higher education institutions engage with a diverse student body. Increased representation has affected how academia operates. This is true in my discipline of political science. As we have worked to expand representation in the profession, we have broadened our understanding of the diversity of politics. Growing representation in the field has increased our awareness of how different groups engage with politics. These are people often historically discounted in societies and ignored by political science: women, the LGBTQ+ community, people from ethnic minority backgrounds. Increased diversity gives academia invaluable general insight into the organisation of politics. But disability in politics is in its infancy, as is the representation of the disabled scholar. Underrepresentation will affect …

Why disabled young people with life-shortening conditions need better support for intimacy

Why disabled young people with life-shortening conditions need better support for intimacy

Published by Sam Flores

Until relatively recently, children and young people with life-shortening conditions were not expected to survive into adulthood. Conditions such as cancer, cystic fibrosis and Duchenne muscular dystrophy were widely understood, particularly in the late 20th century and early 2000s, as diagnoses that would likely result in death during childhood or adolescence. Today, there are more than 400 recognised life-shortening conditions, and many infants and children with these diagnoses still do not reach adulthood. However, advances in medical treatment, specialist care and assistive technologies have begun to change this picture. Increasing numbers of children and young people with life-shortening conditions are now living into adulthood, sometimes well beyond what clinicians and families were originally told to expect. Although most young adults with these conditions still face shorter lives, increased life expectancy has made new aspects of social and family life possible. This includes the opportunity to think about sexual relationships, intimacy and reproduction. For the past 15 years, I have worked with colleagues in the Sexuality Alliance, which advocates for the sexual and reproductive rights of …

Flight Attendants Praise Miracle Flights Where Passengers In Wheelchairs Suddenly Walk Off Healed

Flight Attendants Praise Miracle Flights Where Passengers In Wheelchairs Suddenly Walk Off Healed

Published by Jenni Sidey

Flight attendants are calling attention to a very real problem involving “disabled” passengers who fake injury in order to get special priority when boarding. Miraculously, these same passengers have no problem with mobility once they reach their destination.  There are people who have very real disabilities who need mobility assistance. This can be especially important in an airport, where you have to cover a large distance in a relatively short period of time. Thankfully, there are laws in place that protect these travelers, like the Air Carrier Access Act. Unfortunately, this also opens up the floor for people to take advantage of this system. Anyone can walk into an airport and say they need a wheelchair to help them get around, and it seems like more and more people are doing so when they don’t actually need one. The system for wheelchair users in airports is simple, meaning it’s also easy to take advantage of. According to the Department of Transportation (DOT) website, “If you self-identify as a passenger with a disability who needs additional …