Importance of accessibility

- Accessibility is both a responsibility, and as we have learned at Microsoft, accessibility is an opportunity. Now, at its core, accessibility is all about creating better experiences for everyone. Most people I meet have a good sense of what accessibility means in the physical world. We see it, right? Ramps up to buildings. Hearing loops installed. Railings around stairways, tactile buttons in elevators. It's a given that modern building codes include people with disabilities. These are all what we might call accommodations built into the design of products. What you may or may not realize is that these accommodations also exist in today's digital technology. In fact, many of them have been there for a while, but perhaps they're less well known, hidden, or perhaps you're using them without even knowing it. Take word prediction. This started as a technology for people with speech disabilities, looking for a way to speed up and stay in the conversation with text to speech devices or talking computers. As it turned out, this became highly discoverable on touchscreen devices and we all love it. Around the same time word prediction became popular, Microsoft was adding one handed typing to windows. You really should try it. If you're on any kind of PC right now, if you press your right shift, key five times, you can turn on what we call Sticky Keys. You just have to press one key at a time. No hands gymnastics required to print or three fingers at once, Control + Alt + Delete. The keys become sticky so you don't have to hold them down. Think of it this way. You're pressing Control then P instead of Control and P at the same time. I know about this feature and have you used it once or twice when I find myself carrying my kids or in turbulence on a flight, holding my coffee while typing. But in reality, the audience for this feature is smaller, so it hasn't reached a mainstream audience. But if you're someone who has had a limb amputated, had a hemiplegic stroke or broken your arm, this feature is extremely important to you. And that's the importance of accessibility right there. The tools you need in the circumstance you find yourself in. The social model of disability suggests that it's our situation that disables us, focusing less on a medical model of diagnosis. All of us find ourselves disabled at some time, and we need our tech to work for us. This is why organizations like Microsoft are investing so heavily in inclusive accessibility solutions.