How many of you are aware that 2015 marks the 25th anniversary of the American Disabilities Act?
I wasn’t until a few months ago, when I received a call from United Cerebral Palsy. They were interested in hosting a hackathon for 100 people in May, and were looking for space to hold the hackathon. Fortunately, the Microsoft Technology & Innovation Center is ADA-compliant, and we are now thrilled to be hosting this wonderful program on May 19-20, when developers will be creating apps to help people with disabilities. At about the same time, I received a call from Chicago Public Schools to see if we could host a job shadow day for CPS students with disabilities. Those two calls sparked my interest, and I also started to pay more attention to ADA 25 and to how meaningful technology can be to those who have a disability. To recognize and celebrate the important strides for people with disabilities, 2015 will be celebrating ADA 25 all year long and Chicago will be celebrating ADA 25 Chicago. This blog is the first in a series recognizing ADA 25 and its impact.
Our mission and social responsibility at Microsoft is to enable people throughout the world to realize their full potential with technology. To that end, we invested in creating an environment that capitalizes on the diversity of our people, and the inclusion of ideas and solutions, that meets the needs of our increasingly global and diverse customer base.
And that means developing technology that is accessible to anyone – regardless of age or ability. Technology has the potential to become our sixth sense.
People with disabilities are among the most marginalized groups in the world. People with disabilities have poorer health outcomes, lower education achievements, less economic participation and higher rates of poverty than people without disabilities.
Microsoft has a long history and commitment to accessibility. For more than 25 years, Microsoft has focused on creating technologies that make devices easier to use for individuals with a wide array of difficulties and impairments. Microsoft has listened, gained insights, and applied what it’s learned. The result is an increasing momentum toward the goal of making devices accessible and useful to all people. Today we empower hundreds of millions of people of all abilities around the world to use technology to enter the workforce, stay connected with friends and family, get things done and take full advantage of a digital lifestyle. We’ll spend more time in May looking at how apps can positively impact the lives of people with disabilities.
Today, I want to share with you how impressed I am with the teachers and students at CPS who visited us last week.
Let’s start with CPS teachers like James Taylor. First, you just have to love his name! But more importantly, James spends his time focusing on all the students with disabilities at CPS, and one small part of his day is putting together field trips for the students to businesses, so the students can experience the corporate world. Originally, James thought we would have 2 or 3 students sign up. We had 27! Everyone arrived early and we began our day with a wonderful presentation by Paul Edlund, Chief Technology Officer – Microsoft Midwest, about the future of technology. It was a highly interactive session, with lots of questions and student engagement.
We then had a full tour of the Microsoft Technology & Innovation Center, led by Beth Malloy, Director, Microsoft Technology Center – Chicago and Bradley Trovillion, Technical Solutions Architect. The students examined our Internet of Things Fishtank, played Xbox and used the Kinect to understand motion capture of movement and worked real time on our PPI.
After lunch, we had a terrific presentation via Skype by Patrick Maher, Director of Civic Engagement, SPR Consulting. SPR is a Microsoft Partner and Pat suffered a spinal cord injury during college. In addition to his very motivational personal story, Pat emphasized the great opportunities for careers in technology for people with disabilities. Pat runs a meet up group called ITKAN, which supports people with disabilities in the Technology field.
He also showed an amazing video which I highly recommend:
The entire staff of the Microsoft Technology and Innovation Center were honored to support these wonderful teachers and students at CPS. It’s most rewarding when we received the following thank you note from James, which told us that our message hit home and that we have helped to fill the pipeline of students who are interested in careers in technology:
“Pat and Shelley I want to say thank for participating and hosting the students. Overall the students enjoyed the experience and I’m hoping to get a few involved with ITKAN in the next few months. A majority of the students are gearing up to graduate and after this job shadow day, some are being swayed over to the computer field. Pat I want to say thank again for sharing your experience with us, and giving motivation to the students. And again, thank you and the rest of the team for being great hosts. Hopefully we can do this again later this year or next year and open some doors for upcoming graduates. I will share these videos and get some feedback, hopefully this will generate some questions for opportunities and get the students more involved with the IT world.”
To learn more about Microsoft’s investment in accessibility, see how our products have built-in accessibility features.
