When Palo Alto student Kevin Leong was in kindergarten he suffered an organic brain injury, which made his vision blurry and reading normal size print grueling. For several years, he struggled in school and could not keep up with his peers in the classroom.
This reality changed when Kevin’s parents introduced him to Bookshare, an accessible online library dedicated to serving individuals with print disabilities. Bookshare provides over 350,000 members (the majority are U.S. students) with a collection of more than 330,000 accessible digital titles, including textbooks, classroom and research materials, as well as vocational and popular titles. Bookshare’s reading technologies enable users to read in the format and on the device of their choice. “Bookshare allows Kevin to be more independent and self-reliant with his reading assignments,” says his mother, Jessie. “His grades and reading ability shot up in one year. He no longer feels different in school.”
This is an exciting time for the technology-for-good movement and for Bookshare’s parent nonprofit, Palo 
Alto-based Benetech, which develops software applications to address pressing social needs. Technology now makes it possible to scale social impact faster. That is why we established Benetech Labs. In the Labs, we prototype new social good technology applications, launch products that will have the largest reach and impact, and ignite cross-sector collaboration with the nonprofit, corporate, technology, and stakeholder communities.
For example, we are setting our sights on leveling the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields for students with visual impairments or learning disabilities. MathML Cloud, one of our Labs projects, helps math book publishers automatically create images and image descriptions of mathematical expressions, thus making instant text alternatives available to students with disabilities. MathML Cloud is made possible thanks to support by Microsoft’s Solutions for Good program, which provides us with funding and Azure services.
We are also grateful to Microsoft employee Saqib Shaikh for improving the app by lending time and talent through the company’s volunteer hour match program. A software engineer, Saqib was looking for volunteer opportunities that would enable him to use his technical skills. He has greatly contributed to the code for MathML Cloud and helped us get the Azure services setup. “The MathML Cloud project was of particular interest to me,” he says, “as I faced the challenge of inaccessible math whilst at university. Working on the project was very rewarding. It would be great to see more technology companies get involved with social impact projects.” This Labs project epitomizes the importance of cross-sector collaboration and of using the lens of the stakeholder communities in building products that meet social needs.
Are you passionate about using technology as a force for good? We invite you to get involved with Benetech! You can:
- Contribute to Benetech Labs projects by volunteering with SocialCoding4Good, a Labs project itself that matches skilled technical volunteers with humanitarian, open source initiatives to better deliver social services around the world.
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As Vice President of Benetech Labs, Anh Bui oversees the program’s multipronged charge to prototype new social good technology applications, launch new products with the promise of great social impact, and ignite cross-sector collaboration on technology-for-good ventures. Anh has broad experience building educational technology and holds a PhD in English from the University of California, Berkeley. She is the author and editor of several publications on digital libraries.
