Technology for all

by Andrea Bolivar

The reading lists various ways in which Google as a tech company is working to both improve current products for people with disabilities and to create new technologies to allow people to navigate the wider world. The article focuses on a particular Google employee who has limited vision due to a rare eye condition known as Choroidal Osteomas. As a young child there was no accessible assistive technology to help her get through reading in school. She is now a program manager for accessibility for Google’s Chrome software, and she is working to make Google’s products more accessible for people with disabilities. For example, in March Google maps was able to add a wheelchair accessible option when customizing a route.

I sometimes don’t realize that a specific product is really not accessible for everyone until I take a step back. After reading about Googles strive to achieve accessibility for everyone, I started to think about my own computer and how it’s really not accessible to people with low vision, low mobility, or other disabilities that one may have. Which is why I was amazed by visiting the computer lab at the Boston Home. My team is working with Tina from the Boston Home, and this past week we were also able to take a tour of the Boston Home. Each computer station in their computer lab was unique since it was tailored for someone with a specific disability. For example, one of the sections had a massive computer screen to help people with low vision. There was also another section that didn’t have a mouse, but instead had a trackball (a computer mouse for people with limited hand mobility). There was also another section with a screen that seemed to have a filter on the screen to help dim down the brightness. The Boston Home was able to create and adapt computers to fit the needs of their residents since computers currently are not a one size fits all piece of technology.